When it comes to football coaching, give youth a chance

PREP PARADE

On the high school football calendar, this is hiring season. Between now and the start of spring practice in a little more than a month, athletic directors with head coaching vacancies to fill are sifting through resumes with the hope that their next great coach is somewhere in the pile.

A few programs with a good amount of tradition — places like Westmoore, Deer Creek, Purcell, Tulsa East Central and others — are in the hunt for a coach.

Many of them want someone with previous head coaching experience. Some even state it in the job announcement. But why? Throughout the course of a school year, I interact with more coaches than I can count, head or assistant. I come across several head coaches who I would never let my son play for. And I see just as many assistants who seem destined to be leaders, yet they can’t get their opportunity because they don’t have the words “head coach” anywhere on their job history.

Just in this school year alone, I’ve seen too many incredibly successful coaches in football and basketball who were given their first head job within the last five years to believe previous experience is a necessary job requirement.

I’m not trying to discount experience. It’s incredibly valuable. If there’s a guy with a successful track record as a head coach, and you can bring him in to run your program, go for it. But experience alone doesn’t make a good head coach.

A coordinator who has worked under respected coaches, in successful programs, and has the intangible qualities needed to be a leader of young people, shouldn’t be ignored simply because he’s never been a head coach, or because the first digit in his age is a 2.

Every great head coach got his start because someone was willing to give him a chance, despite his lack of experience.

State champs fill West rosters for All-State

The Large and Small West Oklahoma Coaches Association’s All-State girls basketball rosters include a total of seven players who won state championships last month, led by a pair of Midwest City players who earned the Class 6A title.

Bomber seniors Chinna Fair and Asia Davis are joined on the Large West squad by 5A champion Hillary Hurst of Woodward and 4A champ Aaliyah Endsley of Newcastle.

On the Small West roster, 3A champion Alva is represented by Oklahoma State signee Jaden Hobbs, with Class A champion Taylor Hedrick of Seiling and 2A champ Taylor Cell of Fairview also on the team.

The girls All-State games will be played July 27 at the Mabee Center in Tulsa.

Big All-City basketball games set for May 26

Del City High School will once again play host to the Big AllCity boys and girls basketball games on May 26.

The girls game will tip off at 6:30 p.m., with the boys to follow at 8. The girls will have a 3-point contest at halftime, and the boys will have a slam dunk and 3-point contest.

Bulldog Invitational needs extra holes

Neither the team nor individual titles were settled after 36 holes at the Edmond Memorial Bulldog Invitational on Tuesday.

Edmond North ultimately edged Memorial by one stroke in the team playoff after both posted 589 totals through two rounds.

Edmond Memorial senior McCain Schellhardt, who has signed with Missouri-Kansas City, defeated Edmond North junior Laken Hinton in a fourhole playoff to take the individual crown. Schellhardt and Hinton posted two-round totals of 143 to tie for first.

Scott joining Tulsa basketball program

Following a successful freshman season at UNC-Charlotte, Edmond native Curran Scott announced on Tuesday that he will return to his home state and join the Tulsa men’s basketball program.

Scott, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard, averaged 10.5 points per game and shot a team-best 43.9 percent from 3-point range this past season, playing for Enid native Mark Price at Charlotte.

“I want to thank everyone who invested their time and efforts into not only my basketball career but me as a person during my time here,” Scott posted on Twitter Tuesday. “At this point in time, my family and I think it would be best for me to leave Charlotte and pursue an opportunity closer to home at the University of Tulsa.”

Tulsa graduates nine players off its current roster, including its top two scorers — both shooting guards, including Edmond Memorial product James Woodard.

College Postcard: NSU’s Lawson wins weekly honor

Mustang High School grad and Northeastern State senior Charter Lawson shot rounds of 70-73 to finish fifth, one shot out of first, at the Mustang Intercollegiate — named for the mascot of host school Western New Mexico University — at Palm Valley Golf Club in Goodyear, Ariz., over the weekend.

For her efforts, Lawson was named the MIAA Women’s Golfer of the Week by the conference on Wednesday.