Tuttle making first state playoffs in 5-on-5 era
Euphoria masked Brian Lester’s pain. Lester, Tuttle’s girls basketball coach, had leapt in excitement as his team clinched a spot in this weekend’s Class 4A state tournament. He knew right away something was wrong.
His Achilles was torn. Yet, he wasn’t about to stop celebrating his team’s first 5-on-5 state tournament berth.
“As good as I felt, I don’t care what happened seeing our kids jumping up and down together,” Lester said while wearing a walking boot on his left foot.
For a community built around football, wrestling and softball,
Thursday’s 3:30 p.m. state quarterfinal game against No. 1 Fort Gibson at Southern Nazarene University is the unranked girls basketball team’s chance to shine.
“You can tell there is a little bit of an edge,” Lester said. “We’ve taken a backseat, and part of it has been on us.
“I think they wanted to show people they’ve worked hard, they deserve this, too, and they’re just as good as anybody else. It’s been nice to see how much attention they’ve got the last couple of weeks. The whole town has been excited for them.”
It’s the first time since 1983 that Tuttle has made the state tournament. Back then, it was 6-on-6 basketball, and the Tigers were led by Donna Douglass, who is No. 11 on the state’s 6-on-6 all-time scoring list. Since, Tuttle has struggled on the court. Lester took over five years ago and noticed the work ethic was there. But scoring ability was way down.
He’s implemented an extra day of shooting on Sundays. He challenged his full-time basketball players to work more. Three softball players are now huge contributors on the court. It’s way different than when someone told him he would never win because of softball, which has won twostraight titles.
“I’ve embraced softball,” Lester said. “I try to go to all of the games. We’re going to work with them. Winning just creates winning.
“I’m going to embrace it and use their success to help breed success into our program.”
And it’s worked.
Since Tuttle’s overtime loss to Blanchard on Jan. 30, the Tigers have won 8 of 11 games, including their last five after a regional tournament loss to No. 5 Ardmore. In that span, Tuttle beat No. 17 Newcastle, No. 9 Classen SAS, No. 15 Blanchard and Ardmore again to make the state tournament.
“I was very surprised,” Tuttle senior Faith Laffoon said. “Beginning of the playoffs when we lost, I didn’t know what was going to happen because we had hard teams coming up, but we fought through it. Now we’re where we are.”
Tuttle (18-11) has a chance to extend a season few expected in the community.
And perhaps another celebration will follow, this time with less pain involved.