OKC Storm win second straight homeschool title

OKC Storm coach Kurt Talbott stopped in Tulsa on his way to another national championship.

He wanted to catch some of the Class 5A and 6A state tournaments before heading to Missouri, where his team was competing in the National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championship.

“We faced off with a few of those teams throughout the season,” Talbott said. “Just wanted to remind ourselves of the level of play we are capable of.”

The OKC Storm claimed its second straight national championship on Saturday, taking down Illinois CRU 60-57 in the Gold Ball Showdown Series to claim the rights as the best high school homeschool team in the country.

“Very proud of our guys,” Talbott said. “We graduated four seniors from last year’s championship team, but these guys just came right back and got to work and wanted to prove themselves.”

The Storm was led by senior guard Nate Pendarvis, who averaged more than 15 points per game in the team’s run to the title.

In the championship game, with his team clinging to a 1-point lead with less than a minute to go, Pendarvis drove the lane, put a spin move on his man and laid the ball in the for the gameclinching score.

“We like to get the ball in Nate hands,” Talbott said. “He stepped up for us over and over again.”

Talbott said the level of competition his team faced throughout the year in Oklahoma and Texas is what prepared it so well to defend the NCHBC title.

OKC Storm took on the likes of Carl Albert, Tulsa McLain, Heritage Hall, Broken Arrow and Midwest City to prepare for the playoffs.

The tough prep worked. OKC Storm won by an average of 28 points per game in the playoffs. The title is the program’s fifth NCHBC championship in the past seven years. The OKC Storm girls team was the NCHBC runner up.

“We challenge our kids,” Talbott said. “Sometimes we get beat pretty good, but sometimes we win some against some really good teams. It helps prepare us for these big crunch time environments.”