Freaky Friday
Friday’s schedule of state championship events include track, tennis, baseball, softball and soccer. Meanwhile, state championships were decided Thursday in girls golf for all classes.
NORMAN — Tears slowly fell down ShaeBug Scarberry’s face as she stood near her Purcell teammates with the state championship trophy.
She had won the Class 3A individual state championship and her team had won the state championship for a third time in four years Thursday without even swinging a club.
A miserable 2017 of runner-up finishes no longer mattered.
Yet, she still felt like she left too much on the golf course the day before.
“Definitely on the last hole,” Scarberry said about her double-bogey on No. 18 that left her at 1-under par 70. “That wasn’t my plan, but it happens.”
Thursday was not a normal day. Class 3A’s girls golf state tournament at Westwood Park was washed out, the result of heavy rainfall. Class 5A was also canceled in Muskogee. First-round scores became the final scores.
And tears fell all around in Norman.
Purcell’s golfers all had mixed emotions. They entered the day 11 strokes ahead of Lone Grove wanting to prove they were the best one year after losing the title on a playoff. Bringing back a trophy brought out emotions remaining from 2017.
Junior Jade McCurdy finished as the runner-up, a stroke behind Scarberry. McCurdy wanted to take a shot at challenging her friend and teammate.
“I wanted to play a lot, because I knew I could improve my score,” McCurdy said. “I had a couple of bad holes and I knew I could improve it. I just wanted to play. I wanted to play the second day to see if I could improve.”
Lone Grove coach Buck Chatham also wanted one more day.
After 51 years of coaching, Thursday was his final day. He’s retiring and his players intended to send him out on top. But Lone Grove had no opportunity to make up the deficit to Purcell.
“I know where we were at, but we felt like we had another fight in us,” Chatham said with red around his eyes. “They told me, ‘Coach, we wanted this for you.’ But it is what it is. I’ll live with it and they’ll have to live with it.”
Scarberry, who has signed with Tulsa, is going to learn to deal with her high school career ending on a double bogey. She struggled on the green, putting four times.
Her golfing career opened at Westwood Park when she was a child. She won state titles as a freshman and sophomore, but a broken hand as a junior led to a runner-up finish.
There was hope she could end on the same course with more gusto.
“I have no doubt in my mind she would have won it,” Purcell coach Mike Gowens said. “She would have shot under par today. I have no doubt in my mind.”
That’s why as word spread of the cancellation Thursday morning Scarberry was practicing putting. She initially struggled with the ruling. But a mom of a teammate approached the team crying. The mom was proud of what had just been accomplished, even if there was no second round.
Scarberry and her teammates started to cry.
Another championship for Purcell. Another championship for Scarberry.
“It means a lot after last year,” Scarberry said. “I just wish we would have played it one more time.”