OSSAA names Trimble, Holliday as nominees for national hall of fame
Former Jenks football coach Allan Trimble and Stillwater alum Matt Holliday are the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association's 2020 nominees for the National High School Hall of Fame.
Trimble retired after the 2017 season as he battled amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. In 22 years with the Trojans, he won 13 state titles, the most of any high school football coach in state history.
Holliday was a star quarterback at Stillwater, but he chose to play professional baseball. He had 2,096 hits and 316 home runs in his 15-year MLB career. Holliday, a seventime All-Star, played for the Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees.
Holliday is an assistant baseball coach at Oklahoma State. His brother, Josh, is the head coach.
East coaches on board with centralized title game
The Oklahoma
Secondary School Activities Association's announcement Wednesday that all seven 11-man state championship games would be held at Central Oklahoma's Wantland Stadium was well received across much of the state.
There remained questions, like what if two east teams make a title game? Would they still have to drive all the way to Edmond to play? OSSAA executive director David Jackson addressed those concerns Wednesday when asked about it.
"One of the positives that went into pursuing this was working with the coaches' association. And those schools are part of that," Jackson said. "So when we hear from the football coaches' association that `We're interested in that,' we take that as everyone is interested. We feel like if we get that (scenario) — you could get that in some of the lower classes where teams may have to come from a pretty good distance — but we also feel that we're doing this together.
"We often find when you have a chance to go to a great facility and you're treated well that eliminates a lot of the skepticism of traveling a ways."
Even if two East teams were to end up in the state title game, the agreement between UCO and the OSSAA says the game will remain at Wantland Stadium.
The last time a West team made the Class 6A- I state final was in 2016, when Norman North played in the title game.
Yukon alum Owen Olsen leaves Navy
Former Yukon linebacker Owen Olsen announced Tuesday he left the Naval Academy.
Olsen, a freshman, said on Twitter he has been reclassified into the 2020 recruiting class, and his recruitment is open. He can play four years and is eligible for a redshirt season.
Olsen was a secondteam selection on The Oklahoman's 2018 Big All- City squad. He had 67 total tackles and 41/2 sacks. He also lined up as a wide receiver in the Millers' triple- option offense.
Olsen's older brother, Perry, is a quarterback at Navy. The Midshipmen have an offense that is similar to what Perry led at Yukon.
Navy (7-1, 5-1 American Athletic Conference) is No. 23 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.