Are the large West schools closing the gap on the East?
Are the large West schools closing the gap on the East?
As soon as Angelo Rankin Jr. found a clearing, the green-clad fans watching from the stands erupted in cheers.
It was as good a start as Edmond Santa Fe could have had. Rankin returned the opening kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown in the Class 6A-I state championship last December, giving the Wolves the lead only 12 seconds into the game against Jenks.
However, the lead would be short lived.
Jenks took the lead later in the first quarter and dominated the rest of the way, winning 41-14. It was the program's 17th state title, all but three coming in the past 25 years.
The other 11 champs in Oklahoma's biggest classification during that stretch?
Tulsa Union has won eight, Owasso two and Broken Arrow one.
All four are East-side teams in Tulsa County.
Last year, Santa Fe became one of the handful of West-side teams in the state's largest football classification to make the state championship game since 1995, when Midwest City won the last West title.
How long ago was that? Bill Clinton was president, Tom Brady was a senior in high school and “Toy Story” was making waves on the big screen.
Heading into Week Zero, Santa Fe hosts Owasso at 7 p.m. Friday in one of the biggest games on the schedule. It will be an early test for both, but it may also be an early litmus test to see how one of the West's top teams compares to an East powerhouse.
Yet the question remains: what is it going to take for a West team to rise up and end the East's reign in football? That answer is complex. Although it seems West teams have gotten more competitive in recent years, there's still work to be done — in the weight room, in the community, in the mindset — to catch the East powers and have a legit shot at winning a title.
“There is a difference in the East side and the West side,” Santa Fe coach Kyle White said. “There's a lot of differences. And I think there's things they do better, and I think there's things that happen on the West side that are better.
“It's easy to look for small victories or moral victories when you play them and you can kind of convince yourself you're getting closer, but the result is still the same. You're still losing.”
There's strong evidence that West teams can make the state title game, but being competitive once there is another story.
In the nine biggest-class championship games since 1996 involving a West team, only one (Santa Fe-Jenks in 2003) resulted in a one-score game. In the other eight, the East had doubledigit victories.
But even as title-game results have
remained largely one sided, there have been some encouraging signs for teams in the West.
Santa Fe's recent success, for example, has been unprecedented since the East dominance began. Jenks hadn't lost to a West team since 2002 until Santa Fe won at Jenks in 2019. In the past two seasons, the Wolves are 4-2 against the East powers.
The only other team from the West with a win against an east opponent during that time is Mustang, which beat Tulsa Union in 2019.
It's clear a gap remains, but how did it get so wide? Mustang coach Lee Blankenship said it goes back to when many of the large districts in the Oklahoma City area, like Edmond, Norman and Putnam City, decided to split into two or three high schools.
Some districts, like Mustang and Yukon, didn't split.
“That's something that was a huge draw to me,” said Blankenship, who is entering his third season as head coach at Mustang. “We're growing like crazy.”
Owasso coach Bill Blankenship, Lee's cousin, built Tulsa Union into a powerhouse, then after a stint coaching college football went to Owasso, where he has won two titles in four seasons. He said splitting schools also affects community support.
“That's one of the issues that people would like to think the West can do the same, but I don't think it's what the school's doing as much as what the community is able to do,” Bill Blankenship said. “When the community is divided in their allegiance and being able to pour resources into that program, I think that's the difference that we have over the course of 10, 15, 20 years.”
The community involvement extends to youth football programs.
The late Allan Trimble, the legendary Jenks coach who won 13 state titles while leading the Trojans, was pivotal in building Jenks' empire. It started at the youth football level. He believed in high school coaches spending time in the community, helping with the middle school and youth football programs.
Jenks implemented a system. Kids in elementary school were doing the same thing the high school varsity was, from stretches to offenses and defenses.
Other communities in Tulsa followed suit, but that high level of involvement at the youth level is something Jenks continues today.
“It's one of many factors that are important,” Jenks coach Keith Riggs said. “We meet regularly with our youth coaches and try to get them involved in things we're doing and want to provide them as much support and help as we can, whether it be camps for our kids or coaches clinics or visiting with them and providing help.”
Districts across Oklahoma City have improved vastly in this area. More high school programs are getting involved with their feeder middle schools, and more youth teams are building associations with high schools.
Lee Blankenship saw firsthand how pivotal it was for little kids to connect with a high school program. Although he went to Spiro, he went to Tulsa Union games because of family ties and saw the way youngsters connected to the "U" on the helmets. Even he felt pulled toward it.
That's why he spends hours each week with Mustang's youth programs, trying to build the same excitement and community pride around the football program.
Outside of community support, weight room programs are another glaring difference between East and West.
Mid-Del district athletic director Andy Collier was Midwest City's starting quarterback on the 1995 state title team. Now, his son is in high school, and Collier's still the last quarterback to win a championship from the West.
Although none of the schools in Collier's district are in the biggest classification, he is aware of what other schools are doing in the weight room. The disparity between weight room programs in the East and everywhere else is stark. And it's not just the equipment. “The difference I see with teams like Jenks and Bixby is they build a weight room mentality at a young, young age, “Collier said. “Those kids, they're all built alike. They have more of a nutrition, weight program over there, and that's where we're behind.”
Collier hired strength coaches for all three Mid-Del high schools, working to overcome those weaknesses. Although the strength coaches all coach football, they spend the school day in the weight room with athletes from every sport, something Collier is sure will make a difference soon.
Mustang also made a big splash this summer when it hired Bixby strength and conditioning coordinator Matt Thompson for the same position.
“I believe that's going to be huge for us,” Lee Blankenship said. “West-side teams just seem to get pushed around. We've definitely experienced that, but we're trying hard to make strides to catch up.”
In addition to weight rooms and community connections, the mentality is another hurdle facing West teams.
Collier recalls when he was at Midwest City, he and his teammates believed they were already up by a touchdown or two as soon as they walked on the field. He says he sees that swagger now with the East powers while many West teams are in awe when they step on the field with them.
Bill Blankenship said it's a goal to make West teams come to East stadiums with jaws dropped and wide eyes.
It gives the East teams an advantage before the lights even come on.
Now, the shock factor isn't as much today as it was before the Class 6A split. Over the decade since, West teams have played at least two East squads every season in district play, which most coaches believe has raised the level of play, even in the non-playoff teams.
But still, there are plenty of excuses on the West side. Excuses about resources. Excuses about facilities. Excuses about any number of things.
Yet for the West to reach the East's level, those have to end somewhere.
“At some point, the only way you get there is you do not accept any excuses for why we're not there yet,” Bill Blankenship said.
He realizes that might seem easy for him to say as the head coach of a program that has won two of the past four 6A-I championships.
Added White: “We've all got our problems, but do you let it be an excuse or do you find a way to go win?”
The East's dominance in Class 6A football is an accumulation of factors over the past two and a half decades. West teams can't catch up in one year, but many are making strides and putting themselves in position to truly compete for years to come.
Work remains, but the gap is shrinking.
“There's no doubt it's closing,” White said. “And it's going to happen sooner than later.”