Panhandle State football ‘has unique challenges’
Bob Majewski says he took the head coaching job at Panhandle State not in spite of it being difficult, but because it was difficult.
“It’s a hard job,” Majewski said. “Every one’s a hard job, but this one has unique challenges.”
Starting, of course, with geography. Oklahoma Panhandle State sits in Goodwell, 11 miles southwest of Guymon on U.S. Highway 54. Panhandle State has an enrollment of about 1,250. Only about 28,000 people live in the vast Panhandle, which consists of about 5,644 square miles. That makes it bigger than Connecticut, which sports a population of 3.6 million.
We finish our series on state-college football by checking in with Panhandle State, where Majewski, a former head coach at Dodge City (Kansas) Community College, was hired away from the staff at Stetson University in Florida.
He says he believe the Aggies can win, “Otherwise, my butt wouldn’t be here.”
And truthfully, Panhandle State has won. The Aggies had winning seasons in the NAIA in 2017 and 2018, though they slipped to 3-7 in Majewski’s first season, 2019, and were 2-7 in the hybrid Covid season, split between autumn 2020 and spring 2021.
“I felt I could help more kids, more young men become men here,” Majewski said. “Everyone knows about the Panhandle. Great people. I tell you what, you can’t beat the people here. People are phenomenal. When I was on campus, I could tell the passion people have for the kids and the program.
“But it has unique challenges with location and things like that.”
Panhandle opened its season last Saturday with a 42-7 home loss to Ottawa-Kansas. The Aggies host Langston this Saturday.
“Very disappointed we lost, obviously,” Majewski said. “And the score was no indication of the game. Our wounds were self-inflicted wounds. The positive side of it is they’re correctible mistakes.”
The Aggies are led by tailback Jamalrain Jones, wide receiver Jaishone Brown, linebacker D’Quan Charles, cornerback Antonio Vaughn and safety Warren Dillon. In order, they come from Dallas; Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans; Detroit; and Houston. Places quite unlike the Oklahoma Panhandle.