FAMILY AFFAIR
Owasso coach Bill Blankenship travels to Mustang to face his cousin, Lee, in a Class 6A-I showdown on Friday
MUSTANG—Lee Blankenship was always asking questions.
Bill Blankenship noticed it early on when he was building the football program at Tulsa Union High School into a Class 6A power. Now at Owasso, Bill still occasionally gets questions from his cousin, who has revitalized several programs across the state.
“People who ask questions are pretty serious about trying to learn,” Bill said.
On Friday, Bill will find out just how much Lee has learned. Bill and his top-ranked Owasso team will travel to Mustang to take on Lee and his fifthranked squad. For the elder Bill, it's not a shock to him that Lee has been able to build Mustang so quickly, through his community i nvolvement and great coaching skills. Bill believes there's another level Lee can take it to, as well.
The Blankenship coaching tree has its roots in Spiro, where Bill graduated in 1975 and Lee in 2004. Bill's father, Gerald, is a member of the Oklahoma Coaches Hall of Fame. Gerald coached football and basketball at Spiro and Vian.
“If your last name is Bl a nkenship i n Spir o, you're a football player, probably a quarterback,” Lee said. “Watching Bill was one of the things that inspired me to get into the sport. It's something I wanted to do since I was a little kid.”
Bill isn't surprised to see how much success Lee has had at each of his stops, starting at Gore, t hen taking Beggs to a Class 3A state title game appearance in 2017 before a year at Bartlesville. Bill credits Lee's visibility on social media as well as his ability to bond with the community. It all traces back to when he was a kid, asking questions about the rights and wrongs, questioning how he could improve everything or why things were done.
Lessons learned from watching Bill and other idols, including longtime Jenks coach Allan Trimble, were building blocks for success for Lee.
Heading into Week 8, Mustang is 5-2 with a 3-1 mark in district play. The Broncos upset Tulsa Union in Week 5 and show promise to get back in the playoffs after missing out in consecutive seasons.
Now at the fourth-largest school in the state and the largest on the west side, Lee is working to build Mustang like Bill did Tulsa
Union. Tulsa Union had only one football state title before Bill took over. He left in 2005 after winning three of the past four state titles and set program's winning foundation, as it has won five titles since his departure.
Lee is trying to duplicate that success at Mustang. A West school hasn't won a Class 6A state title since Midwest City in 1995. He wants to change that and believes he's at the place to do so.
In Bill's eyes, he would be shocked i f Lee i sn't successful.
“I t's not hard to see young guys that are doing it right,” Bill said. “It takes effort to invest in young people and know their story. Lee has figured out that learning to develop relationships with young men, and it's not lost on me how well he's done that.”