Enid sends eight to college football programs
Luke Rauh remembers growing up in Enid, watching the high school football program struggle from year to year.
He remembers the 0-10 season the Plainsmen suffered through when he was a freshman.
What he doesn't remember is the last time Enid won a playoff game before he and his teammates knocked off Edmond Memorial 32-27 last November.
Rauh and seven of his fellow Plainsmen signed with college football programs on Wednesday, a sign of the growth in Enid.
“It means the world,” said Rauh, who joined teammate Erik Lewis in signing with Air Force. “Our class, our freshman year, we watched our team go 0-10 and we knew we didn't want that to be us. We all bought into the program, everybody worked really hard and we had a really good season. First playoff win in however many years.”
Sixteen years, to be exact, but cut Rauh some slack. He was just a toddler in 2006.
In addition to Rauh and Lewis, Tykie Andrews signed with Oklahoma State, Daniel Real has already enrolled to begin his career at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, Omar Penate is headed to Dodge City Community College and the trio of Evan Sullivan, Devin Gaines and Markas Tommy will be teammates at Southern Nazarene in Bethany.
“It's been a long time since Enid's had this many kids sign,” said Cameron Conder, who is handling head coaching duties since Rashaun Woods left to become head coach at Tyler (Texas) High School.
“These guys laid the groundwork for buy-in in the weight room. Tracy Baldwin, our strength coach, does a fantastic job. For our up-and-coming seniors, they see that it's possible, and those kids behind them seeing it as well, it's a motivating factor.”