How Tulsa NOAH’s Ballinger got on recruiting radar
THE OKLAHOMAN'S SUPER 30
TULSA — Ezra Ballinger didn’t realize his potential in football during his childhood.
Ballinger was a solid athlete as he was homeschooled, competing for Tulsa NOAH.
But Division-I football? Seemed like a pipe dream.
“I was never like, ‘D-I is my dream,’” Ballinger said. “I never really thought I was that player.”
Ballinger is getting ready to enter his senior season and can confidently say he has proven his younger self wrong. He is in fact that player. Ballinger is No. 28 on The Oklahoman’s Super 30 list of the state’s top recruits in the 2024 class. Listed at 6foot-4 1⁄ and 275 pounds, the offensive
4 lineman holds offers from Air Force, Army, Central Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Navy and UNLV.
With a great mix of size, strength and athleticism, Ballinger possesses the things that make special offensive linemen at the college level.
He received his first Division-I offer in January from UNLV, which is led by former Maysville and Ada star Barry Odom.
Ballinger’s recruitment took off from there, and he’s now one of the state’s top offensive line prospects.
Ballinger had to be patient for the offers, but they’re rolling in now.
“The initial recruitment started my sophomore year,” Ballinger said. “I was getting invites to visits and camps from some of the bigger schools like Oklahoma and all them.
“But then my junior year, it actually just was stagnant for a long time. I had a few D-II offers, but I didn’t have any of the D-I offers that I was kind of hoping I would get based off of how the recruiting had gone.”
Ballinger is coming off a special season with Tulsa NOAH, which stands for Northeast Oklahoma Association of Homeschools.
The Jaguars won the National Homeschool Football Tournament Championship in Panama City Beach, Florida.
The national title was the program’s first, and Ballinger played a major role as the team’s starting left tackle.
The season is Ballinger’s main highlight so far. 275 pounds
Offensive lineman ❚ Air Force, Army, Central Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Navy and UNLV
“We started off slow,” Ballinger said. “We took a few bad losses early with Kiefer and (Tulsa) Metro (Christian). They’re both really good teams. … After that, we kind of cleaned it up, had some good games.”
Ballinger comes from a football family and is the son of Tulsa NOAH coach James Ballinger.
Ezra is the third kid out of 11 and was homeschooled throughout his upbringing.
And although James Ballinger attended high school at Tulsa Webster, he did have some homeschooling experience and ultimately thought it’d be great for his kids.
“I actually was homeschooled one year when I was younger,” James Ballinger said. “But I’ve always liked the idea of homeschooling. The way we do our homeschooling, a little different than most homeschoolers do their homeschooling.
“We just focus on reading classical literature, but then it just frees up the kids to be involved, like working jobs or being involved in their church or whatever. I feel like they can learn as much as they would learn in the school setting in a lot shorter amount of time, which frees them up to learn other life experiences and things like that.”
Ezra Ballinger has enjoyed his time being homeschooled and with Tulsa NOAH, which also features star defensive lineman Danny Okoye, one of the state’s top recruits in the 2024 class.
Ballinger didn’t play on the offensive line when he was growing up but has excelled since making the switch.
“I didn’t play offensive line until like eighth grade,” he said. “I was usually a quarterback or fullback.”
Ballinger said his experiences at other positions paid off in the long run.
“I think the best offensive linemen did transition from being backs because they learn better footwork, they have more athleticism than the guys that have been offensive linemen their whole life,” he said.
Ballinger, who also plays some on the defensive line, is looking forward to his final high school season.
Until then, he’ll focus on getting better, which is something he’s always trying to do and is a big reason he’s blossomed into the player he is.
“He loves technique work,” James Ballinger said. “He’ll eat it up, whether it’s going to a camp or going to a workout with some coaches or something.
“He’s always trying to learn new technique for his craft.”
steak at a team dinner, the star receiver reaches for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
That’s because he never eats meat. Ann-Marie Toberny, his mother, said he wouldn’t try it as a child, perhaps because of the texture, and his dietary preference stuck.
“I was born like that, I think,” McGee said.
To prepare for football season, McGee has to load up on protein, but you won’t see a hamburger on the menu. Eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese pizza are staples of his diet. He usually drinks nutrient-rich smoothies before and after workouts, and Muskogee’s booster club knows to have options for him at team meals.
“We worked around it with certain ways to get him some food, nutrition to go along with our pregame (routine),” Hill said. “...There’s 1,000 ways to get there.”
The same is true for reaching the next level in football, and McGee sought advice from friends and family as he found his way to get there. He listened to his older brother, Kennedy, who plays at Bethany in West Virginia. He also learned from friend Micah Tease, the former Tulsa Booker T. Washington standout who flipped his commitment from Arkansas to Texas A&M in December.
Drawing from that experience, Tease advised him to be “110%” certain, McGee said.
The Muskogee senior found a good fit. UNLV is looking to rebuild under first-year coach Barry Odom, who graduated from Ada High School, and McGee knows how to buy into a football revival.
It happened at Muskogee, and it’s not over.
“He enjoys the idea of the turnaround,” Hill said. “And he enjoys the big expectations that are coming now, not only from our team but from him as an individual, too.”