New coach, new approach at Oaks

OAKS, Okla. — It has been a while since the Oaks Warriors were a legitimate contender in Oklahoma Class B, 8-Man competition.

But a new coach and a new approach may make things otherwise.

Following last year’s retirement of coach Gary Hummingbird, long time Oaks assistant coach, C. D. Thompson, has taken control of the Warrior football program - and things are different.

Thompson, who has been around Oaks for the past decade, coached mostly at thejunior high while assisting at the varsity level.

Despite this summer’s community-wide water emergency and the subsequent delay starting school, the Warriors didn’t miss a single day of practice which prompted a smile from Thompson, who said, “We have run these kids to death and they just keep coming back for more.”

“Then we ran them some more,” Thompson added with a laugh.

Thompson then went on to say, “Although our guys didn’t show up in the kind of physical condition I would have liked, they are meshing wellas a team. I think a lot of that has been due to the fact that I, along with former coach Mike Burge, coached these kids when they were in fifth and sixth grade.”As most observers know, 8-man football is a wide open game, where everybody is eligible except the center and the players on either side of him. Often times teams will score 50 or more a game, each. It was just such a game last season that has the 2011 Warriors running all the time.

After leading their rival Watts (Okla.) by 22 points at the half, Oaks fell to the Engineers by a 60-58 final.

“That one hurt. They simply outlasted and outran us and we decided that wasn’t ever going to happen again,” Thompson said. And to that end, conditioning has been the theme of this year’s preseason drills.

The current Warrior depth chart has 6-foot-4, 190-pound senior Tanner Philpot slated to take over the signalcalling duties.

Philpot has been a part of the Oaks athletic program for as long as any one can recall and has plenty of athletic ability.

Joining Philpot in the backfield is senior speedster, Jeremiah ‘Jet’ Snell (5-10, 140). Snell, who recently ran the 300-meter hurdles at the state track meet in 39.9 seconds, will see a lot of ball carrying duties in the Warrior backfield.

Another senior, Derick Smith (6-2, 230), will also see duty in the Oaks offensive game. Smith’s sheer size and mobility make him a triple threat as a blocker, rusher and pass receiver.

Yet another senior, Bon Settlemeyer (5-10, 210), like Smith, is a powerful addition to the Warrior arsenal. Settlemeyer, who is currentlysquat lifting more than 500 pounds on a regular basis, is expected to play a big part in the offensive scheme.

Senior receiver Eric Bird (5-9, 240) along with juniors Jason Sanders (6-0, 170) and Shaddoe Miller (5-10, 185), bring their fair share of playing time to the metaphorical table.

Another pair of big seniors, Dylan Wiley (6-0, 265) and Sheldon Davis (6-1, 270), along with Koty Johnson (5-10, 150) round out the big group of 12th graders.

Alec Davis (6-1, 200) and Preston Cooper (5-8, 220) are on the verge of representing their sophomore class on the playing field as well.

It would be hard to overlook the fact that the Warriors will be introducing a quartet of huge freshman thisseason that include Shea Tucker (6-2, 240), Colton Patton (5-9, 211), Chance Ellyson (6-0, 198) and Jaleel Fields (5-10,240).

There’s no doubt that this Warrior squad is potentially one of the best teams to grace Tucker Field in quite some time. One of the foibles of 8-man football is that the individual districts contain 10 schools apiece and as a result there’s room for only one non-conference contest.

After going to Cave Springs for their lone non district game, the Warriors stay on the road with a date with Welch, who made the playoffs last year.

Oaks will finally return home on the 3rd week of the season to face South Coffeyville, followed by a trip to Watts, then back hometo tangle with state quarterfinalist Kiefer. After that, they finish out the regular season with 3 of 4 games at home versusDepew, Summit Christian and Copan.

Another pitfall of the 8-Man game is that by it’s very nature, there are short rosters. A couple of injuries here or there and a team finds itself scrambling to execute a new game plan. And the injury bugaboo has already made its presence known in the Warrior camp. At press time Smith was nursing an injured right knee and was day to day. Snell was just coming off of an ankle injury and according to Thompson was back to about 80 to 85 percent. Cooper has a broken right arm and should be available in the next three to four weeks.