By Trey Hunter
Sports Editor
Basketball never stops in Okarche and success doesn’t either.
The Warriors traveled to Stillwater last week and returned home with some hardware, winning Division 4 of the 2019 Oklahoma State University team camp.
Okarche went 5-1 in its six pool-play games, including wins over the Oklahoma City Patriots, Granite, Empria (Kan.), Bigelow (Ark.) and Maxville (Kan.) with a loss to Collinville to set up bracket play.
The Warriors returned the next day to run off wins against Smithville (Kan.), Stillwater’s sophomore team and then in a re-match with Collinville, took home their third victory of the day to capture the division championship.
“I’m really proud of the kids,” Okarche coach Ray West said. “They really came out and played together. They shared the ball really well on offense and played really good defense. It’s really heart warming to see how much progress they made in three days.”
West took a squad of 13 players to Stillwater, including Brayden Stover, Koby Mingus, P.K. Harris, Kaleb Harris, Joseph Schaefer, Osbaldo Barcenas, Cody Read, Logan Kroener, Landon Goble, Tyler Schwarz, Trenton Neiderer, Evan Endres and Landon Weeres.
The Warriors are coming off a successful 2018-19 campaign, reaching the Class A state tournament semifinals before falling to eventual champion Cyril for a spot in the championship game. West understands how much the squad lost after graduating a core group of seniors, however, he sees plenty to be excited about coming into a fresh school year and season.
“Coming together like that is really a huge deal,” West said. “Our guards were making plays and defending, our posts were crashing the boards and doing what they were supposed to do. Of course there is a long way to go until the season, but winning the OSU camp was a huge boost to the guys’ confidence going into the school year.”
