Claremore Daily Progress

Sports Columnists

Related Photos

January 12, 2010

THIS N THAT — Lights back on

By Larry Larkin, Sports Correspondent

January 12, 2010 — After what seems like forever the lights at the Frank Mobra Field House will be turned back on in full force this week.

It hasn’t been quite that long but the Claremore Zebras have not played a basketball home game since December 15. Two games on the road sandwiched the Christmas holiday break and last week’s near zero temperatures forced a postponement.

Lost time will be made up this week. The basketball teams will host Tahlequah tonight and then come back on Friday evening to face Catoosa.

In the meantime Claremore’s defending Class 5A state champion wrestling team will take center stage Thursday with a duel meet with Tulsa Kelley and Tulsa Edison.

••••••

While the Lady Zebras have been to the last 11 straight state tournaments, a state-wide record, and 14 of the last 16, it is believed the Zebra boys have reached state only seven times since 1945.

Things are looking up this year. In Coach Tim Stewart’s second year at the helm the Zebras are off to an impressive 7-1 start. So far the team’s strength has been the ability to use eight to 10 different players without any apparent fall off. Several have taken turns being the leading scorer to date.

This aspect keeps opponents from focusing defenses to shut down single players

••••••

According to written records for the Zebra basketball program, only two coaches have won over 200 games. See if you can name them.

The answers are below.

••••••

Last week at the Rogers State University basketball games the ones working at the score table were asked their picks on the Texas-Alabama national championship game.

Apparently the group as a whole knows its football. Nine named “Bama while four went with the dehorned Steers.

Answer to the coaches’ question:

One is easy. Current girls coach Mark Campbell has 314 victories since coming on the local scene 15 years ago. Of course his mark is still climbing. He is the fifth Lady Zebra coach since the program was started 35 years ago.

Coaching the most victories for the boys was Charles Standridge (1974-89) with 236. His wins came during a 15 year period also. He is one of 15 coaches since 1950.

Runners-up to both are Steve Johnson (1990-2001) with 170 for the boys and Dean Pierce (1986-95) with 154 with the girls.

Text Only
Sports Columnists
  • Sooner fans love a party, but what else?

    I don’t have a clue what the correct number is, but for a long time I’ve been telling people that Autumn Saturdays in Norman come with almost 90,000 people huddled around Owen Field and maybe that many again hanging out beyond the stadium’s walls.

    Maybe I’m way off. Maybe every one of them walks into the stadium for the kick. What do I know? I’m 50 stories up in the press box.

    I exaggerate.

    A little.

    February 8, 2012

  • DAHLBERG: Brady will get another chance at legacy

    Tom Brady was one of the last ones out of the shower, perhaps hoping some extra hot water would help take the sting out of a crushing Super Bowl loss. In a nearly deserted New England Patriots locker room, he sat wearily pulling on his boots, the pained look on his face never changing.
    A few moments earlier, Joe Montana had walked down the hallway just outside, but there would be no meeting of Super Bowl greats. Nor would Brady join Montana in another way, as a four-time NFL champion - something he seemed destined to be at one point in the fourth quarter.
    This was not a night when legacies would be debated. That will have to wait for another time, another place, another Super Bowl. For the second time in the last five Super Bowls, Brady had come up oh-so-short, beaten late once again by the New York Giants and another quarterback starting to make a pretty good name for himself, too.
    Brady wasn't going to come out and say it, but he was blaming himself. Had to, because he had the ball in his hand to win the game with 57 seconds left and couldn't deliver the long touchdown drive that Patriots fans and even his teammates thought would be forthcoming.

    February 6, 2012

  • HORNING: 'Too early to tell who will impact Sooners'

    I have this line kicking around in my head. I want to share it, but not use it. I want to say something profound about Oklahoma’s national signing day experience without becoming part of the national signing day hype machine.

    Here it is:

    Consider the Sooners 1-0 heading into next season.

    It’s awful, really.

    Also, true.

    Not much longer than a month ago, OU had a small and likely very effective verbally committed 2012 recruiting class. It was high on quality but low on quantity.

    Wednesday, a positively beaming Bob Stoops introduced the class high above Owen Field. The class he unveiled was high on quality and quantity: 26 in all, six of them already enrolled.

    February 2, 2012

  • DAHLBERG: From cancer to Super Bowl for Herzlich

    The player on the screen was a 6-foot-4, 246-pound bundle of fury, flying across the field in search of another target to attack. Mark Herzlich watched himself over and over again, slamming into opponents, busting up plays and generally creating havoc for the Boston College defense.
    The video he made in a college class kept him going as he sat for hours at a time for the chemotherapy he prayed would make his cancer go away.

    February 2, 2012

  • LITKE: 'Tell me he doesn't look like Mr. Ed'

    We already know why they play the game.
    The real question is why they still talk about it all week, since the last time a player or coach said anything memorable during the run-up to the Super Bowl was 1999. That's when Falcons cornerback Ray Buchanan and Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe had this exchange:
    "Shannon looks like a horse,'' Buchanan fired first, quickly warming to the task. "I'll tell you, that's an ugly dude. You can't tell me he doesn't look like Mr. Ed.''

    February 2, 2012

  • DAHLBERG: Tebow's time has already come and gone

    It was fun in a way the NFL often isn't, a midseason diversion that sent fans into a frenzy in Denver and prompted people around the country to drop to a knee. Even if you didn't believe in Tim Tebow, it was hard to take your eyes off him as he found ways to win despite passes that fluttered about like balloons on a windy day.
    That it wasn't pretty hardly mattered. Somehow, some way, Tebow got the Denver Broncos an invitation to the playoffs for the first time in six years - something that seemed unimaginable after the team sputtered to a 1-4 start.
    Now he's got to do something even more unimaginable. Find a way to regroup after finishing the season in a funk and beat the banged-up but still intimidating Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in Denver.

    January 5, 2012

  • Tim-Ritter.jpg American Legion drops ball on state tourneys

    Word out of Pryor from the American Legion Baseball Commissioner George Stump is the 2A and 3A state tournaments have been cancelled due to lack of participation in the western part of Oklahoma.

    June 30, 2011 1 Photo

  • ‘One of a Kind’

    When it comes to sports team names the city of Claremore has a pair of mascots that do not fall under the common scope of handles.

    June 25, 2011

  • Gridiron Memories

    Some 60 years ago a young entertainer out of the backwoods of North Carolina recorded an extended play comedy record album.  His name was Andy Griffith.

    December 4, 2010

  • Big 12 fans deserve a vote

    Has it really come down to money and TV networks when it comes to deciding the fate of conference realignments?

    June 12, 2010