Fundamentally sound

Cougars work hard on basics during Weber's second set of spring practices

ADA — The new coaching staff at Ada High spent the majority of time during last year’s spring football practices basically getting to know their new players.

This time, new head coach Matt Weber and his fellow coaches went right to work trying to make the Cougars better football players.

“The main thing this year was that we knew everybody. We knew the kids. For us, that made it more fun,” Weber said at the end of spring drills.

Weber, who guided his team to a 5-6 record and a Class 5A playoff berth in 2008, said you could tell a big difference in his returning players.

“Our kids, from the sophomores on up, are bigger, stronger and faster than they were last year. We had a really good spring in the weight room,” he said. “They’ve put on some weight and a lot of them have added quite a bit of strength. That was the biggest difference.”

A total of 71 Cougars reported to the 2009 spring practices, up a few from the 68 Weber had during his first spring camp.

“It was a good number. That’s up from last year, so we were excited,” he said.

Weber said he kept things simple and nearly all of the spring drills were spent going over the basics.

“We did very little as far as Xs and Os. We evaluated kids on how they did something, not what we were doing. We were very simple. I just wanted to watch them do the basic fundamentals of football,” he said. When we scrimmaged, it looked like one of those first scrimmages of the year. It was a bit sloppy, but there were some bright spots in their fundamentals.”

The Cougars can take some time off now, but can attend voluntary workouts for the next several weeks if they wish. On June 15, mandatory morning weightlifting and conditioning sessions begin. Those workouts, which will run about an hour four times a week, will continue until two-a-days start in August.

“Our summer program will take us right up to the season,” he said.

Ada Cougar

All Sports Golf Tournament

July 13,2009

Bob Warmack - Honored Guest

Join us this summer for the first annual Ada Cougar All Sports Golf Tournament.  The event will be held at the Oak Hills Golf and Country Club on July 13, 2009.

For more information contact any of the following:

Mike Anderson          580-310-7215

Mark Kedy                 580-310-7374

Dorcas Sandy            580-310-7245

Ada boys net second at state

OKLAHOMA CITY — With the Ada boys tennis squad on the verge of undoing all the good work it had done in winning eight straight matches Friday to open the Class 5A state tennis tournament, the No. 1 Doubles team of Brandon Russell and Chase Sheffield saved what was almost a lost Saturday for the Cougars.

Russell and Sheffield, who played only 15 matches together this spring but won 12, bounced back from a 6-1, 6-1 thumping at the hands of eventual state champions Reider Hunt and Daniel Collins of Bishop Kelley to post an impressive 6-4, 6-2 victory over the No. 2-seeded Claremore duo of Blake Watson and Andrew Meredith in Saturday’s third-place match. The win enabled Ada — which advanced its entire team to the semifinals for the first time since the 1998 squad won the state title — to finish with 21 points and in a tie for second with Bishop McGuinness in the team standings behind the 34 points posted by runaway winner Bishop Kelley.

“It was a day-and-night tournament for us,” veteran Ada coach Skip Griese said Saturday after seeing his boys squad wrap up its first runner-up finish since 2006. “We played very well yesterday and not today, but to come out of this with a second will be a very good tournament. Some people had us ranked at nine in preseason and we finished second. We were seeded in the (state) tournament fourth or fifth.”

Ada needed the big effort from Russell and Sheffield to finish in a tie for second in the team standings after John Byrne of McGuinness beat Ada’s Robert Jackson, 6-1, 6-3, in No. 1 Singles; the McGuinness No. 2 Doubles team of Jake Brown and Ryan Randolph beat the Ada duo of Matt Robinson and Matthew Wright, 6-3, 6-4; and Bradley Toone of Duncan rallied past Ada’s Matthew Medcalfe, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, in No. 2 Singles.

Griese said the formula used to seed the state tournament — which put Ada No. 4 and on the same side of the bracket as Bishop Kelley — was the only reason Russell and Sheffield didn’t play in the championship match instead of for third place.

“I thought going into the tournament we were the second best team in One Doubles, but we were seeded fourth,” Griese noted. “Being the fourth seed, we were on the same side as Bishop Kelley and had to play them in the semifinals.”

Ada trailed 2-1 in the first set before Russell and Sheffield went on a roll that saw them win 11 of the final 15 games in the match. Each team held serve through the first six games of the opening set before Ada broke Watson’s serve in the seventh game, winning four of five points. Sheffield started the game with a long cross-court return of a second serve, and Russell wrapped up the break with a baseline winner, again on a second serve.

Russell then held serve, winning the eighth game with an ace on, of all thing, a second serve, and after Meredith held serve to pull Claremore to within 5-4, the Zebras took the first point in the 10th game before the Cougars came back to take the game and the set on an overhead smash by Russell following a strong first serve by Sheffield.

The teams swapped service breaks in the first four games of the second set, with Ada moving in front 2-1 when Russell’s forehand smash from the baseline handcuffed Meredith at the net, and Claremore tying it on Meredith’s cross-court winner at the net. From there, though, it was all Ada.

Watson double-faulted to give Ada a sloppy fourth game that featured two unforced errors by each team, then Russell registered a pair of aces in the sixth game to hold serve and put the Cougars up 4-2.

Russell put a punctuation mark on Ada’s third service break of the net when he again handcuffed Meredith at the net with a rocket off his forehand from the baseline, and Sheffield held serve in the sixth game to wrap up the match, with Russell showing some finesse on a beautiful drop shot at the net at match point.

The dominant performance by Russell and Sheffield in the third-place match was quite a contrast from their semifinal effort against Bishop Kelley. Hunt and Collins won the final four games in each set and lost two points in the final two games of the second set. The two lefties frustrated the Ada duo with strong returns of their best shots and consistently strong work at the net.

Jackson, who was the only member of the Ada team who didn’t have to play a three-set quarterfinal match Friday to advance, was inconsistent with his first serve against Byrne, who charged the net whenever possible and kept the pressure on throughout the match.

After Jackson broke Byrne’s serve to open the first set, Byrne won the next six points to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The turning point in the opening set came in a marathon fourth game, which went to deuce seven times before Jackson missed on an overhead backhand, firing the ball into the net to give Byrne the service break and a 3-1 lead in the set. Byrne had spoiled Jackson’s advantage twice earlier in the set, forcing deuce with an overhead smash and, after one of Jackson’s eight aces in the match, the McGuinness lefty fired a passing shot by Jackson from the baseline to again send the game to deuce.

Byrne then breezed through the rest of the set, winning 12 of the final 16 points, and after Jackson recorded four aces in winning the first game of the second set, Byrne won eight of the next nine points, breaking Jackson in the third game to take a 2-1 lead.

Jackson won four of the final five points in the fourth game to break Byrne serve, Byrne broke back in the next game and held his serve the rest of the way to wrap up the victory.

Ada High Track

MOORE — Sophomore Nick Anderson capped an outstanding season with a runner-up finish in the pole vault to pace a good effort by Ada’s young squad on Saturday’s final day of the Class 5A state track meet at Moore High School.

Anderson, coming off a regional victory last week, topped out at 13-6 to finish second to the 14-foot effort posted by state champ Casey Rowell of Duncan.

Elsewhere, junior Eddie Brown was third in the 330-yard intermediate hurdles in :41.53 and fifth in the 110-meter hurdles in :15.94 after sweeping both events at the regional meet. Saturday marked the second strong effort in a row in the state meet for Brown, who earned points in both events as a sophomore.

Brown also joined fellow junior Qumain Black and the team’s only two seniors — Keeslar Stover and Keith Burris — in finishing eighth in the sprint relay. This marked the third straight year Stover had been part of a quartet that qualified for the finals in that event.

“Overall, I was pleased,” said second-year Ada track coach Nathan Elliott, whose squad finished a strong third at the regional meet in what should have been a rebuilding year following the graduation of an oustanding senior class. “We competed hard. We’ve got a young team, and we’ll have everybody back next year except Stover and Burris.”

In girls action, Ada freshman Jenna Huling placed seventh in the high jump with a leap of five-feet even. Another freshman, Taryn Jack, didn’t place in the 100 Meter Dash.

“She had the same routine as she had every other meet and competed really well. She didn’t seem overly nervous at all,” said Ada girls coach Michelle Shannon. “And Taryn (Jack) ran well against a tough field in the 100 (Meter Dash).”

EDMOND — Things didn’t go according to plan for the Ada High boys golf team at last week’s Class 5A State Tournament held at the Rose Creek Golf Course in Edmond.

After a bad start in the first round that left the Cougars in sixth place with a 333, Ada posted a 326 in the second round to move into fifth place.

But Ada ballooned to a 341 in the third and final round, failed to stay in triple digits and dropped into ninth place when the final team standings were announced with a score of 1000. Rival McAlester finished eighth, a stroke ahead of the Cougars with a 999.

“I have to say I am very disappointed with the final outcome of the tournament this week, but not with the effort that the kids put forth,” said Ada head coach Robbie Powell. “They all tried their hardest and things just did not go our way.”

Ardmore, the pick as the favorite to win the title since the beginning of the season, didn’t disappoint, taking home the championship with a score of 922. Bixby was a distant second at 944.

Powell said even after his team’s poor start to Day 1, it still had a shot at finishing near the top of the standings with two solid rounds to end the tournament. But the Cougars went in the other direction instead.

“Our chances for finishing third were good if we could come back and play well the last two rounds. We gained ground in the afternoon on Monday and on the first nine on Tuesday morning,” Powell explained. “We had caught Duncan and after making the turn to the back nine, it looked like we were going to finish third. But we then lost our focus and things started getting away from us. We could never recover after that.”

How bad was it for the Cougars? Out of the five Cougar players at the tournament, only two had rounds below 80 — Josh Belcher recorded a 79 during the first round and Adam Gourley fired off a 78 during second-round play. On the other hand, as a team, Ada posted five scores of 90 or higher.

Chris Sweeney’s total of 243 paced the Cougar contingent while Alex Long followed with a 248.

Bixby’s Karsten Majors won the individual state title with a 216 followed by Ian Davis of Deer Creek at 219 and Taylor Gooch of Carl Albert at 221.

“I feel really bad for the kids, they worked really hard this year and really played well for most of the season. Things just got away from them at the end,” Powell said. “They have been a great bunch to work with all season long. The seniors — Alex Long, Chris Sweeney, and Josh Belcher — will be hard to replace. They are all great kids and I know that they are all going to be successful in their future endeavors. As for the future, we will regroup and work hard in the off-season to get ready for next spring.