CPHS Football: Sandites start new era Friday at Sapulpa

The Sand Springs high school football team will kick off its 101st season Friday at 7:00 p.m. with the 93rd installment of Highway 97 Rivalry. Class 6A-II No. 12 ranked Charles Page High School will travel to 5A No. 7 Sapulpa to kick off the season.

This will be the first time since 1969 that the two towns have been in different classifications. In that year it was Sapulpa that was slightly larger than its rival up north. Fifty years later and Sand Springs has pulled ahead in population, while Sapulpa has slipped back into Class 5A. This will be the first time in six years that the game has been non-district, and the first time since 1953 that the teams are meeting in the season opener.

The Highway 97 Rivalry dates back to 1922 and has been played annually since 1930. Sapulpa holds a narrow lead in the series at 45-43-5 and just snapped a five-game losing streak last season with a 31-19 victory. Both teams’ longest win streaks sit at five games.

It’s a rarity that the two schools both field winning teams in the same year. The last time both teams finished with a positive record in the same season was 2013, which was also Sapulpa’s last win before Sand Springs hit its hot streak.

The Chieftains won only five games over four years, and none were against Sand Springs. They finally got back to a winning record in 2018, which happened to be the first year since 2011 that Sand Springs failed to make the playoffs. Despite being a major underdog, the Sandites still managed to win 48-35 that season, but they were unable to repeat the upset last year.

The Sandites are hoping this Friday will kick off a new era of success as they play their first game under Head Coach Bobby Klinck. Klinck spent two years as Head Coach at East Central, where he earned a 13-12 record, won a district title, and made the State finals. He spent the next six seasons as Defensive Coordinator for Broken Arrow, Southlake Carroll, and Owasso. In his three seasons with the Rams they won two State Championships.

Sapulpa holds a 15-27 record after four seasons under former Sandite Defensive Coordinator Robert Borgstadt. After two 1-9 seasons, Sapulpa put together winning records the past two years and qualified for the post season. They have yet to get past the first round, however.

Friday’s game will also be unique as it is the first game of the COVID-19 era. While Sand Springs isn’t planning on reducing ticket sales at its home games yet, Sapulpa has elected to restrict attendance to half capacity. The Sandite fandom was only allotted 650 tickets for what would normally be a packed house at George F. Collins Stadium, and the tickets sold out in pre-sale.