Tough Start for Lady Sandite Softball

The Charles Page High School fast-pitch softball team had a tough start to the season, going 0-2 in their first week before canceling a game against Sperry and pulling out of the Broken Arrow weekend tournament due to injuries and COVID protocols. 

Sand Springs hosted Tahlequah Monday, August 9th and fell 8-6 despite out-hitting the Tigers 12 to 8. Down 1-0, Jolee McNally tied it up on a bases-loaded single in the second inning, then Raegan Rector gave her team the lead with a two-run single. 

Tahlequah tied it up in the fourth and made it 6-3 in the fifth on a pair of errors at first base. Ashlyn Clark scored on a sacrifice bunt from Kelsi Hilton in the fifth, but Tahlequah added a two-run single in the sixth to pad their lead. Clark put two more on the board in the sixth with a two-run single, but couldn’t muster up another run before the game drew to a close.

On Tuesday at Owasso the Sandites were swept 8-0 and lost in a six-inning run-rule walkoff. Lauren Hammock and Hilton made two hits apiece, but all five Sandite baserunners were left stranded. Freshman ace Preslee Downing struck out eight Sandites to lift the Rams to the win.

Rector got the loss against Tahlequah with eight hits, four strikeouts, and three walks, while Hilton got the loss against Owasso with 13 hits, three strikeouts, and one walk.

Sandite Softball will return to action at the Rogers State University festival Thursday with games against Lincoln Christian and Adair, then will play the Stillwater festival on Friday. 

Other Sandite News

The Sand Springs Public School District is still hiring for three coaching positions. The Girls’ Varsity Tennis Head Coach, Boys’ Soccer Head Coach, and Head Debate Coach positions are still hiring, and interested parties can apply at Sandites.org

Lady Sandite Volleyball wins 2021 Sandite Invitational

Sand Springs Sandite Volleyball team wins first place at the 2021 Sandite Invitational.

A version of this story was originally published in the Sand Springs Leader.

For the second time in the tournament’s three-year history, the Sandite Invitational was won by the home team, but it didn’t come easy.

Bixby wrapped up the round-robin tournament with a 6-1 record - their only defeat being a 2-1 match against Sand Springs. Despite the loss, they still had a shot at the tournament title if Southeast could knock the Sandites down to 5-2 after Lincoln Christian dealt the home team a 2-0 loss earlier in the day.

The Spartans tried their best, and rebounded from a lopsided 25-10 defeat in the first set to storm back and win the second 25-22. After taking a 7-1 lead in the final game, it looked like they would succeed in stymying the home team’s hopes for gold, but Layla Lenex and Payton Robbins combined for four-straight kills to tip the momentum.

Charley Fahland scored an ace to tie it at 10-10, Jacelyn Smith knocked down a pair of kills for the 14-12 lead, and Olivia Dewitt secured the team trophy with an ace that was almost a service error. The hard-hit ball connected with the top of the net and just barely dropped over on the Spartans’ court, who were playing deep and couldn’t get there in time.

“I just told them to stay up and stay together,” said third-year Head Coach Derek Jackson. “One person ain’t going to win it, it’s going to be one team that’ll win it. They did a phenomenal job of believing in me, believing in themselves and their teammates, and that belief that the next ball will be better got them to where they wanted to be.”

The Sandites cleaned up in individual accolades as well, and Kasidy Holland, Tehya Johnson, and Fahland were all voted to the All-Tournament team.

“One of our team goals for the year is to win 70% of our home games and defend the home court,” said Jackson, whose teams are 31-12 at the Ed Dubie Field House. “Winning as many games as we did tonight, yesterday really helps push our goals. We’re pretty goal-driven. As far as the program, winning your home tournament always gives you a little extra juice.”

The Sandites (7-2) won’t be resting on their laurels after the tournament victory, however. They will launch right into another busy tournament weekend at Holland Hall on Friday and Saturday before hosting Broken Arrow in conference action Tuesday, August 24th, and they have some work to do before then.

“I think we could be a little more disciplined up front, get a couple more touches, a couple more blocks,” says Jackson. “I think our serve is aggressive, it’s tough, but statistically it’s a really good serve. We just need to be a little more consistent. And then just talking. I think we can always talk more, which I don’t know a coach who wouldn’t say that.”

On Tuesday the Sandites fell 3-1 to Owasso in sets of 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, and 25-20 in the season opener. Payton Robbins scored 11 kills and four blocks as the Sandites won their first set against the Rams since 2017. The girls were down 20-17 in the second game before rattling off eight straight points, capped by an ace from Fahland.

Smith added nine kills, Holland had eight, and Johnson recorded 25 assists. Defensively they were paced by Fahland with 16 digs and Johnson with 12. 

On Thursday they rebounded with a 3-0 non-conference sweep of Collinsville (25-21, 25-12, 25-12) behind a balanced team effort offensively. Robbins scored three aces, four kills, and a block, with seven digs. Lenex scored six blocks and five kills, and Dewitt scored four aces. 

Over the course of the tournament, Robbins had 12 aces, 55 kills, and 43 digs. Lenex had 46 kills and five blocks. Smith had 25 kills, six blocks, and six aces. Fahland had 78 digs, 14 assists, and nine aces. Johnson had 141 assists, two blocks, nine kills, and six aces. Dewitt scored five aces and made 34 digs. 

Officially, Smith set the school record for career aces at 86, beating Madison Blaylock’s 78. Robbins set the school record for career kills with 280, beating Devree Youngblood’s 260. However, those numbers only go back to 2019, as previous year’s statistics were never preserved.

Tournament Results

CPHS 2-0 Lawton (25-12, 25-12)
CPHS 2-0 Choctaw (25-15, 25-21)
CPHS 2-0 Enid (25-14, 25-20)
CPHS 2-1 Bixby (21-25, 25-21, 15-7)
CPHS 2-0 Southwest Covenant (25-11, 25-14)
Lincoln Christian 2-0 CPHS (25-22, 25-16)
CPHS 2-1 Southeast (25-10, 22-25, 15-12)

CPHS Sports Roundup: Season Tickets on Sale for Fall Season

The fall sports season is quickly approaching for Charles Page High School and the Athletics Department is selling All Sports Season Passes Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Ed Dubie Field House. Adult passes are $60, Senior Citizens (65+) are $40, Students (high school and below) are $25, and SSPS employees are $20. 

Reserved seats from last season can be renewed during those time slots as well, and remaining reserved seats will be opened to the public beginning Monday, August 16th. Reserved seats are $50 for the season. 

Both reserved seats and season passes will be available at Meet the Sandites, and season passes will be available at the first few home softball and volleyball games as well. 

Meet the Sandites will be held Thursday, August 19th at 7:00 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. Fans will be introduced to the high school and youth football, cheer, dance, cross country, volleyball, and softball teams to kick off the fall season.

Cheer

The Sandite Cheer program recently hosted the 2021 Youth Clinic and several up-and-coming stars were recognized. Lillie Holmes was named “Rockin Rookie,” Ray Bivin received the Showstopper award, Brighton Cole received the CPHS Coaches award, and Marley Dixon was named the Star Jumper. The 2nd Grade team received the Team Spirit Award, and the 3rd Grade team received the Team Stunt Award. 

Sandite Varsity Cheer is in its second year under Head Coach Krystal Chase. The team will be hosting their fifth annual Cheers & Gears Auto Show Saturday, August 21st at Charles Page High School. For more information, email CPHSvarsitycheer@gmail.com or visit cheersandgearsautoshow.org 

Dance

Addison “Addy” Lambert will be taking over as Varsity Head Coach of the Sandite Dance program this year, replacing Michelle Spears. Lambert is a CPHS alum and second-year Pre-K teacher at the Sand Springs Early Childhood Education Center. 

Fast-Pitch Softball

The Sandite fast-pitch softball team will host Sperry Thursday, August 12th at 5:30 p.m. at the Sandite Sports Complex at 408 West 55th Street. They will also compete at the Broken Arrow tournament this weekend with games against Tahlequah (Friday 10:00 a.m.), Broken Arrow (Friday 11:45 a.m.), Tahlequah Sequoyah (Friday 5:15 p.m.) and Union (Saturday 10:00 a.m.).

Fishing

The Sandite fishing team of Cruz Norris and Gunnar Casey competed at the 2021 Bassmaster High School National Championship in Dayton, Tennessee. The duo placed 99th out of 288 teams with five fish weighing 13 lbs 8 oz. 

Football

Sandite Football is entering its second season under Head Coach Bobby Klinck and the team hopes to repeat their prior year’s postseason appearance. The annual Black & Gold Scrimmage will be held Saturday, August 14th at 9:00 a.m. and the first game of the season will be August 27th at home against Sapulpa. 

Volleyball

Sandite Varsity Volleyball will travel to Collinsville Thursday at 4:00 p.m. before hosting their third annual Sandite Invitational Friday and Saturday. On Friday they will play Lawton at 9:00 a.m., Choctaw at 11:00 a.m., Enid at 2:00 p.m., and Bixby at 5:00 p.m. On Saturday they will play Southwest Covenant at 9:00 a.m., Lincoln Christian at 11:00 a.m., and Southeast at 2:00 p.m.

CPHS Softball Season Preview: Sandites Look for New Leaders

A version of this story was originally published in the Sand Springs Leader.

Losing only three seniors would typically be a good thing for a softball team, since most of the unit is still intact. Unfortunately for Charles Page High School, their three recent graduates were All-State talent that included their best hitter and their best pitcher.

The team is used to reloading, however, and Head Coach Shelli Brown figures they will still be in good shape as they enter her 25th season at the helm. The team has made it to the State Tournament ten times in Brown’s career, including five straight from 2015 to 2019, but last year they came up one win short in a 25-7 campaign.

“It always helps when you have a group that's been there, and this senior group has been there,” says Brown. “So by not getting to go last year they've experienced both sides: the excitement of winning and getting to go, and the disappointment of losing and staying home. I'm hoping that will be a factor and that experience will come into play.”

This year’s State Tournament will be extra exciting as it returns to USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City after being at Firelake Arena in Shawnee the past few years. The largest softball stadium in the country, the Hall of Fame complex also hosts the Women’s College World Series every year.

“It’s always a special place to play,” says Brown. “This senior group, they've been playing at Firelake. I think hopefully that will be a motivating factor for the kids.”

First they have to get there, and that means going through a new district that includes two returning State Tournament teams. Bartlesville, Bixby, Enid, and Putnam City North will be among their district rivals, as will be a combined team from Booker T. Washington and Tulsa Memorial. Jenks, Stillwater, and Sand Springs figure to be the most likely District Championship contenders. Stillwater upset the Sandites twice at their home Regional last year to hold them back from State.

The girls played their first round of scrimmages this past week against Berryhill, Skiatook and Sperry, and will host Skiatook, Oologah, and Mannford for three straight days of 10:00 a.m. scrimmages Wednesday through Friday. 

“I've seen improvement every day between practices and scrimmages,” says Brown. “The kids are getting to know each other. That's one of the things we always talk about is the team chemistry changes every year with graduation and new kids coming in. I think the kids have been working really hard and trying to get their team chemistry and getting each other's timing down and the kind of coverage and range that each kid has when we have different scenarios.”

“We've got four girls that I've been pitching and so each time a pitcher comes in, the dynamics of the position players and outfielders change, but we've been making progress. I thought that this week, each day we got a little bit better.”

The team will be adapting for the loss of Madison Lee, Aliyah Taff, and Drew Hawkins, who were all three All-State selections.

“You just have to kind of find the kids that can step into some of those spots and take on those new roles. That's something we talk about too, is that every year your role is going to change. And so now my junior group is going to be seniors, you know, there's five of them, and they've had some past senior leadership to watch and observe and learn from that have been really good. They work hard and they're good kids, and they've been really trying to step up and take on their leadership role, so I've been really pleased watching them.”

Figuring out their new ace pitcher will be one challenge in the coming week after losing Taff. Junior Nataley Crawford will bring a lot of experience, earning a 7-1 record with a 3.2 ERA last season. They also have sophomore Kelsi Hilton, left-handed senior Raegan Rector, and freshman Addy Hughes to draw from. 

Reloading on offense is another challenge after losing Lee, who hit .532 last season, and Hawkins who was .409. Last year’s team was one of the best slugging units in school history.

“I think instead of being able to get a home run, I think we're going to be looking more at base hits,” says Brown. “We have a lot of lefties in the lineup right now. We've got a couple of freshmen, Ashlyn Clark and Kenzie King that have been getting some time. They’re lefties and they’re real fast. And so I think with time, Ashlyn Clark and them can probably look like a Madison Lee. They've got the speed and I think with experience and age, they're gonna do really well.”

As for the senior leadership, the team will lean on Avery Tanner, JoLee McNally, Raegan Rector, Lauren Hammock, and Taylor Skipper.

“Lauren Hammock has really stepped up in scrimmages and done really well in putting the ball in play and scoring runs,” says Brown. “So I hope that will continue. I've seen some real improvement and progress there. And then Taylor Skipper. She's a kid every team needs. if I need her to go play first, she’ll go play first. if I need her to get behind home plate, She's just gonna do it. She’s probably a morale booster for our kids. She's always positive and I think trying to stay positive and work with the team. All those seniors have been doing something in one way or another either by leadership on the field or actions or what they're saying vocally out there.”

Sandite Softball will kick off the season Monday, August 9th with a 5:30 p.m. home game against Tahlequah, followed by an away game against Owasso Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

CPHS Cross Country Preview: Rebuilding Year in Store for Sandites

The beginning of the high school cross country season is less than a month away, and the Sandites are getting ready for action. 

“We started practicing right after track was over with and we’ve been practicing all summer, four days a week,” says Head Coach Mike Burdge. Both the boys and girls teams will kick off the season Saturday, August 21st at Edmond Deer Creek.

Despite only losing one senior from either team, it still has the makings of a rebuilding year due to a smaller-than-usual incoming freshman class.

“We’ve got to get more kids involved,” says Burdge. “Everybody’s got to work together and share athletes (across multiple sports). What do we do to get more kids involved? I think part of it is the elementary and middle school. I can remember when we didn’t have a high school program worth much, but Coach (Les) Reed was doing middle school and had 120 kids coming out for that. So how do we get back to that? I think Coach Reed’s personality had a lot to do with that success.”

The junior high programs have already seen a slight uptick over the last two seasons, however. “We’re really looking strong in our middle school,” says Burdge. “We’ve had 15 kids coming out all summer long, so we’ll be strong there.”

“I’m excited about our elementary, and the interest in elementary and middle school. I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have 20 kids out for middle school whereas we only had six last year.”

As for this season...“We only lost one senior. Last year we didn’t have very many girls coming out for it so we were short. This year four of our varsity runners will be seniors so next year will be a challenge.”

“Dalton Wilcox will definitely be the number one senior leading not necessarily in time, but he’ll be one of the leaders. Jazmin Lopez is the only senior girl we have this year. Jazmin’s gonna be a leader. She’s a real hard worker, her and her brother Alex. I think we’ll probably be able to field a team of girls, we’ll have five. I asked around as we were going, I was talking to other coaches, and it seemed everybody was shallow on girls last year.”

“We’re really looking at ‘what do we do?’ Cross Country’s been strong for a lot of years and last year was just a tough year. We never had a race with five varsity boys, somebody was quarantined all year long.”

“So putting it all back together is what we have to figure out how to do. I’m going to have to get out and do some things to spur some interest. We haven’t been able to do that the last few years because of COVID. We’ll just see how it goes.”

“It’s gonna be a tough year ahead of us. Cross Country will be kind of a rebuilding year even though it shouldn’t be. Not having that many kids come out for the summer in the high school program, we’re gonna see what we’ve got.”

Last season the boys placed 11th at their home 6A Regional while the girls took 15th. The last time either team won a title was in 2017 when the boys won at Sapulpa, and both teams won the Kiefer Invitational in 2016. 

2021 Sand Springs Cross Country Schedule

8.21 Edmond Deer Creek
8.27 Owasso Relays
9.4 Sapulpa
9.18 Stillwater Jamboree
9.25 University of Kansas
10.9 4th Annual Gold Rush Invitational (Sand Springs)
10.23 Regionals (Owasso)
10.30 State (Edmond Santa Fe)

Case Community Park brings organized disc golf league to Sand Springs

Taylor Dutto hosts the first-ever disc golf mini tournament at Case Community Park.

A version of this story was originally published in the Sand Springs Leader.

Sand Springs is no stranger to organized sports. The bustling Tulsa suburb is the home of the West Side Alliance, a nationally competitive soccer organization; the Keystone Kids wrestling program, which has crowned national and Pan-American champions in all three styles; the Sand Springs BMX Association; as well as baseball and softball leagues that compete with the best.

One area the town is now breaking into is disc golf. The City of Sand Springs has operated disc golf courses since 2004, but until this summer, there has never been an organized league. In April, the City officially opened the Case DiscGolfPark, replacing the existing 18-hole River City course. 

“That has always felt like the lost end of the park,” says Sand Springs Parks Director Jeff Edwards. “Nobody really knew it existed.” Past the softball complex, there is only disc golf and BMX. Most of the course grounds weren’t utilized by the public till the first course was installed in 2017.

Since the unveiling of the new design, Case Community Park now hosts weekly Monday evening minis organized by Taylor Dutto, a Tulsa resident who has fallen in love with the Sand Springs course. 

At the Monday, July 12th mini, Taylor Sears took home $310 in cash earnings after winning first place in the Open division and throwing a 221-foot ace on the first hole of the White layout. Jimmy Forester also threw a hole-in-one to split the ace pot with Sears and earn $215. 

In addition to the Open division, there are also several amateur divisions that pay out in either cash or merchandise. The latest mini drew nearly 50 competitors.

The new DiscGolfPark marks a notable investment by the City of Sand Springs in their efforts to attract regional tournaments to their flagship park. Designed by 2009 PDGA World Champion Avery Jenkins, the new course features some of the finest course infrastructure in the state. 

Massive turf tee-pads, brand new baskets, and quality signage provide some great perks that many other courses are missing. The park also features two layouts at all times. Each of the 18 tee pads features a long (Blue) and short (White) basket, so players always have the option of either a challenging or recreational round. But that’s only half of what makes Case Community Park such a great location. 

The course offers even better Arkansas River views than Tulsa’s historic Riverside Park. The grounds drain faster than almost any other area course following a rain storm. It’s usually the most frequently mowed disc golf course in the Tulsa metro, as the City makes every effort to provide pristine fairways. It’s also a great place for wildlife, as Bald Eagles can frequently be seen nesting, hunting, and perched in the mature cottonwood trees along the river. 

“What makes (Case DiscGolfPark) unique is while there is some trail activity that goes alongside some of the holes, I think there’s some good opportunity for people to feel secluded there,” says Edwards. “It’s a little bit more peaceful and tranquil to go get a round in without a bunch of noise and activity all around. I definitely think that makes it somewhat unique as opposed to some of the other courses that are squeezed into smaller properties with a lot of other amenities around them.”

The Sand Springs disc golf course is a great place for long-time disc golfers and beginners, men and women, old and young. Regardless of your skill level, there’s a great time waiting for you in Case Community Park. 

To keep up with weekly minis, interested golfers can join the Case DiscGolfPark Facebook group.