Okay (Oklahoma) boys not yet ready to put away the basketballs

OKAY, OKLAHOMA - It was the day after his team lost to Caddo in last year’s Class A state championship game. 

Baseball season had already been under way a few weeks statewide, and for Chad Clark, who coaches both sports at Okay High School, there's some catching up to do.

But there his guys were, not on the diamond, but in the gym.

"We knew what we didn't do at state and we were already thinking what we needed to do to get better," said one of those players, Bryson Parnell.

There's definitely a different level of expectation in basketball than baseball in this eastern Oklahoma community located 10 miles north of Muskogee, and particularly with this group of guys.

Clark, whose son Chase is also part of the group, was himself a standout in both sports at Okay, making it to the state basketball tournament in 1998, and after college, returned to the school and has worked there ever since.

"I've always said when we come into baseball, I want them to play because they can stay together and be friends and hang out together and keep that chemistry going, but they know who they are as a group," Clark said.

"Truth is, there's a lot of stress on them in basketball. People think we're going to go out and win every game and that's not always going to be the case, but it comes with the territory. Baseball becomes a time where we can just to play and have fun and relax, but even then, around midseason that competitiveness takes over and we get mad when we get beat and it's not carefree anymore."

Parnell, Chase Clark, Duckee Swimmer, Tito Ramos and Ashton Walters all play both sports, and all have at least one parent that went to Okay and played sports themselves. For many of them, it's a baton that's been passed from one generation to the next.

Chris Young is Swimmer's stepdad. He played basketball with the elder Clark and Danny Parnell, Bryson's dad.

"When I was growing up, I lived across the street from Danny first and Tabby (Walters, Ashton's mom) after that and we'd play basketball in the backyard just like our kids do," Chris Young said.

This group has been doing it since kindergarten. Danny Parnell began coaching them in youth ball in neighboring leagues like Hulbert, Hilldale Schools just south of Muskogee, and then in Tulsa in the AAU level, where he said, they got so successful against teams from the Tulsa area they were looking for better competition in other parts.

"Our team really has been together since kindergarten, most of them here actually, and this entire group is probably the best team, boys or girls, I've seen inside and outside the court, hitting on all cylinders," Parnell said.

Coming off a state title appearance, the Mustangs are 24-4 after dispatching Riverfield Country Day, 51-36, in the Class A Area IV championship game on Friday and are making their fifth state trip since 2015 this week in Oklahoma City.

Okay will play its opening-round game at the Class A state tournament on Thursday. The Mustangs take on Seiling at Oklahoma City's State Fair Arena.

Oklahoma Class A-B state basketball tournament pairings released 

"It's just not basketball season, it's the summertime and not just a couple or three or four involved," said Tammy Ramos, mother of Tito and a basketball player herself in college at Bacone College in Muskogee, Northeastern (Okla.) State and Missouri Valley College.

“They load up in cars and go. They do jump training, they're playing every Saturday in AAU and it's not the parents pushing them or Chad pushing them, this is them saying, 'We need to do this' and we're like, 'OK, we'll figure out how to get it all done.'

"We've had calendars full of what happens today, what happens tomorrow. We'd have it filled up because they were like, we need to get better."

Right before the Mustangs hosted their district tournament, there everyone was, family included, having a breakfast in the school cafeteria. It could have served as a fundraiser, but in this case, it was just a bonding thing started a few years ago.

"Some people say it's hard to coach in your hometown. It's not hard here," Chad Clark said. "The reason these kids are so good is because of their parents. At home, they hold them accountable, and then they're willing to help out with everything.

"You know everybody and you have for years, but I'd say this year has been the best I've had here in 21 years, it's just that simple." 

Another of the core players, Diezel Davis, had a dad who graduated from Okay and is now the school board president and a member of the board since 2011.

Nick Davis watched the program make a run of consecutive state tournament trips from 2015-17 and is now looking at back-to-back journeys after narrowly missing with a group of mostly freshmen three years ago.

"We don't have a lot going on in the town and this is something that brings the community together and often times fills the house, especially as we get into the playoffs. And it brings people out that we haven't seen around here in years," Nick Davis said.

And he sees a tradition building.

"I just went and watched an 8-and-under team from our community play at Hilldale and they went through the year undefeated," Davis said. "Just like our current guys looked up to (the 2015-17 group), these younger kids look up to them now."

One distinction between Nick Davis and the other parents of this group is that neither he nor his wife played sports, but Diezel is the second of their sons who have caught on to the passion of the sport.

Older brother Brandon was on the teams during the first state run this century. Diezel, a junior, has led the team in scoring the last three seasons.

"These guys were young when that first group (accumulated their state tournament runs) and they could look up to them, and they continued to work to come together," Nick Davis said. "Diezel developed a love for it and I think got better, too, playing with his brother growing up."

It's a collective all-in mentality.

"Both my parents played sports, so I got something from both," said Chase Clark. "My dad has always driven me to be competitive, not just in basketball but baseball, too. And I had some love for baseball, but not nearly as much as basketball."

Swimmer credits his mom, Linzee Custer, who came to Okay from Muskogee as a student and later played softball in college at Bacone College.

"She gave me mental toughness," Swimmer said.

The chemistry might indeed be the thing that carries this team past just a finals appearance. It's a very balanced scoring team, which has bred unselfishness.

"I've never seen a boys team that cares about each other, holds each other accountable as in, did you finish your classes, did you do this and that,” said Tammy Ramos, Tito’s mother. “They all want to see everyone doing well, like if I'm not hitting tonight, I'll get it to somebody who is."

They'll take that to Oklahoma City; then hopefully for the Mustangs, baseball will be a lot more relaxing.

Photo of Okay coach Chad Clark by Michael Kinney

-- Mike Kays | @SBLiveOK