TUPATALK: Why BHS head football coach is genealogy noteworthy
Next month, the Harry Wright Era in Bartlesville High football will complete its final assimilation phase when the dedicated and focused skipper supervises his first training camp practice for the Bruins.
Wright becomes the ninth Bartlesville High head football coach I have worked with in 26 years.
It’s a quality list — Lee Brower (1996-99), Rich McGuire (2000-03), Greg Willis (2004-05), Ron Smith (2006-10), John McKee (2011-2017), Kyle Ppool interim (2017), Lee Blankenship (2018), Jason Sport (2019-21) and Wright.
The only two other Bruin head football mentors were Mickey Ripley (1982-93) and Tom Wheeler (1994-96). I never met Ripley — although I interviewed him on the phone. And, I got to know Tom very well while he served as the school’s athletic director for approximately 15 years, starting in 1996.
Tom spearheaded successful searches for effective coaches — Tim Bart (boys basketball), the football genealogy list through McKee, Spence Rigdon (baseball), David Ayres (cross country), Erica Derryberry (softball), Ben Harlow (swimming), Rusty Zumwalt (baseball), Gerald Thompson (girls basketball), Jonathan Sheffield (softball), Tom Williams (volleyball), Thad Dilbeck (track), Bo Atterberry (track), Brian Melchiori (wrestling), Micah Lipscomb (boys soccer), Hosteen Walsh (girls soccer) and several others.
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I don’t recall if Wheeler was in the A.D.’s office when Aaron Kuntz (girls tennis), Jeff Rude (boys golf), Brent Massey (tennis) or Terry Hughes (girls golf) took charge of their programs, but they also are part of list of quality head coaches that served honorably for several seasons during or shortly after the Wheeler Era, and they often experienced competitive success, sometime from the latter 1990s or were hired/appointed some day in the early 2010s.
But, it’s some of the football coaches I worked with I want to spotlight.
Brower took charge of a Bruin program that had stumbled to a 1-29 record the previous three seasons. In his first Bruin season he guided the program on Turn-Around Highway, to a 3-7 record — and just a win away from the playoffs. I have one special memory of Lee, who left in order to be an assistant at Southern Nazarene University. I recall after Bartlesville dropped an overtime game in 1996 at Ponca City.
As I went into the visitor’s locker room after to talk to Lee, I saw tears in his eye. I realized then how deep the competitive fires burned in the heart of this soft-spoken, dignified man. He would lead the Bruins to 16 wins in four seasons.
McGuire was genuinely a nice guy to work with. A Pawhuska product, if I remember right, he had been an assistant with Brower. In his first head coaching stint, he guided Bartlesville to its first winning record (6-5) in 2002 in 10 seasons. I believe he might have done his best coaching during the 2003 season, when he navigated the Bruins to a 5-5 record in what was a true rebuilding campaign.
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Willis hit a tough stretch of inexperience among the players. But, he owns the distinction of having one of his Bruin players, Markell Carter, be drafted in 2011 by the New England Patriots.
Smith might have been Bartlesville’s most prestigious hire as head football coach. He had won a state championship in the smaller school ranks and in the years prior to coming to Bartlesville had put Owasso on the Class 6A map as a true power. Although he finished 1-9 in his second season at Bartlesville, Smith led the Bruins to three straight winning seasons (6-4, 9-3, 7-4).
I appreciated working very much with McKee. Handed a raw deal — he became head coach in late July 2011 after Smith unexpectedly resigned shortly before training camp, — McKee honed an amazing class of athletes into state semifinalists in 2015. One of his players, A.J. Parker, has gone on to play in the NFL.
Ppool made history as the first Bartlesville High grad to be the football head coach. He worked extremely hard.
Blankenship made a splash in trying to create a more positive football culture but left after just one season.
Sport also focused on culture and worked hard to maintain a positive ambiance and a class program while trying to formulate a pattern, that never quite found traction during his three seasons, for success on Friday nights.
Wright — who had applied back in 2019 for the Bruin coaching opening, with the job going to Sport, fostered success at an Arkansas high school before being hired last winter to take charge of the Bruins.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Spotlighting some Bartlesville football coaches of the past
