Wolverine Sports by Tom Turner
Malachi Henderson earns All-State Honors
Holdenville Running Back, Malachi Henderson has been selected to play in the Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State Game. It’s been over two decades since a Holdenville player has earned the honor of being selected to play in the annual game. Trevor Foster earned that honor in 2001. There have been players who have been selected as All-State by class but Henderson is the only player since 2001 to be selected to play in the prestigious Coaches Association Game.
Henderson is a multiple sport player at Holdenville High and in addition to his outstanding performance on the athletic field, he has also earned a spot on the Superintendent’s Honor Roll. Kudos to Malachi for his outstanding work on the athletic field and in the classroom. Being an All-State Football Player and making straight ‘A’ s is outstanding.
Proud to be a Wolverine
The University of Oklahoma Track Team has announced that 22 members of their team have earned a 4.0 grade point average. That’s an awesome accomplishment. A quick look at all the academic awards the Holdenville High School sports teams have earned is also an awesome accomplishment. Every athlete will eventually have to stop playing ball and get a job. A Sports Illustrated article reports that 78% of the NFL players and 60 % of the NBA players face serious financial hardships after retirement. No matter when an athlete quits playing and ends his or her career, they have to get a job. Excelling in the classroom is an excellent way to prepare for the real world.
Holdenville athletes are doing extremely well in the classroom! Even if an opponent wins on the playing field they still can’t beat the Wolverines in a spelling contest.
Wolverines have a busy week of basketball
The Holdenville Boys won three games this week and lost one. The girls won two and lost two.
The week began with a trip to Stroud where both Wolverine teams defeated the Tigers. The girls defeated the Tigers 63-24 and the boys won by a score of 65-42. Both teams entered the 66 Conference Tournament on Tuesday and both teams defeated their first round opponent. The Girls drew Stroud in the opening round and defeated the Tigers 3924. The girls dropped their next two games in the tournament. The Holdenville Girls lost to McLoud 29-42 and Chandler 42-44.
The Holdenville Boys lost to McLoud in the semi-finals 39-60. The Wolverines came back on Saturday and defeated the Okemah Panthers 48-43.
Coach Snow had this to say about his teams’ busy week: “The girls had a tough week. After playing well Tuesday at Stroud I felt like we played 3 good quarters out of 12 in the conference tournament and that is just not good enough when you’re playing good teams. I was disappointed in our lack of urgency and composure after going up 15 vs. Chandler. We have a tough week ahead with a really good Hilldale team and Prague for homecoming. We will have to play better this week to win both games.
I was really proud of the guys after a tough night Friday against a really good Mcloud team. They came back Saturday ready to play. We talked about refocusing after a loss and leaving it all on the floor Saturday and I thought we did that. We haven’t been shooting the ball well but we held Okemah who’s averaging around 65 points a game to just 43 and made enough baskets down the stretch to win the game and get a little revenge for the loss last week at home. I thought we played with a lot of heart and great effort and came away with third place in a conference that is really tough! Mcloud went on to win the tournament as well. This week we bring in two really good teams in Hilldale Tuesday and Prague Friday for homecoming so it should be some exciting fun games to watch at home this week!
