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Saturday, December 1, 2007
No End in Sight
Central Oklahoma, OK
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Okarche’s Myers has a long history of success, and by the looks of it, a long future of success, too.
Okarche girl’s basketball coach Cherie Myers has done plenty in her 29 years of coaching. She has been with four teams, helped build two traditional powerhouses, been to the state tournament 17 times, won two state championships and coached both of her daughters. And she’s not done yet.
I’ve always loved the coaching part. I played for some great coaches, whether in high school at Fairview and then Kingfisher or when I was playing college ball at Northern Oklahoma College then at North Texas State. I was always engaged in coaching. In college, I first started in the medical route. I was going to be a doctor. But finally I called my parents up and told them I wanted to be a coach. It was a good decision for me. I’ve loved it ever since.
What I like about coaching high school is the idea that we don’t get to pick our players. You get the kids in the school system and from the community. It’s fun to see them develop individually and gain that chemistry as a team. It’s great to see what they can all accomplish and see all the stuff they use that you taught them.
I’ve coached two state championship teams and watched my daughters play. But probably the best moment was coaching Haley (youngest daughter) for four years, and being able to watch her and my son play in the state tournament at the same time. When Haley was a freshman at Okarche and my son was a senior at Kingfisher, both teams made the state tournament (2001). It was really fun and crazy those three days.
This is the year that I can retire if I want to. I’m still having fun. I evaluate it every spring. But right now I enjoy it too much. Once the season ends, then I sit down with my husband and family and see what I do for the next year.
Anytime your team is playing in the state tournament, it’s special. State is like the Super Bowl or the National Championship game – whichever is the top competition in that sport. Everyone’s goal is to get there. You talk about that all year. Kids grow up talking about wanting to play there, especially in a small community, where everyone comes out to watch and you get pep rallies and all that stuff. It’s the idea that if you want to be the best, that’s where you want to be.
It’s a lot different going to state as a player than as a coach. I played in the state tournament three straight years for Kingfisher when I was in high school. As a player, you aren’t aware of all the little preparation stuff. As a coach, you have to know where your team is going to eat, where they are going to stay, exchanging film and stuff like that. As a player you just think you are pretty cool and the whole community knows who you are.
Running around is my main hobby. When I’m not teaching and coaching, in my free time I try to play some golf. I’m not that good, but it’s fun. We travel a lot; especially to golf tournaments to watch my son-in-law (Charles Howell III) play pro golf.
I enjoy this time of the year, the holidays. I love Christmas. My family laughs because they say I can’t wait to for us to eat the turkey so I can get started with putting up the Christmas stuff. It seems like at Christmas a lot of your old players come by and see you. They come by practice, games or to the house and it’s fun to see what they are doing now. I like to see what they have made of themselves. The former players always like to reminisce about when they were playing. I enjoy that.
I’m like a little girl at Christmas. I love presents. I love diamonds and fancy pieces. I’m lucky because my family has always been pretty good with the presents. If you don’t know, diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Remember that.
More coaches get their say on the rankings so I enjoy that part of the new ranking system. It’s a lot of responsibility and it means I have to do more homework on the teams across the state, and not just in our area. I just hope the coaches don’t blow it. I respect more what the sports reporters did because, even with all the complaining they had to deal with, they usually got it right. I think coaches are going to be surprised how much work you actually will have to put into it. I hope it works correctly and we do a good job at it.
We have a wide range of ability on this year’s team, probably more than I’ve had. We have some size, speed, inside players, perimeter players, experience and some young players. If we work hard we can be successful. But I know that one injury and you can go from a good team to a mediocre one. We’ve built off making the state tournament last year and we’ve had some big early season wins. We also know we have a tough schedule and Class A is loaded.
Coaching and playing in a small community is special. I wouldn’t prefer anything else. Everybody knows everyone. The whole community gets behind their kids and the programs. I’ve coached sisters and cousins on the same team. There’s just so much excitement in the community when your team is doing well – the pep rallies, and it’s the talk of the town. It’s just a great environment to be a part of.
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