Central High School Football Coach Puts Academics Before Gridiron

High school football players have a new reason to focus this week as grades have some of them on the sidelines.

It's the fifth week of football but the first week when Tulsa players who are failing classes have to stay on the bench.

Most schools have at least half a dozen players on the list, but one school has a far better record than the others.

Don Gibson is starting his second year as head coach and athletic director at Central High School. He's got a young team with players that need experience, so he can't afford to have them sidelined because of their grades.

"And so what I do every morning, as soon as I get to school, I run eligibility e?very morning just to see where we're at. In the evening, I run it again,” Gibson said.

Gibson credits relentless monitoring that helps keep his players accountable, while extra study time before and after school, is what keeps their grades up.

Central High School Initiative Program

"It's like a mentality of what you do on the football field, to make yourself better, so that mentality we talk about is academics and we talk about it 24/7 because I think if you take care of your academics, it will take care of you off the field,” he said.

That's left Coach Gibson with only one ineligible player this week; that's fewer than any other TPS school, while Webster has 11 players on the sidelines this week.

Almost every school is doing better than last year, Memorial had 22, and Hale had 29 players sidelined because they were failing in school.

The athletic director for TPS, Gil Cloud, said some coaches take a stronger line, but the minimum standard is clear once a player becomes ineligible.

TPS Students Ineligible

“They have a week to be eligible and whether it's that class or another class they're failing, they're ineligible for another week. They have to be passing every class, every week,” Cloud said.

At Central, the standard is higher. If students aren't passing they go to study hall instead of practice and they can't travel with the team.

For Gibson, that strategy keeps his players in the game.

We've got an extended interview with Coach Gibson on our website, a list of expectations he has for his players, and the ineligible list for other sports at each school.

Ineligible TPS Students By The Numbers