For Union's Fridrich, High School Beats College

Despite an empty Division-I desk right down the street at Tulsa just waiting to be filled, the Redskins' head football coach says that he has no interest in leaving Union for college openings any time soon.

Thursday, July 28th 2011, 6:02 pm

By: News On 6

For Union's Fridrich, High School Beats College

Originally Published: Jan 13, 2011 9:2 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma – Union Redskins head football coach Kirk Fridrich has no plans to leave the high school ranks any time soon. The man who has coached the past three 6A state champions likes his set-up just fine.

“I’m pretty happy with what I’m doing right now,” the coach chuckled in a phone interview on Thursday. “You never know. It’s a game where everything is constantly changing and someday (I) might enjoy that, but not right now.”

Names like Fridrich and Jenks’ Allan Trimble pop up when a job at an offensive power like Tulsa opens up. The Golden Hurricane needs a head coach and an offensive coordinator after some recent staff departures.

Still, for Fridrich, the opportunity that steals him away from Union would have to knock his socks off.

“It would have to be a deal where I would feel led to do that,” Fridrich said. “Right now, the good Lord has put me in a situation where I feel blessed.”

He went on to say that he feels like he has an opportunity to help young people achieve their goals. Fridrich said when it comes to helping select a school, he always tries to help steer kids in the direction that is the best academic, as well as athletic, fit for them.

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Tulsa have ten combined players on their rosters from Union. The state’s big three have six total former Jenks Trojans in uniform. The chance to steal Fridrich or Trimble away and bring them to your Division-I school could set up a major pipeline to the top talent in Oklahoma.

Tulsa has not released a list of potential job candidates but it’s reported that Arkansas’ Garrick McGee and Texas A&M’s Tim DeRuyter are the two most likely men to take over for Todd Graham as Tulsa’s head coach. Current Golden Hurricane assistant Bill Blankenship and OSU Special Team’s guru Joe DeForest are also a possibilities.

After bringing Chad Morris in from the high school ranks a season ago, and having outrageous success, Tulsa would be justified at trying out another high school lifer. Promoting a prep coach isn’t frowned upon as quickly as it used to be. There’s no indication from Tulsa that the team is leaning in that, or any, direction when it comes to finding its next offensive coordinator.