Media Day: Chickasha Fighting Chicks

The Chicks are hoping to continue their year-to-year improvement.

Thursday, July 28th 2011, 5:42 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Aug 21, 2010 12:52 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY – Chickasha head coach Rick VanCleave is entering his third season and is expecting his recent trend of improvement to continue.

The Fighting Chicks struggled to a one-win season in VanCleave’s first year as head coach, but improved to 4-6 last year. He said Saturday that he has now had time to fully institute his system and get hard work from his players during the summer.

VanCleave came to Chickasha from Kingfisher, a jump from 3A to 5A. He won a state title with Kingfisher in 2003, but was surprised about the lack of major difference between classes.

VanCleave said the only real difference between the two schools was the lack of participation at Chickasha, which is a problem he has aimed to fix since arriving. He has made concerted efforts to talk to students about the benefits of football, and he has slowly seen participation numbers rise.