Broken Arrow Football Growing Into State's Best

By Kyle Dierking, NewsOn6.com

BROKEN ARRROW, OK -- He's had coaching success across the state. Ron Lancaster's latest and possibly final coaching project has been turning the state's biggest school into a state champion.  

"I think it's time for Broken Arrow to grow up and get in that championship mix," Lancaster said. "I thought we came pretty close last year and now we've got to get over the hump and do it this year. I like the way we look on paper and the way we're producing out here."

Lancaster enters his final season at B.A. with a team loaded full talent. Many of last season's starters were underclassmen that lost in the second round of the playoffs to Mustang. It's a loss that still stings.  

"We didn't get off the bus last year; we didn't start playing against Mustang until the second half," said senior linebacker Terry Williamson. "Us seniors played in that game so that should never happen again."

"Coaches tell us to just try and forget it, but it's always going to be there until we get past it," said senior offensive lineman Rowdy Harper. "That's definitely the driving force within us is to get farther."

The Tigers will have a new starting quarterback, but most importantly they return tailback Steven Hopper, who rushed for nearly 1,500 yards and 24 touchdowns last season.

"We have a tailback offense and we're going to run our tailbacks and play action and run off of those tailbacks," Lancaster said. "It'd be nice to have a quarterback that understands what his role is, but we're going to be a running football team and our tailback is going to get the ball."

"We're going to run it at people and let them know we're going to run it at them," Harper said. "We're just going to see if they can stop it."

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