Copyright © 2005 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

SHS Girls State
Basketball Champions
celebrate on the court.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA - The Sequoyah High School (SHS) girls' basketball team are now the proud owners of one shiny, gold basketball, the state championship trophy. The SHS girls defeated New Kirk 69-54 to earn the title of Oklahoma state class 3A high school champions.

"We did it," SHS girls' coach Bill Nobles told the crowd as he walked to the locker room. "We came to play ball, and we did."

"I couldn't be more proud of this group of young ladies," said Gina Stanley, SHS superintendent. "I think this group has really started a tradition for Sequoyah High School."

"Everybody played a roll," Nobles said. "You saw a team out there today."

"It feels great," said Lorin Hammer, a freshman from SHS. "We've worked hard for this all year."

Although the scoreboard ended with the game in Sequoyah's favor, the SHS girls had their work cut out for them heading into the final round. Kinzie Glover, a senior forward for Newkirk High School scored a state tournament record high of 44 points in their semi-final round game against Bethel the day before. SHS freshman, Angel Goodrich, felt that she was up to the challenge.

"Angel said she wanted (to guard) her," Nobles said.

"I like a challenge I guess," Goodrich said. "She was the only one scoring so I wanted to be the one to stop her."

Goodrich did stop her and any hopes that Newkirk had of winning the game, while still scoring 23 points, 4 points above her typical game average.

"If there was a tournament MVP, Angel would be the one," Nobles said. "She's a whole package."

Meanwhile, the SHS boys' basketball team finished second at the class 3A state championship tournament, falling in the finals to Oklahoma Christian 51-34. SHS entered the state tournament ranked number one, as the number one seed and ended with a record of 23 wins and 5 losses. This is the SHS boys' fourth state tournament appearance in a row under the leadership of head coach Larry Grigg.

Junior T.J. Hooper led SHS with 12 points and senior Preston Moore added seven.

Sequoyah High School "Home of the Indians!" P.O. Box 520, Tahlequah, OK 74465             Sequoyah High School Alumni P.O. Box 187, Park Hill, OK 74451-0187 Sequoyah High School, an Indian boarding school, originated in 1871, when the Cherokee National Council passed an act setting up an orphan asylum to take care of many orphans that came out of the Civil War. Sequoyah High School's approximate 300 enrollment represents 42 tribes and 14 different states. Students are eligible to attend if they are members of federally recognized Indian tribes or one-fourth blood descendants of such members.