PHS football will move to Class A next season

This will be the Pawhuska football team’s final season in Class 2A.

The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association announced the football districts for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years last week. Pawhuska High School will drop down to Class A, and will participate in the nine-team District 5.

The Huskies will be facing some familiar foes in Class A-5, which may very well be the toughest district in Class A. Here are the Huskies’ district foes.

• Hominy

• Drumright

• Barnsdall

• Langston Hughes

• Morrison

• Pawnee

• Tonkawa

• Woodland

The team and fans will get a preview of the district before district play begins this year. Pawhuska will scrimmage against Barnsdall at 6 p.m. Friday at Barnsdall High School. They will play host to Morrison in the second game of this season. PHS will travel to Hominy on Sept. 15, and battle Tonkawa at home on Sept. 29.

Reclassification is based on high school enrollment.

“Pawhuska has had a lot of tradition as a 2A football school,” Coach Joe Tillman said. “You can’t do anything about the enrollment. It is what it is. For what we have, we will be competitive in Class A.”

Pawhuska has a group of seventh- and eighth-graders that Tillman said are pretty good. They will be the foundation of the Huskies foray into Class A.

“If we stayed in 2A, in two years I believe we would have been competitive in 2A,” Tillman said. With a squad numbering in the 30s, Tillman said the Huskies will be competitive in Class A as well.