In the 2024 high school football season, two Lincoln county schools are transitioning to class 2A II as Stroud moves up from class A and Meeker joins the new division.
The reclassification changes by Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association are a result of a potential lawsuit from several private schools displeased with the changing of the rule-14 criteria.
That change stated that as long as private schools continue having success, which the association defines as finishing in the top-four of your classification two out of three years, that school can continuously move up in classification. Those changes were challenged by OSSAA member private schools, pushing to return to the old criteria that stated a school can only be reclassified up a single level from their original placement, a rule dating back to 2014.
Trinity Johnson, OSSAA employee who oversees Academic Eligibility, Football, Swimming and Golf, played a major role in those changes. “There were some private schools in the association that challenged that new criteria,” Johnson said. “As a result of the judgment we had to go back and reclassify football by removing that criteria. As a result it forced us to reclassify all the schools by recalculating their ADM.”
ADM stands for average daily membership, which is how many students are enrolled at a school at any given time. As a result of potential lawsuit against the OSSAA, it required the association to use the ADM as the standard of assigning schools to districts.
“We used the first quarter numbers of fall 2023 to identify each school’s membership, the number of students they had, and reclassified everybody from 6-A down to class-C,” Johnson said. In the midst of the class shuffling for football, Stroud and Meeker both landed in class 2A II for the upcoming season.
The move up from class-A for Stroud is a result of the school having a significant ADM size compared to the class-A schools, while Meeker joins their first division since being in class 2A. Stroud now transitions from being one of the biggest schools in their district to being among the smallest in 2A II, a move Meeker’s already embraced. Out of the 32 football schools ranked by ADM, Meeker ranks 28th and Stroud is dead last. The reclassification is a tall task, but Stroud will seek to replicate the successful move the Bulldogs already made.
The Stroud Tigers are coming off of back-to-back double digit win seasons in class-A led by head football coach Josh Presley, who spoke on playing in a new class. “It’s a whole new challenge,” Presley said. “I feel like our kids are up to it. We got a good group of kids coming back and even though we’re making the jump I still feel like we’re going to be very competitive in 2A. It’s a tougher class but there’s still some really good football teams in class-A that we’re leaving behind. I don’t feel like it’s that great of a jump to class 2A II. We’re just going to line up and play whoever we’re playing on Friday night and get after it.”
The Tigers will be ready to play behind Coach Presley in the fall as they expect to continue their winning ways in a bigger class.
Their Lincoln County neighbor, the Meeker Bulldogs will join them in class 2A II and expect continued success following a 7-5 record competing in 2A in 2023. Brad Seaborn, Meeker Athletic Director expressed his thoughts on the effects of Bulldog football joining a new division.
Seaborn referenced how well Meeker competed in 2023 earning seven victories and he expects more of the same success in a new division. Along with the expectation of success, he also anticipates more competitive and closer matchups due to even more schools being larger or similar in size. After their best season in years, the Bulldogs hope to follow it up with an even better one this year.
In 2024, Lincoln County high school football will look a lot different with the recent reclassification, but Meeker and Stroud are poised for the change.