“Year to year is what I commit to now,” she says. “I
quit teaching ten years ago but I have stuck with the coaching. But, I have
grandkids growing up fast, so you never know.” I know to not waste breath asking
for her career won loss record. I was told by a player’s parent it would be a
rhetorical question. “Bet you week’s pay she won’t know,” says the parent.
 |
Head Coach Carolyn Replogle
|
Catoosa is a small town proud of its student athletes and that overwhelming support is paramount, according to Replogle, as to why she is still coaching as she nears her 65th birthday. Her personal heritage is deeply embedded in the school’s long time winning sports teams. Her husband and high school sweetheart, Larry, recently retired (for the second time) from CHS, completing a 40+ year coaching career. Her daughter and son both were standout Indian athletes and both played college basketball. “I graduated from here in 1972,” she says. “We had volleyball back then but nothing like we have today,” alluding to the dawning days of Title IX and equal school athletic opportunities for girls. By the 1980’s volleyball had been dropped from the offerings for CHS girls. “I coached basketball for 25 years and returned home here in 1998 to start back up the girls’ volleyball program.”
Rumblings of non-compliance with Title IX mandates were starting to seethe within the community. School leadership, by hiring the hometown Replogle, threw its critics a bone of equality- the restart of a volleyball program. History has proved it a wise board decision. “The first year we played Junior High only. The next year we moved up to JV and the third year we went with a varsity team,” Replogle recalls.
With gallons of her own blood
and sweat flowing into the program for the last two decades, Reploge has built
a program from scratch, literally. “When we started in 98,” she says. “We were
given $15,000 for startup expenses. For the next 13 years, except for
transportation, we raised every penny of our budget. I have had great parent
support over the years. We run a 28 team summer league, I could
not have done it alone. This commitment gives our players and their parents the ability to buy into the
program, to have a stake. You will see, when you have been here a while, that
there is an inherent pride in our program and it seems to be passed down each
year to the younger players from the graduating seniors.”
 |
| L to R: Baylee Calico, Desiree Bates, Tiffany Maxey, Sara Chalupa, Kathryne Parrish |
Replogle is putting her 30+ roster
of players through a late August after school Wednesday practice, a spirited
but rare in-season occurrence. “We don’t practice much once we start playing,
and in Oklahoma that is the start of August. We are done by the end of
September (with the regular season) and state is the first week of October,”
she states. “Right now the kids are tired. We play three nights this week and
then a big weekend tournament. Right now, rest is as important as practice.”
The next night’s opponent,
Corsica Hall of Tulsa, will be a stiff test. “We play a very good schedule,”
the coach shares. “It can wear you out, but it can also get you ready for the
post-season and that is always our goal. I have eased up some over the years,
more patient” she says. “But I have never lowered our behavioral standards, on
an off the court and our own court goal is to always to do well at state.”
The name Catoosa is
from the Cherokee language meaning “between two hills.” In a 40 year period from 1970 to 2010 the
city’s population boomed from 970 to 7,159. Locals attributed the growth to
three factors. In 1971, the Tulsa Port of Catoosa opened and today provides for
2,600 local jobs. The opening of the waterway port connects the landlocked area
through the Arkansas River Navigation System to the Mississippi River and
eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. Second, due to its location of only 15 miles
from the suburban area of Tulsa, the town has attracted a large contingent of
commuters and is today demographically viewed as a bedroom suburban community,
no longer just a small town outside of the Tulsa metro area. School officials
are quick to point out the high ratings of the local school has been a major
lure to many young couples in choosing Catoosa as the town to raise their
family. The third factor, and the most physically prominent, is the opening of
the Hard Rock Casino that lies just to the north of the modern high school
campus. “Ten years ago that was all pasture,” a local tells me, gesturing to
the large Indian owned gaming
facility. Today barns and steers has been replaced by the anchor of the resort,
the Toby Keith owned I Love This Bar and
Grill.
 |
| The Grave of Blue Duck |
An interesting anecdote to the
town’s Sooner state’s Wild West heritage
that community leaders have worked so
hard to maintain; Catoosa is the final resting place to Bluford "Blue"
Duck, the infamous bad man immortalized in the western classic Lonesome Dove. He is entombed for eternity in
the Dick Duck Cemetery located at the corner of 193 Road and Pine Street.
With a couple of hours to kill, I drive to the cemetery on the north
edge of town. It takes me over an hour to locate the famous half breed bandit’s
grave and it proves to be a disappointment. The simple headstone is both
knocked over and broken, a sad legacy for a man who was married to the equally
as infamous female outlaw Belle Starr; and the man who once (in the movie, at least) told Texas Ranger Captain
Gus McCray, “if I ever catch you north of the Canadian River, I will cut out
your tongue and feed it to my wolf pups.”
Catoosa has been an exception.
Despite its recent population boom, Catoosa has not lost the warm nurturing feel
of a small town community. Spend a day anywhere within the city limits other than
the stale climate controlled casino and you will agree. Local leaders give much
of the credit for the survival of their small town identity to the successes,
both athletic and academic, of the Catoosa students.
“This is a great place to grow up,” says senior volleyball player Desiree Bates. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else. Sports are big here but they also are kept in perspective,” she says. “Our parents and coaches see to that.”
Of the five seniors on this
year’s squad, four have attended Catoosa schools since kindergarten, 13 years
of unbroken bonding. The “outsider” is Kathryne
Parrish, who joined her teammates in second grade. Parrish is the only one
of the five who could see a possible future move from the area. “I just want to
see what is out there and then after college, make decisions.” The other four
readily profess their intentions of a lifetime spent as a Catoosa resident. “Everything
I need to be happy is here,” says Bates.
 |
| Action vs. Tulsa Corsica Hall |
Tiffany Maxey is amazed how the town has grown over the last ten
years, but also has maintained its small town warmth and charm. “The Casino has
made a big difference,” she says. “But I can’t see where the town has changed.
The kids that come in here new just seem to adjust and fit in. I don’t think we
ever want to get too big, but for right now, I cannot imagine a better place to
grow up.” Sara Chalupa stresses the
team chemistry and the support from the school and community. “We all support each
other. We all go to the games of the other sports, like football. Football is a
big deal around here but the Football boys will come to our home matches and
support us. Last year, when we went to state in volleyball, everyone got behind
us. I was really special.”
They
say half of life is just showing up every day. This group of seniors takes it a
step further. “This is our last year” says Bates, “we want to do the extra, to
be a good example for the younger players. We started in 6th grade
with club (ball) and for the past six years we have played pretty much year
round.” Baylee Calico gives a nod to
a team she says has experienced leadership. “Last year we had no seniors on the
team. So we have gotten to be leaders for two years. We try really hard to set
a good example for the younger players. We are really focused. We know this is
it for us.”
 |
| A Spirited Practice |
Casilla also serves as the Indians
public address announcer for multiple sports. I get to hear his deep baritone
introduction of both teams involved in
this evenings volleyball match; very professional and gives the game
atmosphere, even with a small crowd, the feel of a major event. “I started this
volunteering here 15 years ago when I retired from my real job and my duties
each year seems to expand,” he informs me. In addition to his streaming and
announcing gigs, Casilla takes all the team photos and covers the Indians for
the town weekly paper.
 |
| Hard Working Ball Girls |
Coach Replogle gives the Tulsa native a ringing endorsement. “He is great,” she gushes. “He not only does a lot, he does it very well. He has to be up here at school on an average of four nights a week, sometimes like tonight, as we have our football pre-season scrimmage going on as well as volleyball, he is running back and forth at multiple sites.”
“I really enjoy it,” Casilla
states. “I enjoy being around the kids. It keeps me engaged, keeps me feeling
young. Each year we lose a good group, they move on, but we always have another
good group behind them. I don’t see an end in sight. I feel appreciated by the
school, the coaches and the community. That motivates me and makes me want to
do the best job possible. That right now is my mission in life.” Consider it
accomplished.
A coach who does not have time
to soft peddle, Replogle is pragmatic and to the point with her assessment of
the Indians performance in the just completed match against Tulsa Corsica Hall.
“We looked tired and did not play very well,” she says of her team’s 25-17,
25-19 and 25-18 loss. But, the value of experience is perspective; you don’t
shoot the survivors, you regroup. “We will be ok,” she says.
A fairy tale finish with a
long run into October’s Oklahoma Class 4 state volleyball tournament would be a
great curtain call for the Indians seniors. However, they maturely explain to
me at the conclusion of Wednesday’s practice that they are cognizant that too
much tunnel vision on the destination can destroy the beauty of the journey. They
sit in a good spot of life. They ooze with the wide eyed optimism of young
ladies excited about their limitless future but appreciative enough to reflect
on the bittersweet flavor that hangs over each dwindling day of their all too soon
to end high school careers. It is a timeless high. “I just want to enjoy this
year,” comments Calico. “We have had a lot of great times as a group.”
