HALL OF FAME SERIES: Destiny intertwined the fates of Hesser, BHS hoops

Note: As a part of the E-E’s coverage for the upcoming Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Banquet, glimpses of historical moments will appear periodically. The announced inductees for the Class of 2023 include former College High/Sooner High coach Bill Holbrook, former Bartlesville High wrestler Clint Eads, former Phillips 66ers player and local sports volunteer Lou Skurcenski, former Bartlesville High girls basketball star K.K. McCoy and the 1990-91 Bartlesville High boys basketball team. Today's installment focuses on the second part of a look at Bartlesville High basketball head coach Steve Hesser, who coached the 1990-91 team to the state title.

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By 1985, Steve Hesser had traveled a lot of miles — both geographically and emotionally — during the first 10 years following his graduation from Stillwater High School.

He attended three colleges during his undergraduate pursuits — play ing basketball at the New Mexico Military Academy and at the University of Central Oklahoma. He finished at Oklahoma State after an injury cut short his basketball playing days.

Then, it was on to Paul’s Valley High School for four years — two as an assistant and two as the head basketball coach.

Hesser then arrived at a crossroads as far his future direction — to continue to progress on the same path or to leave behind the security and take a year to gain more formal and practical experience on the college level.

The poet Robert Frost wrote:

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

… long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could.

… Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Hesser decided to take the daring path. He spent a year at the University of Oklahoma as a graduate basketball assistant and finished his Master’s.

It would not be a convenient choice.

When it ended, “I was starving to death. … I needed a job,” Hesser said in an interview earlier this year with the E-E.

It was sometime in 1985 when he a chance encounter with acquaintance Mickey Ripley built the bridge of destiny that led Hesser to Bartlesville High School.

Ripley — Bartlesville High’s head football coach — informed Hesser about an opening for the head boys basketball coach position.

Hesser also had a connection already with Bartlesville High Athletic Director Tink Patterson, from Hesser’s prep playing days in football.

Hesser called Bartlesville High and talked to Dennis Pannell about the opening. The school invited Hesser— then in his late 20’s — for an interview.

He soon came on board as a teacher and head coach.

On paper, it certainly didn’t appear to be an opulent opportunity.

In the previous three seasons since Bartlesville High opened its doors in 1982, Bruin boys basketball had accumulated a 27-42 record and hadn’t won a playoff game.

When he arrived on campus for the 1985-86 school year, Hesser was to be the team’s third head coach in four years.

One of the first battles he had to fight was in the players’ hearts.

It had been only three years since about half of them had attended Sooner High and the other half College High and fostered a bitter rivalry.

In 1982, Sooner and Col-Hi had been merged to create Bartlesville High. But, the divisiveness of the former combative competition still lingered, at least in basketball, when Hesser arrived.

“There was still some of that, some that Sooner-College High stuff they were having to get through,” Hesser said. “That rivalry was huge.”

(The next part of this feature is upcoming, as well as a continuing look at incoming Hall-of-Famer Clint Eads.)

BONUS: Back in the 1993-94 season, Barnsdall boasted one of the state's top-ever scorers in Jordan Barnhorst. His extraordinary offensive feats included scoring 71 points against Dewey and 63 points against another opponent, both in January 1994.. The five-foot-11 Barnhorst led the nation in scoring (44.0 ppg) for the 1993-94 campaign. In 24 games that season, he rang up more than 1,000 points. Barnhorst went on to play for Macalester (Minn.) College, where he became the school's sixth all-time leading scorer (1,164 points) by the end of his career in 1998. He still ranks as the No. 13 most prolific points producer at Macalester.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: HOF SERIES: Destiny intertwined fates of Hesser, BHS hoops