Walk The Talk: Perry softball deserved to celebrate on the biggest stage
Oct. 9—It'd be an understatement to say the Perry High softball team reached the pinnacle. The Maroons used a 3-2 win over Lone Grove in the Class 3A championship to secure the program's first-ever state title.
In fact, it was the school's first-ever championship from a girls program.
"It's just an incredible feeling that I can't describe. I'm too ignorant to describe it in the way it ought to be," Perry coach Bryan Hayes said through an ear-to-ear smile. "It's a great feeling, and it's a great culmination to all the hard work the kids put in."
That's exactly why the stage should've been a little bit bigger, the lights a little bit brighter.
The Maroons made history at Oklahoma State's Cowgirl Stadium on Saturday night, as did the other title-winners from Classes B, A, and 2A. They all deserved to make history at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.
Hayes, who's been at Perry for 22 years, is on the executive board of a softball coaches association, one that was a part of the conversations behind the OSSAA moving the championship games from where the Women's College World Series is held.
"There's been some anxiety, and there's been some frustration with the OSSAA," Hayes said. "The truth is, Hall of Fame Stadium was really — there was some money difference. It was a pretty big difference there."
It's two-sided, of course.
The OSSAA operates on a budget, and a sizable increase throws that off. At the same time, softball is rapidly growing in popularity, and there's a price to be had for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play at Hall of Fame Stadium.
Does failing to meet in the middle in the best interest of the student-athletes?
"Since there's more seats there, we'd have way more people show up and cheer for us," Perry freshman Nevaeh Mills said. "That'd be way better."
Now, Hayes and Co. aren't going to take playing in Stillwater for granted. The Maroons were playing for a championship a mere 31 minutes from Perry High School. Their fans took advantage of it, too.
That highlighted another one of the problems with not having the title games at Hall of Fame Stadium, one of the problems OSU coach Kenny Gajewski also brought up: There simply isn't enough room at Cowgirl Stadium.
In addition to a pair of wooden decks beyond the outfield walls, the venue's limited seating forced spectators to stand on the outskirts of the baselines. To the Maroons' credit, their fans didn't flinch.
"The people in Perry, they're lifers, everybody's related, and they are balls out coming to support the kids," Hayes said of the town with a population of under 5,000. "You don't get between their kids and their programs and those people and that community."
Hayes and the Maroons don't care where they etched their name into history. They just care that they did it.
But they deserved a coronation fit for the newly crowned champs.
Follow News Press sports reporter Jon Walker on Twitter @ByJonWalker for updates on Oklahoma State athletics, Stillwater High and more.
