The Roland Rangers are a perfect 19-0 this season, and are one of the top teams in Oklahoma’s 4A classification.
In fact, the Rangers were ranked tops in the state in 4A for nearly a month earlier this year.
“First that we knew, it puts a target on your back, being the number one team,” said Roland head coach Ed Lewis. “People are going to try to beat you, but also, that was from the coaches’ voting poll. It’s a respect thing.”
Most teams wouldn’t admit to thinking about achieving a ranking like that, but Ranger junior Brooks Robertson said it was definitely on the team’s collective mind in the first game after the rankings were announced.
“It was in the Sequoyah County Championship [Jan. 7] against Muldrow,” Robertson said. “It was a big rivalry game. We thought we had a little swag. We’re number one, we were big shots, and we wanted to play up to our expectations.”
Other players used the ranking as motivation.
“It makes us play a lot harder, practice a lot harder and get in the gym a lot more,” said junior shooting guard Seth Youngblood.
Despite dropping to the second spot in the 4A rankings, the goals don’t change for the Rangers.
“Other than a state championship, just having the zero on the backside of our record at the end of the year [is a goal],” Robertson said. “We’ve come so far, we want to finish it up strong.”
The Rangers will travel to Sallisaw to continue conference play Friday night.
