Howe seniors close out great career

Part of the huge Howe crowd at the area consolation finals Saturday night

LeFlore County has been blessed with some great senior classes over the years.

You can add Howe’s senior class of this year to the mix. The Lady Lions’ class of Megan Brown, Brianna Hillebrand, Abigail McGarrah, Tori Kellogg and Mariah Landeros have more than done their part to keep Howe’s tradition alive.

Those seniors saw their high school career end Saturday night with a 39-30 loss to Amber-Pocasset in the area consolation finals.

The final mark for 2011-12 was 26 wins and only three losses. Two of those losses came to this same Am-Po team which is heading to the state tournament.

Four of the five seniors have started or been a major part of teams which have been the most consistent winners of the county’s girls’ teams over the last three years.

As sophomores, they finished second in the LeFlore County Tournament and reached the state tournament.

As juniors, they came up just short of another trip to the state tournament and once again finished second in the county, despite having to compete against six bigger schools.

And as seniors, they captured the LCT and were one of the final 12 teams playing in the state in Class 2A.

The only thing missing from their resume was a state championship. But despite not winning it all, this class will be remembered for a long time for their success, even though they played up a class over the last two years.

Howe could have easily made it to the state tournament this year if the OSSAA had not done some mixing and matching with the teams. If you go strictly on geography, Howe, Talihina and Colbert were the top three teams in the southeastern region.

But the OSSAA brought a pair of undefeated teams into the area in Amber-Pocasset, which is clearly not in the southeast part of the state along with Oktaha, which could have easily been in the northeast. And Colbert was sent to the southwest region.

Even without a state tournament berth this year, Howe was one of the top teams in the state and kept up the tradition of never having lost a game in its own gym.