Woodward, Okla. — Local and area football teams get one final tuneup before opening the season for real next week.

The Woodward Boomers are looking to build off a successful first scrimmage at Perryton and develop some momentum for next week at El Reno as they host Alva tonight at Boomer Stadium. Alva scrimmaged Fairview last week.

It will be a full evening of football.

Activity starts at 5 p.m. with the 7th grade scrimmage.

At 6 p.m., the eighth grade teams will scrimmage as well as the combined JV-freshman squads.

The varsity scrimmage kicks off at 7 p.m.

Woodward’s Touchdown Club will also be busy during the evening feeding the players, managers and coaches after each scrimmage.

To do that, the club is asking for assistance from parents in helping set up and also while feeding the teams. Anyone interested in helping set up needs to be at the stadium between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.

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While Woodward is going tonight, the majority of area teams will scrimmage on Friday.

Sharon-Mutual will be one of the busiest sites with at least 5 teams scheduled to play during the evening.

The host Trojans will welcome Laverne, Covington-Douglas, Shattuck and Canton.

Action starts at 6 p.m.

Mooreland will also its home scrimmage on Friday, hosting Chisholm at 6 p.m.

Buffalo and Waynoka will be among the teams going to the long-time multi-squad scrimmage at Deer Creek-Lamont.

Seiling will host Forgan and Timberlake this week.

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As for next week, the season actually gets under way on Thursday for a couple of area teams as Laverne visits Buffalo for the annual Harper County showdown.

The teams have split the last two meetings.

Woodward’s 7th, 8th and 9th grade teams also open up next Thursday, hosting Weatherford in a tripleheader starting at 4 p.m.

The regular Friday night schedule is highlighted obviously by the Boomers trip to El Reno. Woodward is looking for its first opening night win since 2001 and its first victory over El Reno since 2007.

Some other games of note include Turpin at Beaver in what will actually be the first of two meetings between the teams this year. This one is non-district as they play again in week 10 in a district game.

Canton opens up at Forgan, Fairview goes to Okeene, Mooreland is at Sayre, Seiling travels to Sharon-Mutual, Shattuck goes to Geary and Waynoka hosts first-year program Gracemont in some other matchups.

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In the college ranks, everyone is pretty much focused on next week when the Oklahoma’s and Oklahoma State’s of the world play, but there is plenty of action in Oklahoma this week.

Tonight, the Southwestern Bulldogs begin their season against Emporia State out of Kansas at 7 p.m.

Then, on Saturday, Panhandle State University will be in action at Colorado State University-Pueblo - known once upon a time as Southern Colorado.

Also, the University of Central Oklahoma hosts Pittsburg State, Kan. in a matchup on long-time NCAA Division II heavyweights.

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Woodward High School’s cheer team is hosting its annual cheer clinic on Saturday at Boomer Fieldhouse. The clinic runs from 9 a.m. to noon and is for girls ages pre-k and up.

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The fall high school baseball season is well under way and several quality teams are in Leedey this week for its annual tournament.

A couple of first-round games were held Wednesday, but the bulk of the tournament gets started today and runs through Saturday.

Teams entered include Sentinel, Hammon, Fargo, Arnett, Leedey, Hydro-Eakly, Glencoe, Vici, Cheyenne-Reydon and Lookeba-Sickles.

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Another season that really gets going on Saturday is cross-country. Watonga’s opening meet generally kicks off the season for area teams.

The Boomers are in the event and a number of schools from the northwest and Panhandle are expected.

Woodward’s season includes meets in Edmond, Norman, Kingfisher and Beaver along with hosting a meet on Oct. 14.

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There has been a change in this weekend’s middle school softball tournament.

The bracket is the same, but the games originally scheduled at a couple of Kids, Inc. fields will now be played on Fields 4 and 5 at the Crystal Beach 5-plex located just northeast of the new Fuller Park. There are 12 teams in the double elimination tournament.

The tournament will be played on Friday and Saturday.



Johnny McMahan is managing editor of the Woodward News.