OAKWOOD, Texas — For the first time in over 30 years, the Oakwood Panthers are heading to Arlington and will kick off state championship week Wednesday morning against the top ranked Jayton Jaybirds.
Call it a Cinderella story. Oakwood started off the season at just 2-5, but the Panthers knew they had the talent and the right culture to turn their season around.
“It was never a question of if we were good enough,” junior Micah Reed said. “It was always a question of will, and we just knew that all we needed was to fix the scheme and just do what we needed to do on the field and execute. We always knew we had the abilities, always knew we had the guys.”
“Things wasn't working, wasn't clicking and so I knew we had a meeting and I had to call players in the office and say, ‘we're going to move to different positions,’” head coach JJ Johnson said. “It wasn't ideal because we got some talented guys, but they all said, ‘hey whatever is best for the team coach, what's best for the team coach.’”
The Panthers went on to win their next seven games, taking down ranked opponents like Iredell and Oglesby to reach the 1A Division II state championship game. While Oakwood is 135 miles from AT&T Stadium. For many of the players, this will be their first time seeing Jerry World in person.
“I think it's great,” senior Gavin Wilbanks said. “I was trying to go watch the Cowboys game, but I couldn't, so I think this is a great way to go to the field and go in their locker room, so that's pretty cool.”
But the Panthers are keeping the mindset that even on the biggest stage, the field and the game itself remains the same.
“It's just a dream come true,” Reed said. “I've always said, it's every Texas high school athlete's dream to play in the Cowboys stadium and have opportunity to bring home a state championship. But at the end of the day for us, we just got to see it as another ball game, go out there and play. The sideline is going to be the same length, the end zone's going to be at the same spot. We just got to go out there and play.”
Oakwood has one other state championship appearance, and that was back in 1991 when they were an 11-man program. The Panthers then fell to Memphis 21 to 14, so for the entire town that's home to a little over 400 people, this game means everything.
“Everybody's like just all in,” Johnson said. “They always say football always bring the community together and I think I've seen it personally this year that football has brought our community closer, you know, it's like everybody working hand in hand to help.”
“We had a huge send off and I mean just seeing everybody come out, especially the people who are veterans at Oakwood, who have worked there a long time, longer than we've even been born. Just seeing what it meant to them and seeing how much they love to see us succeed and how much they supported us,” Reed said. “It's just really an honor to be able to do this for them and have the opportunity to bring home a state championship for them.”
What stood out to me the most about this group is the culture that's been Built out in Oakwood. 10 weeks ago, this team was sitting at just 2-5. The coaches and players continued to believe in each other and put the collective ‘we’ before ‘me.’
“Well, we got this great head coach right here and no matter what happened, he was always, he's always hard on us, even if we're winning, losing, it doesn't matter. He's always hard on us, telling us to stay locked in, just do it,” Reed said. “We do, and he always told us that we were a state championship team, he always said that we had potential. He knew we could do it. He’s seen it to be done before and we just had to start playing like it.”
“I've never heard a complaint about, ‘Coach I want to get more touches. Coach, I need to be able to run the ball more.’ I hadn't heard that one bit this year,” Johnson said. That shows you,a testament to this team, to those kids, and the athletes we got there at Oakwood.”
The Panthers will face the top ranked Jayton Jaybirds who walk into AT&T 14-0. Coach Johnson told me they’re physical, they run the ball well and they’ve got a ton of weapons on both sides. The panthers are focused on limiting the Jaybirds big play opportunities and keeping this game within reach to give themselves a shot to win it in the second half. The Panthers open state championship week Wednesday morning. Kickoff at AT&T Stadium is set for 11am.
