Mutual respect, energy, early success are keys for Bartlesville basketball turnaround new coach says
Jake Christenson, left, accepts the 2025 district basketball championship for Cushing High School. Christenson will head the Bartlesville Bruins varsity basketball team next season. He’s recently met with BHS players and parents.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
May 7, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Jake Christenson grew up in eastern Osage County, right on the periphery of the glow of Bartlesville High School’s winning basketball tradition.
Christenson now has an opportunity to rekindle the embers of Bartlesville’s past glory and fan the flames for a new era of great achievements.
Even though he won’t officially begin his Bartlesville gig until after the end of this school year, Christenson already is stacking the kindling. On Monday, he introduced himself to several Bruin student-athletes as the new head basketball coach and encouraged them to consider being part of the basketball revival.
Christenson is currently closing out his time as head boys basketball coach at Cushing High School, where he earned multiple coach of the year awards and has been selected as the Large East Boys Basketball Head Coach for the All-State games.
He will take charge of a Bruin basketball program that has won just six times in its last 50 games and features a sweeping crop of question marks resembling a wind-swept cornfield ready to be harvested.
“The first thing to do is to go tell the kids that it’s a reality if they want to work hard they can be successful,” said Christensen, a Pawhuska High graduate. “It takes some time for the kids to buy in. You have to be smart on how you approach the kids.”
The first thing Christenson wants his players to understand is that he respects and cares about them as individuals.
“I’ve always wanted my kids to play hard for me because they know I love them,” he said. “I have never wanted the kids to play hard for me because they’re scared of me.”
Christenson has displayed his own brand of bravery by leaving a successful, well-established program at Cushing and accepting the challenge of a Bartlesville basketball program that — for whatever reasons — hasn’t really clicked for most of the previous several seasons.
In looking at the Bartlesville opening, Christenson took into consideration the chance to coach on the 6A level and to being close to his family and friends in the Pawhuska area as two major selling points.
“I also remember when I was growing up that Bartlesville boys basketball was a big deal,” Christenson said. “I think it’s a real prestigious job. The fact they gave me an opportunity to revive it is exciting for me and my family.”
One of Christenson’s biggest fans is no doubt his dad Dale Christenson, a Pawhuska High basketball coaching legend.
“I’ve always respected my dad’s demeanor,” Christensen said. “He’s always been a person I always looked up to a lot of the time. … At 42 years old I’m always trying to make my dad happy. … A lot of how I treat referees and kids is because of him.”
Jake Christenson has been well seasoned during his 17 years of coaching, including successful stops prior to Cushing and Shidler, Barnsdall and Pawhuska.
He’s well acquainted with how to build a meaningful program from the foundation up.
“I want the kids to be the best because they know I care about them,” he said. “You’ve got to get them to buy into you before you get them to buy into the X’s and O’s.”
On Monday, Christenson accepted the invitation to introduce himself at a football parents meeting and make a pitch to the athletes and their parents to consider playing basketball.
Another essential part of turning a team around is to have success early.
“We need to find some way to get wins even if it’s just summer games,” he explained. “We need to change the energy and they need to know I’m in it with them. ... I need to know we’re going through this struggle together. I just think believing in those guys and turning their energy into a positive direction is the best start.”
Christenson becomes the eighth Bruin head coach in team history — and the third in three years. If he succeeds in making the connection with the players and makes enough of the right moves, both Christenson and the Bruins should pull the curtain on a new era.