DEWEY FOOTBALL STARTS AUG. 29 UNDER LEADERSHIP OF NEW HEAD COACH SCOTT SAPULPA
Dewey High School’s Easton Davis carries the ball during last season. Football season begins August 29 when the Doggers host Locust Grove under the new leadership of head coach Scott Sapulpa.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
July 17, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Talk about walking into an unexpected opportunity.
When Scott Sapulpa came on board a few months ago as a member of the Dewey High School football coaching staff, he looked forward to filling the roles of a defensive coordinator and strength coach.
But suddenly Sapulpa found himself thrust into a different role — as the Bulldoggers’ new head coach.
That door opened in mid-June with the resignation of three-year head coach Ryan Richardson.
“He got an opportunity to go back from where he was from,” Sapulpa explained.
Athletic director Travis Ruble didn’t have to look very far to recommend Richardson’s replacement.
Sapulpa brings in plenty of experience as both an assistant and a head coach, including helping as an assistant in the late 2010s to rev up the Pawhuska powerhouse.
He will be counting on his considerable knowledge, training and communication connection with athletes to help revive a struggling Dogger program that hasn’t won more than three games in a season since 2019.
But due to the return of several battle-tested — and hungry — veterans and a wave of optimism coming out of spring football and summer conditioning, the forecast is promising.
“Right now we’ve got a lot of guys doing really good,” Sapulpa said during a recent interview.
He praised the number of players working hard in the weight room. Two veterans Sapulpa is counting on for both performance and leadership are Easton Davis and Nathan Sloan.
“Those two guys have stood out to me,” Sapulpa said.
It’s been a whirlwind phase for Sapulpa who said after he was first hired he had just four hours to install the defense prior to the team camp.
“Considering that, they did better than I thought we’d do,” he said.
During passing league competition, the Dogger defense intercepted six passes and the offense scored six or seven times, he added.
Good offensive line performance is crucial for offensive success, Sapulpa said, adding that in the past his ratio of run-to-pass has been 65 to 35.
Sapulpa went through a quick turnaround process at Pawhuska. The season (2017) prior to the arrival of Matt Hennesy as head coach, the Huskies finished 0-10. During Hennesy’s first season Pawhuska powered to a 6-5 record and a couple of seasons later advanced to the state semifinals.
Sapulpa was part of that Pawhuska revival and also has good vibes about the Doggers’ potential.
“I’m really enjoying being around the kids in Dewey,” he said. “This program has the opportunity to be successful. … Since I got here the players have been hitting the weight room pretty good. … They’re working really hard.”
As of the interview Sapulpa had six coaches on staff and was looking to add to that.
As far as the near-term future, Sapulpa looks forward to new equipment for the weight room to help make the time spent there by players more effective.
Dewey’s season opener is less than seven weeks away, on August 29 when the Doggers host Locust Grove. Select Bulldogger games will air live on Bartlesville Radio at 104.9 FM - KRIG and be shown on KRIGTV.com
NOTE: Sapulpa becomes Dewey's third head coach in five seasons and sixth since the early 2000s. ... In 2019 Dewey finished at 7-4, including the team's best regular season record (7-3) since 1994. COVID scheduling complications and a rash of injuries disrupted Dewey's 2020 season and set a de facto tone for the following few campaigns.