2025's BIGGEST STORIES: COUNTDOWN CONTINUES WITH Nos. 19-11
By Mike Tupa
Jan. 5, 2026
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
It has been an incredible year for area sports. The following is a look back at the top 30 stories of 2025. Today we’ll highlight Nos. 19-11.
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Bartlesville High School’s former pitcher Hunter Shea delivers during the 2024-25 season. Despite last-minute transfers, the Bruins had a 20-win campaign and is BASR’s 19th top story of 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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19 — BRUIN BASEBALL SLOGS TO 20 WINS
Bad luck bit the backside of the Bartlesville High baseball team like the Hound of the Baskervilles.
Yet somehow the Bruins managed to scrape and claw and slog to a 20-win campaign.
The pain in the derriere began less than a week prior to the season opener when the designated starting catcher and his brother transferred from Bartlesville to another state.
That tumultuous event forced veteran Bruin coach Cody Price into a major lineup shuffle and exposed some of the team’s depth shortcomings.
The bad news multiplied like pimples on a frog’s nose when — just a couple of days before the season debut — catcher Jaxon Zaun and the No. 1 returning pitcher Barrett Merciez both suffered injuries that would keep them out of a lineup for a while.
All of a sudden, Price was forced to depend heavily on his backups and junior varsity to help carry the team, including Kanin Romesburg, Cy Rigdon and Bryce Luelf, the latter who would handle a large share of the catching duties.
Veterans Kaden Romesburg, Hunter Shea, Damien Niko, Justin Swart and Sam Marcella provided exceptional leadership and production to help this gritty group of ruggedly determined Bruins journey through the charred and disheveled landscape of adversity into a promised land of 20-win respect.
It might have been Price’s finest year of coaching and a launching pad into a powerful 2026.
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Pawhuska High School’s Kane Foreman (12) escapes a tackler during playoff action. Foreman, a three-year starter for Copan, transferred from the 8-man team to the Huskies’ 11-man squad. Pawhuska and Copan both qualified for playoffs and is BASR’s 18 top story of 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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18 — TRANSFER SHOCKER
Destiny linked together Copan’s football resurgence and Pawhuska’s grid renaissance in a Twilight Zone twist of fate.
The simplest way to put it is this — Pawhuska obtained the quarterback it would need from incoming transfer Kane Foreman, a three-year starter for the Copan Hornets.
The other stunning component was the resignation of Copan head coach Marshall Foreman — dad of Kane — to join the Pawhuska football staff.
The news shook the area grid landscape. The Foremans had helped elevate the eight-man Copan program from a one-or-two-win to an 8-3 team in 2024. The 2025 season appeared even more promising with the return of Kane and three other four-year starting seniors.
But Kane and Marshall opted to become part of the Pawhuska juggernaut — an 11-man program and contender for the Class A-I state title.
Of course, that meant Copan had to break in a new quarterback and offense — as well as adjust to a new head coach.
In one of those rare happy-endings-all-around, Kane played a pivotal role in Pawhuska’s charge to the A-I state semifinals, while Copan duplicated its 8-3 record, with both familiar stars and new heroes rising up to carry the team on their shoulders.
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Former Wesleyan Christian School’s Trey White (12) looks to pass the ball during the 2024-25 season. The Mustangs, under the leadership of coach Stephen Cook, had a 20-3 season and is BASR’s 17th top story of 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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17 — MUSTANGS GALLOP TO 25 WINS
According to the familiar saying, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
But that doesn’t apply to Wesleyan Christian School boys’ basketball, which has just the right amount of Cooks.
And his first name is Steven.
Head coach Steven Cooks guided the Mustangs to a 25-5 record during the 2024-25 season, the most-ever wins by the program.
The Mustangs plunged seven rounds deep into the Class A playoffs before being eliminated just one victory short of what would have been their first-ever appearance in the OSSAA state basketball tournament.
The Mustangs stampeded to a 9-0 record to start the season and finished the regular campaign at 20-3.
Seniors Kyle Kelley, Trey White and several other players led the way.
With Cooks guiding the team, the Mustangs have registered 20-or-more wins in three of the past four seasons. They started out the 2025-26 season at 6-2 prior to Christmas.
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Bartlesville Gymnastics found success during the 2024-25 season and is BASR’s 16th top story of 2025.
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16 — TUMBLING UP TO THE SUMMIT OF EXCELLENCE
Bartlesville Gymnastics Club standouts stood tall during postseason competition in the spring of 2025.
Level 9 Western Regionals: Lyndsey Lief defied gravity and soared to greatness in Fargo, N.D. She placed seventh in the nation on the balance beam.
XCel Gold Regionals: Five BGC warriors won the All-Around championship in their respective divisions — Haylee Clark, Aurora Brown, Andie McMillin, Hadley Everitt and Rylee Laxson.
USA Gymnastics Regional Championships: Raynie Ketcher reached a height no other BGC athlete had before — winning a Level 10 All-Around regional championship. She achieved her Mile High accomplishment in Denver. Ketcher won the vault (9.525), the balance beam (9.525) and floor exercise (9.475). In addition, BGC teammate Lisa Smith tied for first on one of the events.
Women’s Level 10 National Championships: Ketcher finished fourth in the most powerful women’s gymnastics competition in the nation, short of the U.S. Olympic Trials. Ketcher was embedded in a field of 58 of the United States’ elite gymnasts and scored 38.025 All-Around points to earn a spot on the USA Women’s Development Program National Teams.
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Pawhuska High School’s Kane Foreman played in the Blue-Gray East vs. West All-American Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Texas and is BASR’s 15th top story of 2025.
Courtesy photo
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15— FOREMAN SHINES IN JERRY’S HOUSE
It was quite a year for Kane Foreman. He made the transition from eight-man football to an 11-man state championship contender — and helped guide Pawhuska to a semifinal spot.
Just as significantly, he received an invitation to play in the nationally prestigious Blue-Gray East vs. West All-American Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Texas — the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
The participants included some of the best senior prep talent from throughout the nation.
Foreman suited up as one of three quarterbacks for the East team.
With some of the nation’s premier recruiters on hand to watch, Foreman completed 20-of-23 passes for 217 yards. He drove the ball multiple times into striking distance. The East missed field goals on two of Foreman’s possessions.
Thus ended a storied prep career that witnessed Foreman starting three years for Copan and one for Pawhuska and helping his teams finish 19-5 his final two seasons.
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Former Bartlesville High School’s Kelsie Yales delivers a pitch during the 2024-25 season. The Lady Bruins went to state two years in a row and is BASR’s 14th top story of 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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14 — LADY BRUIN SOFTBALL GOES DANCING AGAIN
For the first time since 2010 the Bartlesville High softball team qualified for state in back-to-back seasons. The 2025 Lady Bruin juggernaut jousted to a 28-12 record (identical to the record of the state-qualifying 2024 team) and swept to the regional title like a 10-legged tick on a bald dog. They scooted past their three regional opponents by a run total of 17-7 and into the Class 6A state tournament.
But Mustang stung Bartlesville, 6-5, in the state quarterfinals.
Coached by Kyle Minton, Bartlesville has averaged 21 wins the past five seasons.
“Darin” Erin Bridendolph provided the biggest offensive punch — .387 batting average, .510 on-base percentage, .731 slugging average, 12 doubles, seven triples, five homers, 43 runs, 31 RBI, 29 BB and 28 SB.
Several other Lady Bruins fueled the offense. A small sampling included Savannah Alden with eight homers and 39 RBI; Maddie Czaja with 13 sacrifices, Jazmyne Campbell with 24 RBI and Lola Redington with five homers.
Campbell, Lydia Daniels and Bridendolph were the lone Lady Bruins to play in all 40 games, followed by Madie Nachbor (39), Josie Childers (39) and Kenzie Denny (38).
Perhaps Bartlesville’s biggest asset was its pitching trio of Kelsie Yales, Alison Rosson and Campbell. Between them they created an eye-rising 1.706 earned run average and 256 strikeouts and a minuscule 45 walks in 250.1 innings.
Yales rang up 165 strikeouts in 126 innings and recorded a 13-7 record. Rosson went 12-4 in 106.2 innings. Campbell contributed only 17.2 innings but contributed three victories, 16 strikeouts, a 1.189 ERA and only four walks.
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Wesleyan Christian School was unable to field a football team in 2025 and is BASR’s 13th top story of 2025. Roman Edwards, a senior who showed up to every practice, was honored following the Mustang’s middle school football game.
Courtesy photo
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13 — GRID-LESS AUTUMN AT WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN
Imagine a fall without football — at least not the varsity variety. Wesleyan Christian School students and fans didn’t have to conceptualize such a possibility.
A grid-less autumn became a stark reality for the Mustang nation. The reason was not complicated. WCS didn’t have enough players for a varsity team — even an eight-man team.
Why they didn’t have enough players is the question only few can answer. As of spring practice in May the cupboard was pretty much full of enough bodies — and some promise for a turnaround season to the positive. But for one motive or another potential players began stepping away.
By the time August workouts arrived the program featured only about a half-dozen players that had stuck it out. After spirited efforts failed to attract more athletes and save the season, WCS didn’t have time to try to co-op with another school and had to cancel a varsity football season for the first time in its history.
But the school officials and coaches still fielded a team in junior high competition and vowed to bring back a varsity team in 2026.
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Caney Valley High School’s Presley Smith (22) looks to the basket during an earlier season game. The Lady Trojans went into the Christmas break with a perfect record and is BASR’s 12th top story of 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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12— CANEY VALLEY GIRLS PERFECT AT CHRISTMAS
It’s been around two decades since Deric Longan took charge of the Caney Valley High School girls’ basketball program.
No other area team has run off such a string of persistent regular season success during that time.
Since Logan accepted the reins in 2009, the stats are impressive:
— Between 235 to 250 career wins in 16-plus seasons, unofficially.
— Only two victories shy of reaching his 14th double-digit win season in 17 campaigns.
— Twelve winning records in the last 13 seasons.
— An average of 15.6 wins per season the last 13 years — and that’s with a 4-12 COVID season (2020-21) thrown in. Throw that year out of the equation and CV has averaged almost 17 wins per year in 12 of the last 13 campaigns.
This season’s Lady Trojan team has made the top story list by starting out with a perfect record (8-0) prior to Christmas.
Only two of Longan’s teams have boasted stronger starts — 16-0 in 2018-19 and 11-0 in 2017-18.
Some of the measurables of this year’s unbeaten team have been impressive through eight games:
— Holding two teams to less than 15 points.
— Allowing more than 32 points only once.
— Posting seven wins by 26-or-more points.
— Scoring an average of 64 points per game.
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Oklahoma Welsleyan University’s mens head basketball coach Donnie Bostwick won his 500th game and is BASR’s 11th top story of 2025.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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11— “DONNIE BALL” NETS 500 CAREER WINS
November 1, 2007: Oklahoma Wesleyan 75, Manhattan (Kan.) Christian College 53, in Bartlesville.
November 19, 2025: Oklahoma Wesleyan 83, Friends (Kan.) University 77, in Wichita, Kan.
Those games marked both the first and 500th career wins for Donnie Bostwick, the head men’s basketball coach for Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
Bostwick achieved the glowing feat in just 624 games (500-124) with a winning percentage of .801.
OKWU hired him in the early summer of 2007 to revive the struggling Eagles’ program. Due to his acute recruiting, connections, observations, persuasive skills and uncanny ability to evaluate talent and upside and put it together as a cohesive powerhouse, Bostwick’s leadership led to an immediate turnaround.
In his first year (2007-08) a team-record 26 wins (26-8) and the school’s first-ever appearance in the NAIA playoffs (and a first-round win).
Hundreds of words could follow about his teams’ accomplishments at OKWU (2007-11, 2017-present) and Southwestern Assemblies of God (2011-2017).
But to make it concise, his teams have won 20-or-more games in 18-straight seasons, his cumulative win percentage in conference games is .794; his teams have qualified for the NAIA-I or NAIA tournament in 17 of his previous 18 seasons, his record in first-round NAIA national tourney games is 13-4 (.765), he won a national title (NAIA-I) with OKWU in 2009 and advanced to the NAIA final in 2013 (with SAGU) and in 2025 (with OKWU).
Note: Bostwick’s two leading scorers in his first career win were Austin Johnson (18 points) and Sadiel Rojas (16 points); his two leading scorers in his 500th victory were Tamaje Izuagbe and Malachi Okunbor, both with 14 points.
(We’ll have Nos. 10-1 at a later date.)