MATT HENNESY’S FIRST STEPS: BUILDING THE NEXT CHAPTER OF BARTLESVILLE BRUIN FOOTBALL
Bartlesville High School’s new head football coach Matt Hennesy was hired last year after several succesful seasons at Pawhuska.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
March 25, 2026
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
April showers create May flowers and spring sweat nourishes November glory.
That’s one of the golden truths of football, in which success is a process of grueling preparation and dogged, thankless persistence by those who refuse to give up.
Based on that standard — along with literally a ton of experience (the entire starting offensive line returns), a sparkling two-year starting quarterback and a couple of transfers — Bartlesville High School football fans have reason to hope the program will turn a big corner next autumn.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” said first-year head coach Matt Hennesy. “We’ve got to stick to the process. I think we’ll turn it around like anywhere else (that Hennesy has coached). Right now, we’re not worried about wins. We’re focusing on doing the little things right.”
Hennesy — who led Pawhuska to the Class A quarterfinals or semifinals several times the past eight seasons — also has fostered tremendous success during his head coach stints at Muskogee and elsewhere.
The year before he arrived, Pawhuska finished 0-10 (2017). In his first season with the Huskies, the team improved to 6-5, and the next season played in the state quarterfinals.
Hennesy inherits a Bruin program that has been stumbling in the mud of mediocrity the past 10 seasons.
Since 2016, Bartlesville has won a total of just 32 out of 105 games. Their appearances in the playoffs from 2022-25 were made possible only because Class 6A-II made it easier for lower-tier teams to qualify.
The Bruins haven’t registered a winning season since 2015.
Meanwhile, since 2018, Pawhuska has averaged more than nine wins a year with Hennesy in charge.
When Bartlesville’s head coach job came open after last season, the district brought Hennesy on board.
So far the response has been impressive.
Seventy-or-more-boys have been showing up every morning at 6:30 a.m. at the weight room.
“We’ve been working hard to establish accountability and culture,” Hennesy said. The focus has been on exact detail and repetition to reinforce doing things exactly right.
The coaches have been in charge of the workouts, but last week, team leaders began taking a larger role, Hennesy said.
Hennesy’s other emphasis is to persuade Bruin players to stay at Bartlesville and not transfer.
On the other hand, the Bruins already have been boosted by a couple of newcomers, including a 6-foot-3 receiver/defensive back transfer from Broken Arrow, Hennesy said.
Hennesy also has virtually finalized his coaching staff. Some first-year assistants to Bartlesville will be offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mason Fine, Jason Pirtle and Tyler Hughes. Hughes moves over from Pawhuska with Hennesy. Defensive coaches are Morris McKinley Whitfield, a former head coach and football player in Tulsa, and Eric Striker, a former Oklahoma All-American.
In considering the skill sets of his players, Hennesy said he plans to run an offense similar to that from Pawhuska.
“We’ll be a tempo team,” he said. “We won’t have a huge offensive line, we’ll have some really good receivers and a really talented quarterback.”
Although it’s easy to dream of future potential, this is the time to put those dreams in the background and do the hard lifting and sometimes agonizing or unrewarding work it takes to get better.
Hennesy was the keynote speaker at the Arvest Friday Financial Forum on March 20, sharing his vision for the Bruins' football future.
Bartlesville High School head coach football coach speaks during last week’s Arvest Friday Financial Forum.
Courtesy photo