OKLAHOMA UNION COUGARS BEGIN NEW ERA WITH COACH BRUCE MUNDEN
The Oklahoma Union Cougars start new era with head coach Burce Munden. High School football season opens Aug. 29.
Photo provided
By Mike Tupa
August 1, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
After making some growling noises last football season, the Cougars of Oklahoma Union High School might be ready to let out a mighty roar this fall.
Ready to let the cats out is first-year head coach Bruce Munden.
Munden inherited some talented battle-tested veterans in this range of hungry Cougars.
“I know I’m following a guy (former head coach Steve Trammell) who was setting up the program for success,” said Munden.
Just as the classic Joni Mitchell song standard “Both Sides Now,” the Oklahoma Union program has seen drastically changing fortunes the past few seasons.
From 2018 to 2021, Trammell guided the team to four playoff seasons, including a 7-4 record in 2019 and 6-3 mark in 2020.
But from 2022-23, the Cougars sprawled to a cumulative 1-19 record, including four shutout losses in 2022.
Trammell’s troops displayed marked improvement in 2024, checking in with a 3-7 record included a 48-20 pounding of a good Barnsdall team and three losses decided by a touchdown or less.
Munden comes in looking to build on last year’s progress, despite having only three seniors on the roster.
“Our big class is going to be our junior class,” the new coach said.
One of the key seniors will be 6-foot-4 receiver Colten Wickham, whose playing time was limited last season by injury.
“He has all the tools you could want,” Munden said.
Brody Shufeldt and junior Joseph Lindner both could play key roles in the offensive running game.
Shufeldt also is getting a look at quarterback along with sophomore Aiden Talbott and junior Kane Nash, Munden said.
Shufeldt’s strength in operating the offense is his running ability while Talbott fills the role of a pure pocket field engineer, Munden said.
Nash’s style is somewhere between the other two but he might be more valuable in another role, the coach added.
Munden’s approach to offense is: “I want to make sure we have the ability to change and to adapt, very similar to what we did in Barnsdall.”
Munden coached at Barnsdall in the early-to-mid-part of the 2010s.
“We have been looking to get back into this area multiple times,” he said. “This area of the state allows us to be closer to family.”
In addition, Munden said he knows from past experience that: “Oklahoma Union kids are gritty and they play hard.”
All things considered, the Cougars could be primed this season to make some bigger noise, energized by last year’s progress.
Bruce Munden will head the Oklahoma Union Cougars this year.
Photo provided