WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN MIDDLE SCHOOL FOOTBALL PROGRAM TRIES TO BUILD FUTURE
The Wesleyan Christian middle school football team plays during an earlier season game in Bartlesville. This group of young men are the future of Mustang football, as WCS didn’t have enough players to field a varsity team this year.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Sept. 17, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Reality seems to be starting to set in on some of the younger high school students at Wesleyan Christian School.
WCS had to cancel its eight-man season due to a lack of an adequate number of student-athletes to form a team.
But now that the freshman and sophomores are watching the middle school team play and coming in contact with some ancillary football experiences.
“I think that they’re thinking, ‘This could be us out here,’” said WCS coach Fabian Quiroz.
Meanwhile, Quiroz is using the middle school program to prepare for the future of Mustang varsity football.
“It’s going good,” Quiroz said about the middle school team, adding the team is still “super young.”
Of his 10 players, approximately a half-dozen are sixth graders.
The only eighth-graders are Braxton Nichols and Jeremiah Hall. Nichols — a Madison Middle School transfer — is handling the main running back duties.
Hall — who already stands six-foot-or-slightly-taller, Quiroz said — is lining up a tight end.
“He’s learning to fire off the ball and doing a lot of blocking,” and also learning receiving skills, Quiroz said.
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A Wesleyan Christian middle school football players takes a brief break between plays during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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The focus of Quiroz on the team as a whole is teaching.
“They’re a fun group,” he said. “Some of them are playing football for the first time. … We’re teaching them the basics of alignment. … They’re learning formations, and play calls. It’s like drinking out of a fire hydrant. … I think they’re rolling with the punches. … They’re still learning the sport. We’re teaching the basics of football so it’s fun.”
Quiroz added he’s worked with the parents to help them learn more about what it’s like for their sons to play football. Quiroz also praised the fan support for the middle school team.
“In a couple of years these sixth and seventh graders will be my freshmen and sophomores and playing at a higher level,” he said.
Quiroz inherited a WCS program which has been cycle driven — kind of like fluctuating ocean waves of available players. In the early-to-mid 2010s the numbers were up and the team recorded some major success in OSSAA competition.
But, then the numbers dropped. In 2018, WCS didn’t have enough players to form a team of its own, but it co-opted with Copan so that the players from both schools that wanted to play would have a season.
Although the cupboard was still a little bare in terms of personnel in 2019, WCS was able to field its own team and to begin another big roster build-up the next few years.
That group recorded major success — 8-4 in 2021, 10-2 in 2022 and 7-4 in 2023, with two playoff wins.
But the nucleus graduated after the 2023 season and a major rebuilding project — with the leadership of a new head coach — took place in 2024 (2-8).
WCS went to spring practice last May with enough bodies. But for one reason or another, a snowball effect began of players leaving the team, until new head coach Quiroz reportedly had approximately five guys fully committed to playing.
As a result, some Mustangs lost their last season of football.
WCS has been working hard since cancelling the season of trying to bolster the number of players joining the varsity team next year, including welcoming those coming up from the middle school team.
Meanwhile, this year’s middle schools and their families are forming a bridge to carry WCS football over the chasm and a brighter future on the other side.