Van Cleave returns to coaching

July 03, 2008 12:33 am

— Rick Van Cleave, who left coaching after taking Kingfisher to the Class 3A state football championship in 2003, is back on the sidelines at Chickasha.
Van Cleave succeeds Steve Chard, who resigned recently after taking the Chicks to one playoff appearance in three seasons.
Van Cleave had a 60-33 record in eight seasons with the Yellowjackets, including a perfect 14-0 record in 2003. He was the Enid News & Eagle’s Northwest Oklahoma Coach of the Year that season.
He coached Atlanta Falcons linebacker Curtis Lofton until his senior season at Kingfisher.
Van Cleave inherited a program that was 2-8 and 4-6 in the two seasons before he became head coach but followed that with five playoff appearances in his last six seasons.
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Van Cleave will be joined at Chickasha by former Watonga boys basketball coach Bryan Merritt.
Merritt, who left Watonga two years ago for Duncan, is returning to his alma mater.
Merritt played on a state tournament team for the Chicks in 1988. He took Watonga to the regional losers bracket finals in 2006.
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Brian Jones, who has taken Wakita’s and Chisholm’s girls basketball teams to the state tournament, is leaving Hinton, where he’s coached the past two seasons, to take a similar job at Arapaho. He will try to turn around a program that won only two games last season.
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Former Burlington and Aline-Cleo coach Talby Justus is the new girls coach at Ripley, a perennial participant in the KOFM Classic.
Justus took Glencoe’s boys to the Class B state championship in 2006 and the runner-up spot in 2007. He was 14-7 as Bray-Doyle’s boys coach last season.
He replaces Tony Cazzelle, who was offered a teaching-only position for 2008-09 after 14 seasons as a coach there.
The well-respected Cazzelle has been hired as Drumright’s girls basketball and track coach.
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Here’s a date to put on your calendar. The Oklahoma 8-Man Coaches Association All-Star football game will be July 19 in Miami.
It will be interesting to see if $4-a-gallon gas prices hurt the crowds.
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Enid’s Aly Seng is getting a taste of big-time women’s golf.
The Enid senior-to-be fell to eventual champion Kendall Dye, a senior at the University of Oklahoma, 5 and 4 at the recent Women’s Oklahoma Golf Association’s match play championship.
Dye should be the favorite at the WOGA stroke play championship July 28-29 in Ponca City.

Campbell is a sports writer at the News & Eagle.

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