The 2023-24 basketball season for the Ironheads was a lesson in patience. One might say that the team was much improved with a double- digit win total, a tournament consolation championship, knocking off a Top 5 and a Top 10 team, and getting a Regional playoff victory. But on the court the youth and inexperience of the roster reared its head on many occasions. There were nine losses on the season that easily could have been won; seven of which the Ironheads had the lead or within one possession in the final minutes – including the heart-breaking District Title game loss to #10 Mount St. Mary in overtime (a team that eventually made it to the State Tournament). Those are losses that the young roster will learn from and which sets the tone for a bright future for the program.

“The season-ending injury to sophomore point guard Jentry James was a huge blow to our team initially coming out of the Holiday Break. The team was playing really well and it took us a few weeks to adjust to new roles. Ty Sparks and Dusty Eby did a great job of responding after Jentry went down, but many don’t know that Ty also had same time and wasn’t really fully healthy until late January. They were both key players in the Atoka Tourney and the Checotah victory; and Dusty was shooting an incredible 60% from three the last month of the season. I didn’t do a great job of getting him (Eby) more shots, but you can count on more shots for him this summer and next season,” coach McKinzie said.

James was able to return the last two games of the playoffs and hit three three pointers in the Regional win over Morris and hit an incredible ¾ court shot versus Heritage Hall in the final game of the season.

The senior Bigs: Landon Mills, Jaxon Lange, and Draven Gragg all had huge games for us throughout the season with their defense and rebounding. All three had multiple doubledigit rebounding performances and Landon Mills was named All Tournament at the Atoka Tournament.

The two leading scorers for the Ironheads this season were junior guard Maddox Bridges (15.9 ppg) and sophomore wing Keaton Parish (9.1 ppg). Bridges had two different 30-point outputs this season including a career-high 38 at Vian in February. Parish scored a career-high 18 vs Vian at home in December. The wing duo returns next season with guards James, Sparks, and Eby that should rival any small school backcourt depth chart in the State.