The Blue Devil Beat

The Cordell Beacon’s Blue Devil Beat is proud to bring you weekly updates on many school activities, such as upcoming games, fundraisers, club meetings, and much more. This special section will keep you updated on all of the important things happening in and around our school. We will feature interviews from teachers, coaches, and students, giving you an inside look on what is going on at Cordell Public Schools.

Last Wednesday the Cordell High School Blue Devil Academic Team got their first taste of victory, winning four out of the six rounds they played in the Oklahoma Great Plains Academic Conference.

In the first round of the conference Cordell competed against the Thomas-Fay-Custer Terriers. Cordell started strong, securing a lead in the first quarter and maintaining it for the rest of the game. The Devils beat the Terriers by 40 points, winning their first round with a final score of 90-130.

Round two pitted the Devils against the Sentinel Bulldogs. Much like the previous round, Cordell pulled ahead in the first quarter and held the lead, winning the game by 60 points. The final score for this round was 40-100.

In round three of the conference, Cordell played the Sayre Eagles. The Devils scored 80 points in the first quarter and 60 in the second, sending them into the third quarter with a 100 point lead. Despite Sayre’s efforts to catch up, they were dominated by the Devils, who won the game by 120 points. The final score was 70-190.

Cordell went up against the Navajo Indians in the fourth round. The Devils surpassed Navajo early, leading by 20 points in the first quarter, 50 in the second, and 40 for the remainder of the game. The round ended with a score of 150-110.

The Devil’s unfortunately lost their winning streak to the Hobart Bearcats, who they played against in the fifth round of the day. The Devils worked hard, but were unfortunately beaten by 60 points, ending the round with a final score of 160-100.

In the sixth and final round of the day, the Devils played against a longtime rival, the Burns Flat-Dill City Eagles. Despite a valiant effort, Cordell lost by 40 points, finishing the game with a final score of 150-190. Despite coming up short, the team did not deem the round a total loss. Head Coach Rachel Ray considers Cordell keeping their biggest opponent within 40 points an achievement in itself.

Ray is very proud of the team’s performance in this conference, telling The Beacon that the entire team performed at their top level.

Coach also gave compliments to the team captain, Spencer Williams, for adjusting well to recent changes in procedure. Unlike in past conferences, the captains of each team handled substitution decisions, which is typically the responsibility of the coach. This change was brought on by the reformation of OSSAA guidelines, which now require each team’s coach to serve as either judge or moderator for all rounds in conference play, consequently removing them from their coaching position. These new guidelines have been implemented in an attempt to minimize the amount of people in attendance at academic conferences.

According to Ray, Williams was proficient in choosing the appropriate players to substitute in when subject matter of their expertise was presented. Ray told The Beacon, “I think Spencer did a really good job, we complimented each other very well, especially coming in to work on speed rounds.”

The Devils have high hopes for their next competition, the OSSAA Academic Bowl Tournament, held in Hobart on Monday afternoon. The final results from this conference will determine Cordell’s seat in November’s district competition.

In other news, the upcoming football game against the Apache Warriors has been cancelled due to a case of COVID within the Devil’s team.