By Blake Colston
Sports Editor
As outfielder Tylar Short put away the final out of Piedmont’s come-from-behind win over Claremore on Saturday in the Northwest Oklahoma City Festival at F&M Bank Field, head coach Keith Coleman simultaneously achieved a career milestone.
The Lady Wildcats’ 4-2 victory over the Zebras marked the 400th win of Coleman’s coaching career. It was his 231st victory at Piedmont in only 287 games (231-56 overall) since arriving in Canadian County from Muskogee in 2016.
“It’s an honor and not a lot of people get to win that many games, but I truly believe I’m probably the smallest part of the equation,” Coleman said. “The two places I’ve been, I’ve been very blessed to have really good players and really good assistant coaches. Without them, none of this would be possible.”
“He deserves so many more wins,” senior pitcher Hannah Nieuwenhuis added. “He’s a great coach who is able to establish relationships with all of his players, which makes it easy for us to give our all on the field.”
Coleman thanked the administration at both Muskogee and Piedmont for allowing him to build his program the way he saw fit.
“They’ve let me hire the people I wanted and they’ve let me run the program the way I think is best,” he said.
It’s hard to argue with the results. The back-to-back state champions are once again the favorites this season to win the title in Class 5A. Over the weekend, PHS (22-3) had a chance to scout some of its potential state tournament opponents and beat them all in the process. The ‘Lady ‘Cats earned wins over Guthrie, Pryor, Elgin and Claremore over the weekend to finish 4-0 at the NW OKC Festival.
“I wanted to play against teams that we might play later in the year, kind of like a pre-state tournament,” Coleman said of arranging Piedmont’s home festival. “It gives us a better chance in my opinion.”
If Piedmont is able to repeat as state champions it would be the Lady Wildcats’ fourth crown since 2019 and the most by a single program in school history. The Lady Wildcats have also won district 5A-2 for a school-record seven straight seasons.
