By Blake Colston
Sports Editor
The 2024 football season will be an historic one for the Piedmont Wildcats as the program transitions into Class 6A for the first time.
Head coach Jeff Hall said on the eve of his team’s first practice of fall camp earlier this week that while he certainly appreciates the challenge moving to 6A-2 will present, sharing a 5A district with Carl Albert, Guthrie and Bishop McGuinness for the past five years wasn’t exactly a cakewalk.
“The thing I always keep going back to is that Carl Albert played the state champion in 6A-2 last year and beat them by 23 points,” Hall said, referencing the Titans’ 43-20 victory over Muskogee last September. “So, between 5A and 6A-2, when you look at the top teams, there’s not much difference.
“You probably deal with more talented kids from top to bottom in 6A, but there are good teams at every level. We scrimmaged Washington one year and they were 2A but really good.”
Piedmont has a considerable amount of talent to replace from last year’s senior class that included quarterback Josh Mars, running back and linebacker Cannon Wood, All-State linebacker Brogan Hardy and defensive end Talan Owen, who all signed to play college football.
The ‘Cats return five starters on each side of the ball, though, led by Jayden Fuston and Scotty Logan on offense and Ethan Shelton and Lane Whitworth on defense. Other players have been waiting for their chance to play on the varsity roster while improving, Hall said.
“Our JV schedule last year was one of the best we’ve ever had. The kids played hard, and they were enthusiastic,” said Hall, who is 34-22 overall in five seasons at Piedmont. “In some of the games where we were able to build a lead, we were able to get everyone in and those kids ate that up and enjoyed the experience. We’re really encouraged by what we’re bringing back.”
Junior Grayson May, the son of Southern Nazarene women’s basketball head coach Trent May, is the heir apparent to Mars under center.
“Grayson is a great leader, and I think he’ll be able to run our option game well. I think he brings more of a passing game element into his skillset, so we may air it out a little more than we have in the past,” Hall said. “If the opportunity presents itself, we like to throw the ball. People think we don’t, but we love our play action game and we usually have people open.”
Piedmont opens the season Aug. 30 at Midwest City.
“They’ve got a bunch of kids with college offers, but at the end of the day we’re going to play really, really good defense and execute offensively and force them to be disciplined for four quarters,” Hall said.
Following the “zero week” game, the Wildcats travel to face Canadian County rival El Reno Sept. 6. After a bye week, Piedmont welcomes Norman to F&M Bank Stadium for Piedmont’s home opener and non-district finale.
