A touchdown for the community: Anadarko Warriors win state championship

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The Anadarko Warriors celebrate their win and the gold championship trophy Dec. 9 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla. COURTESY PHOTO / WALLY YOUNG

Football team is approximately 85 percent Native American.

ANADARKO, Okla. – A swarm of fans dressed in purple gush onto the football field to congratulate and embrace the Anadarko Warriors.

For the first time in Anadarko High School football history, the Warriors claimed the Class 3A State Championship on Dec. 9 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla.

“Aw man, I felt like crying,” Andy Smith, 19, said about the fans running out onto the field. “Everybody coming up to you, telling you ‘you did a good job,‘ it just felt really, really great … a wonderful experience; it was just a great moment.”

Smith, a Comanche senior, is the team’s starting defense tackle and starting fullback. He said he felt excited about their victory and the community support.

“It’s really great, you just can’t explain it. The community felt really good about it, everybody felt really good about it … It felt really, really great,” Smith said. “I’m just really glad the community came out to support us. I never seen so many people come out and support you so much. I love my community, I really, really do. I’m grateful …”

The Warriors defeated the Cascia Hall Commandos 35-18 in their championship game with Warriors’ running back Sheldon Wilson, Comanche senior, scoring five touchdowns and racking up 229 yards of total offense.

“The first half we kind of came out sluggish, maybe nervous, just trying to do too much. The second half we settled down and came out and played our type of game,” Chris Paddlety, co-offensive coordinator, offensive line and defensive ends coach, said. “I tell my guys all the time, you know, play your game; don’t try to do too much. We always tell them to just play Anadarko football.”

Paddlety, Kiowa and Comanche, is one of three Native American coaches for the Warriors. He also graduated from Anadarko High School in 1990 and has been coaching there for eight years.  The two other Native American coaches are Jim Pahcoddy, Comanche, and Myles Stephenson, Wichita. There are nine coaches total; the head coach is Kent Jackson. Seven of the nine coaches are graduates of Anadarko High School.

“It’s just really good to have home-grown help here,” Anadarko High School Principal Lynn Bellamy said. “These guys worked hard. They were around when Anadarko football was struggling … they were here in the good times and the bad.”

The football team is approximately 85 percent Native American. The high percentage of Native Americans reflects the community of Anadarko.

Overall, Pahcoddy, co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, said the coaches and the team feel like family.

“It’s just one of those deals where you get to be around somebody that you know … it’s not a situation where it’s always under pressure, always under stress because you know you’ve got family around to help you through it, which is one of the big things about our team,” Pahcoddy said. “They truly feel like they’re a family, whether they’re black, white or Native American. It doesn’t really matter; we just all think we’re kin somehow. That’s what it feels like. These kids, I think they feel it too.”

Pahcoddy graduated from Anadarko in 1994 and has coached there for approximately 14 years. He said the team has good athletes that are easy to coach.

“We’ve got a lot of tough, hard-nosed kids that love contact, love to play sports and they’re hard workers, they love to get after it, and they’re also good kids to be around,” Pahcoddy said. “They’re a pleasure to be around day in and day out as far as their attitude, their work ethic, (and) understanding of football. It’s a joy to be around; it’s kind of a special group.”

Pahcoddy also thinks the close-knit brotherhood and family-like atmosphere the players created is “really something special.”

“I’m really happy … I love my friends. We’ve all been friends forever. Some of us since little league football,” Smith said. “We gave Anadarko something to be happy about again.”

Smith said although he was excited about the win, a part of him was sad because his father, Don Smith, who passed away, was not able to physically be there.

“I was thinking of him the whole time I was out there,” Smith said. “I did really good. I think I made him proud. I hope I did.”

After the win Paddlety said it felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders, and the victory wasn’t just for the team, it was for the community and the Native American fans that came from all directions to watch the game.

“It made me feel good to know that people, Native American people, value Native American players and the success that we’re having. Not just them but all people in our community, all over the state, that they wanted to come watch us play. That was great,” Paddlety said. “We had a really big ‘ol crowd and they were loud and they were excited and I think we gave them a good game, a good show. I thought it was pretty exciting.”

Wes Satoe, 18, the Warriors’ middle line backer, tight end and self-described “instigator of trouble,” said his grandfather, Ted Satoe, Jr., always helps him set goals for each game like to work hard and “at least hit somebody.”

“Really, it was just stressful. They say when you’re at the top of the mountain; it’s hard staying there,” Satoe, Kiowa and Creek senior, said. “We kept that fighting spirit. We’re like the Chickasaws, how did they say it? Undefeated and unconquered.”

Smith and Satoe are not sure what they’re going to do after graduation but both want to continue their education and continue playing football.

“Our kids have worked so very hard … they’ve always been a really talented group, but this is such an outstanding group as far as having the work ethic to go along with it to make it go farther,” Bellamy said. “This entire school and community is so proud of them ... They’ve improved the whole atmosphere of this school and this community, and they brought a bunch of people together. I’m just very proud of them.”

A pep rally was held for the team the day before the championship game with all the Anadarko schools attending as well as members of the community.



“We’re very proud of them because their achievement has brought the community really together,” Anadarko Mayor and Anadarko High School Dean of Students Jerry Marcum said. “That’s the most pride I’ve seen in Anadarko in a long time.”

Pahcoddy said he’s talked to several of his players about making good choices and not to make excuses in life. He tells them, if they don’t like a situation, then they’re the ones with the ability to change it. He said they can go out and accomplish whatever it is they want to do.

“I don’t think you can write a better story than ending 15-0; the state champions,” Pahcoddy said. “I mean, when I first started coaching that’s one of the things I strived for, every coach does, and it’s just a dream come true because you know that you’re the best that year at what you’ve done and nobody else can take that away from you. No one else can top it. That’s one of the things that stood out to me, was winning the whole thing; that’s competing against the best competition in the state. We’ve got some great athletes and some great young men.”