SAND SPRINGS - A year ago, Sand Springs knew exactly what it was.
The Sandites were old enough, experienced enough and bore enough scars to know what to do when a football game got ugly. They had veteran playmakers, a seasoned defense and enough answers to survive the weekly dogfi ght that is Class 6A-II.
By December, they had a state championship trophy to prove it.
This season is di erent.
Last year’s trophy is still in Sand Springs. The expectations certainly didn't go anywhere. But a lot of the athletes being asked to defend are still learning where they stand when the lights come on.
Sometimes learning is graceful.
Sometimes it is getting inside the 10-yard line three times and coming away empty.
Sand Springs got a little of both in its fi rst two weeks.
The Sandites opened with a 34-7 loss to Deer Creek, a game that exposed almost every growing pain head coach Bobby Klinck knew was possible and probably a couple he hadn't ordered.
Then, one week later, they drove across Highway 97, walked into Sapulpa and beat the Chieftains 2114 in the 100th meeting of a rivalry that has never required much help getting everybody's attention.
Two games. Two very di erent nights for the Sandites — and perhaps the fi rst glimpse of what this Sand Springs team could become.
“We are starting a lot of new kids, and most of them are underclassmen," Klinck said. “For a lot of these kids this game was their fi rst time under the 'big' lights."
He was talking about Deer Creek.
There were moments when it showed.
The Sandites moved the football. That wasn't really the problem. They threw for 277 yards and rushed for another 84.
Three hundred sixty-one yards normally ought to buy you more than seven points.
Football, unfortunately, has a strict no-refund policy.
Sand Springs drove inside the Deer Creek 10 three di erent times without scoring. Meanwhile, the Antlers churned out 247 yards on the ground and another 220 through the air.
Final bill: Deer Creek 34, Sand Springs 7.
“There will be growing pains, as evident with our failure to score three times we were inside the 10," Klinck said. “We need to clean some things up, and I expect our players and coaches to do exactly that."
That may be the best way to understand these Sandites.
This isn't rebuilding in the traditional sense. Nobody is wandering around Sand Springs looking for a new set of blueprints. The program is built.
What Klinck and his sta are doing is handing the keys to a younger group and telling them the speed limit has not changed. The bar is no lower than it was last year.
“You evaluate it to the same level as the players before them," Klinck said. "The standard doesn't change."
There it is. No asterisk. No youth discount. No “please excuse our mess while we remodel." The standard doesn't change.
The most obvious change came at quarterback.
Senior transfer Cash Koertner stepped in following the graduation of Easton Webb, who threw 25 touchdown passes during last year's championship run.
At 6-foot-4 and 188 pounds, Koertner inherited o ensive coordinator Karson Green's up-tempo "Spread and Shred" o ense.
That is a fairly pleasant o ense to inherit when Dominic Forbes is standing out wide.
Forbes caught 13 touchdown passes and piled up 1,257 receiving yards last season. Klinck has called him perhaps the best receiver in Oklahoma, which is the sort of thing coaches generally say only when they are comfortable with the possibility of having to defend the statement later.
So far, Forbes has not made him nervous.
Through two games, he is averaging 128.5 receiving yards.
Against Sapulpa, Forbes caught passes for 144 yards, added nine more on the ground and scored twice.
If the Chieftains lost track of where where Forbes was, it wasn't for long. He kept reminding them.
Koertner threw for 186 yards and a touchdown, while the Sandites rushed for 147.
That last number matters.
Against Deer Creek, Sand Springs ran for only 84 yards. Against Sapulpa, the running game gave the o ense something besides "fi nd Forbes and see what happens." Turns out diversifi cation is good for football portfolios, too.
Junior Kaizen Freese has emerged as the team's leading rusher at 63 yards per game. Sophomore Brody Shotwell has already scored twice, while sophomore Baron Koertner has made his presence known defensively with an interception and a sack.
Those are the names Klinck is using as he makes his best go at replacing a championship senior class.
Not because they have become the old guys overnight. Because they have to stop being "the next guy." "For the most part I saw great e ort, which is a cornerstone of our program," Klinck said after the opener.
"I also saw kids step up when being challenged by coaches. That is very encouraging moving forward."
The old heads on defense
If last year's defense left behind a bridge to this year's group, Grady Harris and Joe Farmer are on it. Klinck singled them out immediately.
"Grady Harris and Joe Farmer stood out on defense," he said. "They are the lone senior returners, and they played like it."
That last sentence says plenty. Harris recorded eight sacks and forced two fumbles during last year's championship season.
Through two games this fall, he already has 1.5 sacks.
Farmer, meanwhile, has decided tackling is a volume business.
He has 23 tackles through two games — 11.5 per night — putting him among the early statewide leaders.
Leadership is where their voices are heard more and more this year.
Last season, veterans were everywhere on that defense.
Brock O'Dell led Class 6A-II in tackles. Emory Smittick was among the classifi cation leaders. Tre Pope, Alex Dudley and Waylon Je ers were part of a group that had played enough football together to recognize trouble before it started.
Most of that is gone. Now, when things get noisy, younger Sandites look toward Harris and Farmer.
And there aren't many places noisier for a Sandite than Sapulpa.
They needed this win. The 100th Sand Springs-Sapulpa game arrived at a useful time.
One week earlier, Deer Creek had handed the Sandites a thorough list of things needing that were broken.
Sapulpa o ered Sand Springs a chance to fi nd out whether any real repairs had been made.
They had. The Chieftains entered the rivalry game 1-0 after beating Fort Gibson 41-14.
Sand Springs went across the river anyway and held Sapulpa to two touchdowns.
There was nothing particularly glamorous about the 21-14 win.
That's part of what made it encouraging.
The Sandites ran the football better. They got the ball to Forbes. Koertner made enough plays. The defense kept Sapulpa from turning the game into a track meet.
They did young-team things without letting those things become losing-team things.
And when it was over, Sand Springs had its fourth consecutive road victory dating back to last season.
For a veteran football team, maybe that's just another Friday.
For this group, it felt like evidence. Evidence that Deer Creek didn't knock the confi dence out of them. Evidence that the o ense has more than one answer. Evidence that Harris and Farmer can help shepherd a young defense. Evidence that some kids who spent last year waiting for their turn have discovered that their turn has arrived.
There will still be mistakes. Probably some ugly ones.
Klinck knows that. He also knows there is only one way young players become experienced players — you don’t just download experience overnight.
"It is extremely important," Klinck said of having patience with the younger players.
But patience should not be confused with permission.
The expectations remain where they were.
“The standard doesn't change."
No time to grow old The schedule isn't particularly interested in giving Sand Springs a few quiet weeks to fi gure itself out.
The Sandites travel to Norman North Friday at 7 p.m., then return home Sept. 18 to face Owasso.
After that comes district play and the collection of problems that come with that: Bartlesville, Stillwater, Booker T. Washington, Ponca City and Muskogee.
Nobody on that list is likely to be impressed by Sand Springs' youth.
That's fi ne.
Klinck doesn't appear interested in asking them to be.
The 2026 Sandites don't look like the fi nished product that walked away with a gold ball last December. They didn’t at this point in last season either.
This year, too many players are doing things for the fi rst time. Too many kids have moved from watching meaningful snaps to taking them. Too many responsibilities changed hands when last year's seniors took their diplomas.
What matters now is what happens as these new athletes build their own experience.
Week 1 showed Sand Springs exactly how much it still had to learn.
Week 2 o ered something better.
Proof that they're learning.