Barger, Brooks break Stigler school records in regular-season finale
Stigler football players Dawson Barger and Garret Brooks broke team records in the Nov. 4 loss at Muldrow. Barger broke John Henry Parsons’ career receiving yards record in the second quarter, catching a pass from T.J. Spearman on a short hitch route that he carried 11 yards.
That was Barger’s third of five catches during the game. His 136 receiving yards put him at 2,056 for his career. Barger has 1,053 yards receiving this season, the second-most in team history.
He didn’t see himself compiling the numbers he has this year.
“In my sophomore year, I was a 500-yard receiver. In my junior year, I was also a 500-yard receiver. And now I’m a 1,000-yarder. I doubled it. It was a lot of work, 7-on-7s, passing, catching, speed work, hand drills. It was a lot of stuff. I did not expect to do this well coming into this season,” he said.
The senior wide receiver said it was more about what the team has accomplished than his personal accolade. “It was just a record. I couldn’t have done it without my [offensive] line, my quarterback. It wasn’t just me,” he said.
Meanwhile, Brooks had been working towards Cade Shearwood’s single-season rushing record all season. After the game against Muldrow, he knew he had it.
His 304 yards put him at 2,002, leading the rushing yards standings compiled by the Tulsa World.
“Thirty-one is a lot of carries. I didn’t know I got 300. I didn’t know how bad I beat the record, but I was glad I did. That was one of my goals,” Brooks said.
Brooks has run for more than 100 yards in all but one game and averages 10 yards per rushing attempt. “Our offensive linemen don’t get a lot of the credit,” Brooks said. “They’re big. I don’t know how much they lift, but I know they can get the job done.”
Having set new marks in the regular season, Brooks and Barger are focused on taking the Panthers far in the playoffs. Both are hungry to beat Sequoyah Tahlequah on Friday, Nov. 11, after suffering an overtime loss at home to the Indians last year in the first round of the playoffs.
“This is revenge. Usually, as a sophomore, you think you have two more years ahead of you and you don’t really care, but I cared and I’m looking for revenge this year,” Brooks said.
Barger wants to see Stigler outdo the 2012 team that went to the third round and was the only Stigler team to win multiple playoff games. “We’ll see how far we can take it,” he said. “[Coach Chris Risenhoover] said if he were to pick a year to do it, it would be this year. I know everyone talks about the Shearwoods, but they made it to the third round and got beat out by Kingfisher. We’re going to have to have a little bit of luck, but if we work as a group and play hard, we’ll get it done,” Barger said.