Henryetta Public Schools new girls varsity basketball coach Jesse Markum presented a plaque and season passes to Arkoma Resources, the Cobles’ and Eddy Thomas on Tuesday morning in the new gymnasium.

Arkoma recently funded the remodel and transformation of the girls locker room.

“These guys funded all of it and Eddy chipped in the labor,” Markum said. “It is a tremendous thing and we really are deeply appreciative.”

Eddy Thomas as well as Leslie Prentiss donated their time, working nights and weekends, painting the walls a vibrant shade of gold with black lettering that reads ‘Play Hard. Play Smart. Play Together.’ They also added the Pyramid of Success to one of the locker room walls.

The coach announced that the project is to help get the players into a different mind set of playing hard, playing smart and playing together.

“That’s kind of our mantra,” Markum said. “We’re trying to connect all this together. Once the players hit the floor, they know they’ve put in the work, deserve to be here and are ready to win. We are gonna show what we can do.

“I thought that having something nice for them would send a strong message like ‘Wow, there are people that really care!’ We want them to know that we do care, that we’re invested and we’re changing culture to get them on track toward excellence. That’s what we’re looking to do.”

During every practice, for about five minutes, one character trait from the Pyramid of Success is focused on by players.

“With connecting all these traits and culture, I think the future looks really bright for our girls,” Markum said. “They are becoming much more improved and working hard to overcome challenges. They have to sacrifice, have to work hard and have to sweat to change the culture they’ve been brought up in.”

The Pyramid of Success, developed by Coach John Wooden as framework for successful behaviors, contains 15 key traits as a map for success.

Main framework of the Pyramid includes:

• Competitive Greatness.

• Poise.

• Confidence.

• Condition.

• Skill.

• Team Spirit.

• Self-Control.

• Alertness.

• Initiative.

• Intentness.

• Industriousness.

• Friendship.

• Loyalty.

• Cooperation.

• Enthusiasm. Additional blocks along the sides of the Pyramid, added by Wooden, that hold it together are Ambition, Adaptability, Resourcefulness, Fight, Faith, Patience, Integrity, Reliability, Honesty and Sincerity.

Coach Markum has intense focus on creating a standard of excellence as the girls play smart, play hard and play together to become even better.

There is no doubt that the future for our Henryetta girls basketball teams is indeed bright.

In addition to varsity, Markum also coaches 4th through 6th grade and 8th grade girls basketball teams.