Black Diamonds kick off season tonight at home vs. Pryor
The wait is over for the Sallisaw Black Diamonds football team as the 2024 season finally has arrived.
The Black Diamonds will get the new season underway against the Pryor Tigers at 7 tonight at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium.
“Everybody is excited,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “I think we’re really anxious to get going. We want to get the 2024 season kicked off. We had a great summer and a great fall camp starting Aug. 12. We’ve had some good, intense practices. We want to let that carry over into this Friday night and see where we’re at.”
The Black Diamonds had quite the emotional ride last season. After seeing their losing streak reach 17 games, the Black Diamonds snapped that with a road rout against Muldrow. The Black Diamonds continued the winning by making the Class 4A playoffs and reached the state quarterfinals. While there is momentum from last year, it is still a new season.
“There is a lot of momentum, but it’s a new season, new kids and guys starting at different positions,” Tyler said. “We should still have a lot of momentum going in. The kids, our coaches and our community are excited. We’re looking forward to 7 p.m. Friday night to see where we’re at, and see how the 2024 Black Diamonds are going to fare.”
The 2023 season began with a heartbreaking one-point loss to Stigler at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium. The Black Diamonds are hoping things will go their way tonight against the Tigers. However, the second-year Sallisaw coach wants to make everyone aware there is still much more important things on down the line.
“It’s always great to start 1-0, but to me you have the season broken down into three seasons,” he said. “You have the preseason, which we’re still in, the regular season, which is your district ball games, and the postseason. That’s how we break it up. We want to be hitting on all cylinders and have everything lined out when we get to district play. That’s the goal and objective. I know everyone wants to go 10-0 and win every ball game — me included — but we’re still learning and growing. It would be great to start the season off 1-0, and that’s our goal.”
The Tigers are a new opponent for the Black Diamonds, but will be a worthy season-opening foe to begin 2024.
“They’re very athletic,” Tyler said. “They were 5-6 last year in (Class) 5A. They are very battle tested. They are very well coached. (Pryor) coach (Kenny) Davis does a very good job. He has a lot for us to prepare for offensively. They have a really good quarterback, a left-handed kid. He throws the ball extremely well, and he’s very accurate. They’re pretty physical up front. We definitely will have our hands full this first ball game. I think our kids and coaches will rise to the occasion.”
The Black Diamonds will need to make sure their A game shows up tonight.
“We have to take care of the ball on offense,” Tyler said. “We can’t turn the ball over. We can’t play behind the chains all night long (facing long distances on second and third downs). We can’t have any holding calls, fumbles or interceptions. Our offense has to be clicking. We (receivers) have to be able to catch the ball. We have to be able to run the football. Defensively, they’re a heavy run-pass option team, so we have to force them into some things they may not like (when Pryor is on offense). It’s going to have to be an all-around team effort. We think we have a good plan. We just need to go out and execute.”
• • •
Cheer Night will take place prior to tonight’s kickoff at 6:30 p.m. at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium. Participants, a.k.a. the “Sallisaw Mini Cheerleaders,” who took part in the 2024 McDonald’s Sallisaw Mini Cheer Clinic on Aug. 17 at Sallisaw Middle School, will show the crowds in attendance what all they learned at the clinic.
