Sallisaw football lineman to play in All-State Game next week
For one Sallisaw Black Diamonds senior football player, he will have one more prep game to play.
Sallisaw senior offensive lineman Quaid Girdner was named to the All-State East Team, and he and his other All-State teammates and opponents will get to play in the 2025 Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State Football Game, which will kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday at Shawnee High School’s Jim Thorpe Stadium. “I’m excited for it,” Girdner said. “The only thing I’m nervous about is I haven’t been practicing like I was in high school, but I feel it’s like riding a bicycle — you never forget. This was one of my goals — to get All-State. I feel pretty good about that.”
The graduating senior lineman believes just about, if not all, of his success has come from his Sallisaw Black Diamonds football coaches and teammates.
“I would like to think the majority of my success has come from not only my coaches but my teammates from practicing with them,” Girdner said. “We would go back and forth constantly in practice. I would learn from my mistakes, and they would learn from their mistakes. Ultimately, we kept getting better. I felt like that was pretty apparent in last year’s season. A lot of my success is really from them.”
However, just as it was for all Sallisaw Black Diamonds football fans after the Elgin Owls beat them 49-6 in the Class 4A State Quarterfinals to end the season, Girdner is now having a second bittersweet moment knowing there’s only one more contest remaining as a high school football player.
“There is a lot of bittersweetness,” he said. “The majority of the bitter part was felt last year at Elgin, but now I’m just glad that I have one more shot (to play high school football).”
Right now, Girdner is planning on just being a student and not a studentathlete.
“I tried (walking on) last summer,” the Sallisaw offensive lineman said. “I think I went to two camps. I love football, but college football was just not my thing. So, I’m going to go to OSU and go into nursing.”
However, Girdner is not quite shutting the door completely to a potential college football career just yet.
“I would definitely think about it and just talk through it,” he said. “I’m not going to say ‘No,’ but I’m not going to say ‘Yes.’ There would definitely be a lot of consideration.”
No matter what the future ends up being, Girdner said he’s excited for however it turns out.
“I’m definitely excited (about the future), but there are a lot of nerves — but that comes with anything,” said Girdner, who was the 2024 District 4A-4 Offensive Lineman of the Year. “I’d say I’m more excited of all of it (his future) and the new things I’m going to experience and the challenges that I’ll have to overcome.”
• • • TO GET THERE — Take Interstate 40 west to North Kickapoo Street in Shawnee. Turn south on Kickapoo to West Kickapoo Spur (U.S. Business 270). Go west on Kickapoo Spur to North Pottenger Avenue. Turn south on Pottenger to Jim Thorpe Stadium.
