Kingfisher’s new boys basketball coach and assistant principal got his first chance last week to meet some members of the community.

“The past few weeks have been a crazy whirlwind,” said Colby Connel as he spoke to the Kingfisher Lions Club last Thursday.

Connel spoke to the civic group after three days of skills camp with his new team and just before the team was set to leave town for its first team camp under his tutelage.

Connel was hired earlier this month to succeed Jared Reese, who resigned his position after 10 years to take over the Dover boys program.

This will be Connel’s first head coaching position.

The Bethany native and Southern Nazarene University grad spent the last seven years as an assistant at Edmond Memorial High School.

It was during his time at SNU that he realized what opportunities basketball afforded him outside of just playing the sport.

“There were people in that locker room who didn’t necessarily have the same background as me or the opportunities I had,” said Connel. “SNU basketball was their way out. It was the tool to get them out of their circumstance.”

Connel said he wanted to be someone to help make that happen.

“I realized basketball is such a big vehicle for opportunity,” he said. “That’s when I got the itch to coach.”

He thought his career path would be in the collegiate ranks, but his family situation led him to accept an assistant’s position under Shane Cowherd at Memorial.

“Had you asked me, I would have told you that I was going to be at Memorial for only a couple of years,” said Connel. “But God was at work. I got there and it was a great place to be.”

Memorial went to the 6A state tournament six times in those seven years.

Connel, who is married with two young children and a third on the way, was fully prepared to return to the Bulldogs’ sideline for an eighth season.

Although he had resigned his science teaching position (Connel owns a home remodel and flipping business as well), he was set to return to the team as a coach in 2023-24.

That’s when the offer to be an assistant principal and coach at KHS came from Superintendent David Glover.

“A lot of times God says I’m going to meet your needs, but also exceed your expectations,” Connel said of the opportunity.

As for coaching, Connel said he obviously wants to win games.

He also wants basketball to be more than that.

“I want people who go through my program to be better people when they’re done,” he said.

Defense, he said, will be the staple of his teams.

“We will play a lot of man-to-man,” he said, but added that you’ll see his teams mix in some different types of zones that not a lot of teams will see.

On offense, he said he wants his teams to play fast.

“We want to get an advantage and keep that advantage until we get what we want,” he said.

He’s got a “system” he’s ready to install in the program.

“I believe in system basketball,” he said. “You want to have a system, but you also have to have a system that fits your guys. I’m not married to just one idea.”

That system, he said, will be instilled in the younger grades.

“One of my high school coaches will be in every middle school practice,” he said.

Connel answered a handful of questions from the audience near the end of the program before concluding: “From a basketball standpoint, I’m really excited about what’s here.”

Services of Woodward for care of underage detainees at a fee of $68 per child per day as needed.

Commissioners approved one right of way permit for a county road pipeline crossing, a permanent 10-inch poly salt waterline located three miles north and six miles east of Dover, in District 2.

A resolution authorizing disposal of five computer desks for the county assessor office received approval as did monthly reports from the offices of court clerk, court clerk preservation, treasurer and election board.

All commissioners were present for the meeting – Dobrovolny, District 3; Moss, District 1, and Ray Alan Shimanek, District 2 – as well as County Engineer Nik Smith and CPA Nick Storm of the firm of Storm and Hauser, who prepares the county’s annual budget.