It doesn't take long in a conversation with Ponca City boys basketball Head Coach Ivan McFarlin to detect the pride he feels in connection with his 2021-2022 basketball team.

The Wildcats won only three games during the season and finished the year with a mark of 3-20, not a sterling accomplishment in terms of wins and losses. The coach's pride centers not on the win-loss record, but the character of his team's players.

"They have worked hard, doing what was asked of them. They are a great bunch of guys," he said.

Speaking of his impressions of the recently ended season, McFarlin said, "I thought the season in terms of bonding was very good this year," Even though the overall record doesn't show it, we have played very well against the good teams in our conference. We competed every time we were on the floor."

One of the season highlights was the final game, in which the Wildcats played Booker T. Washington in the Class 6A East Regional Tournament. The game was on Booker T.'s home floor and the opponent was the top ranked team in the region, having lost only two games. Starting slowly, the Wildcats finished strong and at one point in the fourth quarter trailed the Hornets by only six points. Thoughts of the possibility of a huge upset were going through the minds of those who were following the game's progress. Booker T. went on to play in the semifinal round of the State Tournament before losing.

After that Regional Tournament game, McFarlin had words of praise for his team, especially the seniors who had played their final game in a Ponca City uniform. "We almost shook the world tonight against a very good team.," he said.

During the season, the Wildcats usually were very competitive--in portions of games. There was a stretch when they would play on equal terms with their opponents, only to experience a big run by the other team to put the game out of reach. The Wildcats normally didn't allow the big runs to discourage their effort and in some cases they were able to get back within striking distance.

The three wins came in tournaments. At Cleveland, the Wildcats won twice after losing in the opening round to Metro Christian of Tulsa. In the consolation bracket of the Cleveland tournament, Ponca City defeated Cushing and Piedmont to claim the consolation championship. The other victory came in the Union-Jenks tournament in Tulsa over a Hoops for Christ team.

In conference play, Ponca City went up against some talented teams. Putnam City West, Putnam City, Midwest City, Choctaw, and Putnam City North all had lots of talent. The other conference member, Enid, didn't have a great record, but was able to post a pair of wins over the Wildcats.

The early season saw the Wildcats lose by large margins. But after the Cleveland tournament, Ponca City was very competitive in most of the games it played.

One notable showing was in the Ada tournament, where Ponca City lost to Ada by five points in the opening round, and then lost a triple overtime game to Shawnee the next night and on Saturday lost another overtime game to Durant.

A measure of the team's improvement over the season can be seen in two games with Booker T. Washington. When the two teams met in the Union-Jenks tournament, BTW won by 28 points. In the regional tournament, Booker T.'s margin was 13.

McFarlin has always praised the effort his seniors put in during the season. There was a big bunch of seniors (9) which prompted the coach's praise.

After the BTW game McFarlin said, "My seniors played awesome. My seniors have been awesome for me. I love them,"

The senior class includes Grant Dye, Brooks Revard, Issac Valencia, Nate Patel, Devon Killscrow, Nate Collins, Lane Scholey, Hunter Irons and Elijah Phillips.

Dye had an especially good year scoring more than 400 points and averaging in the 17-point-per-game range.

This year's team started relatively inexperienced as the Wildcats graduated most of the starters from last year. McFarlin will face the same challenge next year having to replace a good number of seniors.

"I can't wait for the next year because we have some young guys improving through out this year. Next year will be the same in terms of seniors and improving to have a successful year to come. I love all these guys and my seniors are going to be missed a lot," he said.