The picture you see above is the Porum Panthers football stadium, The team itself hasn’t really done much and is coming off of a 1-9 season a year ago and last winning season coming in 2005 at 7-4 but there’s always hope at the end of the tunnel, When Larry Childers a long time veteran head coach with close to 40 years of experience came out of retirement to take the helm at Porum he had one goal in mind and that was to turn the football program around, Childers had been at Porum before back in 1982 and 1983 and has had stops at Checotah, Morris, Hilldale, Midway, Webbers Falls and Coalgate along the way, This year was first time in recent memory or perhaps school history a midnight practice was done and it definitely looks like this Panthers team is gonna be a much different team than years past, The Panthers have had to over come a lot of adversity and obstacles the last couple seasons but this group has managed to pull through and are looking to change the narrative from the last few seasons. “I think we’re going to have a winning mindset, That’s going to be the change, We’ve been beat up for so long, Nobody’s really came in here an changed the mental game, We’ve had great coaches and that was one thing that was missed was because of the community, The community has a great play in it not just the coach, I think the coach will be getting the community involved a lot more and that’s where the change will be” said Panthers QB Seth Brown who has the signalcaller for the team since his sophomore year, He will be one of the many players to watch for the team this season in his senior year. The Panthers will have a challenging district once again this year, They remain in District B-5 which has Dewar, Quinton and longtime rival Webbers Falls returning but adding a couple new teams in Caddo and Midway. “If you look at it it’s intimidating but that’s just the surface, the standpoint, Coach is bringing in the mental game which hasn’t been brought to Porum in a long time, I think even if we’re not the most physical, We’re athletic and we’re gonna beat them mentally” said Brown when asked about preparing for the tough district this season. “My goal is to not leave a shadow but to have people ready to come up and take my place where there won’t be a hole like man we miss Seth it’s gonna be he made an impact and he was looking at the future and not the present season” said Brown when asked about his goals for his senior season. One thing of note from the summer workouts and spring football practices is that Childers has definitely changed the culture around the team. “Our main goal is to develop a good strong program with our JH and HS school kids and try to improve upon our win/loss record over the last couple years and the number one goal for anybody is to make the playoffs, There are ten games during the regular season but we have to earn the right to play the 11th game and that’s what we’re trying to do” said Coach Larry Childers when asked about the goals and expectations for the team. “It’s a tough district, You can’t have a bad night against any of those guys since they’re all gonna be tough, You have to be on your A game, prepare well, prepare swift and play some of your best football against them good teams and you can’t have too many hiccups and if you do you’re probably gonna be on the short end of the stick but you know I like our chances, our kids are really working hard, I think we’re gonna surprise some people and be better than what some people think we’re gonna be” said Coach Larry Childers on preparing for a tough district B-5.
Writer’s thoughts and reaction
Many of you guys I know I graduated from Porum in 2018 and I do cover my alma mater pretty frequently in everything on top of what I do for high school sports all across the state. I have compiled the records of the football team going back to 1974 up until last season. The team did have their first winning season in 1976 going 7-3 but did not qualify for the playoffs, Like stated above the last time the team had a winning record was 7-4 but this team lost in the first round of the playoffs to Foyil, Since then the team has made the playoffs twice but have not had a winning record but I believe that Coach Childers is gonna change that, I went to a couple spring practices after I got done with state tournaments back in May as well as the summer weightlifting programs throughout the summer and I got to thinking that this would be the year we turn it around and I have always wanted to see my alma mater succeed in football and when I was at midnight practice I noticed something, Childers had the players believing they could compete and win and I for one enjoyed that a lot and I know the community believes it as well, When I was at midnight practice I noticed there was quite a few people out there and when I got back from the city yesterday I noticed quite a few was out there as well. I really like the direction that the program is heading and I am looking forward to covering the team this year.
The OKPreps Rundown 
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