By Jared F. Cranke

Publisher

Football in Stillwater ended on quite disappointing notes this season with the Stillwater Pioneers finishing with a mediocre record of  5-5 and missing the playoffs while the Oklahoma State Cowboys reached the Cotton Bowl and ended the season with an abysmal performance on Jerry Jones’ new field reaching a record of 9-4. For fans of the NFL, the Super Bowl is right around the corner and after that, no more football until September, right? Wrong!

Stillwater has another football team that has slipped under the radar and been mostly dismissed in the press over the last couple of years despite their undenyable success. The Stillwater Outlaws is a local semi-professional team within the Oklahoma Metro Football League. Although this year marks only their third year in existance, the Outlaws have already been to the league championship game twice, won it once and have amassed an overall record of 20-2 while going undefeated last year on their way to winning Metro Bowl II. In only their second season, the Outlaws outscored their opponents 355-65 over just eleven games. With numbers like that, the Outlaws are offering Stillwater the most exciting football action since quarterback Mike Gundy frequently handed the ball to Heisman Trophy winning running back Barry Sanders in the late eighties. Finally, they get to show off their team in their first home game, Saturday, February 13, at Pioneer Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1:30pm.

The Stillwater Outlaws team was formed by Matthew Jones (owner, general manager and assistant coach) after discovering similar teams in towns like Oklahoma City, Tulsa and even smaller towns like Ponca City, Tahlequah, Enid, Lawton and more.

“Stillwater’s got almost 50,000 people, a bunch of college students and there’s not a team here,” says Matthew. “It didn’t really make sense why Stillwater wouldn’t have one. It’s a big football town.”

Matthew didn’t have to look far to find someone to help him put a team together. He tapped brother Karey Jones and named him head coach and offensive coordinator. Karey, currently the co-offensive coordinator for the Perry Maroons high school football team, now finds himself coaching football almost year-round. Football for the Jones brothers is pretty much a family affair.

“I started coaching my little brother, Chris, when he was in the 4th grade,” Karey says. “I coached him through 7th grade and then he went on to school ball but I had so much fun and won a bunch of games. I kind of liked this so I stayed with it. I constantly kept studying different offenses and different defenses and tried to find out what worked best for the kids here in Stillwater. I just love coaching and this will be my 18th year.”

Both Matthew and Karey were also involved in the formation of the Stillwater Youth Football Association (SYFA), which was founded in 1999 and focuses on youth football and cheerleading programs for 1st through 7th graders.

“Fortunately this wasn’t our first time to do this,” Matthew adds. “We were involved with starting SYFA so we know how you are supposed to do this. We got the coaching staff, we had plenty of people there, and there’s enough guys to make this happen. Some of these teams think if you have three guys to coach and 20 people to play, you can have a football team. That’s just not really the way it works out.”

Karey currently has a coaching staff of 10 assistants, many of whom have coached with SYFA, and a roster of close to 50 players. Most of the current players are from the Stillwater area but a few travel from all across the state to be part of the reigning championship team. Many of the players have, at minimum, some high school playing experience and some have even played for small colleges, but most never made it any further than that.

“There’s a couple of guys that I think could’ve been playing some big time football,” Karey adds. “For one reason or another, they’re not. There’s some good football players out there. We may not have the best talent in the league, but we play together better than anybody else. We play within our system better than anybody else.”

 The Stillwater Outlaws gives many of these players a chance to keep playing a game they love, an opportunity they wouldn’t have if not for the Outlaws.

“Football ended when the last high school game was over or their last college game was over.” Karey says of most of his players. “Football is something that they thought they would never get to play again without this opportunity that Matthew has brought to Stillwater. I have no problem reminding them, ‘Guys, if the Stillwater Outlaws weren’t here, you would be somewhere else on Staurdays and it wouldn’t be with pads on getting to bust somebody and play this great game.’ The first year we had so many guys come up to us saying, ‘Thank you so much for putting this together. I thought I was never going to get to play football again.’”

The players are loving every minute of it as well. Wingback Santhony Linzsey was a wide receiver throughout high school in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, where he also ran track and played basketball. Now he has become a breakout offesnive threat for the Outlaws since hearing about the team from a friend. Linzsey led the Outlaws in scoring last year with 12 touchdowns and hopes to lead the league this season in scoring and yards. He also adds a little flair of his own when he gets the chance.

“He is a character and has this wonderful smile,” Karey says of one of his more flamboyant players. “He’s a funny, funny kid.”

During a recent scrimmage against the Del City Silverbacks on a rainy Saturday in January, the Outlaws were told to wear their red jerseys. Linzsey showed up in yellow.

“Since everybody out here was wearing red, I like to be bright,” Linzsey says with his trademark smile. “So I’m going to come out here and wear my yellow shirt. They were trying to tell me to take it off and put this red shirt on. ‘No, I like to be bright.’ I want everybody to see me out here.”

“When he’s not wearing a yellow shirt to stand apart from the red team shirts, he does a flip when he runs into the endzone,” adds Matthew.

“He had two touchdowns right off the bat [in that scrimmage],” says Karey. “He wasn’t a starter for us last year until the last four games of the season. It took him a while to do things my way. He’d want to freelance a little bit more than I’d like and there’s a system. I tell them, ‘You’re going to play by this system. That’s what we do here and that’s why we’re going to be successful.’”

“You should really tell these people reading this article that they should come watch us play,” Linzsey says.

Even though it was their first scrimmage of the year, the Stillwater Outlaws racked up 385 yards of offense and held the Silverbacks to negative yardage on offense. It is dominate play of this type that makes the Outlaws the team to beat this season.

“In our own league everybody is ranking us number one,” Karey says. “I saw somebody’s predictions that had Stillwater number one. They don’t think we’ll go undefeated but they think we’ll be in the championship again.”

In fact, this scrimmage even drew the attention of the Stillwater Outlaws’ first regular season opponent. A couple of coaches from the Oklahoma City Diamondbacks drove up to scout the local boys.

“They drove all the way up to Stillwater to watch us scrimmage in the mud,” Karey laughs. “They’ll be lucky to get the snap off. Our defense is ferocious.”

Leading that defense is another returning player that a few years back gained attention wearing the blue and gold of the Stillwater Pioneers. Marcus Farmer was honored as the 2006 6A All-District Outstanding Defensive End and was selected as an All-Star defensive Lineman the same year. Now, he plays for the Stillwater Outlaws.

 “He played for us last year and he flips from end to tackle, but he is just unblockable,” Karey says of Farmer. “He was a big time Stillwater High School athlete.”

Although the concept of a semi-professional football team may sound new to some, there are approximately 800 teams like this throughout the country. Minor League Football News, a website and publication dedicated to covering teams like the Stillwater Outlaws across the nation, ranked the local team 16th in the country after they won Metro Bowl II.

The OMFL is made up of eight teams this season, including Oklahoma Maddogs, Oklahoma Force, Oklahoma City Diamondbacks, Del City Silverbacks, Lawton Rebels, Ada Bulldogs and Spencer Katz. Each team will play each other throughout the season, starting March 6 and ending April 24, while the top four teams will enter the playoffs for a chance to play in Metro Bowl III slated for May 8. Currently, most of the games are expected to be played at Crooked Oaks High School, 1901 SE 15th, Oklahoma City, where several games over the last two years have been played. The Stillwater Outlaws are still looking for a local place to play their home games this season.

“I’ve been working real hard with the athletic director here to try to get access to the [new] stadium,” adds Matthew. “Depending on what the city and the schools do with Hamilton Field that could open up possibly. We’re really in limbo with nothing available. We’d love to play for a home crowd. You saw how many people showed up for an unadvertised scrimmage in the rain.”

“If the weather had been better, I guarantee you there would’ve been 50 more people sitting out there with kids,” adds Karey. “We went to Shawnee for our first scrimmage ever and we had over 100 people from Stillwater watching. I was surprised. It was the practice field at Shawnee High School but we had a ton of people come out there. There’s interest around and if we could ever get a home game I think it would be really exciting.”

Even the players are hoping the chance to play in front of a true home crowd comes to fruition in the near future, whether it be at the new Pioneer Stadium or historic Hamilton Field.

“I would like Stillwater to actually help us and support us so people can come watch us,” concludes Farmer.

They got their wish. The Stillwater Outlaws will host the North Texas Stampede for a preseason game, Saturday, February 13 at 1:30pm at Pioneer Stadium. Tickets are available for $7 in advance or $10 at the gate. Their regular season begins March 6 against the Oklahoma City Diamondbacks.

For more information, please visit www.stillwateroutlaws.com. Season tickets for OMFL games are available now for only $35 per person at www.okfootball.net. Discounts are also available for purchasing season tickets in bulk on the OMFL website as well.