This is the last installment in a seven-part series on the 2002 Guthrie Blue Jays football team. Reporter Sam Hutchens spent the summer tracking down a multitude of former players, coaches — and even a former Oklahoma City mayor — to tell the team’s championship story. The Guthrie News Leader will run a part weekly to correspond with the ‹02 team›s 20th anniversary.
By Sam Hutchens
Kyle Smith had been to Keenan Webb’s house before, to plead with Webb’s parents to let their son play football.
In 2021, Smith went to Webb’s house to advocate for something else.
That Webb fight off death. In the days after Guthrie’s 2002 championship game, the seniors spent their waning time in high school as heroes. A feast was held when the team arrived at the school about 10 p.m. the night of the championship game. The campus was alive, and celebratory fans, students and staff ate pizza together.
Smith, Webb and DeMarko Jones were the Blue Jays named to the all-state team. Inevitably, the team broke up. Smith took a scholarship to New Mexico and Jones accepted an offer to play at Pittsburgh State. Webb chose to play at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, electing to stay close to home for his young daughter.
Many Blue Jays from the team stayed nearby. Some started families and now have children yearning to play football at Guthrie. But reunions were tough to organize.
It took a tragedy. One of the biggest reunions — though the mood was not celebratory — came early last year. Webb had a huge stroke in March of 2021. Word spread among the Blue Jays.
Smith was picking his daughters up from a hair styling appointment when Jones called to share the devastating news.
“You need to come home, bro,” Jones said to Smith. “Webb ain’t looking good.”
At his lowest point, Webb, whom many Blue Jays remembered for terrorizing opponents on kickoffs, could not even speak.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here at all,” Webb said later. “Everything was gone with me. I wasn’t supposed to walk, talk. None of that.”
Teammates and coaches came to the hospital, and Webb got many calls. Sam Murillo was one of the first teammates to greet Webb at the hospital. Two weeks after Webb was released, Smith drove to Oklahoma from New Mexico to be there.
When Smith walked into Webb’s house, it was like old times. They sat in the garage and talked while watching traffic. Webb couldn’t drink, but he adamantly offered Smith a beer from the fridge. They went to lunch together and Smith even took a nap. They spent four hours together.
They reminisced and discussed Webb’s situation. Like Smith did at halftime of the Ardmore game in 2002, he gave a fiery pep talk to his teammate.
“You put in too much work to get to where (you’re) at,” Smith said. “You know, you weren’t even allowed to play sports. And then when you were, you took every opportunity to get better. You’ve got too much dog in you and it just ain’t gonna take you out.”
Webb made a massive recovery and, though he still practices speech and movement daily, is doing much better. He gives some credit to his teammates.
“ They pushed me,” Webb said. “They said, ‘No, man. You’re not dying on us today.’ ” Many former Blue Jays still see each other. Chad Sanders is an assistant coach at Guthrie and cherishes seeing his teammates.
“Those guys, honestly, are still some of my best friends,” Sanders said. “And, you know, it’s not always like that.”
Jones recently completed a project to compile footage from the 2002 season into a team highlight reel. He sent the YouTube link to his teammates, and some players with kids have shown it to their families.
Through one grainy clip at a time, families learned about a family.
“We’re all brothers,” Jones said. “We have each other’s backs. We’re a phone call away. We’re there to support each other. That’s all we can do. Build each other up. It goes beyond football. We built a lifelong bond.”