Basketball Teams Compete For State In Shadow Of New Coliseum

The first MAPS 4 project to break ground nears a construction milestone.

MAPS Project Manager, David Todd, says crews have begun construction on the roof of the future Fairgrounds Coliseum. “Right now the schedule is showing that we’ll be finishing the project in the summer of 2025,” Todd says.

That means one more season for the state high school basketball tournament inside the Jim Norick Arena, affectionately known as “The Big House.”

Fans cheering their team on next door to the construction site hope their team makes it to either building. For Oklahoma high school basketball, there’s no place bigger than “The Big House.”

It’s the top place to compete, or maybe repeat like Kaleigh Strange and the Dale Pirates hope to do. Their team won the tournament a year ago. “That’s something special,” says Kaleigh’s dad Tyson. “It’s something you can remember for your lifetime.” He’s seen her win there before and knows the stakes now. “I’m the one that gets more nervous up here in the stands,” he says.

This year, 66 tournament games will be played and 10 teams will leave as champions. It’s been that way for decades.

Parents like Anna Sled are new to the tradition. “First time playing in the Big House,” says Sled. Still, she knows what wins there mean. “Absolutely, this is huge,” she says. “This is huge for us.”

The Big House has little time left. The lights of Jim Norick Arena now sit in the shadow of what’s to come.

Tyson hopes next season, Kaleigh’s senior year ends there with gold. “It gets rowdy in here. It gets echoey. It gets loud and it’s exciting for the girls,” he says.

In 2 years, Anna hopes to cheer on her daughter next door. “I think it would be a whole new energy,” she says. “A nicer place to play knowing you could be one of the first winners there. It’s a big deal.”

The stakes will be the same because, under any lights, it’s the place to shine in Oklahoma high school basketball. “There will be new memories in the new building,” says Todd “It’s a state-of-the-art facility so I hope they enjoy it.”