Best School District in Frontier Valley Conference - 2021 to 2022

Written By Scott Emigh

The Frontier Valley Conference is the flagship high school athletic conference for the East side of Oklahoma. It contains ten high schools competing primarily in the non-districted sports such as Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Track and Field, and Volleyball.

While there are conference champions every year in each of those sports, which schools have the best athletic departments overall?

The obvious front-runners would be your “Big Four” - Jenks, Owasso, Broken Arrow, and Union. These days Bixby is quickly catching up with them in terms of facilities and enrollment. But let’s take a data-driven dive into this question based on the 2021-2022 school year.

In all sports, I am considering only the varsity teams, not JV or junior high.

In non-conference sports I looked at head-to-head records and the seasons overall. In situations where teams split games, I tended to favor the second meeting, especially if it was post-season, but not always. Sometimes major upsets happen, and that shouldn’t devalue the team who had the better season overall.

I assigned a simple point value (10 for top of conference, 1 for bottom of conference) and schools got no points for sports they didn’t offer.

My full methodology is below, but here’s the TLDNR version.

As a heavily affluent and highly populated school district, Jenks unsurprisingly came out tops in dance, girls’ cross country, girls’ golf, boys’ soccer, boys’ and girls’ swimming, boys’ and girls’ tennis, girls’ track and field, and volleyball.

The second-most successful high school in the FVC is the largest school in Oklahoma - Broken Arrow. The Tigers topped the field in eSports, boys’ golf, slow-pitch softball, and girls’ soccer.

Up-and-coming Bixby leads the conference in girls’ basketball, shooting, football, and boys’ wrestling while being highly competitive in most other sports.

Affluent Owasso is also near the top and leads the conference in boys’ basketball, baseball, cheer, boys’ cross country, and fast-pitch softball.

Union is not far behind and is competitive in almost every sport despite only being top of the conference in boys’ track and girls’ wrestling.

Bartlesville leads the less affluent communities and is competitive in several sports despite not leading the FVC in any of them.

Booker T. Washington is the only high school with an archery team, Sand Springs is the only district with a girls’ powerlifting team, and Sapulpa and Muskogee bring up the bottom of the conference. Sand Springs is also the most success school in fishing.

While the larger, more affluent communities have the most robust, competitive programs overall, that’s not to say the smaller districts don’t still have their strong suits. Bartlesville is big on swimming. Booker T. Washington is a huge basketball school and also has a pipeline to the NFL. Sand Springs is one of the more storied wrestling programs in 6A.

If you’re looking for a place to settle your kids and want them to have lots of resources, obviously it’s hard to compete with a large, high-income school district. But if your kids are already specializing and you’re looking for a program that will best develop them - read below for the niched down results in each sport.

Overall, here’s the school standings based on my formula, with their total points earned.

  1. Jenks (205)

  2. Broken Arrow (196)

  3. Bixby (173)

  4. Owasso (171)

  5. Union (168)

  6. Bartlesville (115)

  7. Sand Springs (100)

  8. Booker T. Washington (94)

  9. Sapulpa (80)

  10. Muskogee (79)

Basketball

Basketball is still the flagship sport for the Frontier Valley Conference, though there is a growing push for the OSSAA to switch it to a district sport. The current system of post-season seeding is based on coaches’ rankings rather than win-loss record, which many coaches find unfair.

Personally, I think the cream rises to the top no matter what, and since every team advances to the playoffs regardless of ranking, I prefer the historic rivalries that comes with a conference schedule.

There were a few COVID and weather-related cancelations this year, but most of the teams managed to play a full conference schedule.

Boys

  1. Owasso (12-2)

  2. Booker T. Washington (12-2)

  3. Jenks (11-3)

  4. Broken Arrow (9-4)

  5. Union (8-5)

  6. Bartlesville (7-7)

  7. Muskogee (5-7)

  8. Bixby (2-11)

  9. Sand Springs (1-13)

  10. Sapulpa (0-13)

Girls

  1. Bixby (12-1)

  2. Sand Springs (12-2)

  3. Union (9-3)

  4. Sapulpa (9-4)

  5. Booker T. Washington (8-6)

  6. Broken Arrow (7-6)

  7. Owasso (5-9)

  8. Jenks (3-10)

  9. Muskogee (1-10)

  10. Bartlesville (0-14)

Cross Country

Boys

  1. Owasso

  2. Broken Arrow

  3. Sapulpa

  4. Union

  5. Bartlesville

  6. Booker T. Washington

  7. Jenks

  8. Sand Springs

  9. Bixby

Girls

  1. Jenks

  2. Owasso

  3. Broken Arrow

  4. Bartlesville

  5. Bixby

  6. Sapulpa

  7. Union

Cross Country makes it easy on me by holding an actual Frontier Valley Conference championship meet, which was hosted by Bartlesville this year.

Even at the 6A level, many schools struggled with fielding a full cross country team. Muskogee didn’t manage a full lineup in boys or girls action, while Sand Springs and Booker T. Washington both failed to field a full team at the girls’ championship.

In seeding the girls teams who didn’t place, I placed Booker T. at 8th because they had four girls on the team, with the highest placing 14th, and Sand Springs at 9th because they had four girls on the team, with the highest placing 37th. Muskogee only had two girls on the team, so they took 10th.

Volleyball

Volleyball was a bit messy this year with some cancelations, and not every team played its full nine-match conference schedule.

  1. Jenks (8-1)

  2. Broken Arrow (7-2)

  3. Union (6-3, beat Bixby)

  4. Bixby (6-3)

  5. Owasso (5-3, Muskogee match canceled)

  6. Bartlesville (5-4)

  7. Booker T. Washington (2-5, CPHS game canceled)

  8. Sapulpa (2-7, beat CPHS)

  9. Sand Springs (2-6)

  10. Muskogee (0-8)

Fast-Pitch Softball

Fast-pitch softball is a district sport, but many of the teams still play each other in their districts and non-conference schedule.

  • Owasso (32-6) went 11-1 against FVC teams this year, sweeping CPHS, Union, Bartlesville, Broken Arrow, and Muskogee, and finished as State Runners-Up.

  • Broken Arrow (25-13) went 8-3 against FVC teams this year, sweeping Muskogee, Union, and Bartlesville, while going 2-1 against Jenks. With no head-to-head, I place them against of Bixby for winning their Regional.

  • Bixby (27-14) went 9-2 against FVC teams this year, sweeping Union, BTW, and Bartlesville, while splitting games with CPHS and Jenks.

  • Jenks (28-11) went 9-3 against FVC teams this year, sweeping Bartlesville. BTW, Owasso, and CPHS, while splitting games with Bixby and going 1-2 against BAHS.

  • Sand Springs (18-15) went 7-8 against FVC teams this year, sweeping Union, BTW, and Muskogee, while splitting games with Bartlesville and Bixby.

  • Bartlesville (19-15) went 5-6 against FVC teams this year, sweeping BTW, Muskogee, and Union while splitting games with CPHS.

  • Muskogee (20-18) went 4-7 against FVC teams this year, sweeping Union, Sapulpa, and BTW.

  • Union (9-25) went 0-10 against FVC teams this year. With no head-to-head, I seeded them ahead of BTW because they at least had their own complete team and they had a number of close losses while the TPS team was mostly run-ruled.

  • Sapulpa (13-14) went 0-1 against FVC teams this year, and despite playing a weak 5A schedule, they still had a much better season than BTW.

  • Booker T. Washington (2-21) was unable to field its own team and had to join forces with Tulsa Memorial to participate in softball this year. The TPS team went 0-8 against FVC schools.

Football

Football is another district sport, which can make it tough to rank the teams who don’t play each other. Fortunately there were enough head-to-head matchups to make it fairly easy this year.

  • Bixby went 5-0 against FVC teams this year, beating Jenks, Bartlesville, Sand Springs, Muskogee, and Booker T. Washington. The Spartans have won 49 straight games, including four consecutive 6A-II State Championships.

  • Jenks went 3-1 against FVC teams, beating Union twice, plus Broken Arrow, en route to a 6A-I State Championship.

  • Union went 3-2 against FVC teams, beating Broken Arrow twice, plus Owasso, before finishing as 6A-I State Runner-Up.

  • Broken Arrow went 1-4 against FVC teams, splitting games with Owasso and finishing as a 6A-I semifinalist in a close loss to Union.

  • Owasso went 1-2 against FVC teams, splitting with Broken Arrow and finishing as a 6A-I quarterfinalist.

  • Booker T. Washington went 3-1 against FVC teams, winning against Bartlesville, Sand Springs, and Muskogee before falling in the 6A-II quarterfinals.

  • Sand Springs went 3-2 against FVC teams, beating Sapulpa, Muskogee, and Bartlesville before falling in the 6A-II semifinals.

  • Muskogee went 1-3 against FVC teams, beating Bartlesville.

  • Sapulpa went 1-1 against FVC teams, beating Bartlesville.

  • Bartlesville went 0-5 against FVC teams.

Girls Wrestling

Girls wrestling is brand new sports in Oklahoma, and many Frontier Valley Conference schools don’t even offer girls teams yet.

Neither Booker T. Washington, Jenks, Muskogee, nor Sand Springs entered any girls in this year’s wrestling Regionals. The other teams are seeded based on their East Regional Tournament Results.

  1. Union

  2. Bixby

  3. Broken Arrow

  4. Sapulpa

  5. Owasso

  6. Bartlesville

Boys Wrestling

Booker T. Washington cut its boys wrestling program in 2018 after years of dwindling numbers.

One thing that has bothered me for as long as I’ve been a sports journalist is the fact that the Frontier Valley Conference doesn’t have its own tournament with conference champions. The Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference, the Will Rogers Conference, and the Tulsa 7 Conference all have tournaments, so why doesn’t the East side’s flagship conference?

For now, I’ve seeded these programs based on their performance at the 6A-East Regional Championship, with 5A Sapulpa ahead of Bartlesville based on the Sand Springs tournament.

  1. Bixby

  2. Broken Arrow

  3. Owasso

  4. Sand Springs

  5. Union

  6. Sapulpa

  7. Bartlesville

  8. Jenks

  9. Muskogee

Baseball

Baseball is another district sport, which means there’s no conference schedule per se, but many of the teams do in fact play each other due to districts, tournaments, and proximity.

  • Owasso (33-8) won District 6A-3 and their 14th State Championship. They went 10-1 against the FVC, sweeping Muskogee, Sand Springs, Bartlesville, Union, Broken Arrow, and Booker T. Washington, and split with Jenks.

  • Bixby (33-8) won District 6A-4 and their Regional. They went 12-2 against the FVC, sweeping Sapulpa, Broken Arrow, Muskogee, Booker T. Washington, Union, and Sand Springs, and split with Bartlesville.

  • Jenks (34-7) finished third in 6A-3 but repeated as Regional Champions. They went 8-3 against the FVC, sweeping Union, Broken Arrow, Bartlesville, and Bixby, and splitting with Owasso.

  • Sand Springs (31-8) finished as 6A-3 Runners-Up, going 10-4 against FVC teams with sweeps of Broken Arrow, Bartlesville, Booker T. Washington, Jenks, and Union. They also split games with Sapulpa.

  • Union (27-14) was the 6A-4 Runner-Up, going 7-7 against FVC teams with sweeps of Bartlesville, Muskogee, Booker T. Washington, and Broken Arrow.

  • Bartlesville (25-14) finished fifth in 6A-4 and went 7-11 against FVC teams with sweeps of Muskogee, and Booker T. Washington. They also won games against Sapulpa, Bixby, and Broken Arrow.

  • Sapulpa won District 5A-3 and their Regional. They went 3-3 against FVC teams, beating Booker T. while splitting games with Bartlesville, and Sand Springs.

  • Broken Arrow (18-17) finished fourth in 6A-3 and went 2-9 against FVC teams, beating Booker T. Washington and Bartlesville.

  • Muskogee (10-18) finished eighth in 6A-4 and went 1-9 against FVC teams.

  • Booker T. Washington (9-29) finished seventh in 6A-4 and went 1-12 against FVC teams, splitting games with Muskogee.

Cheerleading

Cheer was a tough one for me to assess considering how many different State events there are and how little I know about the sport. There’s a regular Cheerleading State Championship in September, and a Game Day State Championship and a Pom State Championship in November. And teams can also compete in either their classification or in a larger “Large Co-Ed” or “Small Co-Ed” classification at the September event.

  • Owasso won Large Co-Ed Cheer, won Game Day, and was sixth in Pom.

  • Broken Arrow was Large Co-Ed Runner-Up, Game Day Runner-Up, and placed seventh in Pom.

  • Jenks was third at 6A State, third in Game Day, and second in Pom.

  • Union was seventh at 6A State, sixth at Game Day, and 11th in Pom.

  • Bixby was second at 6A State, and 14th at Game Day Regionals.

  • Booker T. Washington was 16th at Game Day Regionals and 22nd at Pom Regionals.

  • Muskogee placed 17th at Game Day Regionals.

I favored the teams that chose to compete in OSSAA events because that’s the official governing body for Oklahoma sports. Sand Springs, Sapulpa, and Bartlesville all have Cheer teams, but didn’t participate in OSSAA events, so they were awarded 1 point apiece.

Dance

Dance is a non-OSSAA sport, which makes assessing it quite difficult. Many of the schools competed at the Dance Team Union Tulsa Regional.

  • Jenks won Large School Pom and Spirit Showdown at DTU.

  • Union won Pom at the OKC DTU Regional and the Union Highsteppers won Officer at the Tulsa Regional.

  • Owasso won Kick at DTU.

  • Sapulpa won Team Performance at DTU.

  • Broken Arrow was second in Large Pom at DTU. Their Lyrical team was second in Officer and their Jazz team was third.

  • Sand Springs was second in Hip Hop and third in Spirit Showdown at DTU.

  • Bixby was second in Kick and third in Team Performance at DTU.

  • Bartlesville was second in Small School Pom at DTU. Not sure how they decide what constitutes a “small” school.

  • Muskogee appears to have a dance team but I couldn’t find any events to judge them by.

  • Booker T. Washington does not appear to have a dance team from what I could find on their website and social media.

Fishing

The OSSAA doesn’t offer fishing, but the Oklahoma Bass Nation league is rapidly growing. OBN offers a year-long trail season followed by a summer State Championship.

  • Sand Springs: Mack Taylor & Parker Haling placed third on the trail, Eli Rogers & Caden Shea placed fifth, Nathaniel Griffin & Jaxon Trotter placed 28th, Cruz Norris & Gunnar Casey placed 83rd, and Hunter Spencer & Hayden Lowrance placed 92nd.

  • Jenks: Jake Maybee & Connor Bacon placed 23rd and Kail Williams & Kaleb Coffman placed 36th.

  • Broken Arrow: Cody Hays & Jesse Muller placed 43rd.

  • Muskogee: Ethan Hunter & Zachary Coffman placed 82nd.

Golf

Boys

  1. Broken Arrow

  2. Jenks

  3. Bixby

  4. Owasso

  5. Muskogee

  6. Union

  7. Bartlesville

  8. Sand Springs

  9. Sapulpa

  10. Booker T. Washington

Girls

  1. Jenks

  2. Owasso

  3. Bixby

  4. Bartlesville

  5. Broken Arrow

  6. Union

  7. Sapulpa

  8. Muskogee

  9. Booker T. Washington

  10. Sand Springs

Slow-Pitch Softball

Slow-pitch softball is a non-district sport, but unfortunately the FVC does not play a conference schedule or host a conference tournament.

  • Broken Arrow (31-3) finished second in the rankings and won a Regional tournament, while going 16-0 against FVC teams. They swept Owasso, Sand Springs, Bixby, Jenks, Muskogee, Bartlesville, and Union.

  • Bixby (28-10) finished sixth in the rankings and won a Regional while going 9-3 against the FVC. They swept Bartlesville, Muskogee, Owasso, and Union, and split games with Sand Springs and Jenks.

  • Jenks (28-10) finished fifth in the rankings and won a Regional while going 10-5 against the FVC. They swept Bartlesville and Owasso, and split games with Bixby, Union, and Sand Springs.

  • Owasso (17-14) finished tenth in the rankings, won a Regional, and went 7-8 against the FVC. They swept Bartlesville and Booker T. Washington and split games with Muskogee and Union.

  • Union (17-18) finished eighth in the rankings and went 6-7 against the FVC. They swept Bartlesville and split games with Sand Springs, Jenks, and Owasso.

  • Sand Springs (7-14) finished 15th in the rankings and went 5-7 against the FVC. They split games with Union, Bartlesville, Bixby, and Jenks.

  • Bartlesville (14-26) went 3-16 against the FVC, beating Muskogee and splitting games with Sand Springs.

  • Muskogee (10-18) went 2-10 against the FVC, beating Union and splitting games with Owasso.

  • The joint Booker T. Washington/Tulsa Memorial team (0-17) went 0-8 against the FVC.

  • Sapulpa did not participate in slow pitch this season.

Boys Soccer

Soccer is a non-conference districted sport, but many teams still play each other.

  • Jenks (14-2) won District 6A-3 and made it to the State semifinals. They went 8-0 against the FVC, beating Bixby, Broken Arrow, Booker T. Washington, Owasso, Sand Springs, and Union.

  • Bixby (15-3) was second in 6-3 and made it to the semifinals. They went 7-2 against the FVC, beating Sand Springs, Union, Bartlesville, Broken Arrow, Muskogee, and Owasso.

  • Broken Arrow (12-3) won 6A-4 and made it to the quarterfinals. They went 4-3 against the FVC, beating Bartlesville, Muskogee, Booker T. Washington, and Owasso.

  • Booker T. Washington (10-5) finished third in 6A-4 and went 4-5 against the FVC. They beat Union, Bixby, and Muskogee, and split with Owasso.

  • Union (11-6) finished second in 6A-3 and made it to the quarterfinals. They went 4-4 against the FVC, beating Owasso, Bartlesville, and Sand Springs.

  • Bartlesville (8-6) finished fourth in 6A-4 and went 4-4 against the FVC, beating Owasso, Booker T. Washington, and Muskogee.

  • Owasso (6-9) finished fifth in 6A-4 and went 2-7 against the FVC, beating Muskogee and splitting with Booker T. Washington.

  • Muskogee (5-7) finished sixth in 6A-4 and went 1-5 against the FVC, beating Sand Springs.

  • Sapulpa (4-11) finished seventh in 5A-3 and did not play any FVC teams.

  • Sand Springs (0-11) finished eighth in 6A-3 and was 0-4 against the FVC.

Girls Soccer

  • Broken Arrow (13-2) won District 6A-4 and made it to the State semifinals. They went 8-0 against the FVC, beating Jenks, Bartlesville, Muskogee, Bixby, Booker T. Washington, Owasso, and Sand Springs.

  • Owasso (15-2) finished second in 6A-4 and made it to the quarterfinals. They went 6-2 against the FVC, beating Muskogee, Booker T. Washington, Bartlesville, Bixby, and Jenks, and split games with Union.

  • Union (12-6) finished second in 6A-3 and made it to the semifinals. They went 5-3 against the FVC, beating Bartlesville, Booker T. Washington, and Jenks, and split games with Owasso.

  • Bixby (13-4) finished third in 6A-4 and made it to the quarterfinals. They went 5-4 against the FVC, beating Sand Springs, Union, Bartlesville, Booker T. Washington, and Muskogee.

  • Jenks (8-4) finished third in 6A-3 and went 3-3 against the FVC, beating Bixby, Booker T. Washington, and Sand Springs.

  • Sand Springs (11-5) finished fourth in 6A-3 and went 2-4 against the FVC, beating Muskogee and Union.

  • Booker T. Washington (8-6) finished fourth in 6A-4 and went 3-6 against the FVC, beating Bartlesville and Muskogee.

  • Bartlesville (9-6) finished fifth in 6A-4 and went 2-6 against the FVC, beating Sand Springs and Muskogee.

  • Sapulpa (12-5) finished second in 5A-3 and made it to the quarterfinals, but didn’t play any FVC teams.

  • Muskogee (2-10) finished eighth in 6A-4 and went 0-6 against the FVC.

Swimming

Neither Sand Springs nor Sapulpa offers a swim team, but the rest of the conference is still going strong. They’ve even added the Siloam Springs Flyers swim club as an affiliate member, though I left them out of this article.

Boys

  1. Jenks

  2. Bartlesville

  3. Bixby

  4. Union

  5. Broken Arrow

  6. Booker T. Washington

  7. Muskogee

  8. Owasso

Girls

  1. Jenks

  2. Bartlesville

  3. Bixby

  4. Booker T. Washington

  5. Broken Arrow

  6. Union

  7. Muskogee

  8. Owasso

Tennis

Boys

  • Jenks won State.

  • Union placed third at State.

  • Broken Arrow placed eighth at State.

  • Booker T. Washington placed 14th at State.

  • Bixby had three State qualifiers.

  • Bartlesville had two State qualifiers.

  • Owasso had two State qualifiers.

  • Muskogee had one State qualifier.

  • Sand Springs and Sapulpa failed to qualify for State.

Girls

  • Jenks placed third at State.

  • Bartlesville placed sixth at State.

  • Broken Arrow tied for seventh at State.

  • Union tied for seventh at State.

  • Owasso placed tenth at State.

  • Bixby placed 12th at State.

  • Muskogee had one State qualifier.

  • Booker T. Washington had one State qualifier.

  • Sapulpa had one State qualifier.

  • Sand Springs did not qualify for State.

Track & Field

Boys

  1. Union

  2. Broken Arrow

  3. Owasso

  4. Jenks

  5. Bixby

  6. Bartlesville

  7. Sapulpa

  8. Booker T. Washington

  9. Muskogee

  10. Sand Springs

Girls

  1. Jenks

  2. Union

  3. Broken Arrow

  4. Bartlesville

  5. Owasso

  6. Muskogee

  7. Bixby

  8. Sand Springs

  9. Booker T. Washington

  10. Sapulpa

Shooting

The Oklahoma Wildlife Department sponsors a scholastic shooting sports program. Only three FVC teams competed at this year’s OKSSSP NE Regional.

  • Bixby placed third at Regionals.

  • Jenks placed 17th at Regionals.

  • Sand Springs placed 20th at Regionals.

Archery

The Oklahoma Wildlife Department sponsors a scholastic archery program, although the season was canceled in 2022 due to inclement weather.

Booker T. Washington is the only school I could find record of offering an archery program.

eSports

eSports is a growing new league in Oklahoma and few FVC teams partake. The OSSAA has its own State Championship but many teams still compete in the OESL instead. Although I favor OSSAA results in most sports, I favored BA and Union over Sapulpa because they won their leagues.

  • Broken Arrow won the OESL Overwatch State Championship and was runner-up in NBA 22.

  • Union won the OESL Clash Royale State Championship and placed third in NBA 22.

  • Sapulpa made it to the OSSAA Rocket League semifinals.

  • I believe Muskogee, Owasso, and Jenks also offer eSports, but I can’t find evidence of any other FVC teams online. Please correct me if I’m mistaken!

Girls Powerlifting

Sand Springs was the only FVC school to participate in the sixth annual Oklahoma Girls Powerlifting league, placing fourth in the state.

Scott Emigh

Scott Emigh is a native of Sand Springs, Oklahoma who currently lives in Tulsa. Scott’s a passionate Sandite, disc golfer, libertarian, Christian, hiker, adventurer, and writer.

When he’s not busy covering Sand Springs sports, he’s looking for opportunities to travel and tell stories.

Follow Scott on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to keep up with his travels!

https://scottemigh.com
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