been lions

This past year saw the Dewar Dragons post a perfect 15-0 season and bring home a football state title.
That was an experience that Dragon head coach Josh Been said will start with him even longer than his first trip to the championship 13 years before.
“I wanted to enjoy the experience,” he told members of the Henryetta Lions club this past week. “For some reason when we went to the championship in 2007, I remember I didn’t enjoy any of it. I never took the time. The game was a blur.”
The trip to Alva this year was different for Been. He said he felt a part of the team since he had coached the bulk of them in youth flag football all the way through high school.
“When we got to Alva, I went to the field the night before and looked around. I told the kids when they get not he field Saturday to look in the stands and see how their community came together to support them.”
He said he wanted to shed the feeling of being nervous and stressed out. “I told the kids to take the opportunity to embrace the feeling that they made the game. They saw that we had more people from Dewar than the other team did and they were only an hour down the road.”
This year’s trip was even more of an accomplishment for the Dragons. “COVID was a major challenge. I was worried about how to keep the guys from being quarantined. Our team had to go virtual to keep from being quarantined and missing games.” That meant Been and the other coaches worked closely with the students to make sure their academic work was done. “We never had a starter miss playing due to academics.”
The Dewar grad said that gold football trophy was special with all of the difficulties the past year presented. “Working in your hometown, you have lots of ups and downs. It was all worth it in the end.”
A special dinner for the Dragons will be held March 13 and members of the team will be receiving their state championship rings.