WELCH—The Welch FFA chapter and the Golden Rocket 4-H club will have their annual pie supper at the Welch Civic Center at 7:00 p.m., Wed., Feb. 15, 2012. The community is invited to the event and encouraged to extend invitations to friends, family, and neighbors. Proceeds from the pie supper will fund premiums for exhibitors at the Welch Livestock Show, Feb. 25, 2012, at the Ag Show Barn.

Print this entry | Print this page

WELCH—Junior class parents raise funds each year to provide a safe, wholesome, and relaxed environment of fun activities for prom-goers after the prom itself is over. This year’s after-prom event will be held at the Welch Civic Center, Apr. 15, 2012, from 1:00-5:30 a.m. The group is seeking donations from the community to be used as activity and door prizes for the juniors and seniors at after-prom. In addition, junior class parents have scheduled two fundraisers to benefit this year’s event.

First, there will be a benefit Mexican food lunch at the Welch Civic Center, Sun., Feb. 26, 2012, from 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Tickets are $5 per person in advance and $6 at the door.

Also, a garage sale will be held at the Red Barn, Mar. 2-3, 2012. The garage sale will run from 7:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Fri., Mar. 2, and from 6:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Sat., Mar. 3. The group is seeking donated items for the garage sale. Those wishing to donate quality items for the garage sale may contact Kim Dodson at 918-788-3723, Kelli Biggs at 918-788-3146, Eva Triece at 918-788-3385, or Deann Bruce at 918-788-3510 to arrange drop-off of items.

Junior class parents wish to thank the Welch community in advance for its fantastic support of this very important event.

Print this entry | Print this page

WELCH—The Welch Wildcat Gym will play host to this year’s district basketball tournament, Fri. and Sat., Feb. 10-11, 2012. Afton, South Coffeyville, and Welch will compete for the opportunity to advance to the regional tourney in Copan and Bristow. From there, area will be in Bixby. And after that is state.

Your Lady Cats face South Coffeyville in the first round, Fri., Feb. 10, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. Your Welch Wildcats have a bye in the first round and will play the winner of Friday’s Afton-South Coffeyville match up, Sat., Feb. 11, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. WelchOK.com will be providing live online audio coverage of all games Welch teams are involved in during the district tournament via our Welch State Bank Mobile Webcast Unit.

Here are PDFs of the brackets, which include districts (Welch is in District 7), regionals, and area.

Girls

Boys

Print this entry | Print this page

L-R: Senior Allison McGuire, Senior Carolina Fonseca, Junior Megan Carpenter, Sophomore Lexie Baker, and Freshman Julia Armstrong (Photo by A. Dooley)

WELCH—Basketball homecoming will be Friday night when your Welch Wildcats and Lady Cats host the Fairland Owls. The boys’ game will be first at 6:30 p.m., and the girls’ game will follow.

The homecoming court consists of senior Allison McGuire, senior Carolina Fonseca, junior Megan Carpenter, Sophomore Lexie Baker, and freshman Julia Armstrong.

Print this entry | Print this page

WELCH—We’re happy to announce our new audio feature, What’s Up in Welch with the Wynns on WelchOK.com! We’ll try to get each week’s episode posted on Wednesdays. Take a listen to our first episode below.

What's Up in Welch with the Wynns Episode 1 [ 12:44 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you have items to be included on a future episode, make sure you email those to us at info <at> welchok <dot> com by 4 p.m. each Tuesday.

Print this entry | Print this page

Michael Joe Rice's mug shot

VINITA Okla.–At his preliminary hearing this morning in Craig County District Court, Michael Joe Rice waived his right to a preliminary hearing and pleaded guilty to the charges against him in the rape and murder of his adoptive mother Ruth Rice. Rice was sentenced to life without parole by Judge Gore.

Rice was accused of the Aug. 2, 2011, rape and murder of the elder Rice. He was arrested Aug. 29, 2011, after confessing to the crimes, all on the heels of an OSBI investigation that recovered Rice’s DNA from his adoptive mother’s body, among other evidence.

Print this entry | Print this page

WELCH—WelchOK.com is ringing in the new year with a bang! Tired of boring watch parties? Wanna have fun without dodging drunks? Wanna party down with your friends and neighbors while helping WelchOK.com out? Then our “Out with the Old, In with the New, New Year’s Swingin’ Eve” party is just what you’re looking for. Come join us!

We’ll kick things off at the Welch Civic Center at 8:00 p.m. For the first hour or so, SongWood will be performing. Many of you heard Jason Hargrove sing at Harvest Days this year. He is an extremely talented musician, and SongWood is a group of Hargrove and friends from the Tulsa area, including Jacob Tankersley, who wrote the song ”See You Soon,” in memory of Hannah Christian and Cassidy Rotramel, who were killed in a car wreck in Sand Springs in October 2010. The group will play a variety of music, from classic county tunes to original compositions.

After a brief intermission to get equipment switched out, you can put on your dancing shoes and cut a rug to tunes from across the years as we work our way up to midnight. But a WelchOK.com party is more than dancing. We’ll have fun and games, trivia and contests, and an all-around good time for everyone, even if you’re not fond of the dance floor. Also, the Lions Club meeting room will have table set up and board games and cards available for those who’d like to play.

Junior class parents will be selling drinks (pop, coffee, tea, hot chocolate) and the Welch Round Up Club will have nachos, Frito pies, and hot dogs available for purchase throughout the night. We hope to firm up more concessions this week.

Our big party is open to all, and it’ll be a family-friendly event, so bring your whole family and have big fun as we say goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012. Entry is by donation to WelchOK.com, and we suggest a minimum of $5 per person (and we certainly welcome larger contributions).

Check out our event page and RSVP on Facebook!

Just a couple points:

• Absolutely, positively no alcoholic beverages on the premises.
• Kids of all ages are welcome, but those under 16 must have a responsible adult (doesn’t have to be his/her parent specifically) with them to enter (i.e., you can’t drop your kids off for us to babysit while you go party elsewhere).

Special thanks to Amber Webster, of the Blossom Shoppe, for providing balloons and Jeane Wynn for decorating.

If you’re a local vendor and you’d like to donate items to be used as prizes, please email us at info [at] WelchOK [dot] com.

Print this entry | Print this page

MIAMI, Okla.—Friends of the late Justin Berry have scheduled a basketball tournament to benefit a scholarship in his memory.

The Justin Berry Memorial 3V3 Basketball Tournament will raise money for a scholarship in his memory for a high school basketball student who exhibits the same qualities as Justin. It will also be a time when friends and family can get together and honor the man that they love and miss.

The tournament will be Wed., Jan. 4, 2012, 4 p.m.-10:30 p.m. at the Miami Civic Center. The entry fee is $15 per person with 4 or 5 people per a team.

Organizers also have t-shirts for sale that will be $5 for participants and $10 for anyone else who wants one. One hundred shirts have been pre-ordered and there will also be order forms available.

Entries are appreciated by Fri., Dec. 30, 2011. Have players’ names and team names ready and call Nikki Mullin at 918-961-1046 to register. High school basketball players will not be allowed to register since their season is underway and organizers don’t want to risk their injury.

Justin’s friends are also going to be selling #JUSTIN BERRY FOREVER bracelets to raise money for his memorial scholarship.

Here’s the Facebook event page for the tourney.

Print this entry | Print this page

Print this entry | Print this page

It was hand-to-hand combat in Welch last night (Click to enlarge)

Alex Smith on a carry (Click to enlarge)

WELCH—No one who traveled to Welch last night for the Welch/Wetumka first-round playoff rematch can say they didn’t get their money’s worth. The Chieftains and your Wildcats did battle for a grueling four quarters, and finally were able to wrap up a 30-26 victory with a completed pass to Austin Buchanan in the end zone with eight seconds remaining on the clock. That after a phenomenal approximately 80-yard run by Alex Smith put the Cats in scoring position one final time.

The Chieftains did something no one else has done this year: held the Cats scoreless in the first half. Wetumka led 6-0 at halftime, then the lead changed hands several times in the second half.

The Cats, though, were able to rack up 24 points in the fourth quarter and emerge the victors, sending them to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in a decade. The win also allowed the Cats to avenge their first-round 42-34 loss to the Chieftains in Wetumka last year.

Breaking the plane is what counts! (Click to enlarge)

The Cat win advances them to the second round of playoffs against Laverne, who beat Alex 50-0 in Laverne last night, so the Cats hit the road, all the way to Laverne, for the second round next Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

Our friend Jim Ellis at the Miami News-Record had a great write up with all the stats that you can see here.

We were glad to bring you live online audio coverage of the game via the Welch State Bank Mobile Webcast Unit. Here’s your after-the-fact playback:

Excerpt of the last two Cat offensive plays [ 0:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Excerpt from 1:09-:08 [ 6:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Excerpt from 2:07-:08 [ 16:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Full game archive [ 2:17:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jeane Wynn was on scene snapping photos, and here they are:

Print this entry | Print this page