The advice for Cushing High School’s boys basketball team is simple: harvest early and fill the barn. Reaping in the dead of winter could prove demanding.
A senior-laden Tiger team tips off its season Tuesday by hosting Blackwell. It will be one of four home games before the semester break for CHS.
Riding the schedule to a quick start could be vital in 2008-09. Cushing closes the regular season with four of its last six games on the road.

McLOUD — Cody Phipps was as advertised. And more.
Phipps, McLoud’s senior running back, led a McLoud ground assault Friday and the 11th-ranked Redskins mauled visiting Cushing 76-28 in high school football.
Phipps ran 17 times for 211 yards and scored three touchdowns. He was the key operative in a McLoud offense that churned out 568 yards and 10 scores. The Redskins bulled their way to a 28-point halftime lead and led 63-21 after three quarters, thrilling a homecoming crowd.

Cushing cheerleaders are headed to the big show.
The Cushing High School squad on Saturday played third in the small coed division of the Class 4A regional competition at Cleveland. By so doing, the Tigers qualified for a berth in the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association state championships.
Cushing will compete Oct. 4 in the state meet at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.
“We are all really excited,” Erikah Miller, first-year cheer coach at CHS, said. “The quad worked really, really hard and they deserve it.”

Abel Spire is shooting his way to the top. And around the world.
He will represent the United States later this month at the Federation Internationale de Tir Aux Armes Sportives de Chasse World Cup in Limmasol, Cyprus. Abel was selected to compete for Team USA by the National Sporting Clay Association.
He is the son of Doug and Becky Spire of Cushing, the grandson of John and Emma Spire and Roy and Nadine Myers, all of Cushing, and a sophomore at Cushing High School. At 15, he is the youngest shooter ever chosen for the FITASC World Cup.

The family atmosphere at Oklahoma State University is rare, the Cowboys’ new men’s basketball head coach said.
Getting that family into a raucous state is the charge for his teams.
“I don’t think I have ever been around a school that has the true support and affection of its alumni and fans as we do at Oklahoma State,” Ford said Thursday. “These people have a true love for their university.
“I’ve been quite a few places and believe me when I tell you it’s not like that everywhere.”