Oklahoma wildfires: On charred practice field, Luther gets back to football

His brand new cleats, purchased for his upcoming senior season with the Lions, were sitting on his bed last week when a wildfire turned much of his family's home into a burned pile of rubble.

Though Prince couldn't be there, the Lions went forward with practice Tuesday morning, on the first official day of football in the state — and that simple act was far from insignificant in a town ravaged by fires over the weekend.

Football in August is normal in a town like Luther. And normal is a good thing right now.

“With school being back in on Thursday, and football getting going, we'll get back to normal again,” first-year Luther head coach Shawn Meek said. “I think the identity of any small town is the school. That's what they have their pride in.

“In order to recover from something like this, people have to get back to normal, get back to consistency, get back to something being regular. To small towns in August, that's school and football.”

Estimates suggest the fires covered over four square miles and more than 50 homes and buildings.

The Lions went through drills on a field covered with spots of black, where fire burned nearly half of the grass in various areas.

It was a scene that touched nearly all of the senses, with the sound of charred grass crunching under players' feet as they ran and the smell of stale smoke drifting through the air.

An errant throw from the quarterback could have easily bounded into an area of torched trees just 20 yards off the sideline. To the north of the football team's practice site, the Luther softball field sat empty, narrowly avoiding fire damage that crept in behind the backstop.

The softball coach, Casey Strahan, lost his home in the fire, and though a game was scheduled for Tuesday, it had to be postponed.

In a town like Luther, with a little more than 1,200 residents, every car you pass on the road is likely carrying someone with a friend or family member affected by the fires — if not directly affected themselves.