By Scott Hansen
MaxPreps.com
Ten years ago, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s battle for the Major League Baseball home run record captured the imagination of fans across the country. A decade removed from the chase, the performance-enhancing fallout of has made the integrity of baseball and major professional sports come into question.
It is now 2008 and another chase may not have inspired the same media sensation or national following, but it is just as riveting. It’s the pursuit of Oklahoma's all-time boys high school scoring record.
Just like McGwire and Sosa continued to build the buzz around the chase with every crack of the wooden bat, two players are hot on the trails of the magic number of 3,639 set by Maud’s Ty Harman in 1989 with every swish through the nylon.
Pawnee guard Keiton Page and Verdigris guard Rotnei Clarke are blistering their way to Harman’s mark. Page is averaging a whopping 44.2 points per game and currently has 3,394 points, fourth on the all-time list. Clarke is third with 3,454 points and is averaging 40.1 points per game on the season.
Both are smaller versions of scoring point guards, have scored over 60 points once this season, and have other eye-popping statistics. Yet they are almost polar opposites on how they attack the game.
Page, who is listed at 5-foot-10, seems to have more of a method to his scoring madness. Page is quicker than you think and can take the ball to the basket off the dribble. Of course, it does not hurt when you hit 108 three-pointers in 22 games at nearly a 50 percent clip.
Clarke hits some shots that are truly unreal. Whether it is a running three-point bomb or falling away from 30-feet off the dribble, Clarke’s scoring burst is explosive. He has an incredibly quick release and can pull up off the dribble toward his left or right, hitting nothing but net with three defenders draped in his face. Clarke has canned 113 triples this season.
Both are signed to major Division I programs - Page to Oklahoma State and Clarke to Arkansas. Both have earned their fair share of criticism as they approach the record, observers saying their respective teams are running up the score so either can get the record. Some even say neither will make a splash at the next level due to their size.
An opposing Class 2A coach once told me after Page hit his team up for over 40 points, when asked about Page’s possible contributions at the next level, “He’s been small his whole life. I’m pretty sure he’ll be fine.”
His comment surprised me, as I half expected him to tell me what was wrong with this game, this coming from a coach who is brutally honest and has said some things nobody would ever dream to print. After thinking about it, he was dead on. Page and Clarke will do the jobs they are asked at the next level and contribute however the coaching staff sees fit.
Just in Oklahoma alone, there might be players that have a chance to be NCAA All-Americans in Xavier Henry and Daniel Orton, or even Blake Griffin if he returns to Oklahoma next year after dominating as a freshman. All three have a chance to play in the NBA one day and potentially emerge as lottery picks, as all three are immensely talented and project through the roof at all levels.
For those who compare Page and Clarke to the more highly-touted talents in the nation, you are missing the point. Page and Clarke’s firestorm on this record are what is right about sports. It is high school basketball at its purist. One chase every decade is something special, yet high school basketball fans in Oklahoma get to watch two players chase it at one time.
Both should be applauded for this miraculous achievement, no matter which player ends up on top. Both are genuinely good kids with an obvious gift for throwing a round object into another round object that is 10-feet in the air. Both would tell you they would trade the record for a state championship this March at the "Big House" in Oklahoma City.
If you look at all the negative sports news headlines on Wednesday for performance-enhancing substances, illegally using video equipment and a major Division I head coach that can’t seem to stay off his cell phone, Page and Clarke are a breath of fresh air. It is something we will sit back and think about a decade from now for all the right reasons, just two small-town kids that can score in bunches. It’s not much more complicated than that.
At some point, another player with the same offensive talent will come along to break the record. It could be another 10 or 20 years down the road before somebody even sniffs the top 10 list, which includes two former All Big-8 players and a current NBA player. When that happens, for a brief minute, we will sit back and think about how unbelievable of an achievement this has been for Page and Clarke, both well-deserved pursuers of the record.
For now let’s just sit back, enjoy, and watch the show.
Neighboring State Scoring Records
National Record: Greg Procell, Noble Ebard, La. (1970)- 6,702 (37.2 average over 180-game career)
Oklahoma: Ty Harman, Maud (1989)- 3,639
New Mexico: Devon Manning, Kirtland Central (2004)- 2,217
Arkansas: Bennie Fuller, Little Rock Arkansas School for the Deaf, (1971)- 4,896
Texas: Troy House, Ingram Tom Moore (1990)- 4,259
Missouri: Fred Johnson, Wellsville Middletown (1986)- 3,552