NEW ERA UNLEASHED! Anticipated BHS boys hoops opener/DeSalme debut set for Friday at Bruin Fieldhouse
By Mike Tupa
Bartlesville Area Sports Report
What may be the most anticipated start of a new era — since 1982 — in Bartlesville High School boys basketball is set to tip-off at 8 p.m. Friday (Nov. 22) night at the Bruin Fieldhouse.
The showdown against Ponca City High School will feature the eager anticipation by hundreds — if not thousands — of Bruin fans of the debut of Tommy DeSalme as head coach.
The storyline layers are thick and monumental.
They include:
— The first former Bruin player to become head coach
— The infusion of Bartlesville’s golden age of basketball tradition from the 1980s/1990s — when DeSalme helped lead the Bruins to multiple state championships — with the struggling program of the 2020s.
— An almost all-new roster of eager-young players — mixed with a very small handful of gritty returnees — that will likely have to forge their success this season with spit and fight more than with polished talent and experience.
In other words, Friday’s fray — win or lose — has the feeling of a new beginning with brighter dawns ahead.
DeSalme hopes Bartlesville fans will squeeze into the fieldhouse to energize the players off the launching pad.
“Hopefully we show up and play very, very tough,” said DeSalme, who has been seasoned by more than 20 years as a successful college head men’s basketball coach at multiple Kansas colleges/universities.
Although situated with one of the elite national junior college programs at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College, DeSalme resigned last April in order to return to Bartlesville to try to revive a program that had fallen on hard times in terms of game night success.
In the 30 years from the program’s beginning in 1982 through the 2011-12 season, Bartlesville powered to a 469-278 (.628) record, achieved 19 winning seasons, advanced 12 times to the state tournament, played in the state final six times and won three state championships.
In the 12 seasons since the 2012-13 campaign, Bartlesville’s record is 109-173 (.387), with three winning campaigns and no state tournament appearances.
DeSalme inherits a Bruin team that recorded a 3-21 mark last season, including an eight-game losing streak to finish the campaign.
Despite the massive challenge of turning the Bruin program around from one of the worst in Class 6A back to elite status, DeSalme left his fruitful college career to come home and try to revitalize the Bartlesville boys basketball tradition that he loves and of which he is such an important part.
This is his first time coaching high school hoops.
Trae Collins is expected to provide leadership for the Bruins team under Coach DeSalme.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
“It’s a slow, slow process,” DeSalme said about the rebuilding process. “We’re trying to make up for a lot of lost time and a lot of last years. … I hope we keep getting better. We can’t go too fast. … We had a great month of October and early November.”
DeSalme is glad to get the season opener played this week so that he can evaluate what the team will need to work on most prior to starting district games in December.
As mentioned, only a handful of veterans from last year are back in uniform — Hudson Eads (6 foot-plus), Dennis Duncan (5-10), Trae Collins (5-9) and Nash Zervas (5-10).
DeSalme will be relying heavily on all four — especially Eads, Duncan and Collins, who have worked out with him since he arrived last spring — for a foundation of leadership.
Expectations for the veterans to lead effectively “are pretty high,” DeSalme said.
Two freshman penciled in as starters Friday are Hunter Holmes and Jordan Turner, DeSalme said.
Other players that could find a spot in the regular rotation are Bryson Gutierrez and Jaden Jordan, the non-identical twin of Jordan Turner.
Three players fresh off the football field, including freshman quarterback Michael Kent, have joined the basketball team as well.
DeSalme isn’t closing the door to anyone on the roster making an impact.
“It wouldn’t shock me if somebody pops out of the crow a little bit and probably surprises me,” he said.
In terms of looking at the personnel mentioned above, Zervas and Collins are being groomed as the lead guards going into the season.
At times they might be on the floor together, but could sub out for each other, DeSalme said, adding “they’ll be our two primary ballhandlers.”
Eads “is a really good shooter and one of our better defenders,” DeSalme said. “His toughness is getting better.”
Bartlesville Bruins basketball head coach Tommy DeSalme
Photo courtesy of Bartlesville Public Schools
Tommy DeSalme, right, was honored along with other members of the 1991 Bruins basketball team at the 2023 Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame banquet. Left is team member Aaron Bucher and Chris Batchelder with the BAHOF.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BAHOF
Jordan Hunter brings 6-foot-3 height to the mix on what otherwise DeSalme said is the shortest team in Class 6A.
Gutierrez brings strong shooting skills to the mix and Jaden Jordan — who is several inches shorter than Jordan — “is probably the toughest kid I’ve got,” DeSalme said.
Kent comes in after a strong rookie campaign on the gridiron but DeSalme said he’s yet to determine where he will help the team the most. Kent is projected as a point guard or lead guard.
It’s not been a cushy offseason for Bruin basketball players, who have endured grueling physical preparation to make DeSalme’s final roster.
“I’m really proud of the guys that have stuck it out,” he said, adding he might play 13 or 14 players throughout the season.
“Size will never be the reason we don’t compete,” he continued.
DeSalme — who played for legendary Bruin head coach Steve Hesser, who guided Bartlesville to five state championship final games and three titles in seven years — is doggedly determined to field a team with a rugged, determined and blue-collar attitude.
“We will represent Bartlesville with great pride and great effort,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to kind of restart Bartlesville basketball.”
Because of that, DeSalme expects — and hopes for — a massive homecrowd on Friday, including many people that have not been in the gym for a number of years.
“This will be a special opportunity for these kids to show the community how hard they’ve worked,” he continued. “We want to compete on each possession. When you’re really young and new, it’s a constant battle every day to get better.”
Ponca City provides a fiery rivalry flavor for DeSalme’s debut.
This will be the Bruins’ only game in November. They will hit the ground running in early December with a road trip to Edmond North.
Although he’s lived out of town since beginning his student-athlete career at Southeastern Oklahoma State, DeSalme hasn’t been forgotten.
In 2023, he joined his teammates and Hesser for the induction of the 1991 Bartlesville High School boys basketball team into the Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame (BAHOF) and delivered a passionate acceptance speech on behalf of the players. He also was a member of the 1989 team also inducted into the BAHOF.
He pieced together a amazing head coaching career in Kansas, at college/universities such as Sterling, Kansas Wesleyan College, Independence Community College, Cowley County College and Hutchinson CC.
He won nearly 500 career games in 23 seasons in the Sunflower State and led Cowley to the national junior college championship game (2021). During that 2020-21 postseason run, DeSalme’s squad won Cowley’s first regional title in 64 years.
From Cowley, he transferred to Hutchinson CC. In his three years there, the Blue Dragons amassed a 75-27 record, including a junior college national tournament appearance and run to the quarterfinals for last season (2023-24).
Even though prospects looked promising for a prodigious 2024-25 campaign at Hutchinson CC, DeSalme yielded to a sense of duty and unique opportunity to fill the opening at his alma mater in Bartlesville and devote his coaching ability to try to make a positive difference.
The journey begins — officially — on Friday.