Oklahoma City Douglass determined to recapture football glory days under first-year coach

Though Trojans remain winless in 2023, Damon Turner still believes they are turning the corner

OKLAHOMA CITY - Damon Turner knew what he was stepping into. 

When he accepted the head coaching job at Frederick Douglass High in Oklahoma City, the assistant Edmond Santa Fe coach (2016-22) had no illusions about just how difficult his task was going to be. 

Turning around a once-successful football program that had been in the doldrums for more than a decade was easily going to be the toughest challenge of Turner’s 25-year coaching career.

Yet, even now as the Trojans have yet to win a game in his first season and he has watched his roster dwindle, Turner knows he made the right decision.

“It was something I felt like I could do and I wanted the challenge,” Turner said. “I felt like this gave me the best challenge to be a better coach and the rebuild process was actually the selling point. It’s always easy to go into those established situations and you lose yourself in those.

"But coming to this, I've really had to re-ground myself and kind of start all over, and it's been a wonderful process just trying to get the kids to understand the process and what that means and what it's going to take for us to get this back to what Douglass used to be.”

Oklahoma high school football Top 25 rankings (11/1/2023)

What Douglass used to be was a gridiron powerhouse in Oklahoma. The Trojans won their first of three state titles in 1956, just two years after the Brown vs. Board of Education case outlawed desegregation.

The third and final championship took place in 2010 when Douglass beat Wagoner, 20-13, in overtime to win the Class 4A title. At the time, there was no reason to suspect the Trojans would not only endure a 13-year title drought, but also see the entire program recede into an afterthought.

According to Turner, there were several reasons for the program’s regression over the years. They included low turnout, a lack of discipline and the program being out of touch.

Oklahoma City Douglass competes against Pauls Valley in a game Oct. 26, 2023. 

Instilling discipline has been one of Turner’s foundational efforts to get kids to buy into the Trojan program.

“We have a younger generation now that just hasn't been told no very much,” Turner said. “They make mistakes, and you hate to see the things that come from the mistakes, but sometimes that's the best way to learn from it.

"Also, just trying to get the kids to believe in themselves. What I've seen was you had a lot of athletes, but they just didn't believe that they could go and be successful.”

At the end of the day, Turner knows if he can’t transform the culture around Douglass football, the outcome on the field will never change.

“It's been very tough, but in the same sense, we have a young team. So not as tough as I thought it was going to be because I got a young freshman group,” Turner said. “I only have two seniors on this team, three juniors and the rest are freshmen and sophomores.

"We don't have a freshman team, we don't have a (junior varsity) team. So these guys come in from middle school having to play right away.”

Oklahoma high school football computer rankings (10/31/2023)

Something as basic as knowing how to lift weights has been a luxury for Turner because neither Douglass nor its feeder schools had a lifting program. Many are picking up their first barbell once they get to high school.

“They're lifting now, so we're going to get bigger and stronger. I think for the most part with my young group and most of my upperclassmen, they've bought into the process and they're not seeing the results in the win column,” Turner said. “But they're doing a lot of things right now, showing up on time. Being there is obviously a big part of the process.

"I don't have any kids on the ineligible list, so we're learning how to be students before we become athletes and just trying to build some self-esteem and self-motivation and those things of that nature. And then the rest of that stuff will come.”

While Turner has a plan to build up his athletes' bodies, he knows the more difficult task is building up their confidence and patience.

“I think what I've noticed the most is they want immediate gratification,” Turner said. “They want to come out, but if they don't have success right away, then they tend to kind of run away, which is kind of why it's taking a little longer to develop some things because you got a guy who will lift four or five days a week for the whole season, and we don't win a game.

"So in their mind, it's not working.”

It doesn’t appear to be just the players Turner is going to have to convince that things are working.

At a recent Thursday night home game against Pauls Valley, not counting the Douglass band, there were less than 30 people sitting in the bleachers on the home side. That was less than the number of players on the sideline.

Oklahoma City Douglass band members play during a game against Pauls Valley on Oct. 26, 2023

Those who have continued to show up and help are the Trojan alumni, according to Turner.

“That has definitely been a major help to us. Class of '77, class of '72, '73, '85, '82. Some of the old alumni have come back,” Turner said. “They donate us water, Gatorade, they feed the kids, they had cookouts. We've been on team bonding trips at the expense of the alumni. So they know.

"I've talked with some of the alumni and they just understand that the culture needs to be changed and I hear it all the time from them. We're not worried about wins right now. We want good young men. We can see that that's happening.”

Even though their 0-9 record doesn’t show it, Turner said he can see changes taking place. They include small victories like scoring two touchdowns in a 74-14 loss to Lone Grove after not scoring more than six points in a game all year.

But more than anything, Turner said his positive outlook on the future has come from the players who have stayed with the program and continue to show up.

“We started off with 50 and we lost 15. So, I got a solid 35 players now. But I’ve got kids in the hall that are eager to come out next year as well. Even with us being 0-9, they can see in the halls that the kids are different,” said Turner. “They walk differently, kind of (stick their) chest out a little more. They got a little more confidence in themselves, and we haven't won a game. So I can see the changes.

"I hear in the halls from teachers how the kids are different in class. And the big thing for me is that I haven't lost one kid this year to eligibility, and it hasn't been like that in the past."

And once more, Turner emphasized though the Trojans don't have any wins to show for it all season, they're continuing to accumulate small victories in other ways.

"The wins don't really concern me right now," he said. "I know there are a lot of things that need to take place before we're able to get to that point, but we're taking the proper steps to get to that point.

"And I'm proud of these guys. Proud to be their coach.” 

Oklahoma City Douglass competes against Pauls Valley in a game Oct. 26, 2023. 

-- Michael Kinney | @SBLiveOK