Cowboys hire new coach

MEEKER I Ron Dupree will take the helm of the Meeker High School football team this fall and the veteran football coach already has a list of all the boys registered in the school with their years, the heights and weights of many, how fast they can run 20 and 40 yards and how many times they have been in the weight room since he arrived in mid-July.
“I’m excited to be here,” Dupree said. “You have grandfathers who played here, their sons played here and now their grandsons are playing here. You have tradition here, that all adds up to make a special community.”
Dupree, a retired teacher from southeast Texas, “close to Houston,” taught history and physical education and is a student of the game of football.
Dupree said he has studied 404 colleges in the United States and has traveled to Russia to learn why Russia was always winning the Olympics.
“We have a bunch of nice young men and I think we can help them with our program,” Dupree said and defined “we” when asked. “It’s always ‘we.’ I’ve coached more than 5,000 kids, worked with 222 different coaches and learned from everyone of them, there is no ‘I’ in we.”
Dupree has been the head coach or offensive coordinator for five college programs and many high school teams.
“I’ve had a potpourri of jobs, different situations, some good, some bad, that have helped me see from different perspectives,” Dupree said “I even coached in my hometown, you get a lot of advice there. The trick is to listen and use what you can.”
Coach Dupree has been opening the weight room every morning at 5:30 a.m., 6:30 a.m. and again at 6:30 p.m.
“We have a finished product we are bringing to Meeker,” Dupree said. “We have a weight program that lasts 22 minutes designed to develop high switch fibers and increase speed and help all sports. Every body type can increase their speed.”
“Talent is overrated but conditioning is not,” Dupree said of his creed.
“I like small schools because I like sports and kids can play them all,” the former Army infantryman said. “The goal is to help them all become as good as they can be.”