Mike Rose, 28 Years for the Kids
By DANIEL C. CAMERON
Assistant Publisher
DANIEL C. CAMERON for GTR Newspapers
Mike Rose is the assistant athletic director for Owasso High School. He has been with Owasso for 28 years and over that period has taught and coached as well. In addition to his assistant director duties, he currently teaches weight training. Over the years he has coached football, girl’s soccer, girl’s golf and wrestling.
Rose’s primary duties as assistant athletic director include organizing games and other administrative items that are necessary to run games. There is a lot that goes into organizing a game. Officials have to be hired, parking, facilities and more. Rose handles all the miniscule details that need to be dealt with to make sure the game goes on and is a good experience for the fans and athletes. This includes keeping the facilities maintained. The turf on the football and baseball fields is almost ten years old and needs to be replaced. The department heads the efforts for bond issues to returf the fields and redo the entire track.
The jurisdiction of the Owasso Athletic Department includes anything that has to do with athletics. They have 26 sports ranging from football to tennis. The department oversees sports from 8th through 12th grades and works in conjunction with the Future Owasso Rams program. Seventh graders are allowed to participate in cross-country, track and wrestling.
When most sports fans from Oklahoma hear the name Owasso, the thing that comes to mind is baseball and for good reason. Owasso is to baseball what Jenks is to football. Coach Rose adds, “We have a great baseball program, coach Turner has done a tremendous job with our baseball program. He has been the baseball program for, I want to say close to 30 years.” Coach Larry Turner has had the team in the 6A state finals 12 times in the last 13 years and has won 11 titles. “People come to Owasso to play baseball,” says Rose. The facilities help attract people, too. They have a full sized indoor infield and can practice all year long. The outdoor field is as nice as any in the state.
Owasso is a very nice community and is having a boom. The Owasso infrastructure has grown in the last few years and that is another draw for families. Rose comments, “We have a good Christian community where people still care about their school system, they care about their kids and they want to have their kids where discipline is important.” Discipline is important to Rose and the Owasso school system. He continues, “Owasso is a great school system. Our test scores continue to go up, we have good teachers and we have good administrators.” Rose goes on to explain that of all the efforts from the academic side and athletic department are for the students. The district and the town recognize the importance of a good education. “Everything is for the kids. The last 28 years of my life has been for the kids,” says Rose.
Rose brags about Superintendent Dr. Clark Ogilvie and how he came up with the “Owasso Way.” There is a pride in Owasso and all the schools want to be together to make a great community. Rose concludes “There’s a lot of good things happening in Owasso from Kindergarden up. We have a tremendous education system here and we’re real proud of it.”
Updated 09-17-2009
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