Three high school football teams in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, had their playoff fates settled not by a scoreboard but by a coin toss in a restaurant parking lot shortly after midnight.
Liberty, Gore and Central Sallisaw finished tied for third place in Class A-2, District 3, but only four teams in the district could advance to the playoffs. The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association’s standard tiebreaking procedures failed to separate the three squads: they shared identical district records, split their head-to-head matchups evenly, and finished with the exact same point differential.
With no statistical way to break the tie, officials settled the matter the old-fashioned way. The coin toss took place in the parking lot of Catfish Roundup, a restaurant in Sallisaw.
Central Sallisaw head coach Jeremy Thompson said he initially doubted the plan was real.
“Coin toss, is that really going to happen? I called Mr. Johnson and he confirmed it. Yes, that’s how it’s going to go,” Thompson said, according to 2News Oklahoma.
When the coins were flipped, both Liberty and Central Sallisaw came up tails, sending them into the playoffs and eliminating Gore.
“I can’t tell you I’ve ever flipped a point and been that nervous. It’s a tough way to do it, but that’s the way it is,” Thompson said. “We’re excited it went our way.”
Gore head coach Nathan McCurley said the outcome was especially hard on his senior players, even as he accepted the process.
“You just hate to see it for the seniors, especially how we’ve rallied these last four weeks to put ourselves in this position,” McCurley said, according to 2News Oklahoma. “To have it go away on a coin flip, I’m not upset over that. It’s just, I hate it for the kids more than anything.”
For Liberty, advancing carries weight beyond a single season. Head coach Nate Green said playoff appearances have been rare for the program.
“You never know what’s going to happen when you get in a situation like this, so it’s a big deal for us, our school history,” Green said, according to 2News Oklahoma. “We don’t have a lot of trips to the playoffs.”
With the coin falling their way, Liberty and Central Sallisaw now move on to the Class A-2 playoffs, while Gore’s season has come to an end.
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