Speakers & Special Sessions
2025 Speakers for these topics/sports will be held on these days:
SUNDAY, JULY 27
- Athlete Mental Health
- Coaching Boys into Men
- The 'Magic' Play
MONDAY, JULY 28
- Boys Basketball
- Girls Basketball
- Track
- Football
- Swimming
- Volleyball
- Coaching 101
TUESDAY, JULY 29
- Boys Basketball
- Girls Basketball
- Track
- Football
- Golf
- Powerlifting
- Wrestling
- Baseball
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30
- Boys Basketball
- Softball
- Football
- Wrestling
- Cheer
THURSDAY, JULY 31
- Football
- Cheer
SPECIAL SESSIONS:
Sunday, July 27th - OPENING DAY
12:00 pm
Compassionate Communication in Leadership a Coaches Professional Development (CUE Credit Available)
POSURE Leadership Institute presents a session supporting the mental health and well-being of student-athletes. You’ll walk away with real tools and strategies you can use right away. Together, we’ll explore why “Compassion is the Unfailing Strategy of Great Coaches” and how it can strengthen your leadership on and off the field.
About POSURE Leadership Institute
At POSURE Leadership Institute, we’re committed to helping students and professionals succeed in school or at work and in life. Our programs focus on building strong organizational skills, motivation, and critical thinking. We also provide leadership training that supports mental health and well-being — emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual, so people feel balanced and ready to face whatever comes their way.
What You’ll Learn:
* How compassionate conversations can save lives and create safe spaces for athletes
* Ways to spot and respond to mental health pressures in sports
* Tips for recognizing and supporting athletes dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
* Communication skills that build trust and strengthen your team
This session is designed to help you make a positive impact on your athletes’ lives while building a healthier, stronger team culture.
Who Should Attend:
This session is perfect for head coaches, assistant coaches, athletic directors, and anyone in sports leadership who wants to lead with compassion and make a difference.
Additional Resources:
We’re proud to partner with Mental Health Association Oklahoma and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, who will offer further support and guidance.
CUE Credit Available: Grow your skills and make a lasting impact on the athletes who count on you.
1:00 - 3:00 pm

From 1:00-3:00, we will have two sessions. For all our coaches who coach male athletes, we have the Oklahoma State Department of Health presenting ‘Coaching Boys into Men’.
Also, from 1:00-3:00, former OU basketball coach, Sherri Coale will present a session titled ‘The Magic Play’. This session is for any coach who coaches female athletes.
Registration will open at 11:00. Please plan to attend these special general sessions on Sunday.
“The Magic Play: a conversation about the how, the when, the what and the where… but mostly about the who.”
We’ve come a long way. From Coco Gauff to Caitlyn Clark to college softball madness and the almost half a million girls bump-set-hitting a volleyball in gyms across the land, women’s sports are exploding in popularity. In 2023-2024, 3.42 million girls participated in high school athletics. Forty percent of the world’s professional athletes are now women. Females are playing. And we’re playing well. Yet, by the age of 14, girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys.
How can we keep the players playing?
--Keynote address followed by small group facilitation covering topics, tools, and targets for giving female athletes the best possible chance to soar.
Monday, July 28th - COACHING 101
9:00 am - 11:00 am | 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Coach Blankenship press release
RESUME:
Retired from Owasso HS December 2025
Rehired from Owasso HS December 2024
Football Coaching (40 years)
High School Head Coach (30 years)
6 State Championships (286-87)
- Eastwood Christian
- Spiro
- Edmond Memorial
- Union
- Fayetteville (AR)
- Owasso
Collegiate Head Coach (4 years)
University of Tulsa (24-27)
- 1 Conference Championship
- Liberty Bowl Champions
- Armed Forces Bowl
Collegiate Assistant Coach (5 years)
Tulsa, Memphis
- GMAC Bowls
- Hawaii Bowl
- Birmingham Bowl
Personal
- Raised in Spiro, Oklahoma
- Graduated Spiro High School
- University of Tulsa Football Letterman
- Angie and Bill married in 1978
- 3 sons, 3 daughter-in-laws, 13 grandchildren
The Oklahoma Coaches Association will conduct a learning seminar for coaches under the direction of the former University of Tulsa Head Football Coach and current Owasso High School Head Football Coach, Bill Blankenship.
The seminar is especially design for new coaches, new head coaches and coaches who are looking for new ideas to improve their programs.
This seminar is for all coaches and is not sport specific.
TOPICS COVERED:
Job Search
- Networking, Preparation, Interview
I got hired - Now What?
- Proving your value
- Respect is earned
- Staff Relations
- Head Coaches, Principals, Superintendents, School Boards
- Booster Clubs and Parents
I am the New Head Coach - Now what?
I got fired - Now what?
Coaching Student/Athletes in 2025
- Their Baggage - parents / family / trauma / fears
- Phones
- PTSD
Team Building
- Culture
Expectations vs Reality
Success through Failure