For the first time since 2021, Madill and Kingston have been paired in the same football district in 2026 as the OSSAA announced two-year redistricting last week.
DroppingdownfromClass 4A, Madill joins Idabel, Lone Grove, Pauls Valley, Seminole, Star Spencer, Sulphur and Kingston in the refurbished District 3A-2 this fall. Kingston bumps up from Class 2A Division I after the recent court order that dropped all private schools back to their ADM level.
For both schools it will renew a lot of old time acquaintances that haven’t been played on the gridiron in a few years.
Kingston last met Lone Grove, Sulphur and Pauls Valley in district play in 2021 and completed a twogame non-district series with Idabel in 2023. The Redskins have never met Seminole or Star Spencer in football.
They have added a pair of non-league games thus far against Stigler, which they lost to in their last Class 3A playoff appearance in 2020, as well as first-time foe Hooks, Texas. Kingston is still in search of a third non-district foe.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” said head coach Brad Hill. “We go from being one of the biggest schools in 2A to one of the smallest in 3A. The kids are going to have to step up and be tough but are looking forward to the challenge. Sulphur is one of the best teams in the state in 2A or 3A so we know that will definitely be a challenge. We have scrimmaged Idabel and played them sub varsity. We’veactuallyplayedseveral of those a lot in sub varsity games.
We haven’t played Seminole, Star Spencer, Pauls Valley so those will take a bit to get accustomed to. We are excited about the prospects because we have been waiting so long wondering what class and district we would be in this coming year. We are still in search of that third non-district opponent.”
As for Madill, the Wildcats were none too disappointed to get out of the rugged Class 4A slate for Class 3A, which will still present some hurdlesbutmakesforamuch more competitive balance on just sheer numbers alone. That’s an area the Wildcats definitely struggled with this past year, having to forfeit a league contest due to the lack of available bodies.
The Wildcats have played everyone on the 2026 schedule in some form or another over their football history. Lone Grove was a nondistrict foe as recent as 2023 while Pauls Valley and Sulphur were each league foes back in 2021.
Their last gridiron meeting with Seminole was in 2017 and they met Star Spencer in the 2012 playoffs. You have to go all the way back to 1989 however for the last time they faced Idabel in football.
Madill’s non-district slate will consist of Marietta, Dickson and Ardmore for the next two years.
“We are looking forward to competing in 3A,” head coach Wade Couch commented. “Our numbers are looking up for next year with adding some guys that didn’t play a year ago. And we should match up a lot better numbers wise as opposed to what we were facing week in and week out in 4A.
“We went from a district with some of the top teams in Class 4A and now in a district with some of the perennial best in 3A, so that’s not going to change a lot. It’s going to be a challenge but we are excited about it. We also got to keep some of our rivals on the non-district portion of the schedule with Marietta, Dickson and Ardmore.”