HADLEY BRANAN-OKTAHA
Hadley Branan is one of a group of young Oktaha Lady Tigers that hope to bring the team back to an elite status in Class 2A this year and possibly earn a trip to Oklahoma City for the state playoffs next March. She and fellow juniors Tyann Stacy and Kadence Strube along with talented sophomores Emma Dill, Bella Watson, and Mia Scott will be the keys to this season and the next for coach Kia Homes.
“We don’t really have what you would call a star on this team, but they all work together so well and they’re such a joy to coach, “said Homes, now in her ninth season as the girls’ basketball coach. “Hadley and this group of young players really came together along with our seniors BrenLee Morgan and Shannon Dill last year. Hadley is a coach’s dream. She always comes to practice with a good attitude, lifts up her teammates, gives energy to the team and is a light everywhere she goes.”
Hadley plays the post position for the Lady Tigers and Holmes says she’s more of a defensive and rebounding threat for Oktaha. She grew up playing both basketball and softball and still plays both, including travel softball in the summer and on the high school teams and says she probably favors playing softball a little more. When asked to pick a game from her first two years of varsity basketball as a favorite, she quickly points to games last year against Calera.
“They beat us really bad when we played at our place, so it was sweet to go and beat them at their place later in the season,” said Branan who is involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and National Honor Society at Oktaha.
She sees one of her current teammates as being a role model for what she would like to be.
“I think Tyann (Stacy) is my role model because she works so hard at everything she does to be great,” said Hadley.
After exiting in the first round of the aera tournament last year with a very young team, Oktaha returns four starters from that team with the expectation, shared by Hadley, that things will be better this year.
“I think we can make a better and longer run in the playoffs this year and maybe go to state because most of us having been playing together for at least the last two or three years.” And Hadley has a couple of goals in mind that she hopes will help achieve that vision.
“I’d like to shoot 100 percent from the free throw line this year and break my individual best mark of 16 rebounds in a game.”
In her spare time Hadley likes to spend time with friends and family and be active in her church youth group.
