2025 Coach Of The Year – Bobby Klinck

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Sand Springs head coach Bobby Klinck is our 2025 Prep Redzone Oklahoma Coach Of The Year. For the past several seasons, Klinck and the Sandites had been knocking on the door of 6A-2 supremacy. In 2025, they kicked the door down, capturing the program's first state championship in nearly six decades. Klinck has won at a high level every step of the way in his football career. He was a state champion as a player for the Allan Trimble-led Jenks Trojans. He was a state champion as the defensive coordinator for the Bill Blankenship-led Owasso Rams. Now, he has a championship as a head coach.

But when we asked Klinck about that possibility back in December, he put the spotlight on the players and the program as a whole. He takes a lot of pride in the way he's built up Sand Springs football since 2020. And the state championship squad was a great representation of that. It was a hard-working group that did not back away from a challenge at any point in the season. And there were plenty of challenges along the way.

It started with back to back games to open the season against Bixby and Owasso. Opening the season against the two teams that played for the 6A-1 title in 2024 and then played each other again for the gold ball in 2025 was quite the challenge. The Sandites took their lumps but they didn't lose again after that. They dominated their way to a district championship behind an offense that couldn't be stopped and a defense that stopped just about everything. But they were challenged again in the semifinals.

Sand Springs trailed Putnam City by 20 points when they went into the halftime locker room. But the Sandites didn't back down from the challenge. They rallied in the second half, scoring a touchdown with less than a minute to play to make it 27-26 in favor of the Pirates. And at that point, it was decision time. Kick the extra point and play for overtime or try to punch your ticket to the state championship game right then and right there. Klinck told his staff on that final drive to be thinking about going for two. The Sandites had used just about all the gas they had to mount that comeback. They went for two, they got it and they were playing for the state title the following week in Edmond.

But to become the best, you have to beat the best and the Sandites had to take down a red-hot Choctaw team that was looking to go back to back as 6A-2 champs. Sand Springs prevailed 32-27 but they would have to play all 48 minutes as the Yellowjackets never went away for good. But the Sandites finished them off and raised the gold ball for the first time since 1966.

Klinck just wrapped up his sixth season as head coach of the Sandites. He is now 51-24 all time as head coach at Sand Springs. Klinck is also the third straight PRZ Coach Of The Year from Class 6A-2 as this class continues to be one of parity, with five different teams winning the gold ball in the last five years.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

2024 - Jake Corbin - Choctaw
2023 - Travis Hill - Muskogee
2022 - Dale Condict - Wagoner
2021 - Loren Montgomery - Bixby