Shaker Reisig, Bixby, and Big Time Football

These are high school football programs that regularly play in front of crowds of up to 10,000 in the fall, but at the opening session of a three-day team camp hosted by Bixby that also included Illinois powerhouses East St. Louis, Edmond Memorial and Midwest City, there were just 67 people in the stands as the session began Thursday morning.

There was a brief whistle from the coaches, but there was some real hitting and intense competition.

This was the fun part of May 29. It was high-end, well-played football featuring Oklahoma's No. 1 quarterback (Reisig, who is entering his senior season with the Redhawks) and Oklahoma's No. 1 program (Bixby, retooled with new personnel and gearing up for a sixth consecutive state championship).

The event kicked off last year on an unusually hot day, but Thursday was cloudy and the temperature was 78 degrees when all the players headed to the Bixby campus cafeteria to dine on chicken tenders and fries.

“How about this weather!” Union coach Kirk Fridrich yelled. I should have replied, “How about this football!”

East St. Louis is the reigning Illinois Class 6A champion in 2022 and was runner-up last season.

Bixby has won 74 of its last 75 games. The Spartans dominated the first two seasons of 6AI competition and won seven 6AII titles in the eight seasons prior to that.

And Union is an elite program that has won eight championships since 2002 but hasn't won a championship since 2016.

Reisig is 29-3 as a starter as a freshman quarterback who led Jenks to a 6AI championship in 2021 and for the Redhawks in 2022 and 2023. After considering offers from a Big Ten school (Minnesota), an SEC school (Missouri), an ACC school (Boston College), two American Athletic Conference schools (Tulsa and Memphis) and three Big 12 schools (Oklahoma State, BYU and Houston), Reisig committed to the University of Utah, a new member of the Big 12, in February.

I've written many times that Reisig has the best arm of any high school quarterback I've ever covered, and that opinion hasn't changed. His release was reminiscent of Aaron Rodgers'.

With a quick flick of the wrist, Reisig can throw a textbook 12-yard spin strike or a perfect deep pass, which he did on Thursday and had fun doing a few more against Bixby's defense.

“For the defensive player, (Reisig) gets the ball out so quickly that there's no chance to break him down,” Fridrich said. “Shaker's goal isn't just to be a good high school quarterback. He wants to be a good college quarterback. He doesn't want to waste any chances or opportunities. He's just getting better and better.”

Bixby coach Lauren Montgomery's assessment of Reisig: “He's a pretty good player, right?”

“Shaker is the real deal,” Bixby quarterback Carson Kirby said.

Combined between his time at Jenks and Union, Reisig has started twice against Broken Arrow, three times against Jenks, two times against Union and three times against Owasso, but Reisig is entering his fourth and final season of college football and has yet to face Bixby in an actual game.

Reisig was a reserve for Troy when Bixby won at Jenks in September 2021. A week later, he was promoted to the No. 1 position and beat Union, 22-0, in the Backyard Bowl. By season's end, Troy was the state champion, undefeated in Reisig's 11 starts. Five months later, he moved to Union.

Bixby and Union have met just once in the past 12 seasons, in the 2020 opener with the Spartans winning 34-0.

A Bixby-Union championship game was expected in 2022. Owasso defeated Union in a classic semifinal game that went to six overtimes.

Bixby and Union appeared to meet in the championship game again in 2023, but Jenks defeated the Redhawks. In a crazy semifinal game in Sand Springs, a power outage left the stadium in darkness for 18 minutes. Union trailed 21-0 before losing, 33-27.

Reisig's counterpart to Bixby was Kirby, who as a sophomore last season was the starting quarterback for the Spartans when they won the perfect season championship. Kirby was superb on Thursday, connecting with tall targets Blake Hogshooter and Emory Snyder for big-play touchdowns.

During track season, Kirby honed his speed game by serving as the anchor for Bixby's 4×100 relay team and running first on the 4×200 relay. Kirby is the younger brother of former Bixby champion quarterback Connor Kirby. Kirby is a very good ball carrier and his passing skills have only improved over time.

Carson Kirby is another two-way weapon whose arm strength and confidence in the passing game are clearly well above last season's levels, and Kirby was just as effective against Bixby on Thursday as Reisig was against Union.

“My role is different now,” Carson Kirby said. “A lot of good players graduated. I have to be a leader.”

While Kirby and the other players were eating lunch, Fridrich approached Montgomery. The coaches shook hands and Fridrich said, “Thanks for the practice. It was a good experience for the kids.”

There is no Union-Bixby game on the regular season schedule, and if these teams were to meet in an actual game in 2024, it would happen during the postseason.

What a great storyline, with Shaker Reisig as a highly talented senior competing in the championship arena with the perennially successful Bixby Spartans.