TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The Tinker Hawks are on the winning track with an impressive 15-2 conference record midway through the Central U.S. Military Basketball League season.
The varsity basketball team is neck-and-neck with Fort Sill for the top spot in the four-team central division. They’re also one of only five teams in the 16-member league with no more than two losses.
The in-state rivals fought a hard doubleheader last Saturday at the Gerrity Fitness Center. Fort Sill edged the Hawks 84-81 before the Hawks roared back with a 30-point win.
New coach Tracey Walker, the Gerrity Fitness Center director, predicted a turnaround year before the season started. He’s been right so far.
“They bought into what I was selling,” the coach said. “The common goal was to practice on Sundays and keep moving forward with success. I think the key to it is discipline, team camaraderie and practices. I stay on them tough, and I ride them hard. I think that’s one thing that’s held them accountable and led to a lot of our success.”
Coach Walker said the team is where it should be at this point in the regular season, which runs through April. The Hawks were back-to-back conference champs in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
“I told them Saturday that I think that we have a chance to go to the dance and make some serious noise,” he said. “We have the potential to go deeper into the tournaments than we’ve been in the past three years. Without a shadow of a doubt, they’ll know that Tinker is back – at a minimum, for sure.”