Oklahoma State Teaching Freshmen, Transfer Student-Athletes about School Tradition in “Rookie Camp”

STILLWATER — One of the major gripes fans have about the transfer portal era of college athletics is a lack of connection between the student-athletes and their school.

Oklahoma State tried to combat that lack of connectivity on Sunday, where the athletic department held its “Rookie Camp” where first-year student-athletes went through a carwash of stations to learn more about the place they’re continuing their athletic journey.

The freshmen and transfer athletes at OSU went to stations at the Remember the Ten Memorial, the Remember the 4 Memorial, Heritage Hall and got a deeper look at the resources available to them that they might not know about.

Jawauna Harding, OSU Associate AD Student-Athlete Leadership and Development, spoke at one station and helped organize the event. 

“What’s great is it kind of exposes them quickly to what do you need to know, let’s hit on some quick resources,” Harding said. “One of the things was academic tutoring. Like, they hear it, but this is another way to hear more resources that they have access to.

“We keep getting feedback that they want to learn more a little bit about traditions and excellence, and then we were realizing they weren’t learning enough about the excellence and the history of OSU. With the transfer portal, we might get them for like a year. So, we’re like, if we’re gonna have you for a year, we want this to be the best experience to where you say this is home, this is where I belong. It’s just been great to be able to welcome the new student-athletes in, in this manner.”

There were about 130 athletes at Sunday’s Rookie Camp, featuring all sports except Cowgirl soccer because the team was playing in Norman while the event was happening.

This is the third year of the Rookie Camp, with Sunday’s being the first to feature the carwash style stations. Harding said they also do them at the semester for the student-athletes who transferred mid-school year.

OSU football offensive tackle Markell Samuel was one of the student-athletes in attendance after transferring from Appalachian State.

“I thought it was something I needed to get more educated about Oklahoma State’s history,” Samuel said. “So I really thought that this day was important to everybody that’s new here to really get the culture behind Stillwater and Oklahoma State. …

“I liked Pistol Pete, the history about Pistol Pete. I thought that was pretty cool. He was really a bad dude. He really got after it, and I respect it. And I like the mascot.”

Feedback from a student-athlete actually spawned the idea.

Former OSU softball player Morgyn Wynne worked in the athletic offices as a graduate assistant.

“One of the things she said was as a transfer, she felt like she was missing out on a lot of the resources, and she felt like she didn’t really get that big welcome to OSU like you would in the beginning of the year,” Harding said. “She helped us develop rookie camp. It was really because of her experience we were able to take what she thought was gonna be the most beneficial for student-athletes and then incorporate it for all student-athletes, regardless of freshman or transfer.”

The event ended with a fiery speech from Barry Hinson on Eddie Sutton Court. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Barry, he might legitimately bleed orange. 

He spoke to the student-athletes for about eight, impassioned minutes where he proclaimed that Dorothy was right about there being no place like home, complete with Hinson clicking his heels and proclaiming that the yellow brick road ends in Stillwater.

 “We will keep him as the closer,” Harding said. 

One thing Hinson made a point to hit on were the 53 national championship banners hanging above the student-athletes’ heads (54 is on the way after the men’s golf team won a national title this spring).

“I think it’s really cool seeing all these banners in the basketball arena,” Samuel said. “I think it’s really amazing. The tradition here, it makes me wanna put a banner up for football.”

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