The calendar has turned to the a new year and that means the OSSAA high school baseball season will be here soon. Classes A1, A2, and B officially get started February 23 while the rest of the classes begin March 2.
Up until that the beginning of the season, SSBR will be providing previews of as many teams as we can. Recently, SSBR sent out questionnaires to the high school coaches across the state of Oklahoma asking for their top returning players, top newcomers, overall strengths/weaknesses, and their overall assessment where their respective programs are coming into the 2026 season.
What you have below are the responses to those questions in the words of the coaches themselves.
Today’s team: Navajo Indians
Classification: A-1
2025 Spring Results: 27-4 (State quarterfinalist)
2025 Fall Results: 25-12 (State semifinalist)
Head Coach: Weston Winters
Head coaching experience: 19 years (all at Navajo)
Top Returners
- Gunner Jackson versatile player and will eat up a lot of innings on the mound
- Craig Russell was hurt in the fall of 2025 and should be back full strength to play shortstop and hit at the top of the order
- Jake Lingle opponents consider him our top arm, good velocity and has worked really hard this off-season. Swings it in the middle of our lineup
- Kanyon Mertz really good catcher with lots of experience. Still a young player and can continue to even get better. Hits in the middle of the lineup
- Kanin McDowell senior with a lot of experience plays outfield and will eat up a lot of innings on the bump also plays OF
- Aden Allen was injured all fall 25 with Tommy. John surgery will be able to swing it spring 2026
Top Newcomers
- Levi Ingram, Kooper Covey, Jaxon Konen, Kash Boley, Braydan Herrin, Tilden Smith, Austin Caton all made major contributions to the fall 2025 State semi-final run.
Overall Team Strengths
I think our team strength is depth. We have a lot of it. We had two starters that were out all The Fall season and our young guys stepped up and really played well. Got us to the State semi-final fall 2025. Really proud of the way they stepped up and handled pressure as well as playing a really tough schedule.
Overall Team Needs to Work On
Since we had two starters out in the fall, they will be back healthy, spring 2026 and we will need to incorporate them into the lineup but not disrupt. The team chemistry that we had in the fall. Should be good competition but it has to be healthy competition for us to get back to where we want to be. We will not be able to just show up and play. We will have to play well to have a chance get back in the mix in the state tournament.
Outlook
Really excited to have all of our guys back from injury. Looking forward to seeing how guys have developed with a offseason program. I have a lot of guys in off-season that I’ve worked really hard to become stronger, physically and mentally.
Schedule
March
2 @ L/S
6-7 vs Rep Prep, Dewar, barnsdall
9 vs Sayre
10 @ Blair
12-14 Sterling Tournament
17-19 Broken Bow Tournament
23 vs Cordell
24 @Mangum
26-28 Shortgrass Conference Tournament @ Sentinel/Navajo
30 vs Sentinel
31 @Hollis
April
2-4 Marlow Tournament
6 vs BFDC
7 @ Hobart
9-11 Donnie Elliott Tournament @Granite
13 vs MVG
14 @Merritt
16 @Granite
17 @ AMPO. 3 way AMPO & Stroud
20 vs Snyder
21 @Leedey
23 @Shattuck
25 @ Apache. 3 way Apache & Fletcher
27 vs Hammon
30- May 2 Regionals
May
7-9 State
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