Back in the 1970?s, Hall of Coaches Ray Grandstaff (Checotah) and Paul Bell used to refer to this region as the All-State or All-Star conference because of all the superior athletes produced from Okmulgee to Eufaula to Checotah, Spiro, Vian and Sallisaw. Recently, football fans have seen a surge of athletes signing letters of intent to play at the next level. Eufaula and Checotah have seen players like Dontierre Fisher (7 offers), Noah Alexander (Army), Drew Dan (Illinois), Jacob Barrett (Eastern Michigan) and Zach Henson (Western Illinois), Caleb Knight (Virginia) each receive D1 offers and multiple players receiving D2 & D3 offers.