IDABEL — One afternoon in mid-June, Sammy Lopez and his son, Matrail, were driving south on the secluded highways of eastern Oklahoma.
This particular trip followed the four-hour drive north from their home in Idabel to Stillwater, where Matrail participated in an invitation-only football camp at Oklahoma State.
Eight total hours of driving for Matrail to spend part of a day playing football with other elite recruits from around the region in front of OSU coaches.
“That was an impressive camp,” Sammy told The Oklahoman that day as he drove. “There were some dudes there, for sure.”
Sammy liked to joke that Idabel was “three hours from everything,” so that led to a lot of miles logged in the car, taking Matrail to games, practices, camps and tournaments.
Nine days after the OSU event, Sammy Lopez passed away unexpectedly at age 39, leaving an unfathomable hole in a family, a school and a community in the southeastern tip of Oklahoma.
“Sammy was a family man,” said Scott Pratt, who is the Idabel football coach and athletic director. “He was always gonna be present when his kids were involved. His family was very important to him.”
Committed to Oklahoma State, Matrail Lopez is ranked No. 14 on The Oklahoman’s Super 30 football recruit rankings for the 2025 class, and his athletic exploits — in multiple sports — are in many ways the product of his father’s commitment to helping his son chase his passions.
“Each sport helps you in some different way,” Sammy said. “Baseball, mentally, is a tough game. Basketball, the movements are similar to what defensive backs and receivers do.
“When he gets to college, (Matrail) may be a little bit behind some of the kids who specialized, but I think his ceiling’s higher because he hasn’t just focused on football all the time.”
Sammy coached the softball and baseball teams at Idabel. He was hired by Pratt, who two decades ago coached Sammy in high school at Broken Bow.
“Sam coached so many kids and had an impact on their lives,” Pratt said. “For me, personally, he was a co-worker, but more than that, Sam was a friend. I got to coach him. I got to hire him. He coached my kids in little league and he coached my son in baseball. Just an overall good dude. One of those guys who, if you needed something, he was gonna help you.”
In addition to maintaining a strong family focus on academics, Sammy and his wife, Karess, always encouraged their children to be active athletes, and Matrail is the ultimate example.
After a football season in which he earned multiple Division I scholarship offers, and a basketball season that saw him help Idabel to a state tournament appearance, Matrail settled into the spring with his first love, baseball.
Then a phone call came from the Idabel track coach.
“He called my mom and talked her into it, so she made me go out there,” Matrail said a few weeks ago, chuckling as he retold the story of how he ended up on the Warriors’ track team in the spring. “Once I got out there, it was fun to get out there and compete.”
Matrail’s track experience lasted just a few brief weeks, but he ran a leg of the 1,600-meter relay team that won its regional. Perhaps more impressively, Matrail qualified for state in the long jump, an event he had never attempted before joining the team.
He qualified with a jump one-quarter of an inch shy of 20 feet, despite limited practice opportunities since he was still playing baseball on a team that won its first regional championship in 27 years.
“My practice was the first jump of every meet,” Matrail said.
Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy is known for talking up football players who have a wrestling background. But the truth is, Gundy loves all players who were multi-sport athletes in high school, so it’s easy to see why Matrail is such a good fit at OSU, where he committed in February.
“His first love was baseball,” Sammy said of his son. “He was always good at football, but it really took off in high school and that’s when he transitioned over to liking it more than baseball.”
His football skill as a receiver has earned Matrail the scholarship offers and accolades that will carry him to the next level.
But his broad athletic focus benefits him on the football field, too.
Not every multi-sport athlete is as naturally gifted as Matrail, who seems to excel at whatever sport he attempts. He was the point guard for the basketball team, a pitcher and shortstop for the baseball team, and clearly has an innate ability that would help him excel in track and field if he pursued it.
And when he’s on the football field, Matrail isn’t a one-trick player, either.
In helping Idabel to an 11-1 record last season, he had 814 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns on 41 catches, then added 484 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on 37 carries. He added three more touchdowns, one each on a kickoff return, punt return and interception return.
As a cornerback, he had 61 tackles, six passes defended and three interceptions, which is why a number of his early scholarship offers were for defense. But OSU’s Kasey Dunn saw potential on the offensive side of the ball.
“When he focuses on football, things are gonna slow down for him,” Pratt said of Matrail. “He’ll be able to lift all the time. They’ll put him on a nutrition plan so he can gain some weight and some strength. His body will be able to recover and he can focus on the finer techniques of the game of football.”
Being a multi-sport athlete, and taking those sports seriously, Matrail rarely has time to rest.
One weekend back in February, he had a basketball game in Tulsa — 200 miles from Idabel — on Friday night, played in a 7-on-7 football tournament on Saturday, also in Tulsa, and somehow squeezed in a trip to Stillwater for his campus visit at OSU.
With Sammy driving the car, of course.
“Sammy is looking down now and wants to see Matrail and all his kids do great things,” Pratt said. “Sammy put a stamp on those kids, with Karess right there, too, of working hard, being accountable and being competitive in everything you do.
“So he’s looking down with that big smile on his face and those kids are gonna do great things, on and off the field.”
The Oklahoman’s 2025 Super 30
- Name: Matrail Lopez
- School: Idabel
- Super 30 ranking: No. 14
- Height: 6-foot-1
- Weight: 175 pounds
- Position: Wide receiver
- Committed to: Oklahoma State
The Oklahoman’s 2025 Super 30 feature series
The Oklahoman’s Super 30 feature series will spotlight each high school football player on the Super 30 recruit rankings for the 2025 class through July 21. The series continued Sunday with No. 14, Idabel receiver Matrail Lopez, and No. 15, Pauls Valley running back Caden Knighten. See No. 13 on the list in Monday’s edition of The Oklahoman. Here are the last five players we’ve featured:
- No. 15: Caden Knighten, RB, Pauls Valley
- No. 16: Josiah Hammond, DL, Tulsa Union
- No. 17: Marcus James, LB, Carl Albert
- No. 18: Ryker Haff, OL, Owasso
- No. 19: Javion Antai, OL, Jenks
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