Coach Mark Fletcher had his 1995 Tigers honored at the Homecoming festivities Friday. Fletcher's team was the first to win a state title; they were undefeated that year despite some close calls throughout the year. They were honored during the Homecoming Parade, at a banquet in their honor, and before and after Worth County's game with North Nodaway that evening. Since 1995, Worth County has won over 84% of their games. Current head coach Chuck Borey was the assistant while current assistant coach Chris Healy was a waterboy for the team. They were the ones which started the current run of success that they had along with the 1994 Tigers.
The theme for the team was "Bad to the Bone," which they played before every home game. P.J. Sanders and his friends had the belief that they could do anything; they won the GRC in basketball the year before and they successfully tried their hand at choir singing that summer, winning the local talent show at the Worth County Fair and singing the National Anthem before a Royals' game. They must have brought even the Royals good luck as they won that night. It was a good year in general for Tiger athletics as the girls won the GRC in softball that year as well.
Coach Mark Fletcher, after an initial 7-2 campaign with Jon Adwell and Craig Hunt, had two 4-6 years. But in 1994, Chuck Borey became the defensive coordinator for the team and Fletcher made three changes that turned out well. He committed to the spread offense, platooned a lot more players, meaning more rest during games, and began in-season weights. That team went 8-2 that year.
The passing game was already there for the Tigers; P.J. Sanders produced eye-popping passing numbers including a school record 401 yards passing in a single game in 1992 against West Nodaway. But in 1994, two stats were critical in the team's improvement -- the running game and defense. The running game got much better in 1994, allowing Worth County to diversify their attack. And the defense, which had given up a lot of points in 1992 and 1993, got much better as well as the Tigers gave up a lot fewer points per game in 1994. The result was an 8-2 campaign. In weeks 8 and 9 against North Nodaway and King City that year, the Tigers went up against the once-beaten Mustangs as well as the Wildkats, which had beaten Worth County each of the last two years. Worth County traveled to King City and beat them handily 48-6 and then ended the North Nodaway game at halftime, 58-12. Two other teams that had beaten the Tigers in the past, Craig and South Holt, were down that year and Craig would never win more than 5 games in a season after 1993.
In 1995, former powerhouse teams West Nodaway and Fairfax graduated most of their players; they were both still good, but not the caliber of team that Worth County was. It was a golden opportunity for Worth County to finally claim the whole ball of wax. Despite being favorites, Worth County received plenty of stiff challenges along the way. Nodaway-Holt took on all the atmosphere of a playoff game despite Worth County's 50-point win early in the season; South Holt revived in 1995 and Worth County needed a goal line stand late to beat them. North Nodaway, despite missing some of their players, gave Worth County all they could handle before falling in overtime. Stanberry was played in sub-zero weather. While the Bulldogs were winless, it was the first of many games that Worth County would play against Dan Collins, the winningest coach in eight-man football besides Coach Borey.
The game against Nodaway-Holt, who had not lost a game since Worth County had beaten them earlier in the year, was played in snowy conditions. P.J. Sanders got off to a slow start, completing one out of his first four passes before ditching his gloves and settling down. In a lot of other years, the weather conditions have hurt the Tigers' chances; however, Coach Fletcher credited Bill Hauber, father of senior Brad Hauber, with bringing in a portable heater for the game. The players were able to warm up between series and the Tigers were able to pull off a back and forth 38-26 win over Nodaway-Holt. The North Andrew game looked like it would be a track meet as the game was tied at 20 in the third quarter. But the turning point of the state title game, played at Rickenbrode, was when Worth County marched the ball right back down and scored. Then, they kicked the ball into no-man's land and Chris Owens, one of the fastest players of the team, beat all of the North Andrew players to the ball and Worth County scored again to take a two-possession lead. That swung the momentum in Worth County's favor and they would go on to win 48-26 for the state title.
P.J. Sanders remembered the community support and the fact that the year flew by quickly. One of the main characteristics of the team was their ability to tune everything out and just play the game; that was how they were able to win all of their nailbiters that year.
No comments:
Post a Comment