Ryly Jane Hambleton: Champions sprung from backyard games

 No comments  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By RYLY JANE HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star

For Howells coach Mike Speirs, the experience was as fresh and the excitement just as high on Thursday when his Bobcats won a state title as the first time he led the Bobcats to a state football championship.

Howells took home its seventh trophy after beating Axtell in the Class D-1 final. Other repeat champions were Pierce in Class C-1, which won its third title, and Class A champ Millard West, which won its second football trophy.

The other three —  Aurora in Class B, Blue Hill in C-2 and Ewing in D-2 — are celebrating their first title.

View Slideshow

In Ewing, there have been years spent preparing for this moment.

“We used to play in the yard every Saturday and Sunday,” said Randy Kaczor, father of Austin, a junior who had 11 tackles and 86 yards in receptions. “A lot of these kids on this team played in those games. It was a lot of fun.”

The Kaczor family also was represented in the game by senior quarterback and linebacker Brett Kaczor. His father, Terry, is Randy’s younger brother.

“Brett is the best. I couldn’t do this without him,” said Austin. “I’ve been playing with him in the yard since I was 5, and it carried here. We’ve always done sports together.”

Austin was first-team all-state in basketball last year and Brett was second-team. He admitted there was a little chatter about that.

“I gave him some grief about it, but I guess we come by that naturally,” he said. “My dad and his dad had that competitiveness. Both of our dads would play football in the yard with us, two-hand touch, and my dad always put us against each other and would try to throw a bad pass to make the game even.”

Randy Kaczor confessed that subterfuge.

“I fixed the games to keep it competitive,” he said with a grin. “I told them earlier this week that I did that and they said they already knew. I guess I wasn’t as good at disguising it as I thought.”

For Ewing, the football title was a continuation of celebration for the town. The Tigers’ girls won the Class D-2 state volleyball title last week, the Ewing girls’ basketball team won championships the last two years and the boys’ basketball team won in 2006.

“Our girls took home state last week, and we had to come out here and put on our own show for our town here,” said Brett, a senior. “There was no way we were going to let them brag us up for having a state championship, and now we have two this fall.”

For coach Brock Eichelberger, the victory gives him current bragging rights.

“We’re kind of known as a basketball school, so this is fun. I’ll be able to give Greg Appleby (basketball coach) a little grief now,” Eichelberger said.

Third time a charm

After two straight years of finishing as the runner-up in Class C-2, Blue Hill coach Scott Porter said he and his staff agonized over preparations for this year’s game.

“After Sunday night, we were beating our heads against the wall,” he said. “On Monday I sat down and looked at it some more and said, ‘You know, it’s not as overwhelming as it looks.’ And Tuesday night, I got home with my family and my defensive backs coach called and said he just didn’t feel right about it.

“I went over and I said we just need to go to our base defense and follow the rules we followed all year long. That’s what got us here and that’s what we did. We made a few adjustments, like going with motion, but that’s about it.”

It proved to be a good move. The Bobcats earned a 14-0 victory over Archbishop Bergan for the school’s first championship.

Lessons learned

When McCook handed Aurora its hat on Sept. 11 to the tune of 42-7, the Huskies had to go back to the drawing board.

It wasn’t a complete overhaul, but there were some big changes in attitude.

“There was a lot of learning what effort really means in the games and in practice. Understanding what going all out on every play means,” said Aurora coach Randy Huebert. “We run more option out of the gun and this kid, Tyler McDonald, just keeps getting better.

“He just kept getting better. Tyler makes his reads, knows our offense and he understands the game.”

Reach Ryly Jane Hambleton at 473-7314 or rhambleton@journalstar.com.