An Unlikely Champion

Haley's High school had a dismal football team. For the past few years their football team had not won a game. In fact, up until this season, they had lost 23 games in a row. Since they only play about 8 games a year, this means that they had not won a game in YEARS. An not only were they loosing - they were getting KILLED. Most games we lost BADLY.

This season our football team got a brand new coach. He told the team that the only thing they needed to do was "believe". He brought in a new offensive strategy. We ran the ball on almost every play. The offensive line was so unique - you could hardly tell who had the ball. From the stands, with a birds eye view, it took a good 15 seconds to figure out which player was running with the ball - I can imagine it was even harder for the other team to figure it out.

So this season started out the same as the last. We lost our first game. Trounced 30 to 6. No big surprise. The new offense did not make a difference. We all figured this season would be like all of the rest. We do have quite a great fan base though - and even when our team was loosing, the stands were always filled with supportive parents, friends, fans, and classmates.

After the first loss, the coach was not concerned. He told the team that as long as they believed that they could win, it would happen. The second game we played our in-town rival, Idaho Falls HS, and low and behold we won. Not only did we win, we won big! 39 to 14 and every single touchdown we scored, we did by rushing - no passes. The new offensive strategy worked.

The third game - same thing, and the forth, fifth, and sixth. We were on a roll. We finished out the regular 8 game season with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss. We were heading to playoffs - for the first time in a very long time.

We sailed through the playoffs - winning most games by a very large margin. We were headed to the state championship game. A team that had not won in years was playing for the state championship. The students, family, and fans were all so excited! Last night was the big game - played at Holt Arena down in Pocatello.

What a game - Hillcrest won by a score of 55 to 35. It was close at times - tied 28 to 28 near the end of the third quarter, us up by 5 with 7 minutes left. Then our explosive offense - who just needed to "believe" took over and again, lead us to a huge victory.

Imagine that - a team that had not seen the left side of a win-loss column in almost 3 years, brought home the schools first ever championship title. I guess you can get anything as long as you "BELIEVE".