Clint Young was a hard guy to get hold of this past weekend. It wasn’t, in fact, until after 8 p.m. Sunday that I was able to raise the Greensburg coach on his cell—the first time since an unexpected, inexplicable loss to a 2-5 Skyline team Friday night he’d sat down to do anything other than game plan for Thursday night’s showdown with district leader Macksville.
After getting home from Pratt Friday Young broke down the Skyline tape till 2 a.m., then rose early to meet Macksville Coach Dan Grizzell shortly after sunrise Saturday to exchange tapes. He and assistants Peter Kern and Steve Heft then spent the rest of Saturday and the first couple hours of Sunday morning breaking down tape of four Mustang games, resulting in 207 pages of defensive reports, which they then boiled down to 20 pages for presentation to their players during a five-hour skull session Sunday afternoon.
If Greensburg loses to the ‘Stangs, it won’t be for lack of preparation, and in talking to Young Sunday night it was easy to conclude the workaholic weekend was a way to cope with the disastrous loss to the Thunderbirds—a game the Rangers and all of Kiowa County had figured for the win column, especially after Greensburg took a 24-0 lead into half time.
Two botched punts and a squibbed kickoff that caromed off the shoulder of front-line return team member Cody Headrick and into the waiting arms of a T-Bird gave the hosts enough short-field opportunities to begin a slow, but steady comeback. The final dagger into the Rangers’ heart was what appeared to most a poor pass by Headrick from his own 20 that resulted in a pick-six by Skyline backer Trent Befort, that gave Skyline a 26-24 lead with eight minutes to go.
While Young was chewing Headrick on the sideline for what looked to be a poor read, his intended receiver, Ty Schaef, was explaining to defensive coach Steve Heft the umpire had backed into him as he was about to reach for the pass, effectively taking him out of the play and allowing the ball to sail into Befort’s hands.
“Neither Ty nor Steve said anything to me at the time, but I could see on tape what had happened,” Young said. “I guess I owe Cody an apology, because it wasn’t his fault. He made the right read, the right throw. It’s not his fault the umpire decided to take his receiver out. It’s one of those plays that makes you wonder, ‘What else can go wrong?’”
With Jetmore’s equally inexplicable 20-point loss Friday to a St. John team the Rangers had pasted by 48 points two weeks earlier, Thursday’s game with the Mustangs easily becomes the biggest game Greensburg’s five seniors have ever played. If Greensburg wins they emerge the district champ with a 4-1 record. If the Rangers lose and Skyline loses as well at Jetmore, Greensburg still goes to the playoffs as the second team out of the district. If, however, Skyline beats the ‘Horns while Greensburg loses to Macksville, the Thunderbirds would go to the playoffs with a 4-5 record while the Rangers would sit at home after having started district play 3-0.
If Jetmore had beaten St. John, however, Thursday night’s results would have no bearing on who would go to postseason, since a three way tie between the ’Horns, Rangers and ‘Birds would result from a Skyline win in Hodgeman County—the tie being broken on the basis of points, in which Greensburg holds a commanding lead.
As it is, however, it simply comes down to Greenburg needing to beat the third of three “giants” (as Young calls them) it has struggled against in recent years. The first two—Jetmore and Spearville—were defeated by a combined score of 106-60. Now the third, a recent state champ and perennial playoff competitor stands in the way of Greensburg making its first postseason appearance since 1994. And all because the Rangers lost to a comparative dwarf Friday night.
“After the game Friday I didn’t have much to say to them,” Young said. “I think we were all in shock. It’s tough to have anything positive to say after a game like that. You start wondering what your future holds for you after things had looked so promising. You know that if you’d won that game you just played—a game you should have won—then you don’t have to worry about having to win Thursday.
“But that’s over. Now our backs are against the wall. We still control our own destiny. We don’t want to sit back and cheer for Jetmore to win.
“We haven’t had the same sense of urgency since beating Jetmore. It’ll be interesting to see if we have that again Thursday night. We wanted to go out three weeks ago and play Jetmore and take care of business. We need to want to do the same thing against Macksville.”
|
|
|
Clint Young was a hard guy to get hold of this past weekend. It wasn’t, in fact, until after 8 p.m. Sunday that I was able to raise the Greensburg coach on his cell—the first time since an unexpected, inexplicable loss to a 2-5 Skyline team Friday night he’d sat down to do anything other than game plan for Thursday night’s showdown with district leader Macksville.
After getting home from Pratt Friday Young broke down the Skyline tape till 2 a.m., then rose early to meet Macksville Coach Dan Grizzell shortly after sunrise Saturday to exchange tapes. He and assistants Peter Kern and Steve Heft then spent the rest of Saturday and the first couple hours of Sunday morning breaking down tape of four Mustang games, resulting in 207 pages of defensive reports, which they then boiled down to 20 pages for presentation to their players during a five-hour skull session Sunday afternoon.
If Greensburg loses to the ‘Stangs, it won’t be for lack of preparation, and in talking to Young Sunday night it was easy to conclude the workaholic weekend was a way to cope with the disastrous loss to the Thunderbirds—a game the Rangers and all of Kiowa County had figured for the win column, especially after Greensburg took a 24-0 lead into half time.
Two botched punts and a squibbed kickoff that caromed off the shoulder of front-line return team member Cody Headrick and into the waiting arms of a T-Bird gave the hosts enough short-field opportunities to begin a slow, but steady comeback. The final dagger into the Rangers’ heart was what appeared to most a poor pass by Headrick from his own 20 that resulted in a pick-six by Skyline backer Trent Befort, that gave Skyline a 26-24 lead with eight minutes to go.
While Young was chewing Headrick on the sideline for what looked to be a poor read, his intended receiver, Ty Schaef, was explaining to defensive coach Steve Heft the umpire had backed into him as he was about to reach for the pass, effectively taking him out of the play and allowing the ball to sail into Befort’s hands.
“Neither Ty nor Steve said anything to me at the time, but I could see on tape what had happened,” Young said. “I guess I owe Cody an apology, because it wasn’t his fault. He made the right read, the right throw. It’s not his fault the umpire decided to take his receiver out. It’s one of those plays that makes you wonder, ‘What else can go wrong?’”
With Jetmore’s equally inexplicable 20-point loss Friday to a St. John team the Rangers had pasted by 48 points two weeks earlier, Thursday’s game with the Mustangs easily becomes the biggest game Greensburg’s five seniors have ever played. If Greensburg wins they emerge the district champ with a 4-1 record. If the Rangers lose and Skyline loses as well at Jetmore, Greensburg still goes to the playoffs as the second team out of the district. If, however, Skyline beats the ‘Horns while Greensburg loses to Macksville, the Thunderbirds would go to the playoffs with a 4-5 record while the Rangers would sit at home after having started district play 3-0.
If Jetmore had beaten St. John, however, Thursday night’s results would have no bearing on who would go to postseason, since a three way tie between the ’Horns, Rangers and ‘Birds would result from a Skyline win in Hodgeman County—the tie being broken on the basis of points, in which Greensburg holds a commanding lead.
As it is, however, it simply comes down to Greenburg needing to beat the third of three “giants” (as Young calls them) it has struggled against in recent years. The first two—Jetmore and Spearville—were defeated by a combined score of 106-60. Now the third, a recent state champ and perennial playoff competitor stands in the way of Greensburg making its first postseason appearance since 1994. And all because the Rangers lost to a comparative dwarf Friday night.
“After the game Friday I didn’t have much to say to them,” Young said. “I think we were all in shock. It’s tough to have anything positive to say after a game like that. You start wondering what your future holds for you after things had looked so promising. You know that if you’d won that game you just played—a game you should have won—then you don’t have to worry about having to win Thursday.
“But that’s over. Now our backs are against the wall. We still control our own destiny. We don’t want to sit back and cheer for Jetmore to win.
“We haven’t had the same sense of urgency since beating Jetmore. It’ll be interesting to see if we have that again Thursday night. We wanted to go out three weeks ago and play Jetmore and take care of business. We need to want to do the same thing against Macksville.”
