About two months ago, the Warsaw Tiger football team was not playing its best ball. Two straight last-second losses to Concord and rival Plymouth all but eliminated the Tigers from the Northern Lakes Conference title race and dropped their record to 3-3. Fast forward to right now, and the team (10-3) is gearing up to take the field in the IHSAA 5A State Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis against Decatur Central.
“The kids have gotten up off of the canvas from week seven and onward. They were counted out but answered the challenge that we put out there, both physically and mentally,” Warsaw head coach Bart Curtis said Monday at the coaches meetings down in Indy. “This could have gone either way, but they have learned and continue to learn how to handle hard better.”
This is Curtis’ second trip to the state finals, the first coming in 2012 as the head coach of Mishawaka. The Cavemen lost that game 56-29 to Indianapolis Cathedral. When asked about the differences between the two experiences, he mentioned doing things a little differently this time around.
“Even though it’s an exciting week for kids and adults, we want to keep the outside distractions to a minimum. It’s easy to get caught up in the other stuff,” Curtis said. “People mean well. They want to talk to the kids, they want to feed us, which we’ll always take. I’m committed to the kids enjoying it, but I’m also committed to keeping our eyes on the main thing.”
The improbable run that the team has gone on, defeating the top three teams in the state in the last three weeks, has earned the team the “Cinderella” label, at least according to the news release issued to the media leading up to the games. Curtis doesn’t seem to mind.
“Find me the slipper. I’m more like Gus Gus, the little rat,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve been called a whole lot of worse things. I only care about what the right people have to say about me, and that’s my coaches and players.”
Next up on the list is the No. 4 team in the state and the representatives from the southern half of the bracket, Decatur Central (10-2). Once again, a trophy is on the line. Once again, it’s one that Tiger football has never won before. This time, it’s the biggest one of them all.
“They’re a really really good football team. Highly skilled, quite a few kids who have gotten Division I offers. They play a brand of football that can make you look foolish in all three phases if you’re not paying attention to minor details,” Curtis said. They’ve got guys that can catch a three yard pass and turn it into a three yard touchdown. They have a lot of great schemes on both sides of the ball and they can be a problem.”
The head coach of the Hawks, Kyle Enright, was quick to praise his opponent as well.
“Warsaw is well coached. Coach Curtis is a legend. He does a great job with his flexbone offense and getting his kids to play physical and hard,” he said. “They’re a great football team that’s going to play tough and try to keep you off the field. They can hold the ball for an entire quarter if you let them.”
Decatur Central is back at Lucas Oil for the second straight season. Last year, the Hawks fell 33-6 to champions Fort Wayne Snider and had to settle for the runner up spot. The representatives from the south have had to play some tough teams of their own on their way back to Lucas Oil, taking down No. 5 Plainfield in the sectional title game and No. 9 East Central in the regional. Decatur Central beat Bloomington South 27-13 last week in the Semi-State.
“When they walked off that field last year with tears in their eyes and red ribbons around their necks I think they decided right there that they were going to get back and win that blue one,” Enright said. “They knew the type of work it was going to take to get that done, and they put that in. We have 14 starters back from last season and they have been huge for us.”
Warsaw has been a jack of all trades this season, sitting sixth in 5A in points scored per contest (34.2) as well as seventh in points given up (18.3). In the playoffs, that offense has turned it up to the next level, scoring 31 at Concord, 44 against Lafayette Jefferson and 31 against Merrillville. Quarterback Drew Sullivan has overcome some early season injuries and put together a whale of a playoff run, running for 599 of his 908 yards and four of his nine touchdowns on the ground over the last three games. His biggest performance came in the regional round against Jefferson, when he torched the Bronchos for 310 yards on the ground and also threw a 25-yard touchdown pass.
“Here’s how I can put this: You’re interviewing me and I’m the one sitting here in Indianapolis. He’s the one that should be sitting here right now. He knows this offense as well as most of the coaches on the staff. He has ingrained himself into who we are and what we do,” Curtis said to praise his signal caller. “He gets us out of uncomfortable situations and unfavorable play calls, and even gets us from a good play call to an even better one. His calm and quiet leadership has been a big factor. You can have that, but if you can’t back it up on Friday nights when the clock’s ticking, you don’t have the whole package. He can back it up with his play.
Quinton Brock filled in at quarterback when Sullivan missed time with an injury, leading the team in both touchdown runs (10) and passes (6). Speedster Tucker Reed is tied with Sullivan for second on the team with nine scores on the ground. The team’s leading receiver, Ethan Egolf, has caught 19 balls for 300 yards and five touchdowns this year.
The defense has been just as good. The Tigers held Merrillville scoreless in the second half of the Semi-State game. Jefferson, the No. 1 scoring team in the state in 5A, only managed 14 points in the second half, six of them in garbage time. Concord, the No. 3 scoring team, managed just seven points in the final 24 minutes.
Matthew Flores Ortega leads the team with 90 tackles and 10 sacks. Ball hawk Tristan Wilson has six interceptions this season and set the school record last week with 10 in his career. Cohen Heady played perhaps the best game of his life last Friday, snatching two interceptions, one for a touchdown, as well as coming up with the game-sealing sack. Warsaw has given up a few long touchdowns to some very talented players, but for the most part, they have stood strong when it mattered most.
“I wanna give a lot of credit to our defensive coordinator Jake Cauhom. The calmness in which he has dealt with the long runs, or us not tackling well in the open field. With how much we’ve improved in those areas, a lot of credit goes to him,” Curtis said. “Keep in mind the guys on the other sidelines are scheming their kids too and they have some really talented guys. A lot of the time it comes down to a bad fit or one missed tackle.”
One player that Curtis mentioned specifically as one who has improved leaps and bounds this season was Gavin Schultz, who came up with a big fumble recovery in last week’s win. The senior has 72 tackles and three sacks this season.
“This is a guy that was a junior varsity player as a junior. He’s on every special teams play. He’s an eye raiser,” he said. “This is a guy who plays multiple sports, never misses an opportunity in the weight room and comes out and practices hard every day.”
Offensively, Decatur Central is led by signal caller Bo Polston, who has thrown for over 2,000 yards and 21 touchdowns this season. His top receiver is Kasmir Hicks, who has 841 receiving yards this season and eleven touchdown receptions. The Hawks have three different running backs with at least five touchdowns on the ground this season, led by Fa’Rel Carter, who is first on the team in both scores (6) and yards (580). Brayden Smith leads the team in tackles with 148, while Mykul Campbell has come up with 14 sacks.
While the Tigers have been playing their best ball in the weeks leading up to the championship game, Curtis has used his final week of practice to make sure they keep getting better.
“We need to remember who we are and what got us to this position. We need to make sure we’ve got the details down, because that’s what a game like this can come down to,” he said. “We try to build our programs on the little things. Things that sometimes kids can forget in the heat of the moment.”
Obviously, the championship trophy is the main goal on Saturday night, but it’s not the only thing that Coach Curtis hopes his players take out of the experience.
“I want them to be better husbands, better husbands and better men 20, 30, 40 years from now because of the experience they had with the Warsaw Tiger high school football program,” he said. “I wouldn’t be sitting here today if I hadn’t had a positive experience in 1980 as a member of the NorthWood Panther football team. If that experience hadn’t been so positive, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.
The Tigers and Hawks square off at 7 p.m. on Saturday night with the 5A title on the line.