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Editorial: Great football continues
Op-Ed · November 28, 2014
West Branch Football yearns for the Dome again.
It seemed within reach this year, with a team so strong across the board, from offense to defense to special teams.
So when the Bears fell in the second round of the playoffs, reality dealt a terrible blow. We wish it wasn’t so.
But, oh, to look back on this amazing year, we know the boys in red-and-black gave it their all, setting new records and keeping the bar set high for themselves and all future teams who wish to join the proud history and tradition of the program.
Some teams wish for a few wins, or a winning season, or a chance to play in the postseason. West Branch sets its goals high, like another state championship.
Just like wealth isn’t indicative of greed, a state championship isn’t indicative of selfishness. It’s a reward for hard work. It’s evidence of hard work. The challenge is that there is only one team who can have it, and one dropped football can bounce in unexpected ways.
Yet West Branch gave us so much other evidence of their hard work that without great difficulty we can provide some of that here:
• Finishing the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record to earn the District 5 Championship outright.
• Making it to the second round of the state playoffs and finishing the season with a 10-1 overall record.
• Earning Top 5 rankings in the Des Moines Register, Associated Press and Sports Spotlight.
• Players who earned a 3.25 grade point average or higher were given Academic All-District Awards: Sam Aspelmeier, Matt McIlrath, Jacob Graves, Ian Andrews, Hunter Wargo, Cooper Kabela, Brandon Rummelhart and Billy Friis.
• Quarterbacks Lucas Lamont and Hunter Wargo passed the ball for a combined 1,689 yards this season, beating a school record for team passing set in 2005 when the quarterbacks threw the ball for 1,669 yards.
• Devin Kindon kicked 56 extra points this season, beating a school record of 48 points-after-touchdowns set in 2012. Kindon also kicked 50 PATs in a row in a streak that started in 2013. Also, those 56 PATs in 2014 beats a team record of 51 PATs set during the 1994 season.
• The team held Wilton to -39 yards of passing, the least allowed by an opponent in school history, breaking a record set in 1992. In that same game, Wilton was held to -16 yards total, beating a team record of holding Durant to 22 yards in 1999.
• Luke Lenoch ran for a 93-yard touchdown against Durant earlier this season, which tied a record by Cole Kelly in 2009, then ran for a 94-yard touchdown against Sigourney-Keota in the first round of playoffs, setting a new school record.
• Lenoch carried the ball 40 times against North Cedar, breaking a school record of 39 set by Brad Bartelt in 1983.
• Lenoch became the first player in school history to rush for more than 2,000 yards, finishing the season with 2,105 yards. Cole Kelly in 2009 ran for 1,994 yards, the previous single-season rushing record. Reminder: Lenoch is only a sophomore.
• Matt Shawver caught for 155 receiving yards against Durant, tying a record set by Tyler Donovan in 2013.
• The Bears had two games where their total yardage made the Top 5 in school history. Against Sigourney-Keota, West Branch rolled up 546 yards, which is fourth of all time yardage in a single game. Against Durant, the Bears tallied up 558 yards, which is second of all time.
• Lucas Lamont is the first passer to throw for more than 1,500 yards in back-to-back seasons.
• Luke Lenoch ran for 324 yards against North Cedar, beating a school record of 321 set by Cade Jones in 2012.
• Lenoch and Lamont are the first 1,500-plus rush/1,500-plus pass combination in school history.
• Head Coach Butch Pedersen now has a career win-loss record of 270-68, meaning his teams have won 80 percent of the games they have played.
• Pedersen’s teams have played 54 playoff games with a 35-19 record, winning nearly 65 percent of those games.
• Lenoch and Jacob Giese were unanimous picks by district coaches for Most Valuable Running Back and Most Valuable Defensive Lineman, respectively.
• West Branch had 13 players named to All-District teams, with six of those on the First Team.
The Bears football program has become steeped in tradition and likes to remember past teams and their glorious contributions to a rich history. So perhaps the fact that this year they marked the 25th anniversary of the 1989 state championship team — the school’s first of three state championships — the West Branch players felt all the more driven to repeat that performance.
The fact that they made a terrific effort to do so paves the way for future teams — perhaps even next year’s team — to continue to aim for those sky-high goals.
So congratulations to the West Branch High School Bears football program on another fantastic year, and best wishes on continuing a healthy and proud tradition for years to come.
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