Bloomington High School North, Nikean, 2011, Page 85

Description:	Record Setting CinderellaOne teams journey to making history.Looking through a blur of tears the North football playerscould see disappointment and heartache on the faces of theirteammates, fans and coaches. Kneeling in their post-gamehuddle, the players listened to the cheers of the team who had justdefeated them and secured a spot at state. As tears continued andsadness set in, the boys turned to their coach to see what words hehad to share with them.Head Coach, Scott Bless, told them that he was proud that theywere one of the four best high school football teams in the state:something no other North team had accomplished.Theyve all put in such hard work, Bless said. Some of theseguys have been working towards this season since the winter of09.All year the team aimed toward success in the post-season.This summer all we did was condition, it was my hardestsummer, junior Carl Sonnefeld said. Every time we broke itdown, we yelled champs, so this was ingrained in our minds. Wehad to be champs.Despite their pre-season efforts, the start of the season was rough.With a record of 3-6 in the regular season the team needed a bigcomeback.\| We had a pretty tough season, so post-season was our secondchance, senior DAngelo Roberts said.With a desire to be great and hours of hard work, the teammanaged to pull off wins in sectionals and regionals, which landedthem a spot in semi-state. The boys found themselves facingLawrence Central for a chance to play in the state finals. They drewinspiration from many sources.Before the game, Coach K, told us all a story about his highschool football team, Sonnefeld said. He was in almost the samesituation in high school. His team had a goal that if they werentgoing to win state, neither was their opponent. That was mymotivation during the game, we arent rolling over for you. Even ifwe know were going to lose, were still going hard on every playThey fought hard on every play, but it wasnt enough. TheCougars Cinderella season came to an end with a mixture of pridefor what they had accomplished, sadness not to be advancing tosemi-state and perhaps most of all sorrow that they would nolonger be a team.It wasnt necessarily disappointment, everybody was sad that wecouldnt spend one more week together, Sonnefeld said. I loveeverybody on that team. It just hurt knowing that you werentgoing to see the team in the same way anymore. It was the end ofthe greatest team in North history...so far.Story by Rose Cowant was a long drive so there was alot of time to think about the game.It gave me time to think about theplays that might happen. The lockerroom is always the most intensebefore the game.Lucas Williams, 11A player, coach and fanshare their experiences at theRegional Title gameI was stressed out. It was a closegame. Momentum went bothways, back and forth throughoutthe game. I felt confident that theoffense would score and that thedefense would stop them.Scott Bless, head coachIt wass unbelievable. To win wasthe icing on the cake. We allrushed the field and crowdedaround the players. It was reallycool.Dan Varns, 12Listening to head coach Scott Bless after the North versusSouth football game, sophomore Jacob Clark stands withhis team on the field. I was upset because we lost, Clarksaid. And I couldnt play.Photo by Kasey Edie000
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomnorth/id/7078
Collection:	Bloomington High School North

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