High School Football: Toledo rolls into State title tilt undefeated and undeterred
Talking Trophies – Riverhawks rev it up one more time for 2B state championship game at Husky Stadium
Jordan Nailon for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com
Prep Football / State Championship Preview
It would be easy to look at the No.1 ranked and undefeated Toledo football team and assume that things have gone perfectly this season, and entirely according to plan. But to make that assumption would be both foolish and a disservice to the work going on behind the scenes.
Let’s take Thanksgiving Day for example. It’s a day where only four prep teams (per classification) across the state of Washington are still practicing on the gridiron, and it has long been considered an honor to have earned the right to sacrifice time with family in order to put in some more work with the boys. But that doesn’t mean the Toledo boys had a particularly good time while they were there.
To the contrary, Toledo head coach Mike Christensen bemoaned his team’s effort and attention to detail in the days leading up to last week’s semifinal affair with Okanogan. That practice ended early, but not before extra conditioning and a challenge to be better the next day.
And if you just look at the final score from last Saturday, when the Riverhawks dispatched the two-time defending State champion Bulldogs 24-8 at Laulainen Stadium in Kelso, then you might be inclined to believe that the Cheese Town gang learned all of its lessons and heard everything the coaching staff had to throw at them.
But once again, you’d be mistaken.
“I think our Friday practice was awesome, but I don’t know. Probably not,” Christensen said. “As a coach you’re always telling kids stuff and they’re going to be themselves. That’s kind of what these guys are. They love to piss me off and push me until I gotta yell at them, and then we all laugh about it.”
And to be sure, that dynamic is part of the charm for this historic Toledo squad, which is now just hours away from the school’s first appearance in a State championship football game since 1996.
“We talk about brotherhood, we talk about a family, and this is a family. Brothers piss each other off. Kids piss parents off. And that’s what this is,” Christensen said. “If I’m not getting annoyed by them then something’s wrong with our practice. So, they’re doing exactly what close groups do. You get get annoyed with each other. You spend a lot of time with each other. And you love each other and you defend each other until the end.”
And for the seniors on this year’s team, the end is near. The only question is if it will be the sort of finale you find in storybooks.
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