Overcoming all odds

By Editor | December 22, 2015 |

DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Sophomore running back Cameron Wilcox prepares to celebrate Northwest’s national championship victory on Saturday, a 34-7 win over Shepherd at Sporting Park.

Every championship is served hot with a side of surrealism.

It doesn’t matter how many times a team has made it to the grandest stage, each and every trip has that dream-like quality that leaves fans, coaches, players, everybody waffling back and forth between enjoying the moment and pinching themselves to see if it’s real.

The Northwest football team, for the fifth time in program history, enjoyed that feeling on Saturday.

Head coach Adam Dorrel — like most coaches and players following a championship game — described it all as a dream. He, Brady Bolles, and Collin Bevins sat at a desk discussing with media members their 15-0 season, the work it took to get to that moment, and the previous three hours that led to a 34-7 shellacking of Shepherd.

How could that ever, for those three in the moment, feel real?

But what made this season a little different for Northwest — much different, really — were the preseason expectations. Nobody, outside of a handful of headstrong fans and likely the players themselves, really believed this was a championship roster in August.

Past champions in Northwest history had expectation upon their shoulders: The 1998 and 1999 teams were stacked, the 2009 team had destiny on its side after four consecutive title losses, and the 2013 team had multiple NFL-caliber players on the defensive side of the ball.

The 2015 edition didn’t carry that weight.

Friends, family, fans, readers asked me during the summer, during the fall scrimmage, and just before Game 1 if this was a team that could bring home an NCAA trophy.

“Nope.”

Lesson: Don’t ask me to grade the potential of football teams. (Please, don’t tar-and-feather me in the streets — I did see it as an MIAA champion with a deep playoff run in it.)

The thing is, though, I wasn’t alone. I can’t recall speaking with a single levelheaded person (see: Not a starry-eyed, diehard Bearcat fan) who saw this as a Division II champion.

That’s what’s so beautiful about this championship compared to the previous four. Northwest has transformed itself into such a powerhouse that even seasons that don’t appear to pack much promise can develop into something special.

Recall that Dorrel, now infamously, described his roster as a 7-4 team during an Aug. 4 MIAA media day session in the bowels of Sporting Park. Bolles took his opportunities after games this postseason to jab at his head coach for the preseason comment, an entertaining moment for those who follow the team and enjoy a special bond between coach and athlete.

The causes for such a separation from expectation and reality sit in plain sight. Whether or not Dorrel actually believed his team would go 7-4 might never be answered, but several key developments make that question obsolete.

Question No. 1 prior to this season involved Bolles’ receiving corps — the leading returner was George Sehl with 27 receptions for 306 yards and three scores in 2014. Sehl was predictably an important part of the offense in 2015, but it was the growth around him that transformed this team from defense-reliant to a balanced beast on both sides.

Freshman Shawn Bane Jr. took the MIAA by storm, hauling in a team-leading 82 catches for 1,207 yards and eight scores to earn Freshman of the Year honors in the league. Sophomore Jordan Grove developed into a versatile weapon, rushing 38 times for 170 yards and four scores while pulling down 47 catches for 597 yards and seven touchdowns. Sophomore Shane Williams served as a reliable red-zone threat, coming up with five receiving touchdowns on his 36 receptions and 525 yards.

Notice, that is a trio of underclassmen who reenergized an offense that looked bleak for most of Weeks 1 through 4.

Add the afore-mentioned defense — one that finished as the top unit in the country in points allowed per game, total defense, rushing yards allowed per game … the list goes on, really, in impressive team statistics. Bevins broke program season records in tackles for loss with 26.5 and sacks with 15.5, and now sits just 4.5 sacks behind Matt Longacre for the career mark. (While we’re here, let’s take a moment and applaud Jacob Vollstedt for also snapping the season sacks record with 13 — unfortunately for the junior linebacker, he had to compete with Bevins in the same season.)

But perhaps the most impressive individual performance came from the one offensive player carrying the weight of a family legacy on his shoulders — none other than Bolles himself.

It’s always easy to look back on a championship season and praise the quarterback. For years, we, as football fans, have shrouded the position with a hazy smog of hype — the QB receives all the love after a win, all the blame after a loss, and all the attention when attention isn’t necessary.

In this case, though, that attention is more than deserved for a player who deflects the light of praise like a mirror in the sun. Bolles surpassed older brother and 2009 champion Blake Bolles in total career offense for the top spot in Northwest history with 9,296 yards.

Brady finished third in the country this season with 3,981 passing yards, completing his tosses at a 61.4 percent clip for 30 touchdowns and just nine interceptions. Add his 248 net rushing yards and seven scores on the ground, and you’ve got the straw that stirs a championship drink.

To see those numbers for a player with the weight of the world on his shoulders — the family name, the expectations for a powerhouse program, the necessity of growing with a young receiving corps — adds another dose of surrealism to an already shockingly successful season.

Again, to say that in August we didn’t expect these Bearcats to lift a plaque in late December isn’t anything to be ashamed of. To steal a common phrase from Dorrel himself, it’s actually the greatest compliment football fans can give to a team when we say a group of players outperformed their expectations and, quite possibly, their abilities.

So the next time a Northwest roster appears thin on paper during the summer, we can’t be quite so shocked if those same players are standing on a stage at Sporting Park a few months later.