H&R Staff Writer
TUSCOLA - The thought of a former Little Okaw Valley Conference team running the table in the Okaw five years back would have been irrational.
The Okaw was steeped in tradition and stacked with larger schools that played better football.
Even when the LOVC talked about banishing mighty Tuscola and the Warriors joined the Okaw, it looked like another team that could compete, but not dominate. The 83-10 record Tuscola piled up in 12 years competing in the LOVC was going to be a thing of the past.
Tonight, Tuscola, the smallest school in the conference, has one final major hurdle - Class 2A No. 6 Maroa-Forsyth - on its way to a 9-0 mark against the Okaw. The Warriors finish the season with Meridian and Argenta-Oreana, teams that are a combined 1-11 so far.
That would be 9-0 with arguably the state's toughest Class 1A schedule. Wins would include Class 3A No. 3 Tolono Unity, then top-five Class 3A St. Teresa, then top-10 Class 1A Central A&M and the highly-regarded Trojans.
It would be something not even last year's state championship team or 2007's runner-up group could do.
"Quite honestly, it would be an amazing thing," Tuscola coach Rick Reinhart said of an undefeated season in the Okaw. "But at the start of every scouting report, it's business as usual. We have our toughest test coming (tonight)."
When Reinhart took over at Tuscola in 2008, he saw the level of competition the Okaw brought. He also saw the high level of training the Warriors were putting in during the offseason to position itself for success.
Just this past summer, Reinhart had 50 guys participating in summer workouts, which is the foundation for any successful season regardless of the league.
"I have always been at a small school in a big conference," Reinhart said. "It's not how many numbers you have; it's about having the right numbers.
"I just thought it was a situation that we would win. To dominate and win it all, no, not year-in and year-out."
Since joining the conference, Tuscola has the fourth-best regular-season record. It's had no less than six wins each season. Against the larger schools in the Black division, the Warriors are an impressive 13-3 with wins against every school.
"I knew when we went in we would be solid, but we happened to be blessed with a lot of kids who can play football and sometimes that doesn't happen in 1A," said Tuscola assistant Stan Wienke, who coached the Warriors during their first season in the Okaw. "But you didn't know how much of a beating you would take and if that would neutralize the talent we had.
"Luckily, we've been able to dodge that and kids have been able to step up into positions we need them to."
Maroa-Forsyth coach Josh Jostes was the first Okaw coach to lead his team past the Warriors. It pitted two spread teams and two highly ranked squads against each other in 2007. The Trojans outlasted Tuscola 35-28.
Up until a 28-0 beating last season, Jostes was one of just two coaches not to lose to Tuscola since it joined the conference.
"I am not surprised," Jostes said of Tuscola's success in the Okaw. "They are well coached and have some tradition. They continue to get the kids and work hard year round."
Any number of intangibles takes a team only so far. Sustaining success in one of the best football confer-ences in the state takes talent.
Throughout the past decade and certainly since Tuscola joined the Okaw, the Warriors have been ripe with athletes, and Reinhart's the first to bring that up.
"We have had a great run of talent," Reinhart said. "Let's be honest, it all starts with talent. That's the main thing."
The playoff run the Warriors are enjoying started in 1994 with the likes of NFLer Fred Wakefield. Then Dusty Burk, an Illinois State player, came through. During that first year of Okaw play, current Iowa quar-terback John Wienke was around.
"We knew the teams were bigger, but it was high school football," Wienke said about that first year in the Okaw. "The success isn't surprising because it's just a good situation.
"We want to win at all costs, and that's just how it goes at Tuscola. They put it in their mind that they al-ways want to win."
There's also a quality coaching staff that guides that talent every day on the field. The familiarity of the staff is a big plus that Stan pointed out. A lot of the same guys who were on his staff in the early '90s are still roaming the sideline for Reinhart.
"We have a pot-load of athletes, and the coaches are so consistent it makes it a lot easier," Wienke said. "Every time we graduate between nine and 20 players, the next guys take their spots and there isn't much of a difference.
"And this has been going on since the early '90s."
Even in that '07 season, when Tuscola fell in its seventh game of the season to the same opponent it faces tonight, Wienke made sure his team knew what was important - the postseason.
Just the same, Reinhart has his team hungry for another Okaw win, but understanding that the ultimate goal is taking home another trophy from Champaign as a Thanksgiving celebration.
"We're going to be as good as we can be," Reinhart said. "If that's good enough to win conference or state, and you have to be lucky to do that, then so be it."
lbridges@herald-review.com|421-6970
Published in the Herald & Review in October, 2010.
