After starting the 2012 season at 0-2 thanks to back-to-back losses to Austin Westlake and Abilene Cooper, Cedar Park has definitely turned things around. In the 15 games since that pair of setbacks, Joe Willis' Timberwolves have proceeded to win 15 straight contests and now find themselves squaring off against Lancaster (14-1) in the Class 4A Division II state championship game on Friday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Cedar Park's offense is led by junior quarterback Nate Grimm, who is also the team's leading rusher but he's more than ably assisted by senior running back Ethan Fry and sophomore back Chris Hutchings. One hallmark of their team during their current win streak has been stifling defense as the Cedar Park D has allowed more than 14 points in just two of their last 15 games. This is the school's first appearance in the state title game, a big source of pride for the program and Willis.
How does it feel to know you're going to be playing for a state title?
Willis: Well, it is an exciting time around Cedar Park. It's the first time we've had the opportunity to play for a state championship and to some degree, we have to keep all that in perspective and understand that while it is a very nice place to play and there's a lot of hype around the game, it's still a football game. Preparation is really important this week and keeping our kids focused, keeping their heads in the right place is equally important.
What do you know about Lancaster?
Willis: I know they're very athletic. Obviously, they've won a lot of games this year. So they know how to get it done on the field. I know they've got a couple of guys on offense that are stingers for them-Demarcus Ayers, their quarterback and plays a little bit of receiver as well whenever Nick Harvey's the quarterback. Both those guys are very dynamic. They make a lot of people miss and it doesn't take a lot of space for those guys to score on you. So we've got to do a good job as far as containing them. They also have on defense Daeshon Hall, who is an outstanding defensive end who obviously will be a great college player too. He plays with a great motor and he's very physically talented. They've got a lot of marquee players. They've got a lot of guys that can hurt you. So we've got our work cut out for us. We've got to do a good job this week in preparing for a quality football team.
One of these teams is going to win their first state title in school history. Are you and your players aware of what a historic matchup this is?
Willis: Well, I guess as far as the fans, the parents and maybe people from around the state that are in Lancaster and Cedar Park, that part of it may have a little bit more bearing than it really does for us. My challenge as a coach is making sure our kids understand this is no different than the previous five playoff games. There's not an elimination piece to it anymore, but at the same time we have to continually get ready to play our best football. That's what the playoffs are all about. What you don't want to do is get to that state championship game and put some label on it that it has more meaning to other people than it does for yourself. That's what we've impressed on our kids this week. This game is for a state title. It's for a state championship, but the team that wins is going to be the team that goes out and puts the best game on the field for 48 minutes.
Talk about the 15-game winning streak your team is currently on.
Willis: Well, the first few games of the year are kind of anomalies to us. We had a lot of kids injured. We had eight starters out of the game at one time or another in the first week against a very good [Austin] Westlake team. We went out, we played well early on and as the night went on, we got some of those injuries. We had a lot of younger kids that had to get in and contribute. At the time, those are kind of hard growing pains, but it has paid off because what has happened over the early part of the season, playing teams like Austin Westlake, Abilene Cooper and Round Rock Westwood, who are all very good teams and made a run in the playoffs, even Harker Heights, who made the 5A state playoffs, when you play teams like that you get tested. You learn about yourself, what you do well, what you need to improve on. That's what our guys did. We grew up a lot the first four ballgames. We started our second season, our district season off and we were able to win six in a row and win our district championship. To me, what has made our team is the way we worked throughout that district run. The 25-4A district we're in is a quality district that has a lot of great football teams, not only teams that made good runs in the playoffs, but really when you look at the four playoff teams we had in our district, they're all capable of playing for a state championship. Ironically, the team that did not make the playoffs last year in Vandergriff was a playoff-quality type team and they would have made a deep run as well. So it was a dogfight every week much like the playoffs are. We had to go work every week, put a good plan together and we had to stay focused on what's right in front of us right now. We learned how to do that in District 25-4A. We carried that type of philosophy over to our playoff run and that's served us well.
Talk about how much Nate Grimm means to your team.
Willis: Well, he's where our offense start and he's done a tremendous job of maturing and growing up over the course of the year. He's one of those players, he comes in this year and this is really only his second year to play quarterback. He was a receiver and spent time at quarterback last year on the JV. He comes in and replaces the winningest quarterback in this program's history in Brian Hogan. Early in the year, he had to learn some things. He had to grow up and there were some rough roads there but to his credit he put his nose to the stone. He kept grinding. He kept going and he's made himself into the leader he is today. He's made himself into a guy that's a dual threat. He's run for 222 yards in the playoffs against [Kerrville] Tivy and of course he's had multiple 200-yard passing games this year, had two touchdown passes the other day and another one dropped. He's done an outstanding job of growing up as a quarterback and a guy that we can trust to make decisions in our offense and that's what I'm most pleased in. The great news about it is that he's not done growing. He gets better every week. We feel like he hasn't reached his best game yet. Hoping that he's saving that for this Friday.
But Grimm isn't your only offensive weapon. Ethan Fry and Chris Hutchings also do their fair share. Talk about them and their contributions.
Willis: Well, no question that we've got some other weapons around Nate and Ethan Fry's another young man that I'm proud of and proud to see the way he's grown this year. His sophomore year was a quarterback and in our offense we run a lot of option game, a lot of run game with him and last year he played a lot of running back for us. This year, we asked him to step into a little different role. He was more of a running back/receiver type slot player for us and he also played some quarterback for us and runs some of the same things he did as a sophomore on the JV. Couldn't be more pleased with him, he is a dynamic threat in the passing game and the run game. He's an electric player who can score any time he touches the ball. We obviously have thrown more passes to him than anybody else, but he does more for us than just that. He's a guy that we feel like we can move around. You can't really get a good feel for where he's going to be in our offense. That part of it I'm really pleased with. As far as Hutchins, he came in as a sophomore, came in early in the season. We had an injury to our leading returning rusher in Thomas Middleton, who is a junior this year. Chris [Hutchings] came in and served the role and was our leading rusher throughout district and now has kind of stepped into a backup role there. We continue to use him and not only those two, but also have Thomas Middleton back now in the rotation as a starter at fullback. That's been a huge boost for us. We have guys like Nathan Harwell, who are utility players who again can go out and run a route and catch the ball. He's had several touchdown catches this year and also run the ball out of the backfield. Sam Brock's another guy, he's a receiver for us who has really grown up and had two touchdown catches the other day. We have a lot of kids that are good weapons and unselfish guys too and guys that are willing to come out and do their job. They're going to block for each other when they're not carrying the ball and then they're going to do their part to help the school when we are giving them the ball. Couldn't be more pleased with our offensive guys, just the mentality of them, how they approach the game and look at it as a team effort that for me as a coach is really rewarding.
As great as your offense has been, how crucial has your defense been during this run to the state title game?
Willis: Well, I'd say without question as far as being heroes that haven't been talked about a lot, our defensive group as a unit they draw a lot of attention as a unit. They kind of have a nickname, Black Rain. They draw pride in the fact that they play so hard. As a group, there's not a lot of individuals you look at in there and go 'wow'. But as a team and a unit, they're a bunch of kids that are really playing hard out there on defense. I think probably if you just looked at it across the board, whether it'd be in the secondary, we replaced a lot of kids in the secondary last year. We had a lot of kids that went off to play college football out of our secondary last year and all of a sudden, a group came in without any experience and they've done an outstanding job. The linebacker group's the same way. Jackson Paine is our leading returning tackler off of last year's team at mike linebacker. He's done an outstanding job leading that group. Those other linebackers all spot played last year and played on the JV. Chris Hutchins' brother, Thomas Hutchings, he has been an outstanding feature in our defense at outside linebacker just as a sophomore has done a great job. I would say overall, it's got to be the defensive group. They don't care about the individual success and the individual fame. They care about playing with a purpose and playing with a full heartbeat on defense and that shows up every week.
