Ready for next step (10/26/06)

A program doesn't get rebuilt overnight.

Rebuilding is a process of setting goals and reaching goals, then setting new ones. And it takes years.

Jay County has taken many big steps over the course of the last five seasons after enduring 13 straight losing campaigns from 1989 to 2001. The first winning season in nearly a decade-and-a-half came in 2002, and the school's first Olympic Athletic Conference championship along with it.

Last year the team was plus-.500 again, earning a second conference title and proving 2002 was not an aberration. And now there are three OAC crowns and a guarantee of a third winning season in five years - consistency.

Now the Patriots feel ready to move to another level, ready to be one of the last two teams standing in the sectional.

"It's another stepping stone in school history that I want to accomplish," said senior linebacker Casey Waters after practice Wednesday. "The whole team wants to take that step. The ultimate goal is at least a sectional championship, if not more."

"I'm pretty confident," added junior receiver Justin Mann, expressing the feeling JCHS coach Shane Hill said his team has exuded all week. "I think we can do it. We're a good team."

Friday night's home game against the Muncie Central Bearcats at 7 p.m. will represent Jay County's fourth trip to the sectional semifinal round in the last five seasons. But appearances in the sectional championship game have been few and far between.

The Patriots have played for a sectional title just twice in school history - 1985 and 2000.

"We can take one step and put ourselves in a very elite group as far as Jay County football goes," said Hill. "Our ultimate goal is obviously to win the thing, and nobody has done that, but we can't go after that goal that no one's achieved until we take this one.

"For our program, many years down the road, this game could be big - for the confidence that it could bring to our younger kids that are going to experience this."

"I think this game means a lot to everybody," added senior fullback and defensive lineman Corey Comer. "Anybody you ask is going to say that ... I want to keep on playing, so I want to win."

For the first time in Hill's tenure, his Patriots enter the second round of the tournament as the team with the better record.

Jay County is on a roll, having won six of its last seven games for a 6-4 record after an 0-3 start. It's only loss since Sept. 1 came against Class 4A No. 5 Indianapolis Cathedral.

To stay on their hot streak, the Patriots will need to hold off Muncie Central's three main weapons - tight end Ryan Kerrigan and running backs Dominque Isom and Davyd Jones.

Kerrigan is an all-state talent committed to play at Purdue next season and has accounted for exactly half of junior quarterback Troy Johnson's completed passes. He has picked up 721 yards receiving this year and scored five touchdowns.

Isom is the team's top rusher with 845 yards and six touchdowns, and Jones, who also plays linebacker and is headed to Ball State next year, has picked up 555 yards and scored nine TDs.

Hill said the plan is to run at Jones a lot when he's on defense in an effort to wear him down. But, he added, stopping the tight end is the key to beating Muncie Central.

"Offensively, we've just got to make them put the ball in somebody else's hands," said Hill. "If they can beat us with some of their other weapons, without Kerrigan, then they're a pretty good football team. I think they need Ryan a lot in order for their offense to work. So if we take him away I think we've got a pretty good chance.

"And then we've got to take away the big play ... we've got to make them drive the ball down the field for every point that they get."

Jay County has some good offensive weapons of its own, with quarterback Billy Wellman (16 TDs) well over 1,000 yards passing. Mann has provided the sophomore with a reliable weapon, catching the ball 26 times for more than 500 yards.

Junior Sam Lyons has emerged by running for more than 200 yards over the last two games, including 132 in the opening-round win over Connersville, to give the Patriots three good runners along with Comer and junior Michael Jobe.

Hill, perhaps remembering his team had just one first-half touchdown when it last played Muncie Central in the first round of the 2004 sectional, is looking for his team to put together drives offensively to both put points on the board and help keep the defense rested.

"Three-and-outs for us, we can't have them," Hill said. "I'm not saying there won't be any, but it can't be the first six times we touch the ball. We've got to sustain something offensively right off the bat. We've got to make their defense defend us, instead of us defending ourselves - with penalties, with turnovers ..."

As the Patriots have won their last two games by a combined scored of 60-20, penalties have been one of the few negatives.

Jay County has been flagged more than 20 times for 200 yards in the last two weeks. A multitude of those calls have been for false starts and holding.

Hill said the team has used drills this week to try to correct the holding problems, and has worked with a variety of snap counts in order to keep the team sharp when it takes the field Friday. He and his players also hope the home crowd - this will be the Patriots first tournament game at home since the 2003 season - can help them overcome the Bearcats.

"I think it's going to feel amazing - senior year, playing in front of the home crowd in the second round of sectional," said Waters. "I'm going to love the atmosphere."[[In-content Ad]]