Tribe's rally cry a distinct possibility

Nearly every athlete has goals.
That could be to run faster, jump higher or hit further.
Teams have goals too — win a certain amount of games, beat a rival team or make a deep postseason run.
In each of the last two seasons, the Fort Recovery High School football team has done what every other team does. Set goals.
For 2014, the goal was to make it to week 11; the playoffs.
Mission accomplished.
Last year, it was to make it to week 15; the state championship. The Indians did that too, and returned to Mercer County from Columbus with hardware.
Those goals are still in play this season, but they are secondary to what the Tribe wants to accomplish.
It’s what they ended practice with on Wednesday. And every other practice since the state championship in December. And it’s what they’ll break each practice until the goal is complete.
“MAC champs.”
How does a team that won a state title in just its second-ever playoff appearance improve?
Win the conference.
“Our focus is trying to keep moving forward as a program and build on what we’ve done and try to get better,” FRHS coach Brent Niekamp said earlier this month. “If we can sort of step into that top couple teams or top team in the (Midwest Athletic Conference) I think that will be the next step in moving forward as a program.
“But looking to take a step forward, we want to try to, I guess, establish ourselves as a program like Marion Local, like Coldwater.”
To be the best, you have to beat the best. Fort Recovery has never beaten the Marion Local Flyers or the Coldwater Cavaliers.
Could this be the year? Sure. But as every MAC team discovers year in and year out the Flyers and Cavs are forces to be reckoned with.
Coldwater and Marion Local each have four conference championships in the last 10 years. The Cavaliers and Flyers have combined to win the MAC each of the last four years. More impressively, they are almost as guaranteed to make the state title game than Usain Bolt is to win gold medals.
The Cavs are winners of four consecutive state championships, and five in the last 10 years. They were runners-up from 2009 to ’11, and have played for a state title in seven straight seasons.
Marion Local won four straight state championships from 2011 to ’14, and came up short in the title game last year. It has played for a state championship nine times in the last decade.
During three of Marion Local’s six state championship seasons in the last 10 years — 2014, 2013 and 2007 — it was also conference champion. Just two of Coldwater’s state titles — 2015 and 2012 — came the same season it won the MAC.
As Fort Recovery proved last year, failing to win the MAC isn’t a barometer for the postseason. It does, however, put teams through a gauntlet to help prepare them for a deep playoff run.
Last season, the Indians had the most overall wins (13) and MAC wins (six) in program history. They beat Anna for the first time, snapping an eight-game losing streak. They lost to Marion Local for the 21st time — the most FR has suffered to any one school — and avoided Coldwater because of the rotation of the MAC schedule.
So what’s to stop the Tribe from winning the program’s first conference title?
Themselves.
Coldwater lost 19 of its 22 starters from last season, but the Cavs never enter rebuilding mode. They simply reload. Fort Recovery will get an early look at Coldwater, traveling to take on the Cavs on Sept. 16.
“We are going to find out a lot about ourselves in that game,” Niekamp said. “We are excited for that one because we are excited for the chance to compete against a program that good.”
About a month later, the Indians host the Flyers on Oct. 14. Marion Local was ahead at halftime of the state championship last season before losing 22-20 to Kirtland. The Hornets proved the Flyers, who have lost just six games in five years, are not the unbeatable machine they so often seem to be.
FRHS senior quarterback Caleb Martin is confident the Tribe can fare better this season against the two teams the Indians have not yet beaten.
“We just have to trust each other when we get to those big games,” said Martin, who committed in March to play for the University of Toledo. “We have to trust the guy leading us, coach Niekamp, and we have to trust our system. Obviously it worked last year for us just a little bit. Hopefully we can get back to where we were last year playing at that high of a level against those teams.”
Each year, the MAC schedule is daunting. But just as the Indians accomplished their preseason goal each of the last two years, the same is achievable in 2016.
So when the clock strikes zero on the regular season finale Oct. 28 in St. Henry, the Tribe’s rallying cry is a distinct possibility.
“MAC champs.”