INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly two months ago, the state football tournament began with over 300 teams.
Only 12 remain.
The coaches from the 12 state finalists gathered Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium for a press conference, giving coaches a chance to meet one another and talk to the media about their upcoming championship clashes.
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That included sixth-year New Palestine coach Kyle Ralph and third-year Decatur Central coach Kyle Enright.
This is Ralph’s third time at the state finals, as his Dragons look to bring home a second state championship. Enright and the Hawks have never been on this stage.
“I think the great part about it is we’ve done it with such different kids each time, and such different teams each time, and that speaks really well to what your program is or what your program is becoming,” Ralph said. “It just speaks so much to how much work the kids put in, how much work the staffs puts in, to continue to keep us at this high level.”
Decatur Central is trying to maintain that high level after finally achieving some big tournament wins.
They’ve had good teams in the past — Enright is 29-6 in his three seasons as their coach — but couldn’t get that signature win once the postseason started. That changed this year.
“Getting over the hump of beating Cathedral in the sectional was huge for us. They’ve kind of owned us the past few years,” Enright said. “For us to go through legendary coaches (Bloomington South’s) Mo Moriarity and (Columbus East’s) Bob Gaddis two weeks in a row, and now a future Hall of Famer here with his record, Kyle Ralph, it just means that our kids are resilient, and they are tough. They fight. Up 7-0 against Bloomington South at the half, and we came back in the second half and dominated. Down 14-7 at Columbus East, defending state champions, we come out in the second half and dominate. It says a lot about the coaching staff, making adjustments, but even more about our kids, our resilience. They’ve done it all year.”
These have been the top two teams in Class 5A for most of the year. The Dragons maintained the No. 1 spot all season, while the Hawks started lower, moved up, briefly fell after their lone loss, and then reclaimed the No. 2 position.
New Palestine has done what the Dragons do on a weekly basis. They had the end goal in mind, but their laser-like focus on the game ahead has helped propel them to a 13-0 record.
“Our kids have done such a great job this year of every day of every week, showing up mission-oriented and focused,” Ralph said. “Each week to us is being 1-0, and our mission is not accomplished until Friday night’s over with and then we move on to the next opponent. Our kids have obviously had the bigger goal in their mind the whole year. I think they know that they are a special team. The best part about it is, they’re really happy with where we are and getting to this point, but they’re not satisfied with that.”
The Hawks used a slightly different mindset, a different motto, to help the team push past the brutal postseason stretch they’ve endured.
Decatur Central has had to go through three ranked teams in a row, taking down No. 6 Cathedral, No. 10 Bloomington South and No. 4 Columbus East to get here.
“I think what helps is we’ve preached to our kids all along that we’re not playing their history. We’re playing this team tonight,” Enright said. “I think that’s helped with our kids knowing that, yeah, we’re new to this stage, but we’ve always been tough and we’ve always been a good football team. We’ve just struggled to get that one win in the tournament to push us over the top. We feel good about getting over the top this year, finally.”
The Dragons struggled themselves the past few years to get the big tournament win they needed to propel forward, falling to Zionsville last year and Columbus East in 2016.
This year’s path wasn’t any easier, but these Dragons found a way to push past No. 7 Zionsville, 29-17, then get by a tough Harrison team and No. 3 Michigan City.
“We really challenged our guys this offseason and went against Cathedral, Lafayette Jeff, Noblesville, Bloomington South, East Central early on in the year to kind of see what we were made of. You could tell something special was going on then. I challenged our guys to continue to work to find out what made them so special. I think as the season’s gone on, they’ve definitely figured that out. The key to success is all those guys just playing together so incredibly well.”
They’ve accomplished their goal of going 1-0 every single time they set out to achieve that this season.
Now, finally, they’ve reached the end game. The Dragons have a few players who have played at Lucas Oil Stadium, a 2015 championship game loss to Fort Wayne Snider. For most of the team, though, this will be new.
The goal for both teams is to make this just another football game, as much as they can.
“They’re 15-, 16-, 17-, 18-year old kids. This will be one of the bigger moments in their lives right here,” Ralph said. “You hope that all the stuff we put them through in the season and in the playoffs is going to be enough for them to stay calm, be poised under pressure and hopefully get the job done one more time.”
It’s likely to be a battle. The Hawks want their first-ever state championship. The Dragons want another, to bounce back from the 64-61 heartbreaker in 2015.
They’ll have to go through one another to get there. Both teams are ready for a slugfest.
“They’re a great football team. They’ll take on anybody at anytime, and so will we,” Enright said. “We’re kind of confident that our kids aren’t going to be scared, aren’t going to look at their numbers and say, ‘Wow.’ They’re going to go in there and fight for four quarters and let the chips fall.”
“I think this game is going to be what a state championship should be,” Ralph said. “It’s going to be two really good football teams coming after each other.”
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There are more New Palestine football stories on the way in the Daily Reporter. As we get closer to the state championship game, we’ll take a more in-depth look at the two teams and how they match up.
Friday: Can the Dragons historic rushing offense do what no other team has done against the Hawks this postseason?
Saturday: How does the New Palestine defense match up against a multifaceted Decatur Central offense?
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