N.W. Hoosier Conference Champs

Class 2A AP/UPI 2nd Ranked Team Sectional 25 and Regional Champions — Season Record 11-2.

Since our Bigger, Faster, Stronger clinic on August 9, 1987, North Newton High School has completed the most successful football season in the school's 21 year history. The clinic motivated our team to set standards and goals for excellence in our quest to continue to improve all season. North Newton isa rural school of 550 students in grades 9-12, located in the Northwest corner of Indiana. Our size puts us in the class 2A division in Indiana's 5 A classification system of high school football. North Newton finished the regular season ranked second in the state AP/UPI polls class 2A. We decisively won the Northwest Hoosier Conference Championship outright for the first time since 1978.

Furthermore, our team went on to win our sectional championship, regional championship, and became the first team ever in North Newton's history to compete in a semistate game. We finished the season with a record of 11-2. Our sectional championship avenged our only regular season loss (10-7) to perenial state contenders North Judson. We soundly defeated the "Bluejays" 40-0 for the first time in nine years; thus, proving that we had improved tremendously since the fourth week of our season. From here we advanced to the regionals. We competed against a victory here would meana trip to the Hoosier Dome anda shot at North Newton's first state championship.

We were defeated by a well prepared Rochester team, who went on to win a State 2A Championship. Things just didn’t seem to go our way. We fell just short of our goal - a most worthy goal.

Your clinic gave us the confidence to dream and believe that we could accomplish anything. To come so very close in achieving what we all had worked so hard for was very heart breaking to say the least. | would like to share a quote that we used during our season, “If you don't work very hard, then victory isn't very rewarding, and defeat isn't painful”. During our season, we established many new school records. In fact, we practically re-wrote the football record bookat North Newton. We outscored our opponents 395 to 83; our defense record, five shut-outs. Our wishbone offense rushed for 3312 yards, (5.7 yards per carry), and passed for 1263 yards (18.8 yards per completion).

We dominated our opponents in all statistical categories due to our superior speed, strength, and size. This team took a chance, and even though it didn't work much larger team from Fort Wayne, Indiana - Fort Wayne out exactly as we planned, we succeeded in doing our best, Bishop Luers. Our superior strength, conditioning, and at stretching our limits, and at giving it our all. desire allowed us to defeat a team that by all probability should have won.

Our next stop was the semi-state. We became the first North Newton team to ever compete in a semi-state. A

From BFS Magazine — March/April 1988. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).