Hard Work - Great Reward

 I want to start off by congratulating the 2020 Division IV Football State Champions - THE VANWERT COUGARS. What an awesome season and what a great tournament run. The way they came back in that final game and then to have a sophomore kick his first field goal for the championship, you can't write a better script. Once again, Congratulations to Kaiden Bates, Xavier Okuly, Andrew Gallagher, Turner Witten, Ries Wise, Killian Sudduth, Kody Kline and Cullen Dunn

I wrote this blog to give special recognition to the players that attend Vantage Career Center. I have had the pleasure of talking with these guys every day during the season and the tourney run. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to attend any games because of Covid-19 but I can tell you that everyone of these guys is a top notch person and student. Their parents/guardians should be so proud of each one of these students. They are polite, very mature and intelligent. It is no wonder that the football team won the championship. There isn't one of theses students that will take credit by themselves. It is always about the team and working together to achieve a goal. I speak with Turner quite a bit and he will be the first to point out that it is the coaches preparation and playing together that gets us the wins. I attribute this to a great coaching staff and coach Recker. 

Recently there was a great article about Cullen Dunn and Turner Witten in the Lima News. These guys along with Kody Kline do a tremendous job of blocking up front and allowing the running back and quarterback to do so well. However, if you read the article there are no "big heads" among them. They are humble and sometimes funny as to what they say. One quote by Turner said that "With me and Cullen Dunn being the most experienced we kind of had to do our part and help out the others which we all know what we are doing so it is just helping each other out to be the best that we all can be". What a great quote. That really says it all. We are just helping out the others just to be the best we can be. Well your "best" just won you a state championship.

I want to close in saying that we can all attest to their brilliant play on the field, but I think you should know that they are all great students in and out of the classroom. Almost all of them are A or B students and show up to school everyday. Their work ethic carries over from the football field and into the classroom. I believe sports can teach you so much about life and how to handle yourself, in good times and in bad. Well this is certainly a great time and I want to thank not only the Vantage football players but all the Van Wert Cougars for bringing something to 2020 that we can all smile about and be proud of.