Launch the media gallery 1 playerLonghorns are D1 State Champions!
November 20, 2016
On Sept. 23, Burwell was a 2-2 football team.
On Nov. 21, the Longhorns were Class D-1 state champions.
It wasn’t a direct or easy path, but Burwell certainly made an impressive turnaround after early-season losses to Palmer and Chambers/Wheeler Central/Ewing.
The biggest change came on defense. After allowing a combined 94 points in those losses, the Longhorns gave up an average of 14.8 points over their season-ending 9-game winning streak.
“To be honest, we had some sickness early in the season with some of our kids, and we played some good football teams,” Burwell coach Luke Gideon said. “We kind of got over that, and we had some younger kids step up with some more speed who are a little quicker. They started filling in there and made a big difference defensively.
“Then our older guys tightened things up too. You can obviously tell we’ve got some great players on our team, so our defense really came through there, especially in the second half of the season. It’s just due to the fact that the seniors on our team are great leaders and they had the respect of those younger guys.”
Senior tight end/defensive end Tyler Gideon – Luke’s nephew × said the team was willing to do whatever it took to get onto the right path on defense after the 2-2 start.
“We started at the bottom and threw everything away, everything we knew and started from base one,” he said. “We had to because we were vulnerable.
“We had some guys step up. I can’t say enough words to express how proud I am of these underclassmen. We can do all we want, but it was up to them to say, ‘I want to make a difference. I want to make change.’ The underclassmen did this year. It was incredible.”
The youngsters came through again during Monday’s 47-18 Class D-1 championship game win over Guardian Angels Central Catholic.
Sophomore Joshua Urbanovsky was second on the team with 10 tackles and had a key interception when the Bluejays were trying to make it a one-possession game. Sophomores Timothy Hughes and Colby Mitchell each added three stops.
Luke Gideon can’t point out one magic moment or special turnaround game where Burwell regained its mojo and started looking like the preseason No. 1-ranked team.
“I don’t think there was any one game, but there were several games there in the middle of the season where we got our running game going,” he said. “With our running game, we’re tough up front and I think we realized that’s who we were going to be this year.
“We were going to be a team that relied on the run more than the pass, so once we got that figured out it was working. It’s what got us here.”
That was a winning formula in Memorial Stadium.
Running back Tori Huffman ran for 161 yards and a touchdown and quarterback Cayden Owens added 105 yards and three TDs.
Interior linemen Chase Hoffschneider, Thomas Hughes, Weston Svoboda and Mitchell along with tight ends Tyler Gideon and Devin Watts and fullback Ryan Dawe dominated the battle up front.
“Our offensive line opened up some really big holes and we have the best running back in the business,” Owens said. “That makes my job a lot easier. Our offensive line did a great job tonight controlling the line of scrimmage, and that was a big key in the game.”
Even after Burwell got things clicking on both sides of the ball, a state championship was by no means guaranteed. As the No. 10 seed in the west bracket, the Longhorns may have gone through as tough a postseason stretch as any previous state champion.
Burwell’s five playoff opponents were a combined 49-1. Their last four foes were undefeated teams that it wouldn’t have been shocking to see hoisting the championship trophy instead late Monday afternoon.
But the Longhorns remained focusing on improving and didn’t worry about their opponents’ records.
“Records mean nothing to me,” Tyler Gideon said. “Any football team can get beat no matter what their record is. We’re a prime example of that.
“I don’t think we’re a bad team. I think we’re a good team. We just had those two losses. At the beginning of the year, those kind of hurt us but we came back. We played good football, and here we are.”
It didn’t hurt that the team didn’t focus on revenge for last year’s runner-up finish after the 2-2 start. Instead the team bonded while trying to improve, and it took that mindset into the final game of the season.
“It’s just an overall great experience,” said Hoffschneider, a senior who led the Longhorns with 12 tackles. “We came here as a family and regardless of if we won or lost, we were going to leave here as a family – just like last year.”
But it was much nicer to be celebrating the completion of a rebuild from a 2-2 start into state champions.
“We had to stick to the basics and work hard every day,” Huffman said. “This is amazing. All of our work paid off.
“Chemistry, experience – we came in here and knew what we were doing.”
Dale Miller is a sports writer for the Independent.
