The Garden Plain Owls are getting ready to push for a playoff run. The Owls finished the regular season 7 – 1. They won their district and are the number three seed in the West. The Owls are finishing up their fourth year under Head Coach, Todd Rice. Garden Plain has won their district for three years in-a-row. Coach Rice joined this program when this group of seniors was freshmen, and he says that they’re the reason why this year is special. “I am proud of what this group has done to contribute to this program. ” Garden Plain is hoping to make a deep playoff run this year to make this season extra special.
This group of seniors looks to make these last few games of the season a success, as they want to leave the program better than they found it. Garden Plain is now in the win-or-go-home phase. Emrick Hays, a senior on the team, spoke on what these last few games mean to him, “There are no more games promised, nothing is guaranteed to happen. I want to be able to look back on the season and know that I gave it my all. ”
The team looks much different this year, as in the previous year, after graduating a big group of seniors. There had been speculations that Garden Plain would not be as good this year after losing most of their starters. Coming into this season, the team looked much younger, with lots of new faces seeing opportunities to play on the varsity level.
The Owls have had many players jump into bigger roles this season. They only returned three two-way starters and four one-way starters, three on defense and one on offense. Senior quarterback Eli Eck, in his first season starting, has totaled nearly 600 total yards, and sophomore running back Braylen Dold has totaled over 700 scrimmage yards. Defensively, for the Owls, they also needed many new players to jump up. Sophomores Easton Pauly and Carter Baker have both provided that for the Owls as they both have 40+ tackles and multiple tackles for loss.
The team is full of young players this year. The program looks to their leaders to help these underclassmen with confidence and to help them develop into great players themselves. Coach Rice gives credit to this group of seniors for embracing the underclassmen into the program saying, “I think that this senior group has always embraced our team expectations and has done a great job of embracing the underclassmen.”
The Owls will match up with Douglass again for the first round of playoffs. Garden Plain took on Douglass two weeks ago. The Owls took care of the Bulldogs with ease, winning 49 – 0.
The Owls are coming into this game with lots of confidence. So far this season, the defense has been the bright spot for the Owls, giving up just over 10 points a game. The offense has done its fair share as well, with over 2500 total yards on the season. The Owls are averaging over 300 rushing yards a game. Leading the pack is senior running back Emrick Hays with over 1100 rushing yards. Hays has also added 12 rushing touchdowns.
The team is looking to bring it to every practice. The expectations are to have high energy levels and also to be physical every practice. Coach Rice says that the team has improved their physicality the most throughout the season, “At the beginning of the year we came into the season inexperienced and we were still adjusting to varsity competition, throughout the season we have grown more physical and confident.”
After the Owls take on Douglass, they will play the winner of Beloit versus Lakin. Beloit is the favorite to win this game. Garden Plains’ season last year was brought to an end by Beloit. The Owls are hoping to get their revenge.
Garden Plain is just behind Southeast of Saline and Hoisington in the playoff seeding after both of those teams finished their regular season undefeated. Coach Rice hopes to keep Garden Plain as a constant factor in 2A football. On top of that, he wants his players to be proud of what they’ve accomplished as he feels people had doubts about Garden Plain football this year. Rice added, “I hope that they take a great deal of pride in their accomplishments. Not many picked us to achieve much this season.”
