Cranking up a season with HLT

RIVERSIDE

There was no marching band.

There were no cheerleaders.

But one day last week, following a football practice on one of those summery humid days on a field bordered by a farm crop, the HLT decals came out for the first time in a hallway next to a locker room at Highland High School.

This was a HUGE moment.

Thayne McElhinney, a high school football head coach for the first time, grabbed a spot on a folding chair in the crowded hallway and checked off players’ names as he and assistant coach Drake Brezina took out HLT decals and placed them on helmets, one by one.

McElhinney had already placed one of the decals in the window of his truck, proudly displaying a logo he helped design to celebrate a new beginning.

Just one year ago, a football season turned into heartache for two communities located 13 miles apart when Highland High School and Lone Tree High School canceled their varsity seasons due to low participation numbers.

And now they’re back. Together.

Not the Huskies.

Not the Lions.

Not even the Raiders.

Just HLT. Highland-Lone Tree.

“It’s awesome knowing that we’re guaranteed a season,” senior Caleb Wheeler, a Highland junior who will be the team’s starting quarterback.

Friday night in Brooklyn, the team will take on BGM in its season opener. And this will truly be a historic night.

More than 20 years ago, the Highland Lone Tree school districts combined for football. One year, the Raiders played for a state championship. Tyler Hotz, the current Superintendent of Schools in Lone Tree, played on the team.

Last week, several players from Lone Tree ran around the practice field wearing Raiders uniform jerseys, left over from those old days. Highland players wore Huskie jerseys. United, one team.

Leading them all is McElhinney, a former Simpson College and Winfield-Mount Union High School football player who is head coach, physical education teacher, and strength and conditioning coach at Highland just one year after he was an assistant coach in Lone Tree’s season that never became a varsity season.

“It’s definitely exciting,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of excitement throughout the summer. We went and competed in some 7-on-7s this summer.”

But there was still a bit of that awkward time. The Huskies compete in the same league (Southeast Iowa Super Conference North) against the Lions in basketball, in track and field, in baseball.

“We held some open field times for our kids just to get to know each other,” McElhinney said. “They already know each other. They’re so close in proximity.

“They just handled it really well. We’ve had some kids step up as leaders, which is nice to have.”

New friendships quickly emerged.

“I’ve made a whole bunch,” Wheeler said. “I’ve gotten along with every single one of them.”

Still, Friday’s game will be so new. Until now, Lone Tree played in Iowa’s eight-man class. Highland played 11-man. McElhinney has never been a head coach. Together, they learned a new offense and a new defense.

And now McElhinney, who lives in Mount Pleasant with his wife and a newborn, has to ponder that pregame “Win it for HLT” speech.

“I’m not a rah-rah guy,” he said, chuckling. “More of a relationship builder.”

“I like to be around kids,” McElhinney said. “I like to understand where they’re coming from. At the end of the day, I want to have a standard we can be successful at, not only on the football field but in the classroom.”

And as it turns out, they’ll have plenty of bonding time. HLT will travel to Brooklyn, to Prole, to Packwood, to Danville, to Keosauqua, to Columbus Junction. They’ll play at home just twice, mostly as a payback to other schools for games missed last year.

But when HLT hosts Wapello in a homecoming game Sept. 4, the stands are likely to be packed. With Huskies fans. And Lions fans.

“That’ll be really cool,” Wheeler said. “Hopefully a lot of people show up. We just need to show them that we’re good together.”

It begins Friday.

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul