Senior-led Hampshire not ready to pack it in just yet

A football team that opens the season 0-3 has a choice to make: pick it up or pack it in.

Of the 256 teams in the 2008 state playoff field, only 10 started the year with three straight losses. Thanks to the leadership of a senior class that refused to pack it in, Hampshire rallied to be among those 10.

Hampshire (6-3) opened the season with a 15-7 loss to improved St. Edward that shook the team's confidence a bit. In Week 2 the Whip-Purs dropped a 21-13 decision at Winnebago that left them scratching their heads.

Stumbling out of the gate served as a wake-up call for the team's seniors who, as sophomores, had gone undefeated in the Big Northern East. They felt certain before the season began that this was going to be their year, the year they laid claim to the school's first division title since 2005 and made a return trip to the playoffs after missing the postseason in 2007.

Problem was, the Whips weren't backing up their lofty aspirations with enough perspiration.

"The first couple of weeks we just weren't focused at all in practice," Hampshire senior safety and running back James Goebbert said. "We kind of thought we'd be good and we didn't think we had to do much in the beginning to win. But it was different than that, so we really had to work hard."

The seniors righted the ship before it capsized.

"After the Winnebago game, the seniors got together and said, 'Hey, it's time,' " longtime Whips' coach Dan Cavanaugh said. "I give a lot of credit to our seniors because they really got it together. Senior leadership was the key. That was the turning point."

The players say practices picked up in intensity as they prepared to face Oregon in Week 3. A couple of personnel tweaks were made along the offensive line to get the stalled running game going. Any plays not run perfectly in practice were run again.

At that point Oregon was 2-0 and had outscored opponents Richmond-Burton and North Boone 77-13 combined. Hampshire traveled to Oregon in the rainstorm that blanketed Illinois on the third Friday of the season and played the Hawks to a draw through four quarters.

However, Oregon, a team that would go on to finish the regular season unbeaten, pulled off an 11-8 victory with a field goal in double overtime, dropping Hampshire to 0-3.

But rather than come away from their third straight loss disheartened, the Whips came away sparked.

"It was a good game and it pumped us up," senior fullback Joe Moore said. "We should have won it. We knew we could step it up from then on out."

Said senior center Luke Meyer: "That game brought our spirits up a little because Oregon was supposed to beat us pretty bad. Going into Week 4 we played a better game."

In fact, the Whips rebounded the next week with their first win of the season, a 20-7 victory over Byron to close out the nonconference portion of the schedule.

The Big Northern East wars began the next week. Hampshire traveled to Richmond-Burton and beat the Rockets 21-11 as the offense started to heat up. Moore (5-foot-11, 195-pounds), rushed for 154 yards and a touchdown, and junior Caleb Kendricks ran for 140 yards and a touchdown.

The defining moment for the Whip-Purs took place in Week 6 against defending league champion Harvard. "There was a lot of hype for that game," Moore said. "We knew if we could beat Harvard, we could win conference."

Brimming with confidence after playing three good games in a row, Hampshire turned in its best performance of the season and beat the Hornets 27-20. Moore rushed for 111 yards and 2 scores, senior quarterback Evan Brenner completed several third-down conversion passes, receiver Bo Price went over 100 yards, and Goebbert ran for 1 touchdown and caught another. The defense held when it had to and Hampshire outgained Harvard 365-167.

After beating the conference's top two teams, the rest was gravy. The Whips wrapped up the outright BN-E title and improved to 6-3 with wins over North Boone (47-13), Burlington Central (21-0) and Marengo (34-7).

"What this group did this year is a special thing," Cavanaugh said. "It's certainly something I'll remember. You remember a team with the heart to come back from 0-3 and do what they've done so far."

The season will continue Friday night when Hampshire travels to nearby Genoa-Kingston (7-2) to renew a long-standing rivalry in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs. The former division rivals did not face each other this season due to the rotation of crossover games between the Big Northern Conference's East and West divisions.

"We were all complaining that we couldn't play Genoa this year and now we get to play them," Goebbert said. "We get our wish."

The Hampshire players won't be hard to miss on Friday night. They'll be the kids dressed in purple uniforms and sporting blond hair - nearly all of them. This week the players continued a recent tradition of going blond for the postseason.

"We didn't get to do it last year, so we I'm glad we got to do it this year," Meyer said. "We have to keep going."

Don't count out these Whip-Purs. They picked it up before when the going got tough, and they don't intend to pack it in now.