Washington (Iowa) sophomores take center stage

WASHINGTON, Iowa - The varsity football team impressed more and more people as the 2015 season progressed.

Heading into the season, many on the outside didn't believe the Demons could make it this far, but they have been proved wrong.

Washington (Iowa) finished the regular season 7-2 and hosts Solon in a first-round playoff game Wednesday night.

What is unusual about this version of the Demons is the amount of sophomores playing key roles and making big impacts on the varsity level.

The play of the sophomores is impressing all of the coaches, especially the head coach Garrison Carter.

'I think any coach would be a little nervous turning to so many sophomores and juniors in key roles,” he said. 'However, our philosophy as coaches is to play the best player.”

While nervous to start the season, Carter offered big kudos to his young players. He also mentioned it's not always easy to blend underclassmen with upperclassmen.

'I give even bigger credit to our seniors for leading by example, and it is no secret that we have some extremely talented sophomores, and they have done some special things this year,” he said. 'Again, a lot of that credit goes to the upperclassmen.”

The upperclassmen have shown they want to win at all costs, which is evident by them accepting the fact they need to rely on some sophomores. This shows the program continues to develop in a positive way, as a district championship was within the grasps until the regular-season finale. Much of this can be credited to the seniors for showing the youngsters how to win and how to do things the right way.

One of the key sophomores is the quarterback Ryan Reighard.

'I think it is pretty cool to have a couple of underclassmen start varsity, and it is also good for the team because (we) get more experience for the next year coming,” Reighard said.

He and his teammates are trying to bring as much talent to the field as possible. The program's motto is 'expect to win,” and this is what Reighard is focusing on each week.

In addition to Reighard, Mark Engelken is a sophomore starting on the offensive line. He is enjoying his first season as key player on the varsity and sees value in playing as an underclassmen.

'It gets kids reps to learn for future seasons ahead,” Engelken said. 'We are bringing some talent to the upperclassmen's talent and their experience.”

The sophomores are gaining ground from week to week. They have high goals. Eventually they'd like to win a state championship.

'I think before we start talking about state titles, we need to first focus on winning the district, and then taking each playoff game one at a time,” said Carter, adding the team needs to focus on the task ahead before thinking about making a deep run in the playoffs.

The team might be a year ahead of schedule, based on their early success this season. With a season that started with a lot of questions and uncertainty, the Demons expectations and confidence continues to grow from week to week.