Washington hopes to finish off fairy tale regular season with a championship

CEDAR RAPIDS - It might not be that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

It's an occasion to make some celebratory T-shirts, a chance to brag to everyone. Being a division champion in your conference doesn't seem like it means that much, especially in this day and age of prep football where it's all about your playoff seed.

Unless you're Cedar Rapids Washington.

If the Warriors can beat Dubuque Wahlert Thursday night at Kingston Stadium (live on KCRG-9.2), they'll be Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division champions. Considering everything, that'd be a dang nice accomplishment.

"You're playing for a conference championship, and in a lot of people's eyes, with the playoffs, that's not as big a thing as it used to be," said Washington Coach Paul James. "But it's a big thing at our school. We've had 18 conference championships in 56 years or whatever it is. We keep track of that stuff. For these kids to say, when the season's done, that they're conference champs, that's something to hang your hat on. Especially in this league."

Especially if you're these kids. They endured a state investigation of their previous coach (Tony Lombardi) for alleged mistreatment of players and students last spring and his eventual resignation.

They got off to an 0-3 start that included two close losses and a blowout. But instead of packing it in and playing the woe-is-me card, they've found some way to reel off five straight 'W's.

That included a shocking upset of Class 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier and wins in the final minute over Waterloo West and Cedar Rapids Prairie.

"I wouldn't say we were worried about our start, but we had to get our stuff turned around," said Jacob Bjornsen, whose 24-yard touchdown catch with 9.7 seconds left beat Prairie, 21-14, last week. "We did it well, and we're on a streak right now. We're all working together, and things are starting to flow."

So how did things get turned around?

Credit James, who was head coach for 11 seasons before quitting to become Wash's athletics director in 2006. He credits the work of his coaching staff and resiliency of his players. His players say a lot of it is chemistry and plain old confidence.

"We're more of a team than last year, instead of individuals," Bjornsen said. "We're willing to work more for each other than we were last year. That's been a big plus this year. In the offseason we worked together, and I think that helped us bond as a team."

"I really liked Coach Lombardi, and I didn't like that things went like they did, that he resigned. We all tried to get him back," said lineman Julian Good-Jones. "But when we found out Coach James was going to be our coach, I was pretty optimistic that he was a good coach and that he had a plan for us."

Then there's the Reid Snitker factor. The junior quarterback isn't a big guy and doesn't have a big arm, but he's quick and elusive and has been able to make offensive plays.

Snitker has accounted for 1,600 yards rushing and passing and 17 touchdowns. He also plays a lot of snaps at defensive back.

"I think a lot of it has to do with Reid and his mobility," said Good-Jones. "He can make plays out of nothing, even when the pocket collapses and there's no one open. He can scramble for 15 yards or find an open receiver. That's a big part of how we're making big plays."

"I just think it's been a lot of heart," Snitker said. "Especially the seniors, they haven't really had too many successful years. But I think the big thing with them is confidence. They're great players. The more confidence they get, the better they get. And we just seem to get even more confidence toward the ends of games."

The future of this program appears very bright. On an immediate basis, a win Thursday gives Washington home-field advantage in the first round of next week's playoffs.

Then there's 2014 and beyond. A lot of juniors and a couple of sophomores play key roles and will return. Washington's sophomore and freshmen teams are undefeated.

Amazing how the outlook has changed for this program so drastically in six months.

"It's nice when things come together," James said.

"I'm really excited about what's going to happen here. I think we can continue to do things this year and next year," Good-Jones said. "We knew that we had a chance to be good this season, but we knew it would be hard, learning a new system with Coach James and everything. We knew we had some good players, so we felt we could go positive. But I don't think we thought we would be going for a conference championship."