PHOTO: Jacolby Simpson, left, and Clancy Hoffman, attempt to take down an Odessa runner in the 2000 State Championship game.
B-8 title: Prescott last hurdle in Hornets' quest for back-to-back crowns
After reaching the mountain top a year ago, the Inchelium Hornets set their sights on a higher mountain.
"We had our first meeting at the beginning of the year and I told the kids, 'Gosh guys, you know, you've won the state championship. What kind of goals can you set now?'" said Duane Gatlin, longtime coach of the B-8 champions. "(Senior quarterback) Jacolby Simpson said, 'Well, why can't we go just undefeated and repeat?' So the team kind of put that in their mind, and look at where we're at."
Inchelium is one game away from achieving that goal. That game will be played today at 4 p.m. in the Tacoma Dome.
The Hornets' opponent will be the Prescott Tigers, making the most of their first playoff appearance since 1978.
The Tigers have traveled a bumpier road, including three losses and an early-season coaching change. Now they think they are ready for the final test.
"Once we hit the playoffs, they started to (perform) like the football team that I had seen earlier," said coach Ronald Clements. "They're now starting to peak at the right time."
Clements, former head coach at Central Texas College and Jubilee Christian Academy, began the season as the Tigers' defensive coordinator. He became head coach two games into the season, when Mark Grimm resigned for personal reasons.
"When you take over as a head coach, what you like, you try to keep, and what you don't like, you try to phase out," Clements said. "A month into the program it was difficult, but little by little we initiated a series of personnel changes to try to increase some of the talent and abilities we have on the team."
The top talent on Clements' team is his son Thomas, who transferred from Jubilee Christian and leads the team in rushing and tackles. A younger son Justin was the second-leading rusher.
Inchelium returns all but five players from its championship team, described by Gatlin as "jokers and goofballs that love to win."
Chris Burch led the team in rushing and tackling, while quarterback Simpson is the second-leading rusher and second-leading tackler. Both are seniors and both want to go out by achieving Simpson's goal of an undefeated season.
Gatlin would like that too.
That's the goal — and I'm not the one who set it — but it's always been a lifelong dream of mine as a coach to have an undefeated season," Gatlin said.
"You know, as a coach you always want something like that, and in the 20 years I've been coaching — from football, baseball, basketball, softball — it could happen. With a little bit of luck and hard play by the kids, we could do it."
ABOUT THE TEAMS
Inchelium hopes to defend its title and cap an undefeated season, Prescott has lost three times, but hopes it's peaking at the right time. ... The defending champs are led by returning seniors Chris Burch, a running back/linebacker, and Jacolby Simpson, quarterback/linebacker. The offense hasn't scored fewer than 38 points in any game this season and has scored over 50 eight times.
Duane Gatlin is in his second tour of duty with the Hornets, coaching from 1977 to 1990 and then returning to the job in 1996.
Inchelium is the defending state champion and lost only five players from that team a year ago. The Hornets also won state titles in 1983 and 1991. This is Prescott's first playoff appearance since 1978.
What to watch: Both teams want the same thing: to pit the Prescott passing game against the Inchelium pass defense. Inchelium wants that because it would indicate that they are controlling Thomas Clements on the ground. Prescott wants that because its coach sees holes in the Hornets' pass defense.
TNT
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