In just their third year as a varsity program, the Wolves are in the rare air of competing in a state semifinal game, only two wins from an improbable state championship.
They’ll try for that first one Friday at 7:30 p.m., when they face Celina, one of the state’s true high school football blue bloods, in a Class 4A Division I state semifinal game at Abilene’s Shotwell Stadium.
If West Plains (11-3) wins, the Wolves will get a chance to see if the glass slipper truly fits a week later, by facing the winner of the Kilgore-La Vernia game Dec. 20 at 3 p.m. at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium.
That’s where any team with realistic aspirations aims to be to end the regular season. Having little past record by which to gauge their present, it’s a case of why not for the young Wolves.
“I think any time you start a season that’s your ultimate goal as far as tangible things,” said West Plains coach Adam Cummings, the architect of the program. “You want to play for a state title. It was one of our goals to play this far. As far as how attainable or practical it was at the beginning of the season I don’t think anybody really knew that.
“It’s a credit to our kids and our coaching staff to just continue to believe and keep pressing to get better every day.”
The progress the Wolves have made since day one of the program might seem startling to outsiders. They’ve gone in two and a half years from not having a playbook or equipment to winning nine playoff games in three seasons and are one of only two Texas Panhandle teams still playing in the second week of December.
It doesn’t seem all that plausible, but nonetheless, here they are after beating storied Stephenville 42-35 in last week’s state quarterfinal in Midland.
“In theory you shouldn’t be able to do that,” said Cummings, almost as an admission. “When you have the right combination of kids in terms of talent and mindset with the right coaching staff, when all the pieces are there and everybody’s rowing the boat in the same direction, I don’t think it matters how young your program is.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a David and Goliath as much as it is doubters and believers. For us it’s about proving people wrong with a chip on your shoulder. It’s really more about just us having something to prove.”
Right now, is the perfect time for the Wolves to prove that. A program doesn’t get any more baptized in playoff tradition fire than facing Stephenville and Celina (14-0) in back-to-back weeks.
“You look at the amount of state championships between the two and you’re pushing 20,” Cummings said. “I think that’s really good company to be in. It’s very humbling and obviously an honor to get to play those kind of storied programs. That’s what we aspire to be here at West Plains. I hope 30-40 years from now that’s what people are saying about us.”
That’s a long, long way off, so the Wolves will have to content themselves with making an impact in the present. So far, so good.
“There can be 16 games in the season and we’re at 15 right now,” said West Plains junior quarterback Reid Macon, who’s started all 41 games in the school’s history. “That’s obviously our goal to play in that 16th game for the state championship, but I definitely wouldn’t have thought at the start of the year we could do it. We got some confidence instilled in us and we have the players and the ability to accomplish anything we want.”
That certainly looks like the case when the Wolves have the ball. In their wins over Stephenville and Lampasas in the last two weeks, they’ve totaled 105 points.
It’s not exactly practical or conventional, but it’s been necessary considering their competition.
“Obviously you want to score a lot of points and prevent people from scoring and that’s the game of football, but at the same time the better teams you’re going to play are teams that are explosive offensively,” Cummings said. “You’ve got to look at it more in terms of averages. Lampasas was averaging over 50 points a game and we held them significantly below that and with Stephenville it was the same thing.
“We’re averaging over 40 plus and we stayed in our average range, so when you look at it like that I’d say our defense is playing pretty well. We’re taking possessions away and creating turnovers. I think it’s complementary football in that regard.”
Anybody trying to defend the Wolves, meanwhile, faces a dilemma in picking their poison. It all starts with Macon, who’s been nearly flawless in the postseason, and last week against Stephenville completed 19-of-22 for 267 yards and three touchdowns.
Macon isn’t picky about who he throws to, but fellow junior Kane White-Tinsley has been his preferred target the last two weeks, in which White-Tinsley has gone over 100 yards receiving.
“I obviously like getting the ball, but if I don’t, whatever helps our team get to the next round is perfect for me,” White-Tinsley said. “Depending on what their scouting report is, we’ll have answers. We’ve known each other for so many years we all have a connection and a relationship like that really helps us on and off the field.”
West Plains, it seems, is doing just enough defensively to let the offense take care of the rest.
“Now we’re playing great teams and every offense is good,” said Boston Ladd, who starts at safety and also plays receiver for the Wolves. “There’s going to be ups and downs in games but the key is to make plays and stops when you need them. Our offense is hot right now so whatever we can do to get them the ball is what we want to do.”
It doesn’t seem as if the Wolves are lacking in confidence, or at least, motivation. At this point, it’s them against the world, or at least the best of what Texas high school football has to offer in December.
“They’re big teams with big names,” Macon said of his team’s opponents. “They’ve got a couple of state championships. I definitely think we’ve been counted as underdogs in most of the games we’ve played so far. I think that prove ‘em wrong mentality has been throughout the entire playoffs. I think if we keep having that chip on our shoulder things will work out.”
A look at Celina
In terms of what the Wolves are up against defensively, it’s going to be more of the same against Celina. The Bobcats are as lethal offensively as anybody the Wolves have faced, but maybe even more balanced.
Junior quarterback Bowe Bentley is the leader of the offense. He’s completed 153-of-218 passes for 2,831 yards and 42 touchdowns with only six interceptions and has run for 713 yards and 13 touchdowns.
“He’s a leader of our team,” Celina head coach Bill Elliott said. “He’s got a great skill set with his arm and his legs, but the biggest thing is the kind of person he is. He’s a great young man and a leader with high character. He does a great job of setting an example for our kids with his work ethic. He’s the leader of our offense and what makes it go.”
Celina also has a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in Logan Gutierrez (1,328 yards, 21 touchdowns) and Harrison Williams (1,171, 15 TDs).
Ethan Rucker is Celina’s leading receiver with 59 catches for 1,213 yards and 15 touchdowns. Colton Rodriguez has 37 catches for 679 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“They took all three relays to the state track meet last year,” Cummings said of the Bobcats. “On top of that, there’s just the tradition and history of that program. Coach (Bill) Elliott has been there 30 plus years so he understands as well as anybody what Celina football is all about.”
Which means championship expectations, or something close every year.
“You never take it for granted at all,” Elliott said. “I’ve done this a long time. A lot of things have to go your way to get to this point. We’re very grateful to be at this point of the season.
“We’ve been talking all year about playing hard and being physical. We’re playing at a high level all the time and our effort has never had a letdown all year long.”
His father Jason is a 1995 Canyon High graduate who played basketball at the school, and his mother, Kara, is a Spearman native who played basketball at West Texas A&M.
The Bentley family has five children who either attend or will attend Celina, and Jason Bentley said this is new territory.
“We’ve never played a team from Canyon before,” Jason said. “We encountered some other Panhandle teams when my older son was playing like Perryton. It’s always interesting when you play a team from up there because it’s always seemed like the entire Panhandle was a small town. Everybody kind of knows everybody.”
Jason Bentley’s parents still live in Canyon, but they try to make it to all of Bowe’s games and will be in Abilene to see their grandson play against West Plains.
Lee Passmore’s prediction
We could go on all day about the contrasts between the two programs, tradition vs. the upstart, yada, yada, yada. West Plains has been up to just about every challenge thus far and in three years the Wolves have been picture perfect in building a program. They’ll score their share of points, but Celina might just have a few too many offensive options for West Plains to handle. Also, everything seems to have gone perfectly for the Wolves in close games. They might be due for some adversity, which seems inevitable. … Celina 42, West Plains 40.