WAUKEE, Iowa — Even during the playoffs, the sounds of practice at high school football fields around the state don’t seem to change. And neither do the conversations.
From talking about touchdown celebrations to what happened in today’s lunch period, you hear it all on a football field.
For the first-year program at Waukee Northwest High School, it's been an up and down season.
"It’s a big one, you guys know it all comes down to a great week of practice," Head Coach Corey Kopatich said.
"The first three weeks we were up at halftime and we ended up losing the games,” said Wolves running back Tanner Spyksma.
Two one-score losses to Valley and Dowling Catholic, and a bad half against Southeast Polk, would usually drive teams into a hole that they couldn’t get out of.
"Hurt our spirits, but it helped us learn and we have done it since,” Spyksma said.
But they learned from it.
Since then, the Wolves have won five of their last six games and clinched a playoff berth with a win over Urbandale last week.
"We had a pretty tough third quarter where we got down, and we were able to fight back and find a way to win the game," Kopatich said. "I think a lot of that is due to things that were built from that tough schedule earlier in the year."
Even with a tough schedule, the grind of playing in Class 5A as a first-year program, the Wolves were faced with a different challenge last week.
Last Monday, Wolves starting linemen Cael Winter called in sick to school and practice, something he rarely does. That same afternoon he was admitted to the hospital with blood clots in both of his lungs.
"Cael Winter is definitely a character, he’s by far one of the hardest working kids on this team, he cares so much. It hurts to see what he’s going through right now,” said Spyksma.
"When you hear things like that, it really puts things into perspective. The battle that he’s fighting is a lot more important than any football games,” Kopatich added.
Several surgeries later, the always upbeat and positive linemen is still battling in the hospital, battling to get back out on the field, to cheer on his team.
"We Facetime'd him, and showed him everyone, it was hilarious," Spyksma said. "After every game we win, we will sit there and do a celebration thing and he led it over the phone, so he liked that a lot I think."
With the first round of playoffs approach, and a matchup with the defending state champions, the Wolves know the challenge will be tough. But the reward will be even greater if they get to celebrate with their teammate one more time.
“Well we need to treat it like he’s out here, and we need to treat it like we're playing for him,” Spyksma said.
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