Winning Season

With rain pouring down on his head, Coach Mike Flusche looked up at the Independence High football scoreboard. It read 74-71 in favor of his team. Defense had been missing in action to this point. The 76’ers had the ball with 34 seconds remaining. All Coach could do was pray for one defensive stand. The clock ticked. One final play for I-High. They pushed and….fell short! Cowboys win!

That game really summed up the season for West this year.  Exciting, a lot of offense, defense coming through when they needed to and most importantly, success. The Independence game was one of the biggest wins of the year. “It’s always huge to beat Briggs considering the rivalry there,” said Coach Mike Flusche.” “But, the Independence game was big because it was the only time our senior class had beaten them.”

One of the major contributions to the success of the Cowboys this year was the addition of the Southwestern City Schools transfers. According to Coach Flusche, “They added numbers and athletes at key positions.” Transfer Tyler Swisher said, “Being one of the transfers, I feel like all of us made a big contribution to the team. Even if it was not during the game, we pushed each other in practice.”

Going into the season, the coaches and players were already excited about the team. Many were talking about making the playoffs. They came up about a game short. Despite losing a game or two that they could have won, the season was considered a success. They had a winning record (6-4) and worked hard the entire season.

The Cowboy football team sporting the new "Orange Look". There were many fans and even more critics on the uniforms. They may be a keeper though, if it means more wins for West.

Coach Flusche and Coach Patterson pacing the sidline during the Fairport Harding game. They didn't pace for long, as the Cowboys ran away with a 42-6 win.

Quaterback Eric Stewart takes the hike from center and gets great protection from his O-Line as he looks deep. The season was huge for Stewart as he passed his way to many District records.