In recent years, the Mountain Crest Football team has had a difficult time making it far in the playoffs. However, this isn’t the case anymore. Receiver Kolton Kirby stated, “We turned Mountain Crest around.” Between the roaring student section and the team statistics, there isn’t much room to argue. 

How was it done? Many students assumed that it was the new coaching staff. This year, the varsity staff was almost completely replaced, with new, younger coaches. Kirby expresses his thoughts on the new experience by saying, “The coaches being younger definitely connected with us better. They were way more fun than past coaches but we still had a couple coaches that were kind of the father figures of the team. Having the younger coaches was definitely fun, and we definitely had that balance between fun and professionalism.”

Many players on the team express their gratitude for the coaches, specifically for their efforts to make sure that everyone had fun and the way they felt that the coaches genuinely cared about them. Head Coach Visser says, “We had a good group of guys that really bonded into what we were trying to build. The seniors especially, you know they’ve had three coaches in three years. I don’t think once we heard them complain about anything that we were doing or changing. They had a really good attitude and no one really cared about individual stats; it was all about the team, and it showed.” 

Clearly the relationship between coach and athlete was a very valuable key in their success this year, the respect they have for one another is both inspiring and imperative to their achievements. Yet their new winning streak can’t just be attributed to this aspect of the team. The work ethic and determination of the players was equally important.

Will Dekorver, wide receiver and safety, says, “Everyone knew that we could be different from other years. Everyone knew that no one wanted to lose. Everyone started preparing for this season a lot earlier. As soon as last year ended, people were already in the weight room just wanting it to be different.”

Similarly, Leiser says “We knew we were gonna be good from the beginning. All summer they said Mountain Crest is going to win two games, one game. We came out and showed them what we were actually capable of.”

But if there was one thing this year that really flipped the switch for these players, it was the deep bond that they have developed. Nik Tolbert, left guard, says, “To be honest we always had that kind of brotherhood in our grade and the grade below us. We’ve always been that type, like brothers. We’ve done everything for each other. Definitely when you go and you play for the other person and not for yourself, it proves that everything is in unison.”

This relationship that they’ve developed over the years was a huge supporting factor, and the way their relationship deepened was absolutely crucial to the way they were able to play. 

In the beginning of June, the boys attended a camp that would set the standard for the rest of the year. Led by Jeremy Tannahill, or JT, it  was a challenge worse than they had predicted. “Invictus,” Trevis Leiser, weak side end, says the name of the camp. “That was how we got close.”

“A 24 hour camp,” Zander Ryan, running back, expounded.

“Boot camp,” Jud Wells, kicker, corrected.

Ryan went on, “We went up into the mountains and…”

“Died,” Wells finished.

“No phones, very little gear.” Leiser explains.

“We had to survive.” Ryan finishes and the three of them agree, but with smiles on their faces.

“We all thought it was crazy, we all thought he was crazy.” Dontay McMurtrey, says. “The marching was ok, but the amount of push-ups we had to do for not calling him Lieutenant Colonel Tannahill was pretty funny. Because he wouldn’t just make us do push ups. He made one of our brothers do push ups.”

McMurtrey and his teammates all have a serious but positive feeling about them as they relate their experiences. The way they interact with each other is so comfortable and familiar, and it becomes even more so as they continue look back on the memories of how their team was built.

“We wore white shirts with our name on them,” Leiser said.

“Like we were in the army.” Ryan adds.

“I compared it to basic training.” Wells isn’t joking when he says this.

“We had Jeremy take us up, but we had to do everything. It was like a mind game. Our team had to do everything perfect, and if we didn’t we were doing push ups or getting yelled at and it was a thing where we all had to think as one, instead of individually, and not being like, ‘I’m doing this for me.’ That was our turning point. That’s the first time I felt like we actually thought something as one.”

“It was crappy at first.” Ryan admitted.

“I didn’t think about this then, but now, it helped us a bunch.” Ryan nods in agreement to Leiser’s statement.

As Ryan said, throughout the day, the boys were given tasks and challenges that were designed to be tough, and in order to complete them they had to rely on each other, think in unison. The one task above all that stands as the most memorable in their minds is one of trust and sacrifice. JT selected one team member, Kolton Kirby, to choose a few teammates that would carry the whole team across a river. “There were like seven or eight of us that had to get in the cold river, like freezing cold.”

“We had to pick up every single one of our teammates, and our coaches, and take them across the river and they couldn’t get wet.” Says Lieser.

“Then we had to lift all the football team and all the coaches that were there over this freaking ten foot wall, and there were some big boys we had to lift up there.” Tolbert adds.

These tasks seem nearly impossible, but they all did what was asked of them.

Ryan expounds on the purpose and the necessity of the task. “Everything we did there was sentimental. It meant something. Jeremy selected [Kirby] to pick who would take the team across, but Kirby picked them based off of how he felt about them. Like, ‘I trust these kids. With my life.’ They were sacrificing, but they did it to show the team they would do it for the team.”

That kind of commitment and devotion is rare. Experiences like these that are so exhausting and grueling don’t ever leave someone the same. A person cannot go through something like that with their team and not become closer to their teammates. These are the types of things that build a team.

This year was an incredible year to watch, and everyone on the team has been grateful for the opportunities presented to them this year. Almost the whole team agrees, the thing that they are going to remember is each other. Their brotherhood. The legacy they are going to leave stems from their unity built by the challenges that went through as a real team.

“I want our team to be remembered as the team that started playing together, playing to have fun, brought back that backyard football vibe. I want to be remembered as the team that brought back that tradition of winning and just having fun.” – Kolton Kirby