Catching Up With The Past
Sunday, November 29, 2009
By SHAWN RINE- The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register
They'll never admit it, but the Brooke Bruins had grown tired of hearing about the past. Time and time again they've been told the stories about what Brooke football was back in the day, and to an extent, what they weren't.
Well, all that talk has ceased. Those Bad News Bruins of the last two decades have transformed themselves into state title game participants after Saturday night's 32-15 demolition of University at Brooke Memorial Stadium.
No. 1 Brooke will face No. 2 South Charleston at high Noon this Saturday at Wheeling Island Stadium, with a West Virginia Class AAA championship hanging in the balance.
Not bad for a first-year coach and a group of kids who just 12 months ago labored through another disappointing (3-7) season.
''You never understand what they all talk about until you're actually here, and you actually live it,'' Bruins offensive tackle and Hunt Award candidate Jake Lilly said. ''I don't even know what to say.
''It's just amazing how everything is, and how it's back to the way it was.''
What this group has done has been nothing short of amazing when you look at what it had to overcome. Not only did it have to contend with arguably the toughest schedule in the state, but there were other issues to deal with, everything from an assistant coach allegedly giving away signals, to the suspension of four players.
But 13 weeks later the Bruins have thumbed their noses at all of those naysayers who were waiting to pounce at the first sign of invincibilty. Well, those people are still searching and this team is laughing all the way to the island.
''It's just amazing how everything is, and how it's back to the way it was,'' Coach Tom Bruney said. ''I couldn't even tell you all the different things that went on because we kind of just brushed it aside and went on with what we had to do.
''The best part of this is the team chemistry that developed through all of this. I'm just so proud of the kids and the coaching staff.''
With all due respect, Coach, quarterback Cotey Wallace might be the best thing to emerge from it all. He'll end his career as just a one-year starter, but what a season that's been. He's thrown for more than 2,000 yards, rushed for more than 1,000 and accounted for 41 total touchdowns, making him what has to be the odds-on-favorite to capture the Kennedy Award as the state's premier football player.
''I never believed it would happen, but it's true,'' Wallace said. ''We've got to embrace it, focus, execute and take over the state championship.
''Right now it really hasn't kicked in yet.''
After hearing all about this program's great history for more than a decade, this team has a chance to write its own chapter if it can be 1-0 for one more week.
''That would mean everything,'' Lilly said. ''It would make history at Brooke, and that's a great thing to do being in the history books at Brooke High.''
If Wallace's confidence is any indication, the story has all but been written.
''After the first game when we had a big comeback against Parkersburg, we knew nobody could stop us if we executed,'' he said. ''So far nobody's stopped us.''
I ask you: who's laughing now at the Bad News Bruins?
