Simley enjoys being underdog in its first Prep Bowl

After the fourth game of the football season, Simley coach Rex King was kicking himself.

Looking for a test of his players' mettle, King challenged his team by scheduling high-powered DeLaSalle. The result — a 42-7 shellacking — had King in full-on second-guess mode.

"I scheduled them on purpose because I knew that, to be a championship-caliber team, you have to play the best of the best," said King. "After that game, I think the kids were a little shellshocked. I kept asking myself if I did the right thing."

Two months later, as the Spartans prepare to play in the Prep Bowl for the first time in school history, the decision no longer seems flawed.

"After that, the kids kind of came together," said King, in his fourth year at the helm of the Inver Grove Heights school's football program. "They talked about playing for each other and the love of the guy next to him."

Best known as a wrestling power, Simley is the surprise team in the upcoming Prep Bowl. The Spartans will play another potent offensive foe, Mankato West, in the Class 5A championship game Saturday. Many predicted Mankato West would get this far. Few outside of the Simley locker room thought the Spartans would be there also.

Lacking big name stars or gaudy offensive statistics, they never sniffed a top-10 ranking in the state polls. Simley never had made it to the Metrodome, its only state tournament appearance before was a one-and-done quarterfinal loss in 2002. Many believed the Spartans, coming off a 2-7 campaign in 2013, would be lucky to finish above .500.

What the Spartans (10-3) have done well is adhere to a system. Behind quarterback Michael Busch and running backs Michael Avwunuma and Cole Veith, they run their old-school veer offense with precision. The defense swarms to the ball and rarely makes a mental mistake. Most importantly, King said, is that as the victories have come, so has the belief in themselves.

"Our kids have that 'This is our year' mentality," he said. "They're going to fight and claw and do everything they can to not let the guy next to them down."

Defensive end John Reibert, a three-year starter and first-team All-Metro selection, said the difference between this season and years past was encapsulated in a brief moment of communication between himself and teammate Jack Ryan in Simley's 21-14 semifinal victory over Spring Lake Park last Saturday.

"They were driving and converted on fourth-and-short. Ryan looked over at me and said 'Turn the page,' " Reibert said. "In the past, when something like that happened, we might have let it affect us. But it was over, and we had to stay focused on our goals. We want to win more than we want to breathe."

Many of Simley's wrestlers are also football players. They're familiar with state tournaments, with Simley having won six of the past seven Class 2A wrestling team championships. But Reibert said being one game away from a football state title is a different feeling altogether.

While the ultimate goal Saturday is to win a state championship, King said that is far less important than the journey his players have taken to get there.

"Our kids are going to have this bond for the rest of their lives,'' he said. "Our true success as a program will be in 15 years, when they're husbands and fathers and business owners and Marines and carpenters and they talk about this season. It's about lifelong memories."