Forrest Gump’s momma would say a 7th grade football team is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. And Republic 7th grade football coach Tony Trueblood agrees.
“We have no idea what’s coming, because they play each other in youth, you can’t really get a true comparison,” Trueblood says. “It’s not like they play other towns. We never know until we get them together what we’re going to have.”
This season, it turns out they had something pretty special. Not only were the 7th grade Tigers undefeated (so were the freshmen), they didn’t allow a point all season. Republic outscored its opponents 166-0 in six games.
Trueblood says even after getting the team on the practice field this fall, he wasn’t sure what to expect until the games began.
“You’d think I’d know after all these years of doing this, but I don’t really know until we get a chance to play that first game to see how all those things come together,” he says. “Usually our first game is our barometer or measure for what kind of team we have.”
In that first game, the Tigers jumped on Willard 30-0. Despite installing a brand new offense, Trueblood says everything clicked for his team.
“I was surprised at how well some of our things worked,” he says. “We really only ran three plays — primarily two — all night. We watched the film afterwards, and a lot of times the official couldn’t find the ball. Willard turned out to be the second best team in the conference, but they couldn’t even find the ball a lot of times.”
The Tigers followed up their opener with a 44-0 thrashing of Branson. The closest game of the year came in Week 3, when Republic topped Ozark 14-0. A 20-0 win over Camdenton ran their record to 4-0, and that’s when a public address announcement opened the Tigers’ eyes to what they were building.
“The kids didn’t really recognize the fact that we hadn’t been scored on until maybe our fourth game. They announced it on the PA system after we beat Camdenton,” Trueblood says. “They hadn’t really thought about the fact that they hadn’t been scored on, so that made it a goal.”
It turned out the goal was attainable. In their two remaining games, the Tigers whipped Nixa 26-0 and Rogersville 32-0, to seal their spotless season. What was the secret to their success?
“Really, it’s a combination deal,” says Trueblood. “This offense, there’s lots of ball control, so this defense was able to stay really fresh. I only had one kid (Luke Dickens) start both ways. Other teams, they stayed with us until the fourth quarter, then we just wore them out because our kids were fresh.”
Trueblood says the consistency of the 7th grade coaching staff, which includes assistant coaches Brandon Riffe and John Paul Williams, also contributed to the team’s success. They’ve all coached together for the past four seasons.
“What’s really helped out to me is the staff I’ve worked with. We’ve been together, we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We each know our roles and we complement each other,” Trueblood says.
“It’s a very team-oriented attitude,” Trueblood says of this year’s 7th graders. “I remember the first time, at halftime of the first game, we were leading Willard pretty good by then, my running backs were complimenting my linemen. I didn’t have to tell them to do that, they did it on their own.
“I think everyone appreciated each other. I didn’t have one person thinking they were better than everyone else. They really hung as a team.”
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