Newman’s state tradition started 20 years

Mike Papoccia’s first state championship football team at Newman in 1990 didn’t have the look of greatness early on.

The Comets began the season 1-2, with losses to Forreston (3-0) and Morrison (14-12) the second and third weeks of the season. A big reason why: Papoccia tried tweaking the offense, with less than desirable results.

“I was trying to overcoach,” Papoccia said. “One of the biggest lessons I got in my career is you can’t do everything you see at clinics, and that’s what I was trying to do. I saw some veer option, which is similar to the inside option we run, but certainly not the same.

“I tried it, but I wasn’t good enough to coach it. That was the bottom line.”

Jamie McKinley, a strong-armed junior quarterback, was replaced with senior Jason Graham, who was better suited to run the team’s wishbone attack.

Graham’s spot at running back was taken by David Molina, with the Krick brothers, Jon at fullback and Jay at halfback, rounding out a powerful backfield. The Comets ran the table the rest of the Three Rivers season.

“If we would have played Forreston or Morrison at the end of the year, we would have rolled ‘em,” Jay Krick, 38, said Monday. “It is what it is. They were both decent teams and we lost those games, but we weren’t at our best offensively yet.”

In the Class 1A playoffs, Newman blew away Ashton-Franklin Center 47-7 and Stockton 49-8 the first two rounds before taking on Durand, which was 11-0 and whose first-team defense hadn’t allowed a touchdown all season. The Comets built a 21-0 lead at halftime on their way to a 35-6 win.

“That’s when I knew we could be really, really special,” Papoccia said. “Durand didn’t know what him ‘em because we were firing on all cylinders.”

After squeaking past Annawan 28-26 in the semifinals, Newman squared off against Bloomington Central Catholic in the championship game. It was a nail-biter the entire game, and the Comets had to dodge a couple big bullets.

With about 3 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of a scoreless game, Saints’ All-State kicker Todd Kurz missed a 35-yard field goal that would have given his team a lead and possible victory.

“It was a little windy that day, but there was a special burst,” Papoccia said. “My mom had died the year before, and I told everybody that was my mom making sure there was a little extra wind to make the guy miss.”

In overtime, a Kurz field goal staked BCC to a 3-0 lead, then Newman had its chance from the 10-yard line. Two runs moved the ball to the 1, and a third-down run by Jay Krick appeared to give the Comets the win, only to have the officials mark the ball short of the goal line.

On fourth down, Krick got the call again. It was a play called ‘Quincy,’ in which Jon Krick and Molina slam into the line behind the blocking of center Brian Burrs, right guard Brad Highbarger and right tackle Jeff Riney. Jay Krick followed with the ball and scored easily.

“It was a massive power play,” Krick said. “We didn’t put that into our offense until we played Durand, and we ran it the first 10 plays of the game. Coach Papoccia is one of those guys, he’s like, ‘We’re going to run it until they stop us.’ I remember running that play over and over again against Durand and getting 5, 10, 15 yards every time.”

“Thank God it wasn’t fourth down,” Papoccia said of the third down play on which his team was denied a score. “We got another one, and Jay went sky-high on that one and made sure.”

The 1990 Newman team made only the fifth playoff appearance in school history, and the Comets have made it 17 times since. Included in that run are state championships in 1994 and 2004 and runner-up finishes in 1993 and 1998.

Papoccia thinks the early run of success set the stage for teams to follow. He is also particularly fond of the 1989 squad that started 11-0, but lost 25-22 to Orangeville in the quarterfinals. Many key juniors started for that team and were the heart of the championship squad the following year.

“Those two years really were special for me as a coach,” Papoccia said, “because I learned don’t try to overcoach. Just go with what you know. You’ve got to play great defense and be able to run the ball, and those two teams proved that to me. Then you’ve also got to be able to throw some play-action passes. That’s what I’ve stuck with ever since.”

FYI: Started 1-2 with losses to Forreston and Morrison. ... Defeated Bloomington Central Catholic 6-3 in overtime in Class 1A title game. ... Jeff Riney (Notre Dame), Jon Krick (Purdue) and Brian Burrs (Western Illinois) played major college football off that team

1990 Newman starting lineup

Offense

QB – Jason Graham

HB – David Molina

HB – Jay Krick

FB – Jon Krick

E – Andy Miller

E – Josh Kelly

C – Brian Burrs

LG – Brian Propheter

LT – Alan Droege

RG – Brad Highbarger