Tri-Center won the Class A State Football Championship Game Thursday with 14-10 victory over West Hancock at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
The school’s first football championship comes about seven months after a tornado rolled through Minden, one of the communities served by the district. Superintendent Angela Huseman says the championship has everyone happy. “There’s a lot of tired but smiling faces walking around in the hallway,” Superintendent Huseman says. She says the championship brings everyone together, just as they did when the EF-4 tornado rolled through Minden on April 26th. “”When the tornadoes hit, we had tremendous outreach by everyone,” she said. “The boys football team, all of our kids went out and helped with the cleanup. Everybody was outside helping everybody else. So, that was awesome to see,” she says. Even last (Thursday) night, when we brought the kids back to the school, and we welcomed them back, just the outpouring from the community was fantastic. I think we’re all happy that we’re all getting together and being supportive for such a fantastic, happy, fun reason.”
Though Minden is rebuilding from the tornado, Huseman says many students are still not in their houses as Thanksgiving approaches. She hopes the Trojans’ championship eases some of the lingering pain from the disaster. “Anything that’s a positive lift is positive for everybody,” Huseman says. Huseman says the district took an additional step in recovery efforts by hiring an interventionist to help students still coping with the tornado.
Despite the disaster, the superintendent says Tri-Center’s enrollment is actually up 10 students over last school year’s numbers.
(By Mike Peterson, KMA, Shenandoah)