No Iowa high school football program has more State Championships than the 13 amassed by Harlan Community. The playoffs began in 1972 with Harlan winning the Class 3A title that year and they’ve averaged a State Championship every 3.46 seasons. Current head coach Curt Bladt has headed the program for the last 12 title runs.

Coach Bladt brings his Cyclones to Linduska Field in Jefferson tonight for non-district football with Greene County. Both teams are 0-1 on the season, but both were competitive in their respective season opening games. Harlan lost at home 31-21 to Class 4A top 10 rated Lewis Central (Council Bluffs) while Greene County fell in Jefferson to Kuemper Catholic (Carroll) by a 21-14 final.

Mitch Moore made his head coaching debut last Friday and he talks about facing the storied Harlan Community program. “You have to beat the best to be the best and in terms of programs and history, they certainly are the best. We’re trying to build a championship program here, so there would be no better way to kick off going into district play next week with a win tonight. If we could find a way to win and start to learn how to win, Boy, we could get the ball rolling. But this is a huge hurdle and something we certainly embrace and are most definitely excited about.”

A freshman game is at 4:45 p.m. with the varsity contest at 7:30 p.m. on KG98 and www.raccoonvalleyradio.com. Coverage of the varsity game starts at 6:30 p.m.