The Iowa high school football playoffs are still in progress, but a first round exit from the playoffs by Greene County has head coach Mitch Moore turning his attention to 2019. The Rams will graduate a small, but hard working senior class. Prior to 2018, those players had won just two games from seventh grade through their junior year. The coach gives much of the credit to the seniors for turning 1-8 records from 2016 and ’17 into 8-2 this season and a trip to the Class 2A playoffs. “That group of seniors has some great leaders in it and they accepted the challenge of hard work and of leading this football team, which they did!”

The players currently in their junior year of high school have both talent and numbers, and the head coach said he’s already talked with them about taking the next step. “I set the tone with the team right away and I called out the people that need to step up. I looked at the junior class and told them I don’t think eight wins is good enough. We need to win an outright district title and we need to make a deep run in the playoffs. I’m going to be pushing those guys to say ‘I hope your bar isn’t set at eight. I hope eight isn’t the bar we’re going to set for next year.”

The appearance in the playoffs was the first since 2013 for Greene County. The program hasn’t won a football playoff game since 2006 when it made the 2A semifinals as Jefferson-Scranton/Paton-Churdan.