The McLeod West High School football team used the Crons mentality and attitude to overcome the odds.
Adversity Doesn’t Ground Falcons
If what happened to the McLeod West (Minn.) High football team sounds like a movie, it's only because it should be one.
Facing the closing of their school because of lack of money, declining enrollment and a crumbling classrooms, the Falcons fielded a team of only 19 players—and 3 of those were 110-pound 9th graders.
Going up against schools of 50 and 60 players, the squad still rose as high as 5th in the state polls and made the playoffs.
Ten of the players never left the field—they played all 48 minutes. They couldn't kick an extra point because they had no kicker. To scrimmage the team had to use coaches, former players and members of the community.
"By the end of the game, the boys were so exhausted they couldn't even get up off the field," said Head Coach Bill Neubarth. "We went though a lot of ice."
They accomplished all this knowing they'd never play together as a team and would be scattered to different schools next year because of the closing of McLoud.
As they readied for the playoffs, Crons Founder Pat Cavanaugh sent Coach Neubarth Crons shirts for his team. After all, they embodied the Crons mentality of overcoming adversity, never giving up, having enough confidence in themselves to ignore the doubters, and overcoming the odds to reach their playoff goal. Many of the players proudly wore their Crons shirts as symbol of their team attitude.
For the Falcons of McLoud, Crons was all about the team's ability to Come Ready or Never Start...no matter what the odds.
