The Hawkeye's Page 1
WELCOME TO THE HAWKEYES 1993-97 PAGE......
TEAM HISTORY....
The Hawkeyes were born in 1993 as an
expansion team, replacing the Seahawks
in the 5th/6th grade division...The
team's first head coach was Don Greene,
who had been a successful assistant
coach in the league, as was his brother,
and had 3 sons also go thru the
program....His assistant was Jim Tellep,
his first year coaching...The games, as
well as the practices, were held on the
smallish touch football fields at
Kaufman Field, behind Drug Mart...They
joined the three other teams in the
league, the Badgers, the Fighting Irish,
and the Lions...The season consisted of
six regular season games, then a round
robin, single elimination
tournament....The first place team was
alotted two losses...The teams were
seeded according to their record...The
tournament winner was crowned season
champs...The Hawkeyes oringinal jersey
color was black....All the teams wore
white helmets and white pants....Since practices and games were held on the smallish touch football fields, they also used the same rules...Fields were 60ydsx60yds; no clock-quarters were "timed" by a number of plays, and 20yds to a first down, instead of 10........The
team did very well in its inaugrial
season, with the first pick in the
"draft", and some extra picks awarded by
the commissioner, they finished the
regular season 5-1, with its only loss
coming in the first game to the
Lions...But they beat the Irish in its
first playoff game, gaining them a birth
in the championship game, and another
shot at the Lions, which they lost...but
finished the season in 2nd
place........In 1994, though, things
were much different...Starting with a
change in venues...The league moved the
practices to Madison Park, where the
eighth grade teams practiced, and the
games to the spacious astroturf of
Lakewood High School...Also, the 5th
graders were out, and the division
became 6th/7th split...The better 7th
graders were sent up to the 8th grade
division....Practices were quite
cramped, to say the least, all the teams
were inside the fence, inside the
baseball field....And they adopted high school rules...which meant, bigger field, longer quarters, and 10yds for first downs, just to name a few...Alot of changes, and alot of adjustments...And 1994 was a year,
where whatever could go wrong,
did...Injuries, tough losses, and alot
of new players, as well as the
adjustment of playing on a field that
was twice as big, and twice as
fast....The team had trouble scoring,
and only won its first game of the
season in the third game on yardage in
overtime....lost another game the same
way, and finished the year 2-4, losing
in the first round of the playoffs.....
1995 saw a change in coaches...Don
Greene retired, and was replaced by
Kevin Smith, who played, coached, and
now had a son in the program...Coach
Tellep remained as assistant...Another
change in 95 cames as a result of jersey
colors between the Lions navy blue, and
the Hawkeyes black being too hard to
distinguish between, so the Hawkeyes
were asked to change colors, and did so
to gray....Defense was the name of the
game in 95....The team did not allow a
point till its last regular season game,
and after first place was already
secure, losing to the Badgers
6-0....But, they then went on to shut
out its two playoff opponents, including
the dreaded Lions 6-0 in a driving snow
storm, giving the Hawkeyes their first
championship and a 7-1 mark for the
season....1996 was a struggle...Most of
the players from the 95 championship
team were graduated to the 8th grade
division, and they were a whole new
team....1996 also reintroduced 5th
graders back into the program....It also
welcomed its first female player, with
the Irish....But despite a very tough
start, coach Smith lead his young team
back to the championship game, only to
lose to the Lions 21-13, and finishing a
respectful 5-3.......As tough as 1996
was, 1997 was much worse...the team not
only lost its best players to the 8th
grade, it lost alot of other players to
disinterest, or moving....And it also
lost both of its coaches.....The team
had to start over from scratch....1997
also saw another development...7th
graders were no longer split....The 8th
grade team was made a traveling team,
part of the High School program, playing
and practicing at the high school, and
coached by Mark , who had just led the
Lions to two championships...Thus,
combining 5th, 6th, and 7th
graders...But, despite using two coaches
with 8th grade experience, and a strong
draft, they just werent able to put
things together,
and the team suffered through its worse
season, finishing 0-7 and bowing out in
the first round of the playoffs to
repeat champion Lions....The team also
switched to gold jerseys...
TEAM RECORDS...
YR...REC...PL......COACHES
1993....6-2...2nd....Greene/Tellep
1994....2-5...4th....Greene/Tellep
1995....7-1...1st.....Smith/Tellep
1996....5-3...2ND.....Smith/Tellep
1997....0-7...4th.........../Okuma
'93-'97 PICTORIAL REVIEW...
(Just click on a pic to see it in full size)
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