T he difference between decided by less than one inch gained on fourth down, or one pass into the end zone off the wide receiver’s fingertips and into the arms of the defensive back, or one shoestring that slips out of a linebacker’s fingers that turns a run for no gain into a long-distance touch- down. You could go on and on with the examples. winning and losing can of- tentimes be razor thin. On the football field, it can be Gilbert’s 1-8 season in 2022 and 6-3 season in 2023 fit into that razor thin category when you sit down and dissect things. There was the 26-point fourth- quarter outburst by Creston, the late long-distance field goal into the wind and rain by Nevada, and the overtime tussle against Algona in 2022 — all three losses. On the flip side, there was the goal-line fumble recov- ery in the final moments against Dallas Center-Grimes, another late-game fumble latched onto against Carroll, and the mighty exhale of a field goal by Owen Mattson at the end of regulation against Carlisle in 2023 — all wins. And maybe now you under- stand why Gilbert head coach Graham Lundt very rarely fix- ates on the final score, not at this point in his career anyway. Now in his fifth year in charge of the Tigers and his eighth overall
John Hales, Ethan Wilcox, Nolan Zehr, Cooper Arkovich, Braeden Nees, Wyatt Pink, Danny Buss, Evan Goetz, Zach Noe, Connor Rash, Mylze Peterson, Will Hawthorne, Alden Short, Owen Mattson, and Bowen Kruse.
as a head coach, Lundt instead focuses on the process. What can his student-athletes do on a daily basis to become better players? What can they do on a daily basis to become better leaders? What can they do on a daily basis to become better human beings? It all matters — in the micro and the macro. “Truly, I think about how do we do everything we can to focus on everything other than the final score?” Lundt asked rhetorically. “What I understand now, and you truly can’t under- stand this until you have kids of your own, is that I’m entrusted
with 90 boys that are the prized possessions of their moms and dads, so how do we continue to give opportunities for our young men to grow into becoming better football players, better servers, better leaders? Yes, I want to win and I would love to hang banners. But the more im- portant piece is how am I treat- ing them and how am I helping them handle adversity?” Lundt has experienced plenty of ups and downs in the last few seasons. Seventeen losses in 18 games during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, followed by last fall’s resurgence that included a 6-0 start to the season. It. All. Matters.
“The greatest thing to happen in my coaching career is going 0-9, and the second-best thing was going 1-8,” Lundt said. “Be- cause you learn a lot more from losing than winning. Going into last season, we stuck our foot in the ground and said we’re going to do everything we can to com- pete.” It’s that type of mentality that earns trust from players and makes them want to run through a brick wall for you. And a season ago, the Tigers ran through a number of metaphori- cal brick walls during their first season in Class 4A. Some of those same brick walls remain firmly in place for
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