What the Grand Meadow football team has done over the past three seasons is simply remarkable.

The Superlarks have won two nine man state championships and they’ve played in the three Prep Bowls. I’m sure a lot of coaches out there would like to know what Grand Meadow’s secret is, but the truth is there is no secret to the Superlarks’ success.

They’ve continued to win with a simple formula of hard work, dedication and great coaching. I don’t know if I’ve ever covered a more prepared team that the Superlarks have been in the past two seasons. They’ve gone into every game knowing what their opponent does and they’ve always found ways to stop it. In the rare times the Larks faced adversity, they were always able to make the correct coaching adjustments to get back in the game.

To me, Grand Meadow won the state title when it beat Underwood 20-0 in the state quarterfinals. That game was truly a war and it showed everything you needed to know about this Superlark squad.

GM was undersized against a very big and physical Underwood team and there were high winds blowing, which severely limited Grand Meadow’s passing attack. The Superlarks clung to a 6-0 lead for most of the game as Underwood continued to try and break their front line with a power rushing game.

I saw Superlark players starting to get a little frustrated and a little tired, but not one of them broke down. There was no finger pointing, there was no coming out of the game, and there was no whining.

Grand Meadow took Underwood’s best shot and in the end, Landon Jacobson made the biggest play of the postseason when he picked off a pass in the fourth quarter to set up his own TD that sealed the game and helped turn the Superlarks into back-to-back champs.

Jacobson is that rare combination of an athlete who has a lot of physcial skill, is very driven and is a great teammate. It’s not common that athletes possess all three of those traits and I think Jacobson’s attitude rubbed off on all of his teammates these past few seasons. While Jacobson could hit as hard as anyone I’ve seen play football, he also possessed an uncanny leadership ability to get everyone on the same page and keep everyone focused.

It would’ve been easy for this year’s Grand Meadow team to get overconfident or cocky after winning the state title last season, but it kept its eye on the prize the entire season and Jacobson and head coach Gary Sloan deserve a lot of credit for making sure the squad took every game seriously. The result of that focus and hard work has paid off as GM has won its first two state titles in back to back seasons.

It was a heck of a ride.