Raiders off to best start in 27 years

Collins-Maxwell/Baxter linebacker Charles Robertson was with some teammates at a Raider volleyball match earlier this week when a teacher, Jean Birchmier, approached the group of football players.

In the midst of the football team’s best start in nearly three decades, the teacher offered praise, encouragement and a bit of prospective.

“She said that she’s been waiting for this ever since we came together,” Robertson said. “That’s one of the reasons we came together in the first place was to go farther.”

So far, this year’s Raiders have gone farther than any of its 26 predecessors. CMB is 6-0 for the first time since the two schools combined in 1988 and ranked No. 10 in Class 2A.

A return to the rankings is one sign of CMB’s revival. The Raiders made the playoffs three years in a row from 2007-09, finishing each season with eight wins. From 2010-13, CMB went 19-19, posting losing records each of the last two years.

“We’ve hovered around .500 since those three really good years, so this is by far the best we’ve had in awhile,” CMB head coach Rob Luther said.

Improved defensive play is a big reason for the team’s undefeated start. While the offense carried the team to several of its wins over the last few years, the defense has consistently lagged behind.

That’s no longer the case thanks to schematic changes, including a new 3-5 base defense, and players playing in different positions, such as senior Bryce Kemp’s move from safety to linebacker.

Kemp is one of four Raiders, along with Robertson, Clayton Weltha and Nick Litell, with at least 30 tackles. Prairie City-Monroe has three players with 30 or more tackles, and no other team in Class 2A District 7 has more than two.

“Our top defensive kids have really, really stepped up,” Luther said. “They’ve played both sides of the ball. We’ve had a couple young kids step up. They’ve bought in and they’ve realized we can’t be a one-sided football team.”

No player provided more insight to his coach’s point than Weltha.

“The last couple years, we’ve just been hearing about how bad our defense is and we’ve been getting mad about,” he said. “Not just players, coaches are getting tired of hearing that, fans are getting tired of watching it, our defense getting killed every single year. This year, I think we had enough of that and drew the line and started to take care of that.”

CMB’s defense will face the biggest challenge it has so far this year when the Raiders travel to No. 3 Albia (6-0) Friday. Last year’s Class 2A District 6 winner, Albia is Class 2A’s highest scoring team, averaging more than 46 points per game.

“Preparation for this game is almost like a playoff game,” Kemp said. “This decides a lot. It doesn’t decide the whole season, but it’s a big game going forward where our position is for playoffs.”

Contact Sports Writer Ben Schuff at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6536 or at bschuff@newtondailynews.com.