The Hampton-Dumont-CAL football team has concluded a season where they were tested by some of Iowa’s best teams in nearly every game.
At 3-6 and 1-4 in 3A District 2, the Bulldogs faced five teams that ended up making the playoffs. Furthermore, they competed in one of the toughest districts in Class 3A, with Humboldt and Algona finishing in the top four in the RPI, and Clear Lake making the playoffs at-large.
Head Coach Cole Miller says his team competed well, despite being a fairly youthful group.
“We battled in a lot of the games that we were in,” Miller says. “Unfortunately, a lot of those games didn’t go our way. We were able to get that one win against Charles City and that was a good one for us. We were trying to get that momentum back headed into this last week, but the boys played in a lot of tough games. And like we said at the beginning of the year and throughout the season, we’re a pretty young team. We had a lot of juniors playing, some sophomores here and there giving us some time. And we had a small senior class that is unfortunately moving on from us, but we got better every single week. We’re gonna continue to get better. The boys will work hard in the offseason. They’re going to be involved in other sports that is going to help them down the stretch as football players next season. So district-wise, we battled in every single game, and we got better every week. So I’m proud of the kids for accepting the challenge every week and getting better.”
In non-district play, the Bulldogs battled well against playoff teams West Marshall and Nevada, rounding out the slate of playoff opponents.
Hampton-Dumont-CAL ended its season with a 31-6 home loss to #4 (3A) Algona in Friday’s Week 9 game.
