Alconbury's Devin Pryor, left, keeps Rota's Nick Hernandez at length during the Division IV championship game at Baumholder on Nov. 1. Alconbury lost a heartbreaker 22-21. Pryor ushed for more than 1,000 yards and scored 20 touchdowns as a junior. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Alconbury's Devin Pryor, left, keeps Rota's Nick Hernandez at length during the Division IV championship game at Baumholder on Nov. 1. Alconbury lost a heartbreaker 22-21. Pryor ushed for more than 1,000 yards and scored 20 touchdowns as a junior. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Alconbury's Yul McGrath, left, rushes against Rota's Tim Drake during the Division IV championship game at Baumholder on Nov. 1. With a lot of underclassmen, the Dragons are already looking to next year. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Alconbury's Jaime Samudio, left, pulls down Rota quarterback Scott Curtain during the Division IV championship game. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
By his own account, football coach Duke Eidt didn’t know what to expect this year from his Alconbury Dragons.
What could anyone expect? The Division IV team had gone 0-6 the year before and had only one victory to its name since 2002.
Then came a second-week matchup against the International School of Brussels team.
After the Dragons squad arrived late in Belgium for the game, missing their warm-up time, they quickly took control, team captain Yul McGrath said.
In the end, the Dragons obliterated their competition, "mercy ruling" them out of the game in the first half after going up 42-0.
It set up the most successful season of Dragons football in a long time, with the team going 4-3 and making it all the way to the Division IV championship before falling in a 22-21 squeaker to the Rota Admirals earlier this month.
"It was great," McGrath said of his fourth and final season with the team. "I just wish we could’ve won the championship."
Still, this is a team that has room to build, said Eidt, who’s in his second year as coach. The majority of the team is young and should be back next year, and this past season will help them grow.
"Being able to compete for a championship, you can’t replicate that in practice," Eidt said last week. "We needed to be exposed to a big-time game, and that is going to help this group as they go into the offseason."
From a coaching perspective, Eidt said working with a team that is predominantly underclassmen in a small school allows players to get a continuity of coaching.
Eidt said he first saw glimpses of what his Dragons could do during the preseason jamboree, when his guys clashed with Lakenheath High School’s junior varsity squad.
"Just watching the level of play, watching the skill, watching how running a very limited playbook we were able to move the ball," he said. "It’s those little intangibles."
Eidt said fans should keep an eye on junior Devin Pryor, who had a monster season rushing for more than 1,000 yards, 17 touchdowns and three punt returns for scores.
The season’s successes began last summer, when many on the team dedicated themselves to summer conditioning when they could’ve been enjoying their vacation, said team captain Jaime Samudio.
The season has given the team "a new outlook on what Alconbury is about," he said.
"Everyone viewed Alconbury and the D IV schools as small schools or a practice game," Jaime said. "This year, we showed up and went to the championship. We proved to everyone we’re here to play."
