Reminiscing Tiger Football from Coach Matt Perry’s years
With the beginning of the 2022 football season among us, we thought our readers might enjoy reminiscing the Tiger teams from 1994-1997 through the words of Matthew Perry.
Perry, who coached football for 31 years, was the head coach at Stockton High School from ’94-’97. Beginning on the first day of August, 2022, Perry, began honoring the players and coaches which he had the pleasure of working with, by spotlighting a team each of the days in August. He entitled his project “31 Days of Football.”
After coaching the Otis-Bison Cougars from 1990-1993, Perry and his wife, Cindy, moved to Stockton where he took over the reigns of head coach, replacing Phil Wilson.
From August 5 through August 8 of this year, Perry posted various pictures on Facebook, and shared his memories of the successful Tiger teams during his four-year tenure. His words were as follows:
“Day 5 | I could not have planned it any better than to talk about the 1994 Stockton Tigers on a Friday. In the late spring of 1994 the Stockton job opened up. Cindy and I talked about it and I decided to pursue it.
Stockton was coming off winning the last two 2A state football championships so I knew they had great football tradition and I had tough shoes to fill. Somehow I got the job…I had to do my best to not screw it up.
The first thing we found out was that Stockton was the most welcoming and friendly town we have ever lived in. We also found out that they had some great players coming back, but played in the MCL which was the toughest small schools league in the state. I found out really quickly that these Stockton boys knew how to work when I hired a couple to help me roof the house we bought.
I have to commend the 1994 seniors Andy, Pfannenstiel, Todd Kriley, Richie Bouchey, Tobias Wood, Jamie Berland, Josh Price, Luke Conyac, Joe Gasper, John Vermillion, and Cody Foster for accepting me as their new coach and embracing the changes I made. I didn’t understand until later how valuable that was to have seniors who knew how to win and who were exceptionally smart on the field and in the classroom.
“Day #6 | It’s a Saturday treat to talk about the 1995 Stockton Tigers because they were by far the most dominant team I have ever coached. The seniors on this squad consisting of Scott Wagner, Brandon Towns, James Mongeau, Matt McShea, Matt Moll, HJ Colburn, Israel Jirak, Jon Kee, and Eli Snyder had been the key cogs in helping Stockton go on a four-year domination of Class 2A football in Kansas. I forgot how dominant we were until I looked at the scores of all the games and realized they only allowed two teams to score more than one TD, and both of those teams scored just two TDs. For a long time I know that we had the state record for interceptions in a season at 32.
The only blemish on the whole season came in the second game where we lost to Norton 13-6. I never make excuses, but the biggest factor in this loss was that our quarterback, Aron McReynolds, hurt his shoulder in the Soap Scrimmage and he could not pass the ball. Norton was good enough to load the box and keep us down, and our defense had not found its groove yet.
After the game I experienced one of the greatest things in my coaching career when Israel Jirak came up to me and said, ‘Coach, that's not happening again. I will get them ready,’ and he would back it up. Hands down, Israel is the smartest, toughest and most hardnosed player I have ever coached.
After the Norton loss we got back on track by beating Victoria, and future NFL player Monte Beisel, 22-0. The key to victory
See was right before halftime we needed to pass, but because Aron was not cleared to pass, we had Scott Wagner throw a halfback pass. The first one did not work, but time was about out so we ran it again. Low and behold, Scott threw a strike to Brandon Towns which took all the wind out of Victoria.
Next up was Smith Center and they are always good, but we beat them at their own game, running several plays out of the wishbone formation on our second TD. Brandon Towns’ speed came up big as he ran down a breakaway runner to preserve the 16-8 win.
After that Aron was healthy, our vaunted rushing attack of Thane VanEaton (left) and Israel Jirak (right) took over, and we got on a roll for the rest of the regular season.
In the first round of the playoffs we smacked Victoria 32-0 which led us to a rematch with Ell-Saline. I was a little worried because that Friday during school Scott Wagner was really sick. Because he wanted to play the next day, he carried a trash can around the whole day trying to stay in school. I finally sent him home and told him it was more important to get better so he could play in future games. Plus, it gave his freshman brother, Travis, a chance to show off. Ell-Saline was no match and we won 30-6.
I forgot to mention earlier that Cindy was pregnant with our second child and she was due the 1st of November. As we geared up for our sub-state game at Dighton, my family had other business to take care of. On Monday, Cindy went to the doctor’s appointment and told Dr. Scott she needed to have her baby now because she did not want it to come on Friday while I was 2 ½ hours away in Dighton. He said it worked in his calendar, so after she finished her classes at Fort Hays that day, she checked herself in the hospital and got ready to be induced. I showed up after practice (I’m still not living that one down) and we got ready to have our second child. Tanner John arrived at 5 a.m. on Tuesday, November 7. I remember the Hays Daily News did a story on the birth, but in true Cindy fashion she stayed out of the limelight even though she just did an amazing thing. I’m pretty sure if we would not have had Tanner induced he would have arrived on Friday because the weather turned and we had a big snowstorm on that Friday.
The snowstorm did not stop us from traveling to Dighton and playing our sub-state game. I remember it was crazy cold… so cold that the ultimate tough man on our team, Thane VanEaton, who never wore sleeves during games, put on sleeves after our warm-ups to keep warm. The game was close and we had to have a big play on the goal line by Aron McReynolds to preserve the 22-14 victory. These seniors were headed to their fourth state championship appearance.
Itwasabalmy60degrees on that Saturday for the state championship. We were facing Frankfort, a team I knew well because I played them in high school and they still had the same coaching legend, Larry Schroeder, as their head coach. I remember that I was not going to have a repeat of last year in the state championship game, so we started the game out passing. We connected on those early passes and that set the stage for a fairly easy 26-6 victory. The victory was sealed by a Matt McShea interception for a TD, and we spent the entire fourth quarter basking in the November sun, knowing all the hard work had paid off with another state championship. Prophetically, like Israel said after that Norton game, he had them ready and we didn’t lose again. What an accomplishment by not only a great group of players, but also by a community who put their heart and soul into those kids. Championship culture ran so deep in Stockton!
I was living the best dream ever because in a matter of two weeks Tanner was born and I had won a state championship as a coach. Life was Good!
“Day 7 | If the 1996 Stockton Tiger football team were around today we would be talking about the theme ‘Run it Back.’ We definitely looked poised to be a contender for Stockton’s fifth straight title appearance because Thane VanEaton and Aron McReynolds, as well as a good supporting cast from the sophomores, juniors, and seniors were back. Thane VanEaton was pound for pound one strong, tough, incredible high school football player, who if I were describing the ideal linebacker/running back for a high school team, he would fit the bill. Aron McReynolds was our QB/ OLB who I would describe as a WINNER because he would do whatever it took to win. The rest of the seniors on that squad were Jimmy Green, Tony Bice, Chris Walker, Jason Pickett, Shayne Balthazor, and Layne Balthazor.
In the ’80s and ’90s the Mid-Continent League was a gauntlet of incredible football teams and players, and 1996 was no exception. After a couple easy wins to open the season against Phillipsburg and Hill City, it was now time to play Norton who was our only loss the year before. Norton had two studs in their QB Neal Philpot (who led Pitt State to a D2 National Championship) and Jeff Boyle (who played at Wyoming), and although we played them tough, we lost 21-12.
After a win over Ellis, our schedule got even tougher because we had to play a huge WaKeeney team that had a college-sized offensive line. For the first time in about four years we were not bigger than the other team and could not bully them like we had in the past. The WaKeeney game proved that to us as they beat us up to the tune of 33-14. Next up was good ole Smith Center with their ground and pound attack. We added some wrinkles to get the ball to a little dynamic sophomore named Travis Wagner. We played the Redmen toe to toe for all four quarters, but lost 22-14.
The good thing about the Kansas playoffs back then was that all you had to do was win your last three district games to
See make the playoffs and even win a state championship. Stockton kids knew this well because they had made it to state with three losses. Stockton kids also knew the season well and always seemed to find another gear when we got to districts, and this year was no exception. In fact, we overwhelmed our three district opponents, Osborne, Lincoln and Plainville by an average score of 54-6. We were ready to ride the Thane, Travis and Aron show for a big run in the playoffs.
Our first opponent in the bi-district game was against Claflin, a team I knew well from my Otis-Bison days. Little did we know that this game would be a changing of the guard in 2A football because after this 26-6 loss Claflin would go on to win 50+ games in a row. The biggest thing I remember from this game was senior receiver Jason Pickett got open deep, like three times, and only caught one of them. I was really proud of Jason, though, because he is a great example of a player sticking it out until their senior year, and then stepping up their game to be a big contributor to the team.
In the Regional round we had to play a traditionally tough Garden Plain team. Our principal Steve Mies was from Garden Plain and he tried to give me a scouting report to no avail. The Owls had a stout defensive line that we struggled to handle, and they played error-free football. We seemed to move the ball well from the 30 to the 30, but could not get anything going and lost 8-6. Although very sad to lose and not make another state championship game, these kids had nothing to be ashamed of. They held the Stockton Tiger torch well and still brought that hard-hitting style that Stockton was known for.
(Note: Due to space, the remainder of Coach Perry’s memories will be printed in next week’s edition of the Stockton Sentnel. This segment will be highlighting the 1997 Stockton Tigers, which had nine seniors on its roster.)
