These Bulldogs are no longer just pups> Tragedy tempered this Madison team into state contender

MADISON – The 28 members of the Madison Area High School football team have had to grow up a lot this fall, as people as well as players.

Rebuilding from last fall’s 2-6 season was going to be difficult enough. Then, on a tragic Wednesday morning in mid-September, less than two weeks into the regular season, five classmates, including two teammates, were killed in a car accident while on their way to school.

Somehow, the Bulldogs persevered, pulling strength from one another to get through the pain. Time helped heal their wounds. The wins piled up. A Western Maine Class C championship, won in dramatic last-minute fashion, followed.

On Saturday, Madison will take a 9-1 record into the state Class C championship against Stearns of Millinocket. Game time is 1 p.m. at Cameron Stadium in Bangor.

It has been a long, painful road for the Bulldogs this fall. Coach Carl Rudman has not seen anything like it.

“A lot of kids grew up an awful lot this year,” the seventh-year coach said before practice Thursday. “What these kids have had to go through together has drawn us closer. We had to lean on each other to survive. They have really exemplified what the word `team’ means. That’s something I’m going to carry with me the rest of my life.”

“Every person on this team was involved in that, in one way or another,” said Peter Freeman, a two-way senior lineman. “Everybody needed everybody. This is a family, regardless. So when something like that happens and you start falling backwards, you need somebody to grab onto. That’s what we did. We got through it. When the fog finally cleared, we were really together.”

Ironically, the team began growing closer after last season which came on the heels of 5-3 and 3-5 campaigns. The players made a pact – that a season so un-Madison like would never happen again.

“This year, we were a real team, which we didn’t really have in the years before,” said Chad Rogers, a senior tight end and the Bulldogs’ leading receiver. “In the past, we’ve had too many individuals trying to do it themselves. But it’s a great feeling to be a part of that Mad-Dog winning tradition and to bring it back to this town.”

Such togetherness was especially noticable last Saturday in Madison’s 91-yard, game-winning, fourth-quarter drive to beat Winthrop, 7-6, for the WM title.

Rudman had actually noticed his team coming around at the end of the last season.

“We knew we had some talent coming back,” Rudman said. “Two years ago, we were getting pushed around all over the palce. Last year, we got physically and mentally tough.”

Another year’s experience and a few personel moves helped push the Bulldogs over the top.

Sam Van Tuinen is a senior quarterback, playing only his second year of football. Still, he has matured into an adept passer who completed 58 percent (69-for-119) of his passes for 1,215 yards and nine touchdowns.

Freeman transferred to Madison from Florida before his junior year to help anchor the line.

And Chris Morris, another senior playing only his second year of ball, gave the ‘Dogs a speedy tailback, gaining 732 yards on 109 runs (6.7 yards per carry) and scoring 12 touchdowns this season.

“Those three players have made a big impact,” said Rudman.

Along with the improving play of other key Bulldogs, like junior linebacker Matt Linkletter, the team’s leading tackler, and junior defensive linemen Mike Henderson and Justin Cornforth, the Bulldogs turned last season around, maturing both on and off the field in the process.