By Ty Reynolds & Patrick Mason sports@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5555

The tale of the 1994 Newman Comets football team is one of redemption. Its also a tale of two senior classes achieving a goal that had slipped through their fingers a year before.

To understand the journey to the Comets 14-0 season and second state championship in program history, you must first understand where that group of seniors was coming from. And to do that, we must delve into November 1993, when Newman fell just short of the pinnacle.

The 1993 1A state title game in Normal has gone down in infamy as the Ice Bowl, a game so cold the astroturf froze over and the Comets, wearing their basketball-style turf shoes, slipped and slid all day in a 49-9 loss at the hands of Calhoun, which was wearing cleats.

It was kind of Shoe Gate, said Matt Selmi, an offensive and defensive tackle on the 1994 team.

We were pretty tight with the seniors in 1993, and seeing how they had to go out losing that game we made a vow to each other that we were going to get back there the next year and win it for them, and for us.

Everyone took it hard that year, and we could only think about getting back there the next year, running back Ryan Fowler added. I didnt like the what-if factor of that game, and I remember telling the seniors ahead of us that wed do anything and everything to get back there and redeem what happened.

Almost as one, the Comets coming back for the next season adopted that unspoken chip on their shoulder, and the journey back to Normal the next November began almost immediately after they left Hancock Stadium that cold day in 1993.

There are many stories surrounding that 1994 dream season. Most revolve around center/linebacker Matt Hoffmiller, who teammates call the glue that held things together.

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Football: Comets turned tough loss into state title in 1994