Splish, splash: Little avoids full bath of ice water, but Blue Devils improvise to celebrate WB6 title

QUINCY — The Quincy High School football players proved they can be resourceful.

Late in the fourth quarter Friday night at Flinn Stadium and the starters on the sidelines with a 35-7 lead over Geneseo, a plan was hatched to dump a cooler of water on Blue Devils coach Rick Little at game’s end to celebrate winning the Western Big 6 Conference title.

The Blue Devils couldn’t do that if the coolers were empty.

Daron Wildrick saw to that. The long-time QHS assistant coach dumped out the coolers in front of the QHS bench with less than four minutes remaining in the game.

“I don’t know what he was thinking,” senior cornerback/wide receiver Jack Mettemeyer said. “He’s ruining all of our fun.”

Well, Wildrick was just following orders. Little got wind of the players’ plan and told Wildrick to dump the water and ice.

That wasn’t stopping the Blue Devils.

They gathered all of the individual water bottles and emptied them into one of the coolers. They used their hands to scoop up ice off the turf, and by the time there was less than a minute to play, they filled the cooler enough to give the veteran head coach a celebratory shower.

“We still made it work,” QHS junior quarterback Bradyn Little said.

Well, almost.

The coach felt the presence of the players coming from behind and showed some mobility from his playing days by dancing away as best he could. They got him a little wet, but Rick Little avoided a head-to-toe dousing.

“He kind of juked us out,” Mettemeyer said. “He went back to those college and arena football days and juked us out.”

Said Rick Little with a chuckle, “I used my elusive abilities.”

The coach readily admits he doesn’t like getting his shoes and socks soaked, which is why he wanted to avoid the shower in the first place. But he relented afterward knowing the reason behind such celebrations.

“I would get doused every time if it meant we were going to win a conference championship,” Rick Little said. “If that was part of the deal, I’d do it every week.”

More showers could be in the works.

Next week, with Mahomet-Seymour visiting Flinn Stadium, the Blue Devils have the opportunity to wrap up the first undefeated regular season since 1935. Then it will be on to the playoffs where Quincy has won just two postseason games ever and never been past the second round.

So Friday night’s WB6 championship could be the first of many historic accomplishments.

“A stepping stone,” Bradyn Little said. “From here on out, we take another step. It’s going to make it a lot of fun playing next week and all the weeks that follow.”

Every celebration gets bigger, too.

“It’s awesome to be a part of a team that is this good and be in position to celebrate like that,” Mettemeyer said.

There’s no better place to be, even if it means dealing with wet feet for a short while.