Vikings begin quest to climb back to the championship

The Charlo Vikings didn’t dwell on the 30-24 loss in the 8-man championship games at the hands of Ennis.

Instead, the Vikings continued to focus their summer on making improvements with the hopes of returning to the pinnacle game of their class as they will kick off their season-opening game hosting Seeley this Friday night at Charlo.

“One of the things about sustaining a program is that success tends to breed success or the desire to have that kind of success again,” Vikings coach Mike Krahn said. “Everyone on our team has that desire of making it to the state championship and everything that is coming into our program has that goal in mind. Hopefully we will have a different outcome.”

Krahn and his Vikings are no stranger to postseason success, but last year was arguably the closest Charlo has seen to having a state championship-caliber team.

“Football is a long season and there are a lot of variables involved with winning,” Krahn stated. “You really have to stay healthy, always try to win our division, and make a run at the playoffs. Having that state championship experience, hosting a state championship and seeing another team hoist the state trophy all makes it a lot of pressure on the players to return. Honestly, I think that is a good thing when you have high expectations. It makes our kids a little more focused and they work harder and prepare harder.”

The Vikings, who hosted a championship game against Ennis, a team that has won the last two out of four Class C, 8-man championships, said it was “huge” for the town of Charlo to be able to host a tournament like that.

“I think it is huge for our little guys and the junior high kids to come and be right there (at a championship game),” Krahn said. “When you are right on the sideline, you just feel that excitement, energy and intensity. When you have a younger player idolize that and can’t wait for the time when it is their turn because they saw it with their own eyes, it’s a great motivator for our program.”

This season many area coaches have considered the Vikings heavy favorites to not only repeat as conference champions but also be one of the top contenders for the state championship in Class C, 8-man.

“We are excited, there are a lot of high expectations and that is good to have,” Krahn said. “I would rather have high expectations than just going into the season hoping to win only a few games. The pressure is good. It’s a burden and a blessing because everyone expects that from us. There is a lot of town support. Our town and community rallies around us and that feels pretty important. That is why football is a big deal.”

Krahn, who is confident about his team this year even after losing some key contributors, is excited about this upcoming season.

“We are just excited to go from zero to sixty and we are anxious to get going and get back to work on the field,” Krahn said.

This summer Krahn said his team has received solid turnouts to several of their summer events.

“We did a team camp at Montana Tech in June,” Krahn said. “I think there were like eight or nine teams that went (to Montana Tech). We had a 5-on-5 with Superior every Monday in June and we had pretty good turnout. We were going down to our team camp in July on Monday and Tuesday and had three-day teams with the junior high and high school kids. We implemented our offense and when we start the season, we should be ready to roll.”

Last year, the Vikings won their conference and won home field advantage throughout the playoffs. In Class C, 8-man football, home field advantage is major because it eliminates travelling for up to ten to 11 hours on a school bus just to go play a football game.

Last year, the Vikings go to host three playoff football games against Chester-Joplin-Iverness and the championship game against Class C powerhouse Ennis.

The Vikings had to make one road trip en route to last year’s championship game and the distance was significant when they played the Belt Huskies.

The distance from Charlo to Belt was 242 miles one-way. In the quarterfinal playoff game the Vikings’ homefield advantage paid dividends when Charlo defeated Fairfield on their home turf.

Fairfield and Charlo met each other in the opening game of the season and the Vikings lost 54-52 but it was enough to give them a solid look at their future playoff opponent.

Charlo saved travelling nearly 200 miles when they hosted a playoff game. The Vikings hope to again secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs to avoid playing one of hte most grueling schedules in any class in Montana because of the distance between teams.

Coach Krahn said his team is “motivated,”this season to return and their quest to return will start on Friday when they host Seeley at 7 p.m. Friday night at Bob Holgren Field.

Charlo, who got revamped turf, will also battle with each other to try to score the first touchdown on the newly resodded football field as they begin the new season.