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The Seymour Owls’ 1999 season will go down as one of the most successful since the school began playing football in 1897.
Twenty-five years ago, the Owls set the school record for wins by going 13-1. Along the way they won the Hoosier Hills Conference title and won a sectional and a regional before losing to Indianapolis Cathedral 34-13 in a semi state game at Indianapolis Arlington High School.
Several of the players from the 1999 team met at Bulleit Stadium a few weeks back, during the Owls’ last regular season game against Bloomington South, to talk about that team that allowed only four touchdowns during the nine regular season games.
The Owls shut out South Dearborn, Floyd Central, Bedford North Lawrence, Jennings County and Madison during the season. In the tournament they defeated East Central, Franklin County, Shelbyville, and Muncie South before falling to Cathedral.
Seymour, coached by the Seymour Athletic Hall of Fame and Indiana Hall of Fame Coach, the late Joe Goodman, scored 555 points for an average of 39.6 and they allowed only 119 points and set 16 team school records along the way.
Nick Fields quarterbacked the Owls and saw them score a school record 75 touchdowns that season, including 48 rushing TDs, and 4,699 yards of total offense.
“It was a great group of guys, and we had a lot of fun,” Fields said. “We had fun at practice, and we had fun at the games.”
Fields said one of his most memorable games from 1999 was beating Franklin County 23-20. He recalled throwing a pass to Matt Wayt on the far side of the field, and Wayt scored a touchdown on the play to tie the score.
“I liked the ’98 season better,” Fields said.
The Owls were 10-2 that fall. They lost to East Central in the sectional championship. Fields suffered an ankle injury in the first half of that game. Both he and Henkle said they feel the Owls would have won that game if he had been able to play the second half.
Seymour won the first of three straight Hoosier Hills Conference titles in 1999. Owls named to the HHC first team were seniors Jared Antle, D.J. Henkle, Trent Hillenburg, Kevin Bloom, and Trent Brown. Juniors Clint Bobb and Bryan Robertson were also named to the first team, and Rocky Wilson was named honorable mention.
Henkle was named the Owls most valuable player and was selected to the south team for the annual north south all-star game. Henkle, Antle and Robertson were named to The Associated Press all-state first team, Henkle and Robertson were named to the Indiana Football Coaches Association Super 50, and junior Andy Stark was named to the IFCA Class all-state team.
Henkle recalled that season.
“I remember playing with these guys in elementary school, in middle school, at the Boys Club, on the freshman team and then on the varsity,” Henkle said. “I remember the Thursday meetings in the old stadium that didn’t have any windows or any air conditioning.”
Henkle said most of the starting positions were filled by seniors in 1999, and Seymour had quality players throughout most of the offensive and defensive positions.
Antle was named Seymour’s outstanding defensive player, Bobb was named the outstanding offensive player and recipient of the mental attitude award, Robertson was named the outstanding special team’s player, Brian Goble received the coach’s award, Hillenburg was named blocker of the year, and Bloom was named the Lions Club outstanding senior.
Brown, who was the Owls’ long snapper in addition to playing defensive end spoke on the team.
“The comradery was the big thing,” Brown said. “We all got along so well.”
He talked about the fan support the town would show.
“When Seymour had a home game on Friday night you could’ve robbed a bank because everybody was here,” he said.
Brown recalled scoring two touchdowns. He recovered a fumble in a game his senior year, intercepted a pass, and returned it for a touchdown during his junior season.
Other seniors on that team were Chad Whittymore, Nathan Miller, Chad Brock, Matt Wayt, Todd Kolseszar, Andy Basner, Jason Harmon, Greg Schleter, Derek Bohm, Kyle Ahlbrand, and Reid Laitinen.
Schleter received the Raccoon Awards for most big blocks during the season, and Wayt, Curt Schleibaum and Alex Rust received player of the day honors.
Robertson kicked 13 field goals and connected on 60 extra points. Robertson set the state record for the longest field goal with a 63-yarder against Franklin County.