Smith-Cotton football falls to Grain Valley in first district final since 2008

GRAIN VALLEY — Climbing back from a 1-4 start to reach a district championship for the first time in 18 years defined the second half of the season for Smith-Cotton football. While the Tigers’ run ended with a 52-7 loss to Grain Valley in the Class 5 District 7 title game Friday, Nov. 13, at Grain Valley High School, first-year head coach Mike Franklin pointed to a midyear shift in mentality as the catalyst for the turnaround. “Coach [Tommy] Kindle kept telling the boys all season, ‘Just trust the process, keep working the path and things will start turning around for us,’” Franklin said. “We started to have success, and then the kids started getting more confident each week. That was the key. The kids started to believe in themselves, and that’s really what kind of turned things over for us, and they just started running away with it.” Smith-Cotton finishes the season with a 6-6 record. This marks the second year in a row S-C has recorded at least six wins.

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