Lazerus: Back to work for Wheeler

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Steam rises from a Wheeler huddle during the fourth quarter against Andrean during sectional play at Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind., Friday, October 21, 2011. | Guy Rhodes~For Sun-Times Media

Updated: November 28, 2011 10:19AM

What do you do when you climb Everest? When you capture your white whale? When you slay the giant?

You enjoy it. For a few hours.

Then it’s back to work.

“We really enjoyed it this weekend,” Wheeler coach Dan Klimczak said of his Bearcats’ 12-7 upset of mighty Andrean in Friday night’s Class 2A sectional opener. “We definitely relished it. But the coaching staff got together on Sunday and started working on Rensselaer. We told the kids, ‘You enjoyed it, but you’re not going to talk about it again until after the season.’”

Well, region football fans will be talking about it for years to come. About how Wheeler did the impossible. About how Wheeler won with 13 total yards of offense. About how Wheeler forced eight turnovers. About how Wheeler pulled off — on Andrean’s field no less — the biggest upset in recent region football memory. If not region history. That’s the general consensus among longtime fans, coaches and pundits. It was that unlikely, that astounding.

Doesn’t matter that Wheeler was 9-0 — same as Andrean. The 59ers were supposed to annihilate the Bearcats, who feast on a weak schedule while Andrean posted wins against 5A Merrillville and Munster, and 4A Griffith and Lowell.

After all, Wheeler was 11-0 and invincible each of the past two seasons when it lost to bigger, badder Rensselaer in the sectional finals. The Bearcats were 9-0 three years ago when they lost to a mediocre North Judson team at home in the sectional opener. In the public’s eye, Wheeler’s 9-0 didn’t equate to Andrean’s 9-0. Didn’t even come close.

Then there’s the fact that the Bearcats lost their starting quarterback — the absurdly productive Nick Naspinski — in Week 6, forcing Klimczak to scale back his passing game and go to a more one-dimensional offense steered by converted receiver Robert Hurd.

Wheeler didn’t stand a chance. Andrean pretty much said as much in the ramp-up, openly talking about Bremen in the regional, Bishop Luers in the semistate and Mater Dei in the state championship.

The Bearcats were done.

But that’s why they play the games, right?

Now comes the hard part. Well, OK, maybe not as hard as beating Andrean. But now comes another hard part — refocusing.

After pulling out the win of their lives in spectacularly improbable fashion, Wheeler has to go back to running mundane drills in practice.

After being named Indianapolis Colts Coach of the Week — and earning a trip to Indy in December to watch a Colts practice and to be honored at halftime during a game — Klimczak has to go back to breaking down game film and figuring out ways to free up Hurd and Derek Hartwig and Mitchell Stevenson. After all, another 13-yard performance will undoubtedly spell doom.

And after all the talk and hype and speculation all year long on the impending Wheeler-Andrean matchup, it’s all over.

With Wheeler still standing.

And while none of them would ever say so, it’s probably fair to say that a lot, if not most, of the Bearcats — deep down in the backs of their minds and the recesses of their hearts — weren’t exactly expecing this.

So how do you get ready for just another game after all that? Even if it’s another playoff game?

“Saturday morning, our kids were a little sluggish coming in, I’m not going to lie,” Klimczak said. “They had just been through a war the night before. But we had a couple of good practices since. When you’re in the tournament, every game could be your absolute last game. That’s too valuable to give away or blow up.”

It certainly helps that the Bearcats are hosting Rensselaer on Friday. The Bombers have dumped the unbeaten Bearcats from the state tournament two straight years down in Rensselaer. And while this is not the same Bombers squad that won the last two regional championships — 20 starters, most of them two-year starters, have graduated from last year’s team — the name on the front of the jerseys is the same.

“Rensselaer’s going to come up here trying to end our season for the third straight time,” Klimczak said. “We’d better be prepared to defend ourselves and to defend our season. We’ve felt the sting of defeat in the past, and if that doesn’t motivate you, nothing will.”

So what do you do when you’ve won your Super Bowl, but there are still five games to go?

You go back to work. There’s another mountain to climb. Another whale to catch. Another giant to slay.