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14 Thursday, September 3, 2009 2009 Football Preview
The Hutchinson News
Little River without Cordell – unthinkable
■ High school coach has
been face of his hometown
for nearly 30 years.
BY BRAD HALLIER
The Hutchinson News
bhallier@hutchnews.com
LITTLE RIVER – Take a
step into the Twilight Zone
for a moment.
Tomorrow, you wake up
and realize that Shane
Cordell is no longer the football
coach in Little River.
He’s no longer the girls basketball
coach. He’s no
longer a counselor at Little
River High School.
It’s as if he would have
just dropped off the face of
the earth.
What would become of
this small town in eastern
Rice County?
“There would be a void
that would be hard to fill,”
said Gunner Whorton, the
branch manager and lender
at Little River State Bank
and a former football player
for Cordell. “When people
think of Little River, his
name is one of the first
things to come up.”
Known as Mr. Cordell to a
few and simply as “Coach”
to most, Shane Cordell, in
many ways, is Little River.
He was raised in Little
River. He was a part of
Class 1A state football
championship teams in 1970
and 1971. Cordell has
coached three state championship
football teams in his
29 years as Redskins coach,
while four other teams have
made it to the state finals.
Players he coached early in
his career are now watching
Cordell coach their sons.
Cordell has accomplished
the rare feat of coaching an
11-man champion (1981) and
eight-man champion (1996,
1999).
And of course, there’s
that juggernaut girls basketball
Cordell has coached
for nearly three decades. All
that program has done is
boast a 91-game winning
streak in the late 1990s and
win four 1A state championships.
In this city of less than
700 people, where high
school sports usually have a
direct effect on how people
are doing, Cordell has been
the face of Little River for
nearly 30 years.
“It’s interesting in that
when you go to other
schools or league meetings,
you see young guys in their
mid- to late-20s,” said Little
River superintendent Milt
Dougherty. “But they don’t
always stay put for long.
When you see Little River,
you’ve seen the same face
for a long time.”
Little River’s success has
been a big reason for
Cordell’s staying put. In
Cordell’s tenure, the Redskins
are 200-89.
The Redskins haven’t
been quite as powerful in recent
years. Last year, they
were 3-6.
Cordell has seen the
Lindsey Bauman/The Hutchinson News
Little River football coach Shane Cordell instructs his team on a play to run during practice last week. Now in his 29th year at his
hometown high school, Cordell has led the Redskins to 200 victories and three state championships.
“It’s interesting in that when you go to other schools or league meetings, you
see young guys in their mid- to late ’20s. But, they don’t always stay put for long.
When you see Little River, you’ve seen the same face for a long time.”
worst of times mixed with
the best. The losing isn’t always
easy on the community,
and Cordell knows there
are some who question his
decisions and coaching, but
he has rebuilt the program
before with outstanding results.
“People have their opinions,
and they are entitled
to them,” Cordell said. “But
in ‘94, we were 0-9 in football,
and I doubt many people
back then thought I
knew what I was doing.”
Two years later, Little
River was a state champion.
But there’s more to
Cordell’s success than wins
and trophies.
“I think there’s no doubt
that he gets the most out of
his teams,” Whorton said.
“He coaches them up and
gets the most out of the kids
who play for him, regardless
of what their records
are.”
Whorton wouldn’t mind
his three daughters playing
basketball one day for
Cordell, although his oldest
is seven years from high
school. If Cordell is still
coaching then – Cordell of-
Little River superintendent Milt Dougherty
ten admits asking himself
“How long?” – the Whorton
family would continue a Little
River tradition.
Parents and kids both being
coached by Cordell.
Freshman running back
and cornerback Ethan
Wright heard stories for
years from his dad – Wade
Wright – about Cordell. The
wins, the intensity, the way
Cordell acted.
“It’s pretty cool hearing
those stories, hearing about
how they won state and how
Coach was back then,”
Ethan Wright said.
Now Wright and senior
wide receiver and linebacker
Jake Holler are playing
for the coach they grew
up hearing so much about.
But to Holler – whose dad
Brad Holler also played for
Cordell – he isn’t just a
coach. Being a counselor,
Cordell is there to help solve
problems, and goodness
knows on Monday’s first
day of school there were
plenty.
“Everyone looks up to
him here,” Holler said. “But
he’s also someone you can
talk to about whatever. He’s
not intimidating to talk to at
all.”
That’s probably in part
due to Cordell having had a
See CORDELL / 14