COLUMBIA, Mo. — Bill Utz understood the expectations and the task ahead. He spent three years as an assistant on hall of fame head coach Chip Sherman’s staff before being selected to succeed him.
Sure, Utz inherited a program with 11 playoff appearances in the previous 14 years and state semifinal appearances in five of those trips. He also knew the Pirates were leaving the comfortable confines of the Midland Empire Conference — a northwest Missouri league they dominated for years — for the uncertainty of Kansas City’s Suburban Conference, which offers unique challenges on the schedule each year. Oh yeah, and Platte County was moving from Class 3 to Class 4.
What could go wrong under those circumstances while trying to figure out if he could return the Pirates to their previous prominence?
“Do I question that or have I questioned that? I think that’s natural, but I’ve just kept working just like these kids have their whole careers,” Utz said after a 48-0 loss to Webb City in Friday, Dec. 6’s Class 4 Show-Me Bowl at Faurot Field — Platte County’s first state championship game appearance since Sherman led the Pirates to three straight Class 3A/3 titles from 2000-2002.
Utz has spent the majority of his tenure seemingly expected to chase the specter of Sherman’s lofty program standard, but he never shied away — even after back-to-back losing seasons to start off his tenure (5-6 in 2008 and 4-6 in 2009). Platte County made the playoffs in four of his first five seasons, and this stretch overlapped with a change to the state playoff setup in 2012 that reduced the number of playoff teams from 16 to eight.
ROSS MARTIN/Special to the Citizen
Platte County football coach Bill Utz watches a play during the Class 4 championship game against Webb City on Friday, Nov. 6 in Columbia, Mo.
The Pirates won the eight-team Class 4 District 8 bracket in the first year of the new system, then endured a 4-6 season in 2013 before Kearney rejoined the field in 2014 and won the next three titles. In fact, Platte County’s season ended in the state playoffs against Kearney in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and in the district bracket in 2015 and 2016.
The question became when or if Utz could push the Pirates’ program back into the state’s upper echelon and return to the semifinals and beyond.
“I’m confident in the way that we put the work into it. When you have kids like these guys, it’s an easy road in that sense, but in any season, it’s a daunting task,” Utz said.
Platte County’s successes have been undeniable, playing at least 12 games in seven of the past 10 seasons.
Utz has built a coaching staff based on continuity and trust to slowly build to this point. He delegates responsibility to assistant coaches with Jeff Humberg, Blake Seifert and Jamar Parrish handling the offense; Wayne Baskerville serving as a quarterbacks coach; Eric Mitchell, Todd Jaros and Taylor Smith working with the defense and Derek Yost splitting between linebackers and the special teams units.
Overall, Platte County’s coaching staff has a combined 87 years of experience with the Pirates:
Humburg (22, 1998)
Utz (15, 2005)
Jaros (14, 2006)
Mitchell (12, 2008)
Parrish (10, 2010)
Baskerville (8, 2012)
Smith (3, 2016)
Yost (3, 2016)
“I’m confident in my coaching staff, for sure, and I’m confident in the way our community responds,” Utz said.
Humburg remains the lone holdover from Platte County’s championship teams and now serves as offensive coordinator. Jaros played on the 2000 Class 3A title game before returning as a coach six years later, and Smith previously played for Utz and the Pirates.
The familiarity allows Utz to administrate and interject more specifically as needed, but he can also often be found grabbing a screwdriver to adjust a busted facemask. No one is above any job that needs to be done on the Pirates’ sideline.
The framework has started to show dividends thanks to Platte County’s strong run of all-state caliber quarterbacks from Krae Kelso to James Valentine to Justin Mitchell to Tanner Clarkson to Spencer Stewart and now junior Chris Ruhnke. The Pirates broke through with a 2017 run to the Class 4 semifinals, which resulted in a tight 21-18 loss to Webb City. Two years later, Platte County made it one step further and faced Webb City in the Show-Me Bowl.
Utz understood the challenge and verbalized that he wouldn’t shy away from what the program could learn from the experience.
“We want to be what they have,” he said. “You’re talking about a program that has multiple state championships, that’s in the hunt all the time. That’s where we want to be as a program. I told our kids at the end of it, ‘If you want to be that, you have to take a step first.’ Obviously, getting here is that first step.”
In 2017, Webb City squeaked by Platte County on the way to a state championship.
The Cardinals were dominant on a chilly Friday night on the University of Missouri’s campus to earn their Missouri record 15th state championship.
Webb City coach John Roderique offered perspective on the difficulty for his program to sustain this type of success. “If it was easy, everybody would be doing it,” he said after the win.
Utz knows the reality. He’s slowly built his coaching profile through difficult but notable tenures at 8-man Stewartsville and Class 1 Mid-Buchanan before moving on to Platte County as an assistant and embracing the task of replacing Sherman.
In 12 years at Platte County, Utz has compiled a record of 96-48 with six Class 4 playoff appearances, two semifinal berths and now the first state runner-up finish in program history.
The reasons for unprecedented success in 2019 are the same reasons to believe the Pirates will continue to be a perennial contender under Utz’s direction.
“Ultimately, how did we get here?” Utz rhetorically asked. “It’s keeping faith in what we’re doing; it’s trusting each other and continuing to go to work.”