Coming together is the beginning. Staying together is progress. Working together is success.

Fifty years ago, many Washington High School students came together and began a football team. Twenty-five years ago, this team was still together and made progress. This year, the WHS team worked together to succeed.

On Oct. 9, Blue Jays won over Wentzville Holt 84-57 and senior Jared Rennick acquired nine touchdowns, breaking a state record.

“Right now, he [Rennick] has our single game high school record with 391 yards rushing. He also has the state record for single game touchdowns with nine; he broke the record of eight that was set in 2005,” coach Zachary Schneider said. “He’s got the opportunity to break several other records.”

A majority of the team, including Rennick, had no idea what had happened.

“I found out when coach Holtmeyer came down to me with about two minutes left in the game and goes ‘Hey, congratulations on this by the way,’ and I didn’t hear what was going on,” Rennick said.

Schneider, on the other hand, knew what might happen at halftime.

“I didn’t really hear anything specific as far as numbers until halftime and coach Deckelman said, ‘Hey Coach, ya know Jared’s one touchdown away from tying state record, two from breaking the state record,’” Schneider said.

Rennick couldn’t believe what was happening. His childhood dreams were becoming a reality.

“I felt like I was in a dream for a while. I was like, ‘This can’t be real, no way,’” Rennick said. “You dream about this stuff, big like that, ever since you’re a kid, and then to finally have it happen is just…it’s crazy.”

The team as a whole was very proud of Rennick, but Rennick is very proud of his team. He says he could not have done it by himself.

“During off-season we’re always talking about putting money in the bank with all the hard work we’re doing, and then to see it, that check is just awesome,” Rennick said.

Schneider also believes teamwork is the key to success.

“It’s never an individual effort with team success. It’s looking at the top guys and the guys in the middle and the guys at the bottom and working together as a group for common goals,” Schneider said. “I think the biggest thing with our guys is they’re really going to have to buy into the fact that we’re not going to be as good as our best player, we’re only going to be as good as our weakest person.”

The team knew that working together would bring them very far this year.

“They really bought into what they wanted to accomplish. They set goals and it’s been constantly on their minds since we’ve started last November,” Schneider said. “Our guys just really bought into what they wanted accomplished and they worked their butts off to get there.”

The team believes they have made many extreme changes from last year and are very pleased with their work.

“Coming in from last year, you could not say that we are the same team. [It was a] complete 180 and then some,” Rennick said. “I couldn’t be any more proud of our team plus the coaching. Everything we’ve done this year has been amazing.”

As for the future, Rennick believes the team might be back in a good spot.

“I think the team this year will be remembered as the ones who turned it around,” Rennick said. “Like Washington’s downhill slope. Like they’re the ones who pulled us out of the slums and started bringing it back to what it used to be.”