After a lopsided home loss to Carson in Week 3 of Nevada’s prep football season, Reed sat 1-2 and a lot of gridiron gurus across northern Nevada were asking what was wrong with the preseason’s local top-ranked team. I was among them.

After 10 weeks of hindsight, the answer is absolutely nothing. The wheels had not fallen off the Raiders’ wagon.

Now, Reed is gearing up to host a 4A state semifinal against Bishop Gorman Saturday at 1 p.m.

Reed coaches and players did the only thing they could do after the tough start. They went back to work. And after reeling off 101 straight wins, it’s obvious they have done plenty of good hard work.

Last weekend, Reed dumped Galena 26-3 in the Northern 4A title game to capture just its second regional championship in the past 25 years. After posting a perfect HDL record record, and capturing a trio of playoff wins, no one can say Reed is a fluke. The Raiders have proved they are the best prep football team in northern Nevada this fall and anyone who says otherwise is sorely mistaken.

When Doug Parry resigned as the Reed football coach after the 2000 season, RHS athletic officials had a tough decision to make when it came to hiring the new face of their football program.

They picked Ernie Howren to handle that chore. After his first two years on the job, both mediocre seasons, it was unclear if they made the right choice. However, the past seven years have shown Howren’s hiring as a brilliant selection.

Howren is a class act. He says the right things and he does the right things. He has done all the tireless year-round work to build a perennially successful prep football program.

Nobody should discount how hard that is, because there are plenty of others who try to coach in the high school ranks and have figured out they don’t have the time and energy to do it well. Howren and his staff deserve kudos for that.

When we put out our prep football preview guide in late August every year, Howren reiterates that he wants his program to play the best competition it can, including playing some of those tough foes on the road.

I believe that philosophy is paying huge dividends. Reed brought in Oceanside, Calif., one of the top teams in the country, to compete against in the preseason. Then the Raiders made their longest trip of the season, a four-hour bus ride to play Franklin of Stockton, Calif.

Reed lost to Oceanside and beat Franklin but the adversity it faced in scheduling a nationally ranked team and making a long bus ride — it did not have to make — has made it a better team.

Dan Eckles is the Sparks Tribune sports editor. He can be reached via email at

deckles@dailysparkstribune.com