Until the fall of 2017, this was the last varsity football team at Scottsburg High School in southern Indiana:

After a 31-game losing streak and years of difficulty in maintaining an adequately sized roster, Scottsburg dropped the program, and the 1983 Warriors went down as the last to take the gridiron.

After much lobbying by administrators, students and many of the town's 6,600 residents, the program was reborn in 2014. Kyle Mullins, who was an assistant for seven years at Indianapolis power Ben Davis, was hired to build it from the ground up.

"I'm originally from this area, just to the south, and just was at the point in my life where it made a lot of sense - I wanted to become a head coach, had some small children who I wanted to get back home for the grandparent help," Mullins said.

 

Along with securing the necessary resources, players and assistant coaches, Mullins has worked to cultivate a football culture that understandably withered after '83.

"Developing a football knowledge base in the community has been one of our goals, and I think we’ve done a great job with that at the middle school and youth levels," Mullins said.

Hunter Myers was part of a 10-man 2017 senior class that included a half-dozen who would’ve transferred if Scottsburg didn’t bring back football. He ran for 327 yards and a school-record six touchdowns when the Warriors opened with a 65-14 victory over Clarksville. Seeing the home crowd that night was the best feeling of all.

"I was speechless, honestly, because there was at least over 1,100 people there. It was incredible," Myers said.

Scottsburg finished its season 3-7 - shy of its goal, but a good start.

"We basically have 10 senior starters to replace, who kind of got this program off the ground, so it’s going to be huge that our underclassmen understand the importance of offseason development, strength and conditioning and the mental side of the game as well," Mullins said.

Those underclassmen are already back at it.

Back on the grind! Great start to the 2018 Journey! Forge & Finish! pic.twitter.com/7nQFnLoGMQ

— Scottsburg Football (@WarriorNtnFB) November 14, 2017

Good luck to Coach Mullins and the Warriors on taking that next step in 2018.