It’s difficult to imagine now, but Centennial football wasn’t some statewide football brand a decade ago.

The Cougars slanted far more toward good than bad, yet they still often fell into the giant gulf of “fine.” They weren’t flush with Division-I talent or behemoth linemen, which instantly makes it difficult to separate yourself in a class as stacked as 6A in Minnesota.

So six or seven years ago, Michael Diggins – the son of Centennial head coach Mike Diggins and the Cougars’ defensive coordinator and director of the strength program – noted the program developed a phrase of “Be different or be better.”

“Better” is often such an athlete-driven metric. But different? That was plausible.

Centennial utilized an option offense. It mixed up defensive schemes. And it truly attacked its strength program.

The latter is the focal point of the program’s culture.

Yes, that’s the buzzword of all buzzwords across the athletic and corporate spectrum. But addressing it was one of Michael Diggins’ primary prerogatives when the former player came on board as a coach.

“The one thing that we were really trying to do at that time was just kind of do what every team in America says they want to do,” he said, “and that’s create a great culture and use the word culture.”

It started with a definition. Within the Cougars football program, “culture” was “doing everything with high character and being committed to competing in everything we do.”

The three “Cs”: Character, commitment and compete.

“What it entails is essentially how we live our life, and how we do things in our program,” Diggins said. “We always kind of say, ‘It takes a lot to be a football player at Centennial.’ There’s a lot to it.”

And it extends well beyond the fall. Over the entirety of the school year’s second semester, the “leadership council” – consisting of the seniors-to-be – meet for lunch every Thursday.

“We talk about life, we talk about different things that we want to see within our program, whether that’s different policies, different things we just do in general,” Diggins said. “It’s their time to vocalize what they see in our program as a senior group.”

There’s also a book club element. For the last two years, incoming seniors have read The Twin Thieves: How Great Leaders Build Great Teams. The book is co-authored by Steve Jones, the architect of Kimberly’s high school football dynasty in Wisconsin. Senior linebacker Caden Coopersmith connected to the idea of watering bamboo and the lengthy period of work that’s required before results are realized.

That could be the case for Centennial this season, as it has been in many years past. The Cougars are the defending Class 6A champions – a result of the rare collision of “better” and “different” in 2023 – but they feature 17 new starters this fall. There were always going to be bumps in the road.

The first of which came last week, when Centennial fell 23-13 to Blaine. That was followed up by a practice Tuesday in which coaches got on players ahead of this Friday’s tilt against highly touted Maple Grove. That practice, Coopersmith said, “really gets us going.”

“Like last year and the year before, we’ve seen great leaders. And we want to be just like them. We want to fill those guys’ shoes. And sometimes we don’t really know how,” he said. “But (coaches) keeping us engaged and prepared will help us encourage other guys to be prepared.”

There is a standard that must be met. Not necessarily on the scoreboard – losses will occur – but in terms of the approach and preparation. That’s what matters most.

“Win, lose or draw, I know our kids are going to do it the right way,” Diggins said. “We could go 2-6, we could go 1-7, but I know the kids are going to do it the right way, I know our program is going to do it the right way.”

And, over time, the right way tends to win out. Like in 2020, when the Cougars started 1-4 and proceeded to end the year with three-straight wins to reach the “state tournament” in the COVID-shortened campaign. Or in 2021, when they started 0-2 before reeling off four-straight victories, including upsets of top-five teams in Maple Grove and Wayzata.

“Our whole philosophy around here is we’re going to continue to do it the right way. We’re going to continue to punch, we’re going to continue to work. Because you never know when it’s going to click,” Diggins said. “It might not click for awhile. And we have to understand we’re going to go through those frustrations, but if the kids continue to do it the right way, at least – win, lose or draw – they’re doing the right things for the future.”

The future could be the back-half of the season or it could be future Centennial campaigns – he texted more than 100 former players after the state title victory a year ago, thanking them for their contributions to the cause. But it will be for the rest of the players’ lives.

The whole idea of the three Cs is centered on building better people. Great football has merely been a byproduct. But the sport has been a useful vehicle in building a culture. Which still isn’t perfect, Diggins noted. There are still kids in every class who are negative and will make excuses. But the number of those athletes dwindles each year. Plus, culture is a constant work in progress.

“You have to continue to work at it. I don’t think it improves on its own. I think we have to continue to keep the pedal on the metal,” said Diggins, who noted the incoming junior class will have a book club of its own in the spring. “And the other thing we have to continue to do is find new ways to make it improved. Because kids are just like us, right? If you continue to do the same things we’re going to get bored and stay status quo. But our belief is to continue to stay on it.”

They have no choice but to nurture what’s been the driving force behind something special in Circle Pines which, even after a title run last fall, seems to again be flying under the radar. One loss later, Centennial isn’t ranked in the top-10 of the current Associated Press Class 6A poll.

Centennial prefers it that way.

“We literally built this thing on being the team that nobody thinks about. The team that wins a state title last year and doesn’t have one single first-team all-state kid. I’ve never heard of that,” Diggins said. “We’ve always had that underdog mentality.

“When you a state title, teams will target you. And we preached that so much, but now we’ve been reinstalling, ‘Hey, we’re back at it, the chip is on our shoulder again. We have to climb to fight back to earn our target back.’ I think that brings a whole mentality back.”

Everyone knows physicality is the Cougars’ M.O. Coaches don’t sugarcoat it with players.

“If you don’t like contact,” Diggins said, “this is going to be a really hard program for you to play in.”

Perhaps an early-season wound will sharpen the team’s bite. The top of a pedestal is no place for this program to rest for long. Cougars are born to hunt – it’s woven into their fabric, ingrained in their culture.

“Our coaches really preach pride in physicality. That’s who we want to be around here,” Coopersmith said. “It’s a lot, but everybody wants to hit everybody as hard as they can, and be the most physical players we can be. Because that’s what’s really cool around here.”

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