ARCOLA, Ill. (WCIA) — If you told Arcola administrators back in the summer that the Purple Riders were five weeks into the football season, they might not have believed you.

Against all odds, practice rolls on, with Arcola joining forces with Cerro Gordo-Bement to field a team.

“As soon as they got over here from, you know, the first day that we had the co-op happen, it was just like, all right, hey, you guys like football? We like football. Let’s get to it,” said head coach Sergio Medina.

A graduate of Arcola, Medina took the reins, knowing that it would be a challenge, but seeing what his alma mater could be.

“Being that I played here, you know, I kind of know the expectations and things like that and the experience that I had,” he said. “So my big thing was like the same thing that I enjoyed when I was here in the same thing that kept me loving football is to what I’m still doing right now is what I wanted to try to get to them.”

Now, five weeks in, the team is still looking for its first win, but has not lost its passion for the game.

“Everyone that comes here wants to be here obviously because all the Cerro Gordo kids, you know, they want to be here because they’re traveling 40 minutes here every day and back,” said junior defensive end Carson Jewel. “And they haven’t given up yet. So obviously, we know they want to be here and all the Arcola kids want to be here because they’re still here. And even though we’re 0-5, I mean, you can still say that they want to be here because they could’ve just got up and left.”

“It hasn’t been to where I want it yet to be, obviously, in the win column and, you know, great numbers offensively. But the improvements are that we are getting better at certain things scheme-wise and that, you know, everyone is still trying like we don’t have to coach up a lot of effort.”

Arcola will take on Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond in our Week 6 Spotlight Game of the Week on Friday, October 3 in Arthur.