Lisbon head coach Dick Mynahan looks a little bit like a young Joe Paterno, but when it comes to dealing with the press, he’s more like Lou Holtz.

Holtz was always notorious for building up his weakest opponents while making his team sound meek as a field mouse. When Holtz was with Notre Dame, the Irish would regularly play someone like Navy, and he would try to convince the media that his his poor, lil’ Irish were just an Indiana high school JV team hoping it had enough gauze and aspirin to treat all the cleat marks on their chests by the time Navy was through running over them.

Coach Mynahan, and a lot of other high school coaches, take a similar approach with us scribes. It’s not meant to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes or mislead. Mynahan’s comments about opponents are measured and complimentary because: 1) he doesn’t want his team to take any opponents lightly, and thus make things harder on themselves; 2) he genuinely respects his opponents; 3) he respects the game of high school football; and 4) he doesn’t want to provide the other team with bulletin board material.

Mynahan doesn’t minimize his team’s chances quite to the degree Holtz did, but he is also cautious when he’s asked to comment on the state of the Greyhounds, for all the reasons mentioned above.

One week ago Friday, the Greyhounds ran over, through and around Boothbay on their way to a 29-20 win that could just as easily have been 43-20 but for two early fumbles inside the Seahawks’ 5-yard line.

To hear Mynahan talk after the game, the Greyhounds went in hoping for a break or two, and if they were able to take advantage of those breaks and not make a lot of mistakes of their own, they might sneak out with a win. Lisbon didn’t just sneak out with a win. They set off the burglar alarm, signaling the rest of the Campbell Conference that they, and not the preseason favorites from Boothbay, are the team to beat this year.

After the game, Mynahan downplayed the victory, saying every win is important.

“If we can stay healthy, I guess we’re going to start believing in ourselves a little bit more now,” he said.

The Greyhounds certainly need to stay healthy. The Lisbon roster is rarely deep. But it’s the second half of that statement where Mynahan is being modest, to say the least.

Coming into this season, Mynahan had me and my fellow football observers convinced that he wasn’t sure his Greyhounds were big enough, or experienced enough, or physical enough, or talented enough, to go 15 rounds with the likes of a tougher-than-nails perennial power such as Boothbay. He pointed out, correctly, that he had lost all his starters along the offensive and defensive lines, plus he had a new quarterback running the offense.

If things came together, Mynahan said, the Greyhounds could be pretty good. Sure, things are coming together for Lisbon. They made it 6-for-6 with Saturday’s rout of Buckfield/Dirigo. But it isn’t just because of luck, and it isn’t just because of hard work.

Now, I know for a fact the Greyhounds aren’t the biggest team out there. But I should have listened to what Chris Waters, the team’s 5-foot-5, 150-pound left tackle, told me a few weeks ago when he and his linemates manhandled a bigger Jay defensive line.

“Weight doesn’t matter. Height doesn’t matter,” Waters said. “It’s how we work together and how we pick each other up. That’s where the heart is.”

As for the talent on this Lisbon team, maybe I’m stubborn, but I’m still not convinced they’re the most talented team on the field every week. Most weeks, certainly. To the biased Greyhound rooter, always.

But talk to the people who have seen Lisbon and the rest of the top teams in the Campbell Conference play more than once and you’ll find out that the reason everyone respects Lisbon and some even fear them is precisely because they don’t rely strictly on talent to beat you.

As we enter the final four weeks of the regular season, it is clear that the Greyhounds do have the most prepared team on the field every week.

Man for man, Mynahan and his loyal trio of assistants, John Murphy, Stacen Doucette and Randy Ridley, are the best coaching staff in the state, period. They had their players believing in themselves long before last week’s game, which is remarkable considering only a handful of them came into this season having played at the varsity level.

I wasn’t there in 1997 when Lisbon won its last state championship. Many who were have told me countless times that that team was outmanned throughout the playoffs, yet still beat everyone who stood in their way because Lisbon had a better game plan, better fundamentals and just plain wanted to win the game more than anyone else. And more than one person has told me the 2003 edition reminds them of that team.

It’s tough to imagine that team from six years ago being any tougher than this one.

Just watch the way John Tefft finishes off a run. Watch Tony Walker burst through the line, carry three or four tacklers three or four extra yards, then get back up and do the same thing six or seven more times in a row, another 25 times a game (and still have the energy to terrorize opposing ball-carriers while playing defensive end).

Watch Waters drive back a guy across the line from him who outweighs him by 50 or even 100 pounds. Count how many times a Lisbon player delivers, or even takes, a big hit, then bounces back up and runs back to the huddle before the other player has caught his first whiff of smelling salts from the trainer. Lisbon is 6-0 for those reasons. There may be other additional reasons.

Size isn’t one of them. Talent may be. Heck, I picked Boothbay last week based on what I thought was superior talent, so what do I know about that?

I do know who the best team in Western Class C is right now, though. And it isn’t Navy.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].