Cook County Vikings look to build on undefeated season as playoffs begin

Josh Hinke | October 29, 2026

The Cook County Vikings entered the 2025 football season looking to rebound from a first-round playoff exit the previous year. A road game against the undefeated Littlefork-Big Falls Vikings would prove to be a turning point.

Littlefork-Big Falls had beaten Cook County 20-13 in 2024, but the Vikings entered the 2025 matchup undefeated and riding a wave of momentum.

The game went back and forth, but Cook County emerged with a 28-21 victory. For the Vikings, it was a moment when they realized they might have something special.

“We had a tough time in that game, but we ended up on top and we played really good. And that’s pretty much when we knew, you know, we really had a shot at doing something special that year,” Senior Graham Oberholtzer told WTIP.

That momentum has carried into 2026, with the Vikings continuing to win and doing so by even larger margins.

No opponent has given Cook County a close game during the regular season. The closest contest was a 28-0 victory over the Silver Bay Mariners, a game that ended at halftime.

But the team’s success is not something the coaches attribute solely to what happens during football season. They emphasize the importance of preparation throughout the year.

“There’s a saying that goes along with high school football that high school football isn’t won during the season,” head coach Steven Anderson told WTIP. “It’s won during the winter and spring and the offseason and summer work that they put into it.”

Head Coach Steven Anderson I Provided by Cook County Schools

Anderson pointed to juniors Roland King and Lucas Hackett, both three-sport athletes, as examples of players who have developed through their participation in athletics. Coaches encourage players to remain active in other sports and spend time in the weight room to become bigger, faster and stronger.

The results have been evident on the field.

Senior Talon DeBoer has averaged more than 100 rushing yards per game and scored 19 touchdowns this season. Oberholtzer has thrown for more than 1,000 yards and rushed for more than 500.

One of Oberholtzer’s runs was particularly memorable for teammate MaCoy Fairbanks.

“It was a pass play, and Graham had a couple guys running at him, and he broke those tackles,” Fairbanks said. “Thought he was gonna throw it, but he kept it, and he probably broke like seven tackles that whole play, and he ran it like an 80-yard touchdown.”

Despite their success, the Vikings know the competition will become more challenging in the postseason.

Last year’s undefeated run ended with a 49-0 loss to the Kittson County Bearcats.

While Cook County remains focused on winning the games immediately ahead, the coaching staff has also been studying potential opponents deeper in the playoffs.

“We’ve been pulling film from these state-level teams, the top 10 teams in the state throughout the season as we’ve gone on,” Anderson said. “We’ve watched their film and compared it to what we are doing, and we compare it to what’s coming ahead for us, and kind of game-planning slowly and building up to this bigger momentous occasion that we still have to rise to.”

Some of those teams have an advantage over Cook County when it comes to roster size.

“Something about our team that sucks is we only have like 24 kids out playing football, and some of those teams got like 40-plus,” Oberholtzer said.\

When asked how they could overcome that disparity, the Vikings pointed to their relationships with one another.

“You gotta just kind of be united with all your teammates,” Senior Devan Rude told WTIP. “I feel like if you have a good friendship with your whole team, you can just like push them, and you can just focus on just like having the same program.”