Twenty-seven teams.

In the history of United States high school football, 27 teams have won three consecutive state championships. That number includes Powell High School.

If the Panthers defy the odds this season and claim another title, they’ll join a more elite club, becoming just the 13th team to win at least four in a row.

But don’t be surprised or upset if they fail; winning isn’t easy — at any level.

Since the BCS National Championship was birthed in Division I college football in 1998, only one program (Alabama) has won back-to-back titles (2011-12). In the National Football League, the New England Patriots are the last team to earn consecutive Super Bowl victories (2003-04).

Florida won two straight NCAA basketball titles in 2006-07, the first team to do so since 1992. In professional baseball, no team has repeated as World Series champions since the New York Yankees of 1998-2000.

I could go on and on and on ... and on.

Hopefully, I don’t need to. Winning isn’t easy.

When it comes to high school and college athletics, some of the stingiest obstacles are status quo: talented players graduate, coaches come and go and offensive and defensive systems change.

Powell is dealing with a serving of each this year. And at this point, the people of Powell know of the tragedy that struck the Stringer family, our community, Powell High School and its football program just over a month ago.

The loss of coach Jim Stringer has only fortified the burden put on a group of teen-aged boys looking to continue an unprecedented streak of success. What was already a daunting road for the Panthers was remodeled with a few extra twists on July 18.

If interim head coach Chanler Buck and this year’s Powell football team find a way to navigate it once more, it’ll be a story made for Hollywood.

But keep in mind that some of the people who knew Stringer best, and were affected the most by his passing, were the kids he led on the football field three months out of the year. Kids that were his own, like senior standout and lineman Riley Stringer, and kids who just made the four-year commitment to Panther football, like senior running back Ty Herd.

“It’s weird not having him out here coaching me, but the weirdest thing is that, when I go home, my dad’s not there talking to me about practice,” Stringer said last week of his father’s absence. “To be honest, I really don’t think this could’ve come at a worse time.”

“He’s definitely missed,” Herd added. “Losing Coach, it could either be a really good thing or a really bad thing. We can either use it to motivate ourselves, or we can use it as an excuse if we’re getting beat up. You know, ‘We don’t have our coach.’”

Those types of mindsets don’t belong under the helmets of high school football players. Unfortunately, they’ll be there this season. It’s important to remember that football may not be the only thing on the minds of these young athletes, even when they’re on the football field.

History proves that it’s harder to reach the top of the mountain than it is to come up short trying. With that said, Powell has certainly mastered the former as of late.

A mascot name change to the Mountaineers may not be so far-fetched at this point.

But that would be a disservice to the amount of tradition and success packed into the Panther name — tradition and success that should suffer no loss of luster or respect if Powell’s 2014 football season ends without the team winning its ninth state title.