Photo by Valerie. S
The Hastings High football team qualified for playoffs this year for the first time since 2010.
In order for a team to qualify for playoffs, they either have to be district champions or they have to be one of the top 12 teams with the highest regular season powerpoint. The football team is coached by Charlie Shoemaker. Coach Shoemaker has been coaching for 21 years, but he has only been the coach for the Hastings Tigers for 4 years.
The Tigers faced many difficult teams this year, but that did not stop them from making the playoffs.
“This year our schedule has been as tough as anybody, and every week there are a lot of good teams,” Shoemaker said.
Many players were excited to play and show the improvements they had made throughout the season.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to show how good our program is,” sophomore Jarret Synek said.
The football team has been preparing and working hard all year long.
“A lot of us have been practicing football since the end of May,” senior Alex Swoboda said.
When the football team heard that they qualified for state, they were overwhelmed with joy, especially the seniors on the team.
“As a senior, it felt really good knowing that we achieved our goal,” senior Keeshaun Hunt said.
Many sophomores on the team were very excited to hear the news also.
“It feels pretty good making the playoff since it’s my first year,” sophomore Carson Shoemaker, said.
There were many challenges during their first game at the playoffs against McCook, but the Tigers did their best.
“The hardest part about playing them is how big they are, but we knew that going into the game,” Swoboda said.
Even though the Tigers didn’t win against McCook, they fought a good battle and accomplished their goal, to make it to playoffs.
“Our goal was to make the playoffs this year and we accomplished that goal. We want to use that as a building block for our program for the future to not only make the playoffs but win games in the playoffs,” Shoemaker said.
