BAY CITY, MI – Bay City All Saints could accept getting beat on the scoreboard.
It was a bit more difficult accepting a loss on the calculator.
The Cougars enter the 2022 high school football season with unique motivation, one year after reaching the six-win mark yet falling short of a postseason berth by .305 playoff points.
“We know we have to work harder and earn more points,” All Saints senior Luke Dengler said. “I’m thinking about playing in a couple playoff games, not just getting in the playoffs.”
With a 26-player roster – massive by the standards of eight-player football – the Cougars are hoping to make mighty improvements over a season ago. It would only take the slightest of strides to become a playoff team.
After finishing the regular season at 6-3, All Saints was looking, feeling and playing like a playoff team. But Week 10 never happened for the Cougars.
For the first time since the playoff expansion in 1999, six-win teams were not guaranteed a spot in the postseason – and All Saints would be among the first to come out with the short straw. A 61-18 loss to Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart in Week 9 would prevent the Cougars from achieving their goal.
“We knew if we won the last game, we were in. Well, we all know what happened that last game,” All Saints coach Eric Gust said. “We didn’t play well, and that was a tough defeat in itself.
“But we also had to break the news to the kids, and that was a heartbreaker, especially when it used to be six wins and you’re in.”
The top 16 teams for playoff points advanced to the eight-player football Division 2 tournament. All Saints finished at No. 17. The Cougars were leapfrogged for the final spot by Gaylord St. Mary – which made it with a 5-4 record – and joined Waldron and Genesee among the eight-player teams that discovered the hard way that six wins wasn’t enough.
“There were teams with less wins that made it,” said Dengler, the standout linebacker. “We were just that far off. It was a big blow.
“We knew about the wins, we saw everything lining up – and we didn’t make it.”
This year’s All Saints squad is all about turning that negative into a positive. When the first day of the football weightlifting program rolled around on Feb. 15, about 15 players filled the room – and the commitment remained high from that point going forward.
“When you have a bad taste, you want to do something about it,” said Gust, the ninth-year coach. “The seniors remember that feeling very well. They don’t want to have six wins and sit home and watch others play.
“Maybe that has been part of their battle cry and it gives them the motivational push you need.”
Gust said the players still talk about the sting of being left out, and he won’t be shy about reminding them along this year’s trail. With a schedule that is fairly similar to a year ago, the combined All Saints and Bay City Academy team understands that it must do better to change its playoff fate.
“Going forward, we have to understand that nothing is a given anymore,” Gust said. “That’s motivation for us to say ‘Let’s win ‘em all and leave no room for chance.’ We want to make it our decision.”
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