Playoff bound Cardinals head to TC

The pressure is off. The Onaway football team earned, what had seemed to be an elusive goal, a berth in the 2005 Michigan High School Association playoffs against three-time state champ Traverse City St. Francis.

Three-year Cardinal head coach Tony Hoffmeyer, who guides his first team into post-season play, doesn?t want his players to be happy or content with just making the playoffs because he wants them to shoot for higher achievements, with the ultimate goal being a state championship for the Onaway football program. ?It?s been a great feeling,? said Hoffmeyer of shaking a three game losing streak and earning win number six of the season that automatically qualified his team for the playoffs.

According to the banner in the high school gym, it?s the first conference title in more than a quarter of a century. The last club to do it was one of John Connell?s powerhouse clubs of the 1970s. Onaway had last won a title in 1976.

The school and the community have been rallying behind the players as they prepare for their first playoff game since 1999. There is a pep assembly planned for today to send the football team on its way to Traverse City. Signs decorate the hallways of the school and each football player has a reminder on their hallway locker door.

Each note says: ?The price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen. Beat St. Francis.?

There are also signs to support the team adorning downtown businesses.

knows nobody will be picking Onaway to win the game. That is, except for his players. He told his club on Monday that this is a classic David and Goliath matchup. It?s little Onaway against perennial playoff favorite Traverse City St. Francis. St. Francis is 8-1 on the season with their only loss to Saginaw Nouvel.

?They?ve got a lot of athletes and will be a formidable foe? said Hoffmeyer, ?but anyone is beatable.? Practices have been long and intense this week, the coach said. If the Red Birds play Friday the way they did against Central Lake, and Goliath is looking past Onaway, anything is possible.

This year?s successful run to the playoffs has created a new generation of football fans, and who knows, maybe some future players as well. That has been a message repeated over and over this week. A win Friday at 7 p.m. would fuel the success already enjoyed this year. ?The program is on the right track,? said Hoffmeyer. ?We just can?t be satisfied with making the playoffs, we have to continue to shoot for a state championship.? The last playoff victory was November 19, 1976. The wait for the next one doesn?t seem like it is going to be far off and is not completely out of the question tonight in Traverse City.

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