Trent Senger and his Sacred Heart Saints football team knew heading into their final game of the regular season against the Melville Cobras that they had already clinched a spot in the 2014 SHSAA 3A Nine Man Provincial playoffs.
So instead of running his starters ragged and risking injury, Senger opted to give every one of his players adequate playing time and a chance to gain some valuable experience in preparation for their Provincial quarter-final matchup with the Warman Wolverines. "We played all of our young kids and our veterans the same and the score might show that a little bit, but we accomplished what we set out to do," said Senger following the Saints' 47-14 loss on the road to the Cobras this past Thursday. "We wanted to let everybody play and get everybody into the action.
"We've got no injuries and that's really the most important thing for us."
Senger also noted that he and his coaching staff used their final regular season game as a bit of a scrimmage practice so to speak, suggesting they ran some new plays that they had not tried out before. "We've been putting together a package specifically for playoffs that we haven't played at all this year because in my head I knew we could make the playoffs, so I've been holding it and holding it," mentioned the Saints' head coach. "Melville saw two plays of it and we got 55-yards on one and 62 on another and that's all that we showed today, so I think it'll be different than anyone has seen so far this year."
That new offensive playbook may just be the thing that gives the Saints an advantage in their first round playoff game against Warman.
In fact Warman has collected game film on the Saints from throughout the season, and no doubt will be prepared for the Saints' usual offence; not the one that Senger has hidden away.
And that's exactly what he has told his players ahead of their first playoff game in the past two seasons. "You really want the kids to believe that we've got something that nobody has seen before and we have something that will give us a shot," smiled Senger, adding, "And they believe it and they believe we can win."
And while Warman does indeed have Saints' game film, Sacred Heart has also acquired game film on the Wolverines from one of Warman's biggest Nine Man Conference Four rivals. "I'm good friends with one of the head coaches in their division," mentioned Senger, continuing, "So they've told me that Warman is very strict in what they do. They run the same thing every game and he has told us what they do, when they do it and how to beat it."
So with that valuable knowledge, the Saints now know that they will be marching into Warman on Saturday afternoon with a very good chance of shocking the undefeated Wolverines and shaking up the 2014 SHSAA Nine Man 3A Provincial football bracket. "They're 0-0 in the playoffs this year and so are we. So we have to go and play a team we don't know a lot about," suggested the Saints' bench boss. "We just have to go and beat them and we're good and so that's all I care about.
"We have the chance to go and play a team and if we win we go to the next round and if we lose we're done; same as everyone else."
