Friday nights are full of wins and losses on the football field. To end the scheduled season, Gretna’s record was 5-4, securing a ticket into the NSAA playoff bracket. Two weeks ago, as the GHS football team entered the first round of playoffs, they traveled to play an away game at Norris. During that game, Gretna secured a last-minute win, 46-45. That meant that they got an opportunity to play again the next week.
This past week, Gretna played York High School at home. By the end of the game, the score was 35-21, and Gretna took another win. Therefore, GHS had won the first two rounds in the playoffs and now advances to the semifinals.
This Friday, the semifinal game will be played at Gretna High School against Gretna East. It will be an away game with kickoff at 7 p.m.
Obviously, there is a big rivalry between Gretna and Gretna East, and with that, both teams are competitive, but it will be a good game no matter what happens.
“I want to see a competitive game. I want to see everyone stay healthy and play a good semifinal,” senior Michael Knudsen said.
Both teams have put in a lot of effort into getting where they are today, which looks different for every player and how they respond to their success.
“The team has definitely gotten more confidence, especially with that big win against Norris,” senior Brody Sliva said. “But me, I just keep playing, and leave it all out on the field.”
All of the seniors are making an impact on the rest of the team. There are a lot of different aspects of the things they are teaching the rest of the team that help them become better players.
“They are always setting a good example for everyone, and trying to coach everyone up and just try to help the future of Gretna Football get better,” said junior Maycen Walters.
Sophomore Cayson Schlotfeld, who is on the varsity football team, also helps coach the Gretna Youth Football team and helps support these younger kids to become better players.
“I think it’s great for the community of Gretna to just come out here and compete,” Schlotfeld said.
Not only are the players excited and grateful to be still playing football this season, but so is head coach Joe Dalton.
“One thing I want them to take away is, football is a lot just like every other sport, but we started in May, April and March doing some workouts, stuff like that, just like everybody else does,” Dalton said. “But it’s a grind. There’s a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but if you get caught up in a high or a low then you are just not going to be as good, and you are going to be a little emotional. And when you are emotional you don’t play as well whether it’s good or bad.”
This type of thing that has happened to the team is very special, and it doesn’t happen very often. With this happening, the coaches are taking everything one day and practice at a time.
“One of my favorite sayings is that we are just going to worry about today,” Dalton said. “And that, I think, is really easy to get caught up in worrying about the game on Friday. I’ve just got to worry about practice today.”
