As the 2017-18 football season comes to an end, the most intense time of high school football has arrived at the Spartan’s doorstep: the playoffs.

Football playoffs are the determining factor that state or reinstate the year’s champions of high school football. Essentially, the playoffs are brackets of determined games in which the winner moves on and the loser is automatically eliminated. For Pleasant Valley, in order to qualify for the playoffs, they are going to have to take the ‘W’ against Dubuque Senior in the last game of their regular season.

Working up to state-playoffs, the PVHS football players and coaches began pre-season practices during the first week of June, with three practices a week being two and a half hours long. They then began the regular season in August with practice four times a week, two hours a day, rain or shine. Along with practice, they also watch film of the previous night’s game on Saturdays in which they replay the game and critique players; after, they do light stretching and lifting.

“I think that we’re going to have no problem winning against Dubuque Senior, but it’s going to be a close game,” said Cameron Johns, center for the varsity team. “They have a good team, but we have a better offense and comparatively better defense.”

Currently the team is 6-2: six wins to two losses. “I think that as long as we’re focused, the right strategies are implemented, and moral stays high, we will move on into playoffs,” Johns claims. “And when we come back face to face with Bettendorf, you can bet we’ll beat them for sure,” added offensive guard Adam Kunau.

The Pleasant Valley football team faces Dubuque Senior tonight with hopes that they will advance on to the playoffs and have the chance to continue their impressive season.