Rested Coronado ready for 4A playoff opener

While many football teams throughout the valley had to worry about how they would respond to a start-and-stop season in which they lost games to COVID-19 issues, Coronado had another problem.

The Cougars had to find a way to get through the grind of going through the season without a bye week.

“It’s the nature of our sport. Going eight games in a row puts a grind on you,” Coronado coach Fred Biletnikoff Jr. said. “We demand a lot out of our football players on a weekly basis socially and academically, on top of what we do as a football team.”

Coronado successfully maneuvered through the grueling schedule, including running to a 5-0 record and a Class 4A Sky League championship. That afforded the Cougars, along with Desert League champion Silverado, Mountain League champion Las Vegas and Sky League second-place Shadow Ridge a bye week before they begin their playoff runs in the state quarterfinals Friday.

Silverado had a similarly difficult slate, with its only bye week coming Sept. 3, but the Skyhawks came out of it no worse for wear with a 9-0 record and status as the favorite going into the postseason.

While each team gave the players a couple days off, they didn’t want them getting too far away from football.

“It was definitely not a ‘see you in five days’ kind of thing,” Biletnikoff said. “We still worked hard last week.”

The bye week allowed some teams to get a few players who were banged up extra rest. For those who were healthy and practicing, the focus was on cleaning up mistakes they had made throughout the course of the season.

“I think we were able to focus on details that we missed toward the end of the season,” Las Vegas coach Erick Capetillo said. “We were able to have some lighter practices and cut some time to focus on grades because that’s meaningful to our program. It was good for our guys’ bodies and minds.”

One aspect of having the bye week was none of the teams knew who their first playoff opponent would be until after last Thursday’s games.

That was less of an issue for a team like Shadow Ridge, which had played both of its potential foes in Desert Oasis and Durango.

“It’s hard to game plan when you don’t know who you’re going to play,” Shadow Ridge coach Travis Foster said. “We were working on two game plans simultaneously. It was beneficial that we have had a good look at both of them already, and our kids are confident in what they can do.”

Las Vegas also faced its opponent in Sierra Vista, but that was in the first week of the season. Capetillo doesn’t put too much stock in the Sierra Vista’s 32-7 win. His team was starting a freshman quarterback and several other young players, and Sierra Vista has been much better lately, winning four of its last five after an 0-6 start.

“We take each game individually,” Capetillo said. “Sierra Vista has gotten better since our first game, as have we. They’ve been doing some good things over there, so we’re going to try to take away what they do well.”

Nobody had a more difficult situation game planning than Silverado. The Skyhawks were set to face Clark after it shut out Spring Valley 30-0 last week. But Clark was forced to forfeit that game, and Spring Valley was reinstated into the playoffs Tuesday.

That doesn’t leave Silverado much time to prepare. But for the teams that had byes, their success will likely have less to do with what their opponent does than how they execute their own plan.

“You’ve got to be on your game,” Biletnikoff Jr. said. “You have to focus on you … We’ll be ready to go.”