Friday Night Lights is known for two things. The first thing is the 2004 movie starting Billy Bob Thornton. The second is the heart-pounding action of high school teams from across the nation. This season, the Cougar football team is aiming to get back in the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Last year the team went 1-8, which included a win over rival SM North.

“We play in the toughest division in Kansas high school football,” junior B.J. Harvey said. “To be successful, we aren’t going to be able to be lazy all the time like the team was last year.”

The motto this season  is “Everyday Champions,”  which means that players have the opportunity to be a champion not only on the football field, but also in everyday life.

“I am looking forward to getting better,” Head Coach Bo Black said. “After scrimmaging each other for three weeks you still have a lot of questions. Those will be answered tomorrow night.”

One of the areas of improvement is blocking. If the team is able to block, that will open areas for senior running back Xavier Perry. It would also give more time for the quarterback to find open receivers.

“We definitely need to get better at blocking, whether it be receivers or linemen,” Harvey said. “Blocking is definitely our biggest problem. Also, not turning the ball over so much, which was our main problem last year.”

The team’s strengths so far come from the defense, which will shut down some of the best offenses in the state this season. These amazing offensive teams includes SM West and SM East, which both have been ranked in the top 10 in the metro area according to 810 Varsity.

“We have kids with good attitudes,” Black said. “We are really starting to like our secondary defense from the x and o perspective. The defensive back and linebacking crew have the potential to be pretty solid.”

Though not the strongest, last season was not a total waste. The team learned what effort it would take to become successful in the Sunflower League.

“The experience will help,” senior Noah Roberts said. “Also learning how when everyone does their job and is working together it makes it fun to fly around and get after it in order to win games.”

For coach Black, there is not one specific game he looks forward too. They are all important to him.

“Football is so much different than any other sport,” Black said. “You work as coach and player for nine 48-minute games. They are all important and they are all exciting. There is never one game more exciting than the rest. They are all big and all fun.”