TWIN BRIDGES — The way Flint Janzen sees it, Twin Bridges returning to the football postseason came down largely to a heightened offseason commitment.
"The key to this turnaround was just getting in the weight room over the summer," said Janzen, a senior wide receiver and linebacker for the Falcons. "Before it felt like our kids just took the offseason off. But over the pasty years we've just tried to get the young kids in the weight room and get more kids out on the football team."
The Falcons are back in the 8-Man playoffs for first time since 2019 and will host a postseason game for the first time since 2015 when they welcome Culbertson on Saturday in the opening round.
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"It's super exciting, none of them have been in the playoffs," said Twin Bridges' second-year coach Bo Herak. "It's really awesome for the community too. We've been down for a long time here at Twin Bridges and it's just fun to see the excitement from the boys. The hard work and the dedication that they've put into this."
The Falcons will head into the playoffs as the No. 2 seed out of the 8-Man South while the Cowboys will be the No. 3 seed out of the East. Twin Bridges will head in with a 7-1 record a year after finishing with a 3-5 mark. The Falcons' lone loss this season came against top-ranked Drummond-Philipsburg.
The past decade saw Twin Bridges struggle to find success, but determination and belief finally paid off this season.
"That just starts at the top with keeping the faith," said Herak. "We had a really good group of seniors last year, we just missed out on the playoffs. And I really think that helped springboard us into what we are right now. All of my upperclassmen have really stepped up big. And a few underclassmen feeding off that energy."
The Falcons have realized their goal of returning to the playoffs, and now the next objective is to win a postseason game.
"We just have to play our game," said Janzen. "We know we can win and we know what kind of team we are. We just can't let the game get too big for us."
Said Herak: "I think it's just business as usual more than anything. We just want to stay consistent, play Falcon football and just do our thing and I think as long as we do what we need to do, we take care of the football, we'll be just fine."
