The Hillsdale high school football team, a team that finished 4-3 in regular season and 3-3 in conference, now finds themselves in the second round of the playoffs after a 51-0 win over Memorial high school. 

Coach Trevor Cline touches on how the team has adjusted during this season and how they have worked around the pandemic. 

“The players want to play football and be around their teammates so they have done a nice job of following the protocols that have been put in place.”

Cline goes on to talk about how he takes a lot of responsibility for the team and their safety year in and year out and it has only increased since the addition of COVID-19.

Some of the big questions that really surround sports at this time are what adjustments that will be made to play the game in the most safe way possible

“To me when we have games it seems similar to years past other than the officials not handling the football and the offense taking the football to the huddle.” Cline said “Along with making sure we are spaced out on the sidelines.”

He says the quality of the games that they have played during the pandemic have not gone down and that it has remained competitive through the season.

“I think it is great” he said “They were asked to follow protocols by the state of Ohio to give them the best shot to play and I feel our players have done a good job with this.”

Cline said the community has done a great job as well following the protocols for the games also and continues to show their love and support for the team even in these tough times.

As the team goes further into the playoffs, the competition is looking to be fierce this year with still so much on the line

The team had played against Pymatuning Valley in the second round and suffered a close defeat of 18-8 as the final score sent Hillsdale out of the playoffs.

The coaches plan moving forward is that the team continue to practice and get better. He believes that if they keep playing to their potential, they will be able to advance further into the playoffs. 

“I have been proud of our players and our community during this pandemic,”Cline said “Our players put in the work this offseason even when there was no guarantee we would have a football season. This says a lot about our players as people because there are not too many people who would continue to work hard knowing that a season may not happen”

Cline is proud of his team and happy with where the team has landed in the playoffs. To check out the team and many more high school games around the state, visit the  Meisya Facebook page for a  livestream of the matches.