By james art 
Oct. 31 – Ten years ago today, the Tahlequah football program snapped a playoff drought dating back to 2001.
Little did the 2014 team know that season one would begin a stretch of 10 straight playoff seasons for the Tigers. On Friday, Nov. 1, the Tigers will honor the 2014 team when they take on Will Rogers College.
“They had a lot of great leaders; out of all the teams we had, they were probably the least talented, but they did everything the right way,” THS head coach Brad Gilbert said. “They never missed a practice; they were a tight bunch.”
When Gilbert first came to the program in 2012, the Tigers were in a much different shape than they had been in the previous 10 seasons. That 2012 team went just 1-9 without many close games. The following season, they still finished with a 1-9 record, but Gilbert said they played much more even football throughout the season. As they were losing close games, Gilbert knew they were on the verge of something.
After several losing seasons, the Tigers came into their own in 2014. After losing an opening day heartbreaker, THS quickly rebounded with its first win over Fort Gibson in seven seasons and began district play with then-District East champion Central.
“I remember those wins because every win was a celebration,” Gilbert said. “We’re starting to beat some good teams and people are starting to look at us. They got us to the postseason and we just kept building on it in 2015. It’s funny how it all started with this group.”
Those early wins set the stage for a 5-6 season and a shot at the playoffs for the first time in nearly 15 seasons. Within a year, the Tigers were playing for a District Championship, and a few years later they made deep playoff runs.
Those successful seasons turned the program around, according to Gilbert.
“We have three goals in the program. Our immediate goal is to be better than we were yesterday,” Gilbert said. “Our short-term goal is to win the championship and our long-term goal is to compete at a consistent level in the championship. When they were seniors, our short-term goal was just to make the playoffs because we’ve been absent for the last decade.”
Ironically, this year, it’s the Tigers who break the streak, with the team being honored at halftime. Despite missing the playoffs this season, Gilbert is much happier with how this season has gone compared to the previous two.
Despite making the playoffs the past two seasons, they had just three wins and weren’t playing good football, according to their head coach.
“I know this senior group this year is disappointed,” Gilbert said. “Even though we’ve been successful the last two years, we haven’t been playing football. We fell short, but the senior class got us back on track to what Tahlequah football is all about. Now it’s up to our junior class to lead us next year and build on what the senior class left us with. You go through this and life and it’s about how you deal with it.
THS and Will Rogers kick off at 7:00 p.m., Friday, November 1 at Doc Wadley Stadium.
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