Certainly it’s not like winning a state championship.
Yet.
But the current playoff run that the Waynesville High School football team has been on is allowing the squad’s seniors to carve their own piece of WHS legacy.
Linemen Kameron Davis and Phillip Wiehe are a pair of players who played big roles in the Tigers’ state championship run of 2007. And now they are two of this year’s team captains, trying to help lead WHS to another trip to the Edward Jones Dome and the Missouri Class 5 Championship Game.
Waynesville, 7-4, will try to take the next step towards that goal on Saturday, as the Tigers host Hazelwood East in Class 5 Quarterfinal play. Kickoff at Slaughter Field is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Gates will open at noon on Saturday. No passes or I.D. cards will be honors and there will be no reserved seating. Tickets will be $6 per person ages 6-up, with kids age 5-under being admitted free.
The winner of that game will meet the Eureka-Jackson winner in semifinal action Friday, Nov. 21.
Davis and Wiehe say this season has been very rewarding because they are senior leaders.
“It has,” Davis said. “Knowing it’s my senior year. Last year I didn’t have to step it up. But this year I’m a senior and I have to step it up.
“For me it could be my last game as a high school player,” Wiehe said. “Last year I had the next season. I like being a leader. Younger players look up to me. I try to lead by example. I remember last year, watching the leaders and maybe playing better because of it. That’s what I want to do.”
Last year from the district games on it was a battle every time out for the Tigers. But so far this year WHS got a bye in the regional round and then clubbed McCluer at home 41-14 on Monday.
Both Wiehe and Davis expect a much more difficult game against Hazelwood East.
“By halftime it was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Davis said of the romp over McCluer. “I thought what we did to prepare for the game really worked. That helps a lot, knowing what they’re going to do before they did it.”
“It wasn’t surprising to me,” Wiehe said of the ease WHS won Monday. “We had that bye week and that gave us time to get everything ready.”
Now the squad is preparing for a Hazelwood East team that in some ways is similar to McCluer.
“Their offense is similar but defensively they’re different,” Wiehe said. “They’re bigger and they run a four-front (defense). We know exactly what we’ve got to do.”
“Hazelwood East is similar to McCluer,” Davis said. “They do run the same type of offense. They are probably more athletic that McCluer and they’re bigger.”
The head coach for the Hazelwood East Spartans is Mike Jones, the former St. Louis Ram who made The Tackle to save the Super Bowl championship for the Rams against the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV.
How time flies.
“I didn’t know that about their coach,” Davis said. “I don’t remember that Super Bowl.”
“I’ve seen that play on the NFL Network,” Wiehe said. “They have it on there a lot. I can’t remember if I watched it when I was a kid. But I told my dad we were playing against the guy who made The Tackle. That’s kind of neat.
“But I don’t think a lot of guys on the team know about it.”
Certainly the Tigers are not worried about The Tackle. They’re more concerned about getting back to The Dome.