The West Central Heat football team saw their season come to an end in the quarterfinal round of the 8-Man playoffs Saturday, but not before putting together an impressive run this fall.
West Central fell 20-14 on the road against South Beloit, finishing the year at 10-1 overall. The Heat went unbeaten during the regular season, including a wild 72-64 win over Bushnell-Prairie City and a 52-36 victory over Ridgewood to clinch the Central West Division title. West Central then knocked off BPC again, 44-6, in the opening round of the playoffs to advance to the quarterfinals.
Head Coach Jason Kirby reflects on what the Heat accomplished this season.
“We had a wonderful year. Not just varsity, we didn’t lose a game at either level until Saturday. We’re pretty proud of the fact that we’ve got things going in a good direction, our kids are excited about playing football, and I think our community’s excited about it as well. I think we could pretty easily say that our kids get a great experience playing football at West Central, and they learn a lot of life lessons, things that you can’t learn in a lot of places in life, but you can learn them on the football field. It’s been pretty special.”
The Heat will graduate four seniors from this year’s team in Aidan Garner, Cooper Gibb, Blake Ricketts, and Jeremy Ford. Kirby says West Central will return seven players with starting experience on offense and at least six on defense next season.
Story By: Parker Cassidy
