LONGMONT — Mead coach Jason Klatt had his fingers crossed.
After his Mavericks had a breakout 7-2 season that finished up with back-to-back losses to Silver Creek and Roosevelt, Mead was on the outside looking in on wild card points and their fate was in the hands of the Class 3A seeding committee.
It didn’t happen for the Mavericks this year, but the pieces are in place and a foundation has been set for the future.
“I feel bad for the kids, I sure feel like they put in enough to make it into the top 16,” Klatt said. “You know, sometimes life isn’t fair.”
Klatt, like most coaches on the playoff bubble, spent Saturday night doing his math and trying to figure out if the wild card points worked in his teams favor.
“I kind of figured last night that we would be 17 or 18 and then you just never know and you hang around and hope,” said Klatt, whose team finished 17th in the Week 10 wild card points. “Initially you play the woulda, shoulda and coulda and you start going ‘Man, what if the flood wouldn’t have happened and we played Holy Family Week 3’, what would the wild card points be like.
“We are not going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves. We had an opportunity and this doesn’t take away from what the kids did this year.”
Defending Class 3Astate champion Silver Creek will have a chance to defend their title and will do so from the No. 9 seed. The Raptors were the awarded the first at-large bid by the seeding committee, as the top eight are designated to the league champions. Coach Mike Apodaca’s team will open up on the road against No. 8 Evergreen, likely at Jefferson County’s Trailblazer Stadium.
“What I do know about Evergreen is that they have been a consistent playoff member ever since we have been in 3A, so they are doing something right,” Apodaca said. “I am just sort of getting that first taste of film right now and it looks like they have quality athlete and are a run-based team. So we are going to try and stop the run and try and get them doing something else.”
Silver Creek’s lone Tri-Valley League loss came to Roosevelt and the RoughRiders earned the No. 3 seed and will open with the only other team to beat the Raptors this year, No. 14 Frederick.
In Class 4A, Longmont finished 10th in the wild card standings and that was good enough to earn the No. 12 seed. The Trojans will travel south to take on Foothills League champion Pueblo South at Dutch Clark Stadium.
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