After a disappointing end to the 2017 varsity football season, the Wildcats have now found their pathway for greatness in the next two seasons.

The schedules were released for the next two seasons on Feb. 13, and offers a bit of a challenge for the new team. Although there will be the same opponents over the two years, Millard West will play ‘home and home’ series with all nine teams.
“Overall this is going to be a tough season,” junior Seth Brokaw said. “It is going to challenge us, but show how much talent we really have.”

The 2018 season begins with a “road game” at Buell Stadium against the Millard North Mustangs, before a date against the favorites for the State Championship, Omaha Burke. The trip marks the first game between the two teams since their clash in the state quarterfinals of 2017, where the Bulldogs trumped with a final score of 43-37.

The Wildcats will return to Buell for their first true home game of the season with the rising Millard South Patriots to close up the series with school district rivals. Defending State Champions, Omaha North, travels to Buell to end the four week stretch of state qualifying teams a year ago.

A week later, the football team will travel across town to Omaha Bryan in a possible “trap game,” as they then will take the two and a half hour trip west a week later to play Kearney High, the defending runners up.

“Our toughest game is either Kearney or Omaha Burke this season,” junior Cole Aniello said. “Kearney is always a tough team, and Burke provides us with a chance of revenge after this past season.”

The remainder of the season provides games against the core of district opponents, as Grand Island and Lincoln North Star take the trip up to Buell Stadium, while the Wildcats will travel to Lincoln East in between those two.

“I think if we win two of the first four, we will have a great chance at winning the remainder of the schedule,” junior Logan Taft said. “But overall it is a tough schedule for us.”

The season gives the team challenges, but also is favorable at some points such as the end and a game against Omaha Bryan. The football team cannot complain with the type of district they have either, and it provides them with an easy path into the state playoffs at the end of the year.