Football making the playoffs By Jacob Kriewald

This year, the Bellevue East Chieftains competed in a complicated season due to covid restrictions. Due to these restrictions, 3 out of the 8 games had to be replaced. After only beating Lincoln high, The Chieftains would go on to play the Papio monarchs in a close 24-14 win to give them the 19th seed in the playoffs.

With Covid-19, everything has been thrown for a loop. At the beginning of the school year, OPS canceled in person school and said they will be going online. With that decision it inevitably canceled their fall sports which left 24 class A football teams. Since this decision was made, the NSAA (Nebraska State Activities Association) decided to send all 24 teams to the playoffs. 

It was different, we started to get more recognition by other people and other schools, which is good not only for my team but for me personally so my recruitment could go up,”senior linebacker Will Foster said.

Something that may have been overlooked by people was the win over Papillion Lavista. This was the first time East had beaten Papio since 1983 and the first time that the team had won an away game since 2015 in a 62-42 over South Sioux City.

“I was happy for Bellevue East Football.  The football team doesn’t get a lot of respect so I was happy to get a win versus a team that traditionally plays good football,” Head coach Nathan Liess.

The Chieftains were matched up with the Millard West Wildcats in a first round match up. The score was 47-20 in favor of the wildcats which ended the chieftains season.

The team did the best they could.  We improved.  There were areas for improvement yet but the team achieved to the best of their ability,” Liess said. 

Although the Chieftains did not advance in the playoffs, most of the players had one of their most memorable seasons yet. Will Foster finished his season with 109 and one of the top performers for East.

“I felt like my performance was really good, I finished the season #1 in Class A for total tackles and #2 in average while missing 2 games, which is a really big accomplishment for me,” Foster said.

Overall, the Chieftains went 2-7 tying their record of last year. With head coach Nathan liess leaving, a new chapter will begin for Bellevue East football.