The Levelland Lobos wrapped up their regular season and district play with a 41-7 road loss to the Seminole Indians.
Dropping to 1-3 in district play, the Lobos received a little playoff help from the Perryton Rangers after they defeated the Borger Bulldogs, 35-26, Friday evening while the Lobos were in Seminole. With the final week of the regular season, the Lobos head into their bye week with a favorable chance to earn the four seed for their district.
The current standings in the district have the Indians at the top spot with a 3-0 record. Seminole will end the season with a road game in Perryton.
Perryton and the Canyon West Plains Wolves are tied for second with a 2-1 district record. The Wolves will end the season with a home game against Borger, who is currently 0-3.
For Levelland Lobo Head Coach Lyle Leong, getting healthy and getting back to the basics is the goal of the much-needed bye week.
“Our number one goal is to get our kids healthy,” said Leong. “I want to take the time to help our kids to understand that they are great and help them understand as a coaching staff we will continue to have confidence in them.”
A rough outing against the top team in the district in the Indians, Coach Leong wants his kids to know that each week is a lesson that can be learned despite the outcome.
“If we play Seminole 10 times and someone asks if we beat them nine times, I’ll tell anyone I believe we can,” explained Leong. “That’s just how confident I feel about these kids, these coaches, this community and everyone involved. This is a great place and there is nowhere else I’d rather be.”
Through a rocky season, Coach Leong has been vocal with his group that losses define a team when the group doesn’t work the following week. Calling them tough lessons, Leong is eager to spend the week addressing what can be fixed before playoff time.
“In life you’re going to take lessons that you got have to learn from and grow from,” explained Leong. I think this will be a good lesson learned. Hopefully, we get another opportunity. I don’t believe in losses. I kind of take it more as lessons learned so we received a tough lesson that we can learn.”
Playing the top team in district, the obvious holes that plague the Lobos are obvious, but that allows for the Levelland coaching staff to get to work quickly finding solutions.
“We didn’t show up and we have to give credit where credits due. Seminole is great football team,” said Leong. “We have to understand that we didn’t do our job. As I have said before, we lose together, and we win together. We had a lot of missed assignments, misalignments, dropped balls, people not hustling, so it has to be more important to our kids.”