Playoff football a sign of prestige

Some Odessa high school football fans may seem a bit dissatisfied with the local teams’ showings during the regular season, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hold out high hopes for the road that lies ahead.

After all, there are plenty of teams who packed up the gear after last week’s games. But for the second straight season — and for only the second time in history — both Odessa High and Permian qualified for the state playoffs.

Only teamwork, preparation, execution and perhaps a tad of luck will determine how far each team will advance.

The journey begins this weekend. (For the record, this was written before Odessa High’s first round challenge Friday night against El Paso Coronado and we’ll find out how Permian’s game against El Paso El Dorado comes out this afternoon.)

We’d love to see our two teams keep rolling until they would have a rematch of the annual crosstown clash — won this year by OHS — in the regional finals. Then the whole community could get behind the victor as it goes for a state championship.

And it would seem that both teams still have something to prove. Odessa High won its first undisputed district championship since 1964 this season. But the Bronchos lost to El Paso Montwood in the season opener and then fell in the regular season finale to Midland Lee, ruining the dreams on an undefeated district record. But the Bronchos showed they are capable of dominance by sandwiching eight straight victories between the losses.

Also, Permian’s 7-3 season is somewhat short of standards set the past couple of years, but there also were several years prior to that when the Panthers didn’t even sniff a playoff spot.

We also might point out that all five of the losses suffered by Odessa’s two teams were inflicted by teams that also qualified for the playoffs. That speaks for itself.

Anyway, it’s nice to see both teams going for the glory when each week offers a chance to bring home more hardware for the trophy cases.