LAVINA — The Broadview-Lavina football team has made the 6-Man playoffs each of the past two seasons, but those were promptly followed by first-round exits.
The Pirates return a bulk of their production and have learned from those two losses on the road at Froid-Medicine Lake in 2020 and Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Grass Range-Winnett in 2021.
“These losses in the playoffs, you can see what kind of teams you’re going to come up against and the kind of competition is actually going to be when we get up there," Broadview-Lavina head coach Brian Heiken said. "Maybe we can wind up at home one of these times. That would be great.”
The most important returning piece for the Pirates is likely three-time all-state tailback Hank Tuszynski. Tuszynski missed the back portion of last season due to injury, allowing then freshman Connor Glennie to take the bulk of the reps. Now they form quite the 1-2 punch.
“He’s been doing great. He’s getting bigger, faster, stronger in this off-season, so with the two of us we can attack from either side, go out on passes — it’s really just a great second option to counter each other," Tuszynski said.
Expectations are high in the co-op communities, as Broadview-Lavina aims for a deep postseason run. They’ll find out just where they stand when two-time defending state champion Froid-Medicine Lake makes its way to town Friday night.
“They have a really good program, couple studs, really good team players. It’s just a good test for us early in the year. We get some really good competition and get to see what we can do," said Kade Erickson.
“We want to be able to play with the best and compete with the best in the state, and the last two years they’ve been the best so we’re looking forward to that challenge," Tuszynski said.
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. on Friday night in Lavina.
