Omaha North and Bellevue West are historically two very different teams. On one side, you have the Omaha North Vikings who have made a state championship appearance in four of the last five years. On the other, you have Bellevue West, a team making its first state championship game appearance in school history.
"Bellevue West is a very good football team. They're well coached, awfully talented so it's going to be a big task for us but one that I think our kids are up for," Omaha North Head Coach Larry Martin said. "I think we've been pretty consistent all season long with the offense, defense and special teams."
Martin attributes a lot of his team's success to the senior class which will play its final game in Memorial Stadium next week.
"Our senior class, they've been very good. They came here as freshmen, they saw what the expectations were in this program," Martin said. "They're a very good class, very talented, and we're going to enjoy the moment of having the last opportunity to coach them and wish them the best of luck in their endeavors and what they are going to do after they're done playing football here."
Bellevue West Head Coach Michael Huffman said this state championship against Omaha North will serve as a measuring stick for how far his team has come and still needs to go in Class A.
"I always talk about that Omaha North and Millard North, they set the standard for high school football in Nebraska," Huffman said. "In order for Bellevue West to get into that same sentence, we've got to beat a team like this in the championship. We couldn't be any more excited to play Coach Martin's team and see where we stack up in the best of Nebraska."
