After losing the first six games of the season, Pleasantville Trojans head football coach, Gabe Bakker, knew they had three winnable games in their future, but he did not know how his team’s morale would be at practice after suffering a humbling loss at home to Lynnville-Sully, 70 – 0. The rookie head coach would be very shocked at how his team reacted.
“ When we came to practice that Monday, they were ready to roll,” Bakker said. “There was a bounce in their step that you wouldn’t have expected from a game like that on a Friday night. So after I saw that, I was like, hey, we’ve got a shot in these games. You never know what’s going to happen in a football game. Five plays makes a difference in almost every football game. I thought we’d have a chance to be in those games and have a shot to win, and our kids took advantage of that, and we got three victories.”
The extra dedication in practice seemed to inject some confidence in Bakker, and as he said, his Trojans team would finish the season with sound victories over Southeast Warren, North Mahaska and English Valleys to end with a 3 – 6 record, good for fifth place in Class A District 6.