Coach Robert McFarlin, left, introduces some of Riviera-Kaufer High School’s junior varsity football players during the ‘Meet the Seahawks’ community pep rally held on Friday. Injured during Week Nine last season, Quarterback Heston Van Fleet could only watch his Seahawk varsity football team beat Bishop High School in their season finale and qualify for the playoffs. The water-birds lost a close bi-district match to Three Rivers and Riviera- Kaufer High School’s season came to an end. Now Van Fleet is confident his team can make it back to the postseason.

“Yes we can, but it is going to be tough even though three teams (in the district) get into the playoffs,” Van Fleet said after Friday’s ‘Meet the Seahawks’ community pep rally. “We have the number one ranked team in the state (Refugio) in our district this season but we can upset them.”

Van Fleet added that postseason familiarity could be a plus for the Seahawks this time around.

“Now we have the experience, we know what to do,” Van Fleet said. “We should have won that playoff game last year but that experience will definitely help us this year. I am looking forward to this season, we have a bunch of players out and it should be good.”

Head Coach Perry Graves echoed his junior quarterback’s opinion.

“That’s our goal, to again make the playoffs, and I feel we can do it,” Graves said. “I think we can do it because we have the players, the work ethic and if we do the best we can then we have a shot to make it.” Half a dozen returners on each side of the ball should bode well for Kaufer this season.

“We have six starters returning on both offense and defense and we also have a lot of sophomores who had a very good spring,” Graves said. “Plus I also think we are set up nicely this season, as far as the number of kids we have on the team, that we can have players specialize on offense and defense.”

Making a return trip to the postseason can be done, Graves said, by sticking to a proven recipe.

“Last year we preached doing things right all of the time and not just some of the time,” Graves said. “The kids bought into it and they really loved that playoff experience and I think they are looking forward to trying to repeat.”