Negaunee quarterback Will Luke looks upfield as he rolls out of the pocket during the second quarter of a game played against Manistique at the Miners’ field on Sept. 18. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

NEGAUNEE — The last few days have been tough on the Negaunee football team.

Last week, all Negaunee athletic events were announced to be canceled through today, which included the cross country teams not being allowed to compete in the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 1 Finals last Saturday.

There was also a question mark going into this weekend whether the Miners (3-3) could participate in the MHSAA Division 6 football playoffs, but head coach Paul Jacobson said the school’s athletic quarantine ends Friday afternoon, just in time for the Miners to take the field at 7 p.m. tonight against Gladstone (2-3).

“Obviously, we wanted to play on Saturday,” Jacobson said. “It just didn’t work out that way. Our quarantine actually ends at 3 o’clock, it was self-imposed, our quarantine ends at 3 o’clock on Friday.

“It all worked out. It is what it is and in this time and age, the COVID era here, you take every opportunity you can get.

“This is a resilient group of individuals we have on our team right now. We haven’t been able to officially practice. We’ve not allowed any contact with kids until after our quarantine. But it’s a resilient group and they’ve made the most of every opportunity they’ve had thus far this season. And I know they’ll continue to do so the rest of the season.”

Now that the Miners have been cleared to play, they can focus on the Braves, who defeated Negaunee earlier in the season with the help of some key takeaways. Interestingly enough, Negaunee’s first game against Gladstone was originally postponed before eventually being played as scheduled.

“Every team goes through this throughout the season where you deal with types of adversity,” Jacobson said. “Losing Will Luke in the first quarter (of the first game) for us, our starting quarterback, was a huge blow.

“Like I said, this group is resilient. They’re gonna take change, they’re gonna take adversity and they’re gonna move forward and learn from it.

“Gladstone’s a good team. I’ve always said this since we started playing them way back in the day, that their community is real similar to ours. They’re blue-collar communities; tough, hard-nosed kids; and you expect nothing but a great game out of them.”

When asked how his team is feeling, Jacobson said the Miners are healthy and had done a good job before the season getting prepared for this point in the year.

“This group has done a good job preparing themselves in the summer and the offseason for an extended season,” he said. “Having that five games under our belt, I think our team is right where you’d want them to be. You can have an extended break now. I think we’re right where we need to be as a team.”

Right where Negaunee wants to be is in the playoffs and now that they’re there, Jacobson says the Miners are ready to go.

“There’s no question,” Jacobson said. “They’re high school kids. They’ve seen what it means to have a season taken away like our basketball team did last year, or lose a spring sport like our seniors did last spring.

“It’s tough and they see that. They’re itching and they’re chomping at the opportunity to play on a Friday night one more time.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 996-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.