One month ago, East Bernard traveled to Tidehaven for the District 14-3A DII Championship Game and lost 59-6. 

To be fair, East Bernard was a two-touchdown underdog. The Brahmas had started the season 0-3. Tidehaven was the state’s No. 1-ranked team. But 59-6? Picture what that blowout must have looked like, and East Bernard head coach Jeremy Jenkins assures you it was worse. He, his team and his town were humiliated.

“They had a running clock on us,” Jenkins said. “They could’ve scored 80 points. That is the absolute worst defeat in the history of East Bernard.”

That’s why none of his players believed Jenkins when he told them in the halftime locker room that they’d see Tidehaven again - and beat them - in the Region IV Championship. 

This entire season, from the 0-3 start to the blowout loss to Tidehaven, has been a battle to convince his players how good they can be. They had grown up in this football-crazed community in the shadow of last year’s senior class. After last season’s 10-2 record, the first double-digit win season since 2019, most in East Bernard expected a rebuilding year. Jenkins thinks those in the locker room might have, too.   

But something changed in the lowest moment of East Bernard’s season. Since that night, East Bernard has made the state’s most impressive playoff run. The Brahmas beat No. 7-ranked Poth on a last-minute kickoff return that featured a double reverse and a lateral. Then, they knocked off No. 10-ranked Lexington by forcing nine punts and three interceptions. Last week, Jenkins’s prophetic statement was fulfilled when East Bernard beat Tidehaven, 34-31, in the biggest upset of the regional finals, rallying from a 31-19 deficit with less than four minutes remaining.

East Bernard is the last team standing in the playoffs that either started 0-3 or has four losses. 

“It’s the only thing anybody is talking about right now,” Jenkins said.