ESCANABA — The Escanaba football team has a tall order going into the playoffs this season, and it’s a situation that’s completely unheard of for the team. There will be some familiarity, however, as the Eskymos travel to Alma today. Esky has battled Alma in the postseason in three of the last four years — winning each time.

“Going into Alma this weekend, we have new players going in, and we’re trying to find the players we need to be successful,” Eskymos coach Dave Howes said. “It’s a familiar opponent, which makes it a little easier going into this week.”

Every team is feeling the pinch of a shortened season and restrictions due to COVID-19, but the Eskymos are feeling that pressure a little more deeply than others as they were only able to fit in two games in during the regular season.

“It’s a little bit different than years passed where we’d have a full season to evaluate kids,” Howes said. “This year, we had two games, and we’re still trying to evaluate our players — which is kind of weird.”

Despite the difficulty, Howes feels that their plans continue to refine.

“(Our plans) are a bit more solid after last week,” he said. “It’s not as solid as I’d like, but we kind of know who we are and what our identity is. We’re just going to utilize what we have — skill-wise and with players — and try to put the best product on the field for Saturday and see what happens.”

With COVID-19 restrictions being what they are, traveling has taken on a different feel as opposed to previous years.

“In years passed, it was kind of fun,” Howes said. “It was like a business trip, and the kids would get out of school for it — they’d like that. It was just something fun, but now with what we’ve got going on with COVID, you have to use extreme caution and be safe. It’s a lot different. I’d rather stay at home and play, but with us only playing two games, that’s just not going to happen.”

Rather than aiming for a certain round or wins or losses, Howes will use a simpler metric to assess the success of his team.

“All I’m looking for is the kids giving their best effort — to leave it all on the field — and if they do that, we should be successful at the end of the game,” he said. “I’m not going to say wins or losses. The success is all about the kids’ effort, and that’s number one to me.”

Apart from everything else, Howes and his team are just happy to be on the field.

“Any game that we can play is a boon for our seniors because a month ago, we didn’t know what was going to happen, or if we were even going to play a football game,” he said.