East Limestone football coach Jeff Pugh will be the first to admit that this year has been an emotional rollercoaster for the Indians.

But with East Limestone hosting Guntersville Friday in the Class 4A quarterfinals, Pugh’s not ready to get off the ride just yet.

“We’re creating some excitement over here,” Pugh said. “Everyone’s minds are finally back on football and that’s what these guys need. There’s excitement in the school, in the community and in the stands. Everyone is fired up about East Limestone football and that’s the way it should be.”

The football players at East Limestone have endured some heavy emotional burdens during the last two years.

East Limestone suffered its first tragedy before the start of last season when coach Phil Cavnar – who had turned the Indians into a perennial playoff team –died from a congenital heart defect during the summer. This year, Michael Cavnar – Phil’s brother – resigned from his position as East Limestone football coach due to lingering health problems only a few days before the start of fall practice.

Pugh believes the Indians are finally starting to find themselves as a football team, something he said this group has coming to them.

“These guys have been through a lot over the last two years,” Pugh said. “There’s been a lot of bad things happen that this bunch has had to overcome. We’re just now getting back to playing football. These guys are fired up, hungry, and it’s an exciting time to be around our football program.”

After suffering four losses in the first nine weeks of the season, the Indians had an offensive explosion at West Morgan in week 10. Pugh believes that was the turning point for the team.

“Our guys have shown a lot of heart this year,” he said. “We’ve had some tough losses this year. Some of those were close games where we had a few mistakes that cost us. But at West Morgan, everything started to click for us offensively. That win sparked us emotionally.”

East Limestone seems to have found its niche in the playoffs. The Indians used a strong defensive effort to knock off Cherokee County 6-0 in the opening round, and then followed with an impressive power-running attack to beat Tarrant 28-16.

Pugh isn’t surprised East Limestone is still playing football.

“I expected us to make the playoffs and I knew we were capable of making a run,” he said. “I honestly believe we were better than our record showed. “

East Limestone’s road to the quarterfinals wasn’t easy, and things aren’t going to get any easier this week when the Indians host former Region 7 rival Guntersville in the Class 4A quarterfinals.

“They are a very dangerous football team,” Pugh said. “They have a whole lot more speed than they did last year. They’re the type of team that can hurt you in a hurry offensively.”

Even though Pugh believes Guntersville will be a tough opponent, he also believes the Indians are a very dangerous team.

“We’ve got to execute on both sides of the ball,” Pugh said. “They’re very explosive on offense, so we can’t come out and put the ball in their hands with a bunch of turnovers.

“Our guys have been playing with a lot of heart and emotion the past few weeks. We need the same type of effort this week.”