It was a beautiful day in the Miami area. The shadows from the trees could almost be used as yard lines. Not only does Miami Killian High School want to get past today's shadows on the field, they want to get past their own from the previous two years.  It hasn't been since 2005 since the Cougars made it into the FHSAA Football playoffs. When they last did, they faced Sunset. When they take the field Thursday night at Tropical Park, they will see a Sunset team once again and will hope to have the same result as they did in 2005, even though only one player on this year's team can recall that game.

Lamar Miller, one of the nation's star running backs, was on that 2005 Miami Killian football team. He remembers what happened that night and is trying to feed that energy off to the rest of his teammates. Miller, who has verbally committed to join the University of Miami, took a few moments away from the practice field today to give us his thoughts on this upcoming game and his future.  "We've all just been working hard, along with Coach (Smith), in getting ready for this team and the playoffs," Miller said.  When asked about how Sunset can put up some points in the 4th quarter, as they have many times this year, Lamar simply said "we gotta hold them!"

Coach Steve Smith, who is in his 2nd year of coaching the team, seemed very relaxed and confident enough to know his team will get the job done come Thursday night. "Our goal for this year was to win the Championship," Smith said. "This game against Sunset will be no different than any other, we are just going to work a little harder."

The Killian High School football team has 31 seniors on its roster. Between those seniors and Coach Smith, work ethic is always put out to be the number one priority with the newcomers. "Our biggest reason for success this year is no doubt, our work ethic," coach Smith said.

Killian's quarterback, Senior, Ricky Rowe, feels comfortable out there and is definitely ready for this chance to be involved in a playoff game. "I know that I won't be throwing the ball as much as I'd like to, but we have a great running back with Lamar (Miller) and I am really excited about this game on Thursday," Rowe stated.

Rowe stands behind center at 6'1", 180 lbs. He is a lean machine and has clear cut mobility as seen at today's practice.

It may not take long to figure out the possibility of what direction this game may be headed. Killian scores most of their points in the first quarter, while Sunset has only given up six points all season long in the first. If the Cougars can come out firing and get past Sunset early, this could be a very fun night for Miami Killian.

When I handed Coach Smith a printout of a newspapers prediction of Thursday's game (Killian 35,  Sunset 7), Coach Smith said, "yeah, that's what I pretty much expect."

Also contributing to this report: Rich Green