It was a philosophy he stressed for this team last December, just after a third straight semifinal loss.

To get to a fourth, the emphasis would be on the end result — which makes tonight’s season opener just that.

What’s Chapter 1 without a book?

“I’ve said it all along,” Muskogee coach Matt Hennesy said. “We want to win every game, but more than anything, we want to win the last one.”

There’s two ways that can happen, ending the season at Week 10 or winning a state championship. You can guess which he was referring to.

Along the way, however, the plot may thicken early. Chapter 2 and 3 might be a lot like Chapter 1, if you believe certain radio pundits and well, some newspaper scribes. Even Hennesy acknowledged it last season, that the non-district slate Muskogee faces, starting with a road trip to Owasso, could send the Roughers into District 6A-3 wars with an 0-3 black eye. A venegeful and loaded Norman North, losers of four straight games to MHS and two in the playoffs, comes to Indian Bowl next week. Then, it’s Union.

Perspective, people. Don’t judge a book by the cover, or the first three chapters, he says.

“The fact is these first three won't count toward determining anything after they're over,” Hennesy said. “This isn't the BCS. One loss in any of these games won't hurt, nor will any loss in the regular season. But after we've finished these first three games, we'll know what we're good at and what we need to fix in order to win that last game.”

Owasso coach Bill Patterson faces a similar dilemma. After a decision to swap districts with Broken Arrow coach Ron Lancaster kind of backfired — ”I wanted to get into the western teams with Union but that was before the price of gas shot up,” Patterson said — the Rams begin with Muskogee, Broken Arrow and Jenks.

“We could be 0-3 but it’s all about the same philosophy,” Patterson said. “We both want to play good people as part of our evaluation process. Things change and you expect to have some warts exposed but we want to see what we need to correct.”

And with Muskogee, he says, the Rams will get a testing ground.

“They’ll challenge you with their speed and something we’ve been preparing for all spring and summer, the kicking game,” Patterson said. “They challenge you with that part of the game. They’ll pressure you with it. You’ve got to line up right and do the little things because every series with them is at least a four-down series. We hope to learn about ourselves and as far as the outcome, I think like most openers, it will come down to who makes the fewest mistakes.”

The Roughers will start a sophomore quarterback with no varsity starts (Archie Bradley), a freshman safety (Victor Williams) a player with a huge upside but who was expected to play on the ninth-grade team this season. And they’ll have a freshman kicker, Matt Bishop.

They’ll also be without Jameel Owens and Stacy McGee.