By Kenton Brooks

Phoenix Sports Writer

Even with the struggles of Hilldale’s football team this season, Chandler Foltz isn’t looking forward to tonight’s regular season finale with Wagoner and it’s for a more personal reason.

“It’s going to be bad because I’m not going to play anymore and I’ve been playing since fourth grade,” the 5-foot-11, 240-pound senior offensive right guard-defensive tackle said. “It’s also been tough because we’re not having a winning season. I’ve been on winning teams since Paul Young.”

But Foltz isn’t lacking for motivation either when the Hornets wrap up their season at Wagoner. Kickoff for the District 4A-4 game is 7:30 p.m. at Odom Field.

While Hilldale, 1-8 overall and 1-5 in district, is closing out its season, Wagoner (5-4, 4-2) has third place from the district clinched and advances to the postseason next week.

Foltz said he has maintained his enthusiasm for playing because he’s thinking about his younger teammates.

“I want to build them up because I looked up to the juniors and seniors when I was younger,” he said. “I’m trying to set an example.”

Wagoner coach Dale Condict knows the Hornets’ record doesn’t reflect the team that takes the field against his Bulldogs.

“For their seniors, it’s the last time they’re going to play football and they want to go out with some pride,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that coach (Don) Hendrix is as good as there is in getting the most out of his team. Hilldale has a lot of pride in its program. The players want to play the best they can.”

Condict said the Bulldogs, who fell out of the Associated Press state poll this week after losing to Sallisaw last Friday, have their own kind of motivation.

“More than anything for us, we’re trying to focus on what we need to have a better chance in the playoffs,” he said.

Foltz, who has 36 tackles this season, wouldn’t mind if he and the Hornets can hand Wagoner a loss going into the playoffs. That’s the foremost thing on his mind tonight.

“If we pull together, it can be a close game,” he said. “We can’t have the mistakes we had last week (in the 21-20 loss to Tulsa Webster). We can’t give them the game.”