Sallisaw senior glad Black Diamonds to start playoffs at home

Last week’s regular-season finale loss to Ada was a bitter pill to swallow, but the last time the Sallisaw Black Diamonds were coming into the next game off a humiliating loss, they won four straight games.

Sallisaw senior player Donny Fredrickson said it’s the team’s mentality to not dwell on the past but look to the next game — which this week will be the Class 4A playoff opener against the Grove Ridgerunners at 7 tonight at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium.

“In the locker room, we don’t like reminiscing on the loss,” Fredrickson said. “We look at the next game. We can’t change last week because it’s already happened, so we just look forward to this week and what we can do to get better.”

While last week’s District 4A-4 road loss to Ada left a bitter taste in the Black Diamonds’ mouths, a bit of good news last Friday took away some of that bitterness. When the Poteau Pirates defeated the Broken Bow Savages 31-0 last Friday night, it gave the Black Diamonds sole possession of second place in the district standings, meaning a home playoff game and not having to hit the road tonight to begin postseason play as the Black Diamonds did a season ago.

“It was a big deal because we get home-field advantage with the fans here,” Fredrickson said. “We won’t have to travel.”

Tonight’s home playoff game will be just Sallisaw’s fifth home game this season as a unique quirk in the 2024 regular-season schedule allotted only four home games and not the customary five home games. Getting that fifth home game is big for the Black Diamonds.

“It feels pretty good to have another game out here (at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium),” Fredrickson said. “Hopefully, we can win, and go on to next week and keep going.”

If fate repeats itself, the Black Diamonds will win four straight games after a humiliating loss, which would mean they will end up as the Class 4A state champions — something Fredrickson would like to do in his final season as a Black Diamond.

“It would feel amazing,” he said. “I would have to leave with sadness (being his final season as a Black Diamond). It would be a little sad (ending prep career), but it would be a much better feeling winning a state championship.”

Just to get to the state title game would be the icing on the cake for this season for the Black Diamonds.

“It would mean a lot to this team with all the work we’ve put in since last off-season,” Fredrickson said. “We’ve been talking all year about going to state (championship game).”