For Westgate High School head football coach Ryan Antoine, the Tiger’s semifinal game against No. 1 seed Edna Karr is just business as usual.

While most have already written off the Tigers, Antoine said he believes that the doubters will be proven wrong.

“Everybody is expecting us to lose. We’re expecting to just go out there and just do what we have to do,” Antoine said.

The Tigers, currently on a 6-game winning streak, have shown themselves capable of upsetting higher ranked opponents already this season. Their away game against No. 4 seed Northwood in the quarterfinals proved to many what Antoine has known all year: Westgate isn’t a team to be underestimated.

Antoine carefully crafted his schedule this season, making sure that his team faced opponents who would challenge them in different ways week in and week out. That experience will serve them well when they travel to New Orleans to face Edna Karr.

“We’ve had our backs against the wall,” Antoine said. “We like our schedule, we like the way we’ve been playing, and we always believed in our team.”

That belief cannot be understated. Every team has a head coach, but few have a coach with as much charisma as Westgate. Antoine has shown himself to be a master at motivating his players to believe that anything is possible, and the team is ready to do whatever is necessary to make it to the Superdome.

Westgate hasn’t had an easy run in the playoffs so far, struggling with second-half consistency and giving up numerous penalties. According to Antoine, they are going to stick with their style of play and hope to limit mistakes.

“We’re just going to go out there and play football. It’s gotten us this far, we’re in week 14, so we’re going to just do what we do. We’re going to go out there and play Westgate style football and let the better team win.”

Should the Tigers win, they will face either No. 2 seed Neville or No. 3 seed Warren Easton at the Caesar’s Superdome.