COLUMN: How winless Red Devils can host playoff game

In a nine-team district, the top four seeds host the first round of the playoffs...as well as the eighth seed.

Why the eighth seed as well? The district's two bottom teams face off in a stand-alone round with the winner advancing to play the top seed of the tournament. Think of it as high school football's "First Four" round of March Madness.

Chaffee, at its six-year-long peak, was a No. 5 seed and had to trek to Van-Far and be lambs to the slaughter. This year, the Red Devils are 0-5 and are searching for their first win in a schedule filled with private schools and seemingly superior rivals.

Chaffee is currently one of three 0-5 teams in Class 1 District 1 but is ahead of Louisiana in points.

How? They played two Class 2 teams (Grandview and East Prairie), a Class 3 team in Kentucky (Ballard Memorial), and a Class 3 team (Principia).

To add to that, the Red Devils play Class 4 Confluence Prep on Friday, Oct. 4. They will also play two more Class 2 teams (Scott City and Kelly) to close out the season.

District-wise, you get some points for playing up like that," Chaffee head coach Jack Altermatt said. "Last year, we got to the end in districts, and we were a No. 5 seed, and we had to drive Van-Far. Kind of the planning for this season was maybe you can game that schedule and get a little bit some points up, so maybe you can draw a No. 4 seed or a No. 3 seed if you're playing well."

The bad news currently is this strategy can't be executed the way Altermatt has envisioned without wins. The good news is if they continue to struggle yet have enough points to remain at No. 8, then the Red Devils will still end up with a home playoff game.

"We need to get some wins," Altermatt said. We're to the point where you can't roll into district with no wins."

Chaffee is a part of the newly formed Scott-Miss Conference with East Prairie, Charleston, Kelly, and Scott City. The difference between them and the others is the Red Devils broke off from the SEMO Conference to free half their schedule for new and unique matchups.

"There's some benefit to playing some people you never play," Altermatt said. "I think some variety is a good thing, and it keeps you on your toes. And then also people get to see somebody different than they don't ever get to see for us, I think matchup-wise, I don't think it's that big of a stretch to play those teams.

"We got out of the SEMO conference, and that's one thing because we wanted to find teams that you could compete with on a yearly basis," he added, "and it's okay to change things up sometimes."

We all knew that Chaffee peaked last year and this year would be a test of Altermatt's program going in. However, even with eight seniors, including running back Logan Horton, the Red Devils have pretty much started from scratch once again.

They do have promising underclassmen who are currently displaying their potential this season. Sophomore defensive end Ty Atkins enters Friday with five sacks, which is tied with Dexter's Caleb Gott and Portageville's Maddyx Morgan and more than everyone in Southeast Missouri other than Dexter's Nolan Alford, who has nine. Sophomore running back Adam Swinford is statistically keeping up with Horton and senior quarterback Leyton Hanback. Freshman quarterback Cam Phillips also scored the Red Devils' only touchdown in a 14-6 loss at home against Principia last week.

"I feel like Chaffee has had this kind of long arching like you'll have a good team, and then it will just kind of go away. I'm hoping to buck that trend over time," Altermatt said. "They still need seasoning and that sort of thing, and as long as we're playing good football at the end, that's the that's what you want to be."

The season is also not over for Chaffee. Last year, Sikeston went 0-8 before ending the regular season with a home win over Charleston and a surprising road playoff win at Perryville. If Chaffee were to go 0-9 and still host a playoff game and win it, one could argue the 2024 season is a success. After all, it would be their first playoff win since 2017.

Ironically at this point, Chaffee can now only host a playoff game if their place in the C1D1 standings remains. They should have more points than Louisana unless the Bulldogs pull out a win, which seems unlikely. Veritas Christian might be the wild card between where Chaffee and Malden stand at the end of the year. At 1-4, VC represents both teams' best chance to avoid a 0-9 season. However, if Chaffee beats the Eagles and Malden doesn't, that could mean the Red Devils move up to No. 7 in the district standings and would start the playoffs on the road.