Postgame quotes from players, coaches

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Crestview head coach Jeremy Best, Berlin Hiland head coach Mark Schlabach and players from both teams answered questions during Saturday night’s postgame press conference.

Some of the top comments are listed below.

“There was a special vibe from this team since the beginning of the season.” – Drew Kline on the Crestview Knights

“Obviously it’s a nice option. In the world of coaching, these guys make me look smart, but that wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have other selfless guys. We’ve had that all year long. We’ve had multiple different things thrown at us defensively and we answered the bell most of the time. We had total buy-in.” – Crestview head coach Jeremy Best talking about having different players step up in different games and situations

“I think it works both ways. I thought they had some things they could do exploit us. I thought they had pretty good quickness and they’re just so fundamentally sound.” – Best on potential matchup problems posed by the Hawks

“We’ve had really good third quarters most of the year.” – Best on the Knights outscoring Berlin Hiland 18-10 in the third quarter to expand the lead to 18

“It definitely wasn’t our best game of the year in terms of executing, but Crestview shot an unbelievable percentage and made some huge plays, especially Sheets and Dealey. We expected the Etzlers to get theirs and we did a tremendous job on them, but the other guys really hurt us.” – Berlin Hiland head coach Mark Schlabach

“We feel like we could have played a little better, but Crestview is an unbelievable team.” – Schlabach

“I’m a pretty simplistic guy. We don’t try to complicate things. We went into the summer and did what we traditionally do. We went to a camp, we did our workouts, nothing out of the box. We got prepared for the football season and we actually worked out with the football team.” – Best on how the team prepared over the summer

“We had a target on our back. Every team just want to beat us, they just wanted to see Crestview fall, but we’re a tough group of guys and we were able to overcome all of that.” – Javin Etzler on the 2018-2019 season

“My mother.” – Best answering a question about who he gave his state championship medal to during the postgame celebration.

“This is 20 times better than that. Getting to the state final is awesome. This is the last time I’ll play organized sports and I love these guys and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. This was a bang we went out on and it’s awesome.” – Kline on comparing winning a state championship to beating Spencerville in football last fall

“It’s special. They love these guys.” – Best on strong fan support throughout the entire season