Sure, McEachern flag football coach Jake Burgdorf is more than happy with his team’s No. 1 state ranking and 25-0 record, but the Indians’ success is about more than just wins and losses.

McEachern Flag Football head coach Jake Burgdorg

McEachern flag football coach Jake Burgdorf

“Our focus has never been about the result of a game,” Burgdorf said. “It’s been about the process to get there. The goal was not necessarily to be undefeated. Obviously, we’re excited about that possibility, but that wasn’t the focus. We’ve just been trying to get better each step of the way. Our girls take this extremely seriously and they want to put themselves in the best position to be successful.”

The Indians’ dominance has been unfathomable this season, outscoring their opponents 652-53. Picking an MVP of this McEachern squad is virtually impossible considering the elite talent at each position. However, the state’s top passing leader Chelsea Njoku is a good place to start.

“This game is so quarterback driven. Realistically you have to have a good quarterback to be a good team,” Burgdorf said. “Chelsea has excelled this year at passing and rushing. She leads all divisions in this state in passing yards (4,186), so she obviously helps us a lot. We hope she continues to do that in the playoffs.”

But Njoku is far from a one-player show.

“Ava Couzens plays both ways for us,” Burgdorf said. “She starts at safety, plays receiver and can play quarterback if we need her to. We have two really good receivers in Tami Chatwood and Desirae Holley and they’ve really helped us, too. Defensively, we have two really experienced linebackers, Janiya Washington and Caliyah Davis. So we feel really good about our depth at all positions and were excited to see where things continue to go from here.”

The Indians’ reign continued over the state in Thursday’s Division 4 playoff openers, breezing past Shiloh 28-0 and Alpharetta 21-0, setting up Monday’s Elite Eight matchup with Central Gwinnett.

Still searching for its first state title, Burgdorf and company know that rankings don’t win you games between the lines.

“We’ve been ranked No. 1 at some point over the last three seasons,” Burgdorf added. “So we’re not worried about that at all. We’ve also been beaten the last three years in the third round of the playoffs. We know that rankings don’t matter. It doesn’t matter who’s better on paper. It matters in the playoffs who plays the best each night. And that’s all we’re focused on from here on out, competing and executing. … As for this program, it’s a ton of fun coaching these girls. When we started out, their only knowledge on the game came from what we taught them. We’re at a point right now where none of them really grew up playing the game, so they’ve all had to learn from us. We’ve got great athletes in every sport here at McEachern so that’s obviously helped us, but the sport has grown so much since I started here. We had almost a hundred plus girls trying out for the team this year, and it’s only going to grow from here.”