Wayne State ready to write final chapter of storybook season

They've worked for this moment that has been more than a year in the making.

It's a journey the seniors at Wayne State envisioned when they came to the school four seasons ago.

When the Warriors suit up for the Division II National Championship against Pittsburg State Saturday, they'll be on national television and playing in the most important game of their lives.

But for them, that's not good enough.

"We want to go out and win the championship. This has been our goal from the very start; to win the championship," head coach Paul Winters said.

"Getting in it is obviously a plus, but we wanna win it."

The Warriors have done the unthinkable. 8-3 in the regular season, they didn't expect to make the playoffs. They didn't win their conference, but because they had a better overall record than rival Hillsdale, they were chosen by the selection committee to represent the GLIAC in the postseason.

All they've done in their first postseason appearance is rattle off four straight road victories to reach their ultimate goal.

"It's not easy. If you'd seen some of the places that we've been -- a couple weeks ago we played at Minnesota-Duluth, who were the National Champs in the past year. That was obviously a tough one."

But not for his confident group, who stormed into Minnesota and came away with a 31-25 win. Last week, they beat Winston-Salem 21-14 in the semifinals.

Winters said the hardest part of his job was convincing players "at the beginning" to buy into what he was selling.

Now, thanks to a committed group and growing success during his eight-year tenure, selling the program won't be a problem.

It's selling itself.

And Saturday, he'll lead his team onto the field for its final challenge, for a 11:00 a.m. kickoff.

"We'll be very loose, we'll be very excited, and we'll play sixty minutes of great football."