The Ellensburg High School football team has won their third straight Central Washington Athletic Conference championship (CWAC). The Bulldogs have gone 30-0 in league play the past three years.

The Bulldogs coaching staff believes in keeping the players humble and proving themselves on the field.

“We really press on our kids about always giving it your best shot, not worrying about the scoreboard, opponents, and those type of things,” said head coach Randy Affholter. “Every week is a big week for us.”

The team has a weekly “Thursday night attitude” meetings, where a coach is assigned by Affholter to talk with players about different scenarios that could arise during a game.

“Whether it’s handling the next play, best shots, being prepared, having confidence in yourself; those are the kinds of things we talk about,” Affholter said.

Affholter and the Bulldog coaching staff believe in constant reinforcement of their philosophy on and off the field.

“We talk a lot about being a family, being mentally tough, playing with heart, playing with discipline, being leaders in our school, not just on the football field, but every place else,” Affholter said.

Repetition and consistency seems to be the recipe for success for the Bulldogs. Affholter and his coaching staff repeatedly evaluate their kids throughout the season.

“We always tell our kids that we will put the best product on the field … you might be starting this week, but if you’re not playing well we might have to find a different guy and play him there.”

With the system Affholter has in place, depth isn’t an issue like most high schools have. If you are a running back at Ellensburg, you could also play wide receiver. The majority of the team also plays both ways, offense and defense.

“We always play, every year, between 15 and 20 guys at the varsity level,” Affholter said. “We try to make it easy enough to learn a lot of different things.”

Ellensburg fosters more of a learning environment, as opposed to a competitive one.

“I think we do a good job of trying to teach our kids all the way from ninth grade to twelfth grade,” Affholter said. “That’s our Saturday morning walkthroughs that we start with our young kids and really try to teach them the game.”

The Bulldogs coaching staff believes in spending a lot of time with their kids in a learning environment, which helps their program in the long run.

“When the same kid is getting that same message from, ninth grade, 10th grade, and 11th grade, by the time he is a senior he has a pretty good idea on how to play football,” Affholter said. “That’s what we have done these past six or seven years to kind of advance our program.”

Ellensburg concluded their regular season with a 31-14 win over Quincy High school. The Bulldogs did not have any severe competition this season, aside from Prosser High school, which they won in overtime, 27-26. Ellensburg shut out four teams this season and outscored their opponents 454-75.

The Bulldogs will play against the winner of Cheney and Selah high schools in the first round of the state playoffs. Ellensburg has lost in the third round of the state playoffs to Lynden High school the past two seasons.

Ellensburg’s first playoff game will be at home on Saturday. The time will be announced later this week.