Norman North's Corbin Cleveland, Jake Higginbotham a dynamic duo

“It ended up working out pretty well I guess,” he said.

Even after he was convinced to join the team, though, Higginbotham was unsure whether the experiment would pay off much.

He saw some time in junior-varsity games but little action on Fridays until Week 7 against Moore,

“He was discouraged after awhile,” said Uhles, a Timberwolves linebacker. “I told him just to give it a couple more weeks and stick to it. Then he gets a chance against Moore and scores two touchdowns and ever since then, he's shown out and been a really great receiver.

“To go from where he was, not playing, and doing what he's been able to do as been pretty incredible.”

Now, Higginbotham has teamed with Cleveland and the other seniors to get Norman North into the title game for the first time in the school's history against one of the most tradition-rich teams in the state.

“There's not one person in that locker room who doesn't believe that we're going to go out and just get it all,” Higginbotham said. “We know what we're getting ourselves into, but we know that if we play our game we're going to be able to pull it out.”