SPOKANE, Wash. — The Whitworth Pirates football team has been on a recent stretch of dominance, compiling a 28-6 record and making three straight NCAA Division III playoff appearances, something that had never been accomplished in program history.

But this season, the Pirates want more.

“We have a big goal, it’s to make it past the second round of the playoffs,” Pirates senior quarterback Logan Lacio said. “That’s always been a big goal. That’s never been done in program history.”

Entering 2026, Whitworth returns a veteran core that’s hungry for more history, including 12th-year head coach Rod Sandberg.

“Something that’s never happened here in my time is we’ve never won back-to-back conference championships,” Sandberg said. “Good teams are a little up and down. Great teams are consistently up there. Can we be a consistently great team? I think these guys have kind of taken that on their shoulders.”

Whitworth advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2023 and 2024 and was three points shy of advancing out of the first round last year. While it may only be spring practice, the Pirates have a vision of playing in late November, but they also know they’ll have to earn it.

“We always talk about getting to the third round, but we can’t get to the third round if we don’t get to the first round,” senior cornerback Omari Williams said. “Right now, it’s just one game at a time, win each week. That’s one of the big things I’m trying to preach to these guys.”

For now, the Pirates are enjoying being back on the field during spring camp and seeing their winter work pay off.

“All the hard work and blood and tears we put in, got through, it just makes things so much simpler now,” Williams said. “We put the work in. Now it’s just fly around and play the sport we love.”

“I just want to be where my feet are,” Lacio added. “Obviously, I know it’s my last spring ball with the boys. I’m just truly grateful for that, being thankful for every moment I have with them.”

After all, playing Division III football isn’t for the weak. Players don’t get paid, don’t receive athletic scholarships and aren’t focused on the NFL. They do it for the love of the game.

“I say it all the time, these guys would go play on a parking lot, concrete, nobody watching, just because they love football,” Sandberg said. “It’s fun to be around those kinds of people. It makes it more pure. I don’t have to deal with some issues that people at other levels have to deal with.”

Still five months away from Week 1, the Whitworth Pirates are hoping the work they put in this spring will pay off in the fall and help them go further than any team in program history.