Today, Lee&rsquo;s Summit football coach Mike Spiegel does not have to duck while he walks through the aisles at the local Hy-Vee.</p><p>This winter, when Lee&rsquo;s Summit wide receiver Sam Sealer puts on his basketball shorts and enters rival Lee&rsquo;s Summit North&rsquo;s gymnasium, he won&rsquo;t hear the taunts &ldquo;LET&rsquo;S PLAY FOOTBALL!&rdquo;</p><p>And for the next 365 days, every Lee&rsquo;s Summit Tiger can puff out his chest and talk a little smack because on Friday night they won the rivalry district game against LS North 24-21.</p><p>But forget about today and the upcoming basketball season. The important thing is next week when Lee&rsquo;s Summit finally gets to play football in November.</p><p>Tiger coaches and administrators believe that the last time Lee&rsquo;s Summit advanced to the Missouri state playoffs was in 1988. Pardon them if they&rsquo;re a year off &mdash; it actually was 1987. It&rsquo;s been a while; you would&rsquo;ve forgotten too.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just the start of a new dynasty, ya know,&rdquo; said Sam Sealer, who caught a touchdown and had a fourth-quarter interception. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just exciting.&rdquo;</p><p>The wait was worth it for these young Tigers, who have no idea how totally awesome feathered hair and acid-washed jeans looked back in &rsquo;87. Think about that &mdash; no, not the &rsquo;80s fashion but just how long Lee&rsquo;s Summit has waited for this. No other metro-area Class 6 program has endured such a long drought. Even the Tigers&rsquo; last winning team under Spiegel &mdash; that 2006 squad that finished 8-2 &mdash; did not make the playoffs.</p><p>So it would&rsquo;ve been perfectly OK if Spiegel, who&rsquo;s been here since &rsquo;83, allowed himself to think about those long-suffering players of Lee&rsquo;s Summit past as he watched his junior quarterback Corbin Berkstresser burn 42 yards down the sideline for the first-quarter touchdown. And also later when senior Kyle Gross boomed a no-doubt-about-it 42-yard field goal that gave the Tigers the 10-0 halftime lead.</p><p>&ldquo;For all the Lee&rsquo;s Summit Tigers who have come through since 1988,&rdquo; Spiegel said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing for all the alumni who didn&rsquo;t get the opportunity to play an extra game.&rdquo;</p><p>The Broncos have never risen to the elite level since the school opened in 1995, but at least the program advanced to the playoffs for the first time last season. The Broncos, 3-7, had another opportunity Friday but lived a nightmare in the third quarter. Three lost fumbles &mdash; a muffed punt directly led to the Berkstresser-Sealer 26-yard touchdown &mdash; are bad but especially heartbreaking when the stakes are so high.</p><p>The Tigers, for their part, somehow looked like the more veteran team despite never being in this situation. LS North twice came within three points, but when the Tigers, 4-6, got the ball back with 6 minutes remaining in the game, senior Darren Nelson stepped up with a 51-yard touchdown run. And with 13 seconds left, Logan Stark recovered the last-chance onside kick.</p><p>The effervescent Spiegel deserves credit for keeping spirits high when for two decades there has been little to rah-rah about. After the tough seasons when Lee&rsquo;s Summit could not even beat its archrival, he boiled whenever he heard those basketball gym heckles.</p><p>&ldquo;I know how much that hurts,&rdquo; Spiegel said. &ldquo;It gives me a bad feeling in my stomach.&rdquo;</p><p>But this winter, there will be none of that. And next week, there will finally be a playoff game for Lee&rsquo;s Summit.</p><p>And it&rsquo;s about time.