Some football coaches are too busy working on The Team to savor The Moment.

Take Kevin Barker, whose mind can't stay chained to one year. Here are his Sandia Matadors, preparing for their biggest game of the year Saturday in the state Class 5A football semifinals, and part of Barker is focused on 2007.

"The weeks of extra practice we've had in the playoffs are going to help us for next year," said Barker, whose Matadors play Mayfield in Las Cruces. "We have 14 freshmen practicing. You have to keep things going so you don't have one of those 1-9 years."

Barker has practiced this fastidious methodology of X's and O's since he arrived at Sandia seven years ago.

At last he can he dub his team "arrived," but his foresight told him two years ago that this would happen now, just this way, with this group of special players.

This is what coaches do.

They plan ahead.

Just ask his daughter, Brittany, who heard his father bragging about his 2006 squad when she was in the seventh grade.

Brittany had reason to give pops a big "Yeah right," because Sandia was 3-7 in 2004, her seventh-grade year.

"I told her, by the time she was a freshman at Sandia (this year), we'd be real good," Barker said.

He was right.

That same class, led by quarterback Derris Jackson and wide receiver Michael Scarlett, has propelled the Matadors to a near-perfect season.

Sandia's one setback, a 20-14 loss to Las Cruces in the Aug. 25 season opener, came without Jackson, arguably the city's best player, who was serving a one-game suspension.

Sandia and Cibola are the two Albuquerque area teams left in the state football playoffs. The Matadors stomp into Las Cruces with the momentum of 11 consecutive wins.

"I think finally we can say we have a program," said Barker, who holds a 45-31 record as Matadors coach. "It took me seven years, which is longer than I expected when I first got here. I thought it would take me four."

That's all it took during Barker's stint at Manzano, where his Monarchs reached the state championship game in 1996. The Monarchs lost to Mayfield that year.

The progression at Sandia didn't follow the same script. Four playoff appearances in seven years can be one measure of success, but Barker suffered two consecutive losing seasons from 2003-04.

Barker said he left Manzano to restore a Sandia program that won 12 games the previous three years before he took over in 2000. Four years later, Barker began to believe his coaching reputation was at stake.

Barker said he didn't have enough senior leadership to build a winner at that time.

That's when a special group of players blended like a smoothie for a hungry coach.

Enter Jackson, Scarlett and supporting players like Stephon Fitch, Terrance Woodfin, Jeff Hugaboom and Josh Carson.

"Even two years ago, we felt like we were going to be the class to beat," said Jackson. "Even when we were sophomores and getting beat up out there, we decided to work hard to get where we wanted to be.

"This is what we always wanted, to have this opportunity to play for a state title. Now we have to take advantage of it."

Jackson, the team's leader, piloted this crew to success. Never was this more evident as in Friday's 24-21 quarterfinal win over Clovis, when Jackson ran for 114 yards and passed for 105.

His stat line for the season is impressive: more than 1,400 yards rushing, more than 900 passing and an average of about 10 tackles per game.

"He's the best football player I've ever coached," Barker said. "His work ethic is contagious. There's never a dull practice because of Derris, and the team follows him. He just refuses to lose."

Jackson said his work ethic stems from his single mother, Vanessa Jackson, who at times has juggled two jobs to provide for her son.

His mom showed him that success takes hard work. Jackson treats football like a business - a fun business.

"When he started playing YAFL, he'd say that football was his life," Vanessa said. "I thought it was funny. Now it's serious. On the field, he's focused. He's a hard-worker who cares about his team."

Nothing requires more hard work than knocking off Mayfield at the Field of Dreams.

La Cueva coach Fred Romero, whose Bears were crushed 31-0 last weekend by the Trojans, said Mayfield is playing with the momentum of his dominating, undefeated championship teams from 2003 and 2004.

"They look real good," Romero said. "They have a lot of team speed, and they execute everything really well. Sandia is going to have to find a way to score against Mayfield's great defense."

If Jackson has it his way, the team's motto - It's not the skill, it's the will - will help his Matadors prevail.

"When people have asked me who we play next and I tell them Mayfield, they're like, `Oooooh. That's tough,' " Jackson said. "But we know we can beat them."

With Jackson, you take that kind of talk seriously.

Just ask the Clovis Wildcats.