I would not have predicted it, but I was not surprised by Royal High School's victory over Zillah on Friday night in the SCAC play-in game for the state playoffs.

Not even with the game being played at Zillah. After all, this is Royal football of which we are speaking.

This is a program that had participated in the state tournament for 13 straight years. It had to win to make it 14 straight.

If you are scratching your head about why Royal pulled off this upset, a few reasons follow:

• Royal always makes it to the playoffs.
• Football is to Royal as basketball is to Zillah.
• Royal has a large, skilled and consistent coaching staff.
• Royal has the acknowledged best prep football coach in Washington.

That latter point was made by 22,698 voters in USA Today's high school sports "Best of" contest this fall. There aren't that many people in all of South County. So it must be that Wiley Allred has respect from all around the state.

Allred's record alone illustrates that he may be Washington's best high school football coach. His teams never miss the state tournament.

In addition to players, Allred coaches. It is Royal's good fortune that he's happy farming on the slope.

Many of us thought this was a rebuilding year for the Royal football program. There had been many losses from last year's state runner-up team.

Not Allred. Fielding that question before the start of the season, he said there wasn't as much rebuilding to do as most people were thinking. The players would be young, he said, but they would be skilled and talented.

Now the story is updated. Allred says his youngsters are no longer freshmen and sophomores. They are veterans of one season of football. They are as ready as upperclassmen for the state playoffs.

This Saturday's opponent, Riverside, from the Spokane area, is probably wondering what is going on. Are the Rams going to face the Royal High School that lost 45-14 to Zillah or the one that won 17-7 when everything was on the line?

What's going on, the Rams will learn, is that Royal continues to play football with the heart of a Knight.