EASLEY — With a bye week to rest, the Easley High School football team has a chance to soak in its 2-0 start for the 2010 season.

Two wins tops the total of one win the Green Wave had during the past two seasons put together.

Easley is 2-0 for only the sixth time in the past 26 seasons, with mixed results in each of those seasons.

The last time the Green Wave started 2-0 was in 2006.

Easley actually started the year 6-0, then lost four of its final five games to finish the year with a 7-4 record, missing the AAAA Division II playoffs.

The Green Wave also started with a 2-0 record after two games in 2004. Easley even to 3-0 before falling to Daniel in the fourth game of the season. The Green Wave was only able to put together two more wins in the season, finishing with a 5-6 record. But the season was successful in the sense that Easley had just completed back to back winless seasons, the first in the school’s history.

The 2000 Green Wave team opened the season with a 2-0 record, but struggled through the rest of the year to have a 5-6 record at the end of the regular season.

The AAAA Division II playoff system is, to say the least, complicated. In 2000, Easley received its last trip to the state playoffs, despite posting a losing record at 5-6. Later in the decade, the Green Wave would finish regular seasons 7-4 in 2005 and 2006, but miss the playoffs both years.

Easley lost to North Augusta in the playoffs in 2000, finishing the season with a 5-7 season.

The 1997 Green Wave team also started the year with a 2-0 record. This team, led by future Clemson standout Eric Meekins,

The Green Wave actually opened the season with eight straight wins before falling to Westside in the ninth game of the season. Easley rebounded to win its final two games of the regular season and headed to the AAAA playoffs with a 10-1 record.

Easley opened the playoffs by defeating Marlboro County 28-7. Easley followed that with a 14-6 win over Wilson High School in the second round, which set the Green Wave to play Hartsville the next week in the state semi-finals.

The Green Wave fell to Hartsville 21-14, the closest Easley has been to the state championship game since Stanley Morgan led the Green Wave to its last title in 1972.

The 1988 Green Wave team also began the season with a 2-0 record before falling to Seneca in the third game of the season.

But Easley bounced back to earn a spot in the state AAAA playoff that year. Oddly enough, the Green Wave advance in the playoffs by gaining revenge against some of the teams that had earned wins against Easley in the regular season.

In the first round of the playoffs, Easley defeated Eastside 24-10, avenging a 28-10 loss to the Eagles in the regular season.

In the second round, Easley topped Laurens 14-7, avenging a 26-0 loss to the Raiders in the regular season.

Easley finally fell to North Augusta 34-7 in the third round of the playoffs.

Easley’s 2010 team has already won more games than the 2009 and 2008 squads combined in just two weeks of competition. The upcoming weeks will show where this team belong in the long story of Green Wave football.