At summer camp, Olpe coach Chris Schmidt talked with his team about the changing landscape of Class 2-1A.
Centralia, which had one of the more dominating seasons in recent high school history in 2013, bumped up to Class 3A. Centralia had defeated Olpe the past two seasons in the playoffs. St. Mary’s Colgan remained in Class 3A.
“On the east side of the state, things have changed a lot and that there was going to be a lot of teams like us that going into the season felt like ‘You know what, this is an opportunity, let’s make the best of it,’” Schmidt said. “We talked about that a lot.”
On the first day of practice, before the team went to the field, the Eagles met in the locker room and put a sign up about Fort Hays State University’s Lewis Field Stadium, site of the 2-1A state championship. They also placed a saying on the wall – “Don’t be denied” – a motto Olpe has lived on throughout the fall.
“The kids could look at that sign every night they go to practice, every game night, when we leave, whatever,” Schmidt said. “But that’s kind of been our goal, that we have wanted to get to that spot, and we didn’t want to be denied. That’s been the driving force.”
Olpe lost to La Crosse in a neutral site game in Week 1, and then won 11 straight. Out west, Ell-Saline, helped by a huge 14-13 Week 6 victory against Smith Center and three straight playoff upsets, stands at 9-3. The squads will meet for the Class 2-1A state championship Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
After the Smith Center victory effectively put the Cardinals into the playoffs, Cardinal coach Terry King believed his team could make a run. Ell-Saline’s offense had less than 100 yards in the victory, but the defense carried the team.
“We are not a bad team,” King said. “We are actually a pretty good team. I said, 'I don’t think there’s a really dominant team in 2A like there has been before.'”
Led by the defense, Ell-Saline defeated Sedgwick, La Crosse and Phillipsburg in the playoffs after it lost to Sedgwick and Phillipsburg during the regular season. Last week, it beat the Panthers 22-21 when Phillipsburg fumbled at the goal line on fourth down in the final seconds.
The Cardinals have won at least five games in seven of the past eight seasons, including a 10-1 record in 2008. It’s produced some of the best small-school skill players, including Toby and Tate Omli and Kaleb Whitehair.
This year’s squad has a much bigger line and 12 seniors, including all-state lineman Evan Morrical and quarterback/defensive back Louie Arceo. Usually, Ell-Saline has some 160-170 pound linemen, but the Cardinals have no one under 185.
The Cardinals have allowed 18.8 points per game against the hardest schedule in the classification, according to preppowerindex.com. Offensively, the Cardinals run a lot of jet sweeps to the edge around Morrical.
“Defensively, it might be the best team we’ve ever had,” King, in his 16th season, said. “Some of the offensive teams maybe had better skill positions, but our line of scrimmage this year is probably the best that we have had for a long time.”
After the Smith Center victory, King discussed the 2013 Ell-Saline baseball team that lost five times during the regular season, entered state as the No. 5 seed and then won the state title.
“If we could slip into this thing, maybe we could make a run, because our baseball team did it a couple of years ago,” King said. “We didn’t do real well in the regular season, and we slipped into state, and then they just played awesome baseball.”
Olpe has had a winning season every year since 2004, but has never won a crown and took second in 1976 and ’08. Ell-Saline’s only appearance at state was an 8-Man championship in 1989.
King, in his 39th season overall and 26th at the high school level, will coach in his first championship game.
Schmidt and his wife are Olpe graduates; he has coached at his alma mater since his college days at Emporia State. He has served the last 18 as head boys’ basketball coach, last eight as head football coach.
“One of the things that I would have always dreamed about doing would be coaching a state tournament or winning a state title,” King said. “My time is getting shorter, and I haven’t given up on it, but I was just thinking at Ell-Saline that that might not ever be an option, but here it is right in front of me right now... I am pretty humbled by it right now.”
Olpe had massive injuries last season, especially up front. This year, the Eagles stayed healthy and averaged 39.3 points per game after it collectively averaged 27.9 the last two seasons.
Senior Bo Krueger, whose brother Cole was the quarterback on the ’08 team, is the veteran quarterback. The seniors include linemen Joe Redeker, Caleb Coble, Drew Benton and Coltin Arndt and cornerback Wyatt Redeker. The Eagles’ Week 1 loss helped Olpe grow.
“We went into Week 1 knowing that we were going to play a quality club, knowing win or lose, we were going to learn a lot about ourselves, because they were going to exploit our weaknesses,” Schmidt said. “Unfortunately, we lost a game, but we gained a lot more out of that game."
In Week 2, the Eagles defeated Riley County, 33-8, an eventual 3A playoff participant. Since then, it has four wins by 12 points or fewer. The Eagles have had multiple comebacks, including 14-point deficits versus Onaga and Troy the last two weeks.
“I do think we played a pretty darn good game,” Schmidt said of Week 2. “We probably played as well as we could, especially early in the season. The kids understand, and we tried to get the message across that we can do this. You have done it now – that’s what we have to play like all year. Obviously, we can get better, but it’s there, the base is there.”
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