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Team of the Week

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Team of the Week

Who should be team of the week?
 
Week #1   Week #2   Week #3  Week #4  Week #5  Week #6  Week #7  Week #8
 
 
Week #8
Sedgwick Cardinals
How about them Sedgwick Cardinals! They are without a doubt in the toughest district in the entire state of Kansas and they have already clinched the title. The teams in district #10 in Class 3A were 23-1 before district play started with the number one team in class 3A (Garden Plain). Sedgwick has not been ranked at any time in our kansasprepfootball.com poll this season. The Cardinals are undefeated at 8-0 and have been under the radar until now. As I always say each year some team somewhere in the state of Kansas will be one of the surprise teams of the year.

Did you know that Sedgwick did not even get in the Kansas Pregame magazine? Now that may have been the coaches choice or maybe the guys trying to catch Coach Jeff Werner for an interview did not try hard enough because they thought 'Where the heck is Sedgwick and they won't get out of district play anyway?'

The Sedgwick Cardinals must have felt like they were backed up against the wall in the corner and getting ready to face a tough test this year. So now we see they have come together as a team and came out of that corner of the room with a purpose. It has been a great run so far Cardinals don't stop now! Keep shocking the state and for that you have won the 'Kansas Team of the Week' award. Go Cards!

 
 
Week #7
Sedan Blue Devils
Toiling away in obscurity winning every game all season long and barely making the others column in the state rankings is pretty normal for teams that win the Kansas Team of the Week award. But this team this week has a tradition for football. Not sure why they haven't made the others column much in the rankings this year but what do you want to bet they make the others column or the top 5 this week? Sedan finally had one of those games where people say, "Hmmmmmmmmm maybe Sedan has something going on this year?" Every year we have some team some where that surprises lots of people in the state with their play and wins. Sedan fits the category this year for sure as do a handful of other teams around the state. So for this week for turning our heads and making us wonder what is in to those Blue Devils, congratulations Sedan, on earning the 'Kansas Team of the Week' award. Go Devils!
 
 
Week #6
Bluestem Lions
Last Friday night my radio partner and I arrived in Ulysses at about 5:00 p.m. We wanted to get our equipment set up really early and then enjoy one of the Ulysses Booster clubs hamburgers at about 5:30. We did all that and then watched the thunderheads start to build up all around Ulysses especially to the south. We had our computer on and was watching the radar. At 6:30 the administration started the lightening delay of the warm up time and asked everyone to leave the stadium. So for the next 2 and half hours we watched radar and tweets and blogs from other websites and visited with the guys in the press box. At some point of time my radio partner said this to me, "Hey McGonagle you won't believe this one. Bluestem won their first game at home in 13 years!"

My first thought was are you sure about that 13 years thing? I was just dumbfounded. You know sometimes it is hard to believe what some schools go through when they get caught in that losing streak thing. Whether the actually streak is correct or not is not the point. The point is that some of the kids that go to Bluestem want to play football and continue to represent the Lions of Leon. Talk about some tough kids. Maybe the kids of Bluestem High are better prepared to meet life head on after high school than the teams that win all the time. The teams that win all the time may not know what to do when life knocks the wind right out of you. The teams like Leon know what to do, you get up and keep fighting hoping that something good will happen to you and your teammates.

Lions of Bluestem High School I don't know how you do it but my chest swells with pride and the tears run down my face as I think of you guys. Keep it up Lions because the state of Kansas is proud of you guys and for that you have won another honor tonight the 'Kansas Team of the Week' award!

 
 
Week #5
Syracuse Bulldogs
Most of you probably don't know that I was born in Syracuse, Kansas and lived my first 10 years as a Bulldog. I lived right across the street west of the football field and practice fields. My first recollections of life were of the Bulldogs at football practice early in the morning in the late 1950's. Yeah that dates me but what a time of life. I would cross the street and hang on the barbed wire fence and watch practice. Some of my cousins were cheerleaders and occasionally they would show up with special drinks for the team and would see me and invite me over the fence to share in the drinks with the team. Those guys were huge in their shoulder pads and helmets. They were my heroes and I wanted nothing more than to grow up to be a Syracuse Bulldog and wear the orange and black just like my uncles and cousins had before me.

My freshman year in high school I was in Scott City as a Beaver but I watched the newspaper stories as those Syracuse Bulldogs went undefeated. My Bulldog friends were playing great football and I wasn't there to help them or participate with them. Oh they did not need me they were great at football.

Every Friday night I look for the score of the Syracuse Bulldogs and more times than not the Bulldogs go down to defeat. Last Friday night though Syracuse defeated Satanta breaking a 13 game losing streak. There must have been some serious excitement in Syracuse during and after the game. Hopefully this will be the beginning of something for the Bulldogs. The schedule doesn't get any easier but it is good for every team to win a game.

My suggestion would be to bring every young kid in town to some practices and let them watch and during breaks let them intermingle with the team. It is a powerful motivator to grow up and want to play high school football. For breaking the 13 game losing streak this week the Syracuse Bulldogs are named as the 'Kansas Team of the Week'. Go Dogs!

 
 
 
 
Week #4
Kansas State University Wildcats & Plainville Cardinals
Only those with purple running through their blood veins thought the K-State Wildcats stood a chance to beat Miami in Miami. It hasn't been that many years ago when quite a few of the KSU fans used to sell their tickets to the visiting hordes of Huskers who would come to Manhattan and fill KSU stadium with Red. The people who refused to sell their tickets to the visiting invaders from the North, they are the kind of folks who pick the Cats to win no matter what or no matter where. The rest of us had so many doubts about last Saturdays game.

How about when the Cats had 4 straight penalties and the offense was backed up against their own goal line? How many of you believed the Cats would win then? How about at the end of the game when Miami had first and goal from the 2 yard line? Did you still think the Cats would win or were you a doubting Thomas. There is a learning lesson here for all football players at all levels, the K-State Wildcats believed in themselves, their coaches and more importantly in each other and then they never gave up! They kept fighting hoping something good would happen.

Did you hear that those Plainville Cardinals defeated the Smith Center Redmen last Friday night? I believe it has been 17 years since Plainville has defeated the Redmen. During the first round of the playoffs in 2007 Smith Center defeated Plainville 83-0 but the Redmen scored 72 points in the first quarter of the game. Smith Center had defeated Plainville earlier in the season 72-0 also. In 2008 Smith Center won 63-6, in 2009 Smith Center won 59-0 and 54-0, in 2010 Smith Center won 40-6. Are you starting to get a feel for why the Cardinals are a real surprise this season.

Last week I read a story about the Plainville Cardinals that quoted Coach Simon who showed up for the 2009 season in Plainville. His quote was something like, "We weren't very strong in Plainville when I got here. We had one kid that could hang clean 185 pounds back then. Now we have 5 players that can hang clean more than 300 pounds. We have gone from boys playing football to men."

What have all of us learned about football this week? We have learned that to play the game of football it begins in the mind, you must buy in to what the coach is telling you. You must buy the Kool-aid the coach is selling. The Kool-aid is get in the weight room. That doesn't mean to just visit the weight room that means to really work hard once you get there.  We learned that from the Plainville Cardinals. The second thing we learned from the K-State Wildcats is to never give up, keeping fighting and hoping something good will happen. So for the lesson these two teams have taught us both teams are being named 'Kansas Team of the Week' Go Cards and Go Cats!

 
 
 
Week #3
Plainville Cardinals
I have been watching those Plainville Cardinals for a several weeks now. First week the Cardinals beat Phillipsburg 37-21. Then the second week of the season the Cards beat Ellis 42-6 but last Friday night the P-Ville Cardinals beat Norton 53-13. Let me fill you in with a little history lesson on the Cardinals. The Cardinals have not won 3 games to start the season since 1993. This is the first time Plainville has defeated Norton since 1994. Most of the P-ville team wasn't even born last time they defeated Norton. Think about that for a minute. Defeat is all the Cardinals have known for years and years.

This coming Friday night Plainville must travel to the 'Pasture of Pain' in Smith Center. Remember the book 'Our Boys' written about Smith Center football? Plainville was the team Smith Center ran up the score 72-0 in the first quarter which caught the attention of the New York Times who sent a reporter to write a story about Smith Center football. Eventually the reporter did an entire book on the Redmen. Well I don't know how the Plainville Cardinals will do Friday night against SC but I tell you what, the Cardinals have already broke out of the box of defeat that they had been living in for the past umpteen years! For that we think they need a great big old pat on the back and congratulated with the 'Kansas Team of the Week' award.

 
 
Week #2
Herington Railers
Last week we could have had the Herington Railers as our 'Kansas team of the Week' but it just did not fit in the mix and things just work out the way they are meant to be sometimes. The Railers won their first game of the season last week breaking a losing streak of 15 games with the win over Osage City 33-22 and that is the first time Herington has won a season opening game since 2004.

Last year longtime football coach Bud Peterson, who has been coaching for 37 years, came out of retirement to lead the Herington Railers. This week Coach Peterson fell ill and was hospitalized and transferred to Wichita during the week. His team went to West Franklin without him. Herington was trailing at half-time 10-0 when the team received word that their coach had passed on to the other side. Well the Railers dedicated the rest of the game to their fallen coach and played inspired football in the second half and won the game 21-10. Coach Peterson got to watch the second half guys and you can bet he was proud of you and for that we are making the Railers the kansasprepfootball.com  'Kansas Team of the Week'.

 
 
 
 
Week #1
Osawatomie Trojans
There are lots of teams that could be 'Team of the Week' such as Meade with the big win over Canadian, Texas. Any time one of our Kansas teams whips up on that Texas bunch I automatically want to make our Kansas teams the team of the week. How about 4A Holton with the win over 6A T High or 3A Scott City over 6A Garden City? Both deserve some special recognition. But you know me I am a softie when it comes to the lesser none football teams in the state of Kansas. The teams that don't get much recognition. The team that has few players out for football when the school is filled with boys who could be playing. The team that no one in their league really respects and may take them for granted. Maybe even in their own town few people go to the games until the boys start winning. When that team finally breaks through the wall and wins a game and people notice and say, "What is going on over there in that town?" That is my favorite kind of team for the team of the week award, just like below, this bunch of fighting Trojans

After 1-8 disappointing season and losing a number of key players, Osawatomie opened with Anderson County, a team loaded with returning starters and coming off of a 6-3 playoff season, Anderson County was poised for a run at the Pioneer League title.

 
Osawatomie down 13-0 at half and with Anderson County returning the 2nd half opening kickoff for a score, 20-0 looked straight in the eyes of the Trojans. How many teams would have given up right here after the opening kickoff return?  Well Osawatomie didn't and started battling back like a knocked down heavyweight fighter (had to add some drama!) with their backs against the ropes in the corner and no where else to go, the Trojans decided to fight back and began reeling off score after score.  Throwing the last punch, the Trojans scored with :11 left to win 48-42.  With sweltering heat and a small varsity squad, it was a win the Osawatomie Trojans will not soon forget and because of that they are the 'Kansas Team of the Week' in high school football.
 
 

Who should be the team of the week?

 

     Each week somewhere in the state of Kansas some team decides to break the mold from the past and forgetting the past they step out to make their own history. Most of the time this making of their own history begins well before the season begins. It starts in the mind of one or several individuals from the team. They decide they will work at this game of football in the off season and get better one day at a time. Their enthusiasm is contagious and begins to affect the team in a positive way.

 
     Of course sometime during the season this team wins a game that everyone around the state wonders what is going on over there in that town? But in reality these guys became winners the day they decided to become winners in their own mind not just the day we put them up here as the team of the week. So the team of the week is an honor we bestow upon a team from somewhere in Kansas because they have broken away from the expectations of the normal crowd placed upon them by others. We honor you today but we know you and your team are no overnight sensation. No, it began long ago.
 
     Remember, I always need some help deciding who should be the 'Kansas Team of the Week' in high school football. Send me an email with a little story write up and who knows your team just might be next.