SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
STERLING, Kan. — The Sterling High School football team has one of the more difficult schedules in class 1A, but the Black Bears have used that to their advantage and have found themselves sitting at 2-2, following back-to-back wins.
"We have just a buzzsaw of a schedule, and we knew that going into the year," Sterling head coach Brent Schneider said. "The thing that we kind of say is we play Conway and they won state last year and they're great, and we play Medicine Lodge and in my opinion they're probably the second best team in the state. We play good football teams, and the way we spin it is there is nobody we're going to face in districts or playoffs that play football that we haven't seen before. That's kind of what we take pride in, that we play a tough schedule, and that we fight and grind."
The Black Bears graduated a strong senior class that helped the team go 6-4 last fall. Sterling opened this season with a pair of losses to Sedgwick, 42-13, and Moundridge, 28-7.
"We have about seven starters on both sides of the ball that haven't played a lot of varsity football," Schneider said. "We opened the season with a really good Sedgwick team that I think has 16 seniors, and then a really good Moundridge team who's coming up from 8-man, but has a really good senior and junior class. They were definitely challenging opening games to start the season, but I was very proud of how our kids just kept getting better every day."
Schneider knew it was going to take a little bit of time for his team to get up to speed at the varsity level. The Black Bears picked up its first win of the year in Week 3 over Inman, 21-20, handing the Teutons its first loss.
"We put it together in a game against Inman where there was a lot of adversity," Schneider said. "We had a late start with some thunderstorm stuff, so we spent an hour and a half in a hot gym. They had their homecoming week, so we were kind of fighting that stuff, and then we had a kid get stretchered off in the third quarter with some muscle spasms in his neck that they were pretty concerned about about, so I was just proud of how our team responded there."
The Black Bears added another win in Week 4, downing then-undefeated Ellinwood, 41-35.
"We kind of got punched in the mouth a little bit by Ellinwood," Schneider said. "We responded very well, and told our kids that's kind of the benefit of having difficult games early in the season, because we've been challenged and I thought that was the biggest reason we were able to come back in the second half against Ellinwood."
The Black Bears run the flexbone offense and are led by junior Zane Farney at tailback, the two-time all-state selection is off to another strong campaign. As a sophomore Farney rushed for 1,500 yards, and so far this year is up to 577 yards for a 144-yard average per game. Junior Wyatt Newberry has 277 yards rushing for three touchdowns and a nine-yard average per attempt. Sterling as a team has rushed for nearly 300 yards per game to go along with 10 touchdowns.
Junior Boston Ekart has caught all five passes thrown by junior Logan Isaac for 107 yards and two touchdowns. Isaac has also been a threat on the ground with 135 yards.
One of the big reasons for the Black Bear success has been the offensive line, a brand new unit at the varsity level this year.
"Everybody on our offensive line is new to varsity football," Schneider said. "That unit is led by Waylon Schmidt, he's a senior, and he has done a really nice job with his leadership on that front."
The Sterling defense has made some changes early in the season.
"We have kind of been trying to find our identity on defense," Schneider said. "We changed some things around in Week 2, and really have been figuring things out. We played well against Inman, and then we turned around and Ellinwood did some things we weren't prepared for. Kevin Ploutz and Teyton Savage have been anchoring us up front. We're really young at the linebacker position, but we've got some really good athletes there."
Schneider says to knock off Medicine Lodge (3-1) on the road this week all comes down to execution.
"We've got to execute," Schneider said. "Medicine Lodge had a really good game plan for our run game last year, and we did some nice things against it, but it's just kind of those things you have to stick with it. Sometimes it's tough to watch from the stands because it's a little bit slow going, but you just stick with it and then the run game starts popping. We need to possess the ball and keep it out of their quarterbacks hands, he's a great kid and an all-state athlete, probably one of the better quarterbacks in all of 3-2-1A."
The Black Bears are hoping for a different outcome than last year, a game in which Sterling lost at home to Medicine Lodge, 21-20. The Black Bears went for the 2-point conversion and the win, but failed and suffered the loss.
"It was a dogfight and a lot of good stuff," Schneider said. "I do know they're going to fast and physical."
Schneider is happy with where the program is in his sixth year as the Black Bears head coach.
"When we really struggling and our numbers were really low, one thing as a coaching staff and administration we talked about is that we wanted to really make the culture something we should be proud of," Schneider said. "I really do think that we're there. I hear compliments about how are kids act and behave in the community. I just had a compliment the other day about how a group of our kids were at the local cafe, and how they interacted with the community members and how they cleaned up after themselves. It's really great to hear things like that and see how our kids act in the hallways and I couldn't be more proud. We always say that we want to raise young men of character, and you can't guarantee the wins and the losses, but I got into coaching because I had great role models growing up and I kind of want to return the favor on that.
The Black Bears only have three seniors, but Schneider is happy with their leadership.
"I've been really proud of our seniors," Schneider said. "They're not necessarily the focal point of our team, but they definitely have made sure things are rolling in the right direction. They're a big part in what we do. I think our community does know that we have good leadership, but we have good leadership and we have kids that are very coachable, and I couldn't be more proud of how our parents in the community have raised our young men and how they're buying into our culture."