By SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
PARTRIDGE, Kan. — The Reno County Homeschool Sabres are in their sixth season as a football program, and head coach Lee Smith has put together one of the more challenging schedules in the state.
The Sabres are 1-1 entering Friday night's road game at Hugoton. Reno County Homeschool opened the season with a 74-44 loss at Axtell before picking up a 30-28 win last week at South Central, the defending Eight-Man Division I state champion.
Smith said the focus for his team is not always on the final score.
"We try to make it where it's not really about wins and losses," Smith said. "It's about how we play, and how we execute, and how hard we compete."
Smith said effort and attitude are two of the biggest things the Sabres emphasize each week.
"Really, the focus of our program is effort and attitude," Smith said. "We can do that no matter who we play."
Reno County's seven opponents went a combined 58-20 last season.
Four of those teams won at least 10 games.
Axtell went 10-2 and reached the Eight-Man Division II state semifinals. South Central went 12-1 and won the Eight-Man Division I state championship. Rossville finished 11-2 and was the Class 1A state runner-up, while Andale went 13-0 and won the Class 3A state championship.
The Sabres will play a mix of eight-man and 11-man football this season.
Smith said that setup has come from trying to find games for his players.
"Kids that want to play, I think at every level they want to play," Smith said. "I've always kind of thought that football is football, and so I always thought we could go back and forth."
Because Reno County is an independent program, Smith said he often reaches out to schools that have open dates on their schedules.
"We kind of take who we can get and try to obviously make a schedule that is good for travel and good for competition as well," Smith said.
Smith is from the Haven area and has coached at several schools throughout the region, including Victoria, Hutchinson, Kingman and Central Christian.
"I'm from Reno County, Haven area, and I've coached a lot of football throughout different schools," Smith said. "So very familiar with the football landscape around this area."
The Sabres have several experienced players back this season.
Center Andre King and guard Amos Lilyhorn are both four-year starters, while Josiah Fall is a three-year starter along the offensive line.
Smith said the offensive line played a big role in last week's win at South Central.
"They kind of set the tone and really were huge in that win against South Central," Smith said. "They're not as big as the guys they were blocking, but when we watched film, they were doing what they were supposed to do as hard as they could, and that makes a big, big difference."
Bo Smith is a four-year starter at quarterback. Rock Smith plays tailback, while Beckim Neidenthal, Colt Smith, Dayne King and Laurence Cable have also been among the Sabres' contributors at the skill positions.
"A lot of them are playing now, they started as freshmen," Smith said. "We took some lumps that year, but we knew we were starting young kids, and it'd be fun to see how they could grow."
The Reno County program has 31 high school players and 21 middle school players this season.
Smith said having more than 50 players in the program has allowed the Sabres to play both eight-man and 11-man games, although the move to 11-man will test the team's depth.
"We're going to have freshmen playing and underclassmen playing that are going to have to step up for sure," Smith said. "You wouldn't think just three guys different makes a huge difference, but it really does."
Smith said the added playing time can also help those younger players develop.
"It'll be fun though for those kids to get to play, and that's how you get better by playing."
The Sabres practice twice a week in Partridge.
A local church purchased the former Partridge school building, where the program has access to a gym, weight room and classroom for film study. Smith's father also purchased a field nearby that the team has turned into its practice field.
"The whole team got together and we planted that grass," Smith said. "We have pictures of us all getting down pulling weeds, and really put a lot of work in to have a nice practice field."
Reno County does not play home games because the field does not have bleachers, lights or a scoreboard.
That means every game on the Sabres' schedule is played on the road.
Smith said the current setup is still a big improvement from where the program started.
"When we first started, we were on a field that was like 40 by 40," Smith said. "There were passes even in middle school we couldn't throw because we'd run into a fence."
Smith joked that the field eventually looked like something out of "Little House on the Prairie."
"Just pure dirt is what we were playing on," Smith said. "We're really thankful to have the field we have."
The Sabres are also a Christian-based organization.
"We use football as a discipleship tool," Smith said. "I came back and thought maybe I can use all the work I put in football, maybe I can use it for the Lord."
Reno County continues its season Friday at Hugoton before road games at Rossville, Belle Plaine and Cimarron.
The Sabres have an open date Oct. 16 before closing the regular season Oct. 23 at Andale.