The 2017 high school football season starts this Friday. To get ready, we sent Ethan Koch around the city to interview coaches and catch practice. Today, we start our Topeka 7 previews with the Hayden Wildcats.
At Hayden, expectations are always high. The wildcats wouldn’t want it any other way.
“We like to push ourselves to be better than the last guys that came here,” senior quarterback Sampson Huston said after the first day of fall practice.
Head coach Bill Arnold believes having lofty aspirations keeps his team hungry and determined. “If you don’t have those expectations, I don’t know how you expect to get there,” the 11-year veteran coach said. “Our kids understand that, our coaches understand that, and that’s something that’s just not going to change.”
Despite its stature as the smallest school in the Centennial League, Hayden will look to make a run for a league title and play for a state championship yet again this season.
To achieve this, Hayden will have to overcome last year’s crushing 48-14 loss to Pratt in the 4A-II State Championship game. In that game, Hayden gave up 497 yards of total offense, including 419 on the ground.
“That was a very tough loss,” Arnold said. “I think the sour part of it was the fact that I did not feel like we played up to our potential. We did a lot of soul-searching, a lot of questions with the kids, because I really felt like we had a great week of preparation for that state game and we just came out and didn’t play very well.”
Arnold knows his team will fuel off that heartbreaking loss. “I think that score stuck in the minds of the juniors pretty hard. Coming into your senior year, I think they will most definitely play off that loss a little bit.”
Arnold’s quarterback hasn’t forgotten. Huston said the team’s motto this year is “unfinished business.”
“We’re definitely using that as motivation.”
The wildcats feature a physical running offense. Fans should not expect this team to get fancy. Arnold’s offense will line up and attempt to run over teams on the ground.
Last season, the wildcats ranked second in rushing yards in the Centennial League with 232 yards per game. Senior running back Tomas Stringer led the team in rushing with 1082 yards and averaged 5.98 yards per carry during the season. With Stringer and fellow senior Andrew Smith graduated, Arnold will turn to Noah Williams and Brent Peavler to fill the void. Arnold also mentioned Matt Moore, Brandon Vanbecelaere, and Connor McGehee as potential backs to make an impact.
The backfield is not completely void of experience though as Huston returns under center. Huston missed time last year due to injury, but is now ready to lead Hayden back to the state championship.
“It was definitely tough missing a few games last year, but I’m ready to get back at it this year,” the senior captain said.
Arnold sees an athletic quarterback in Huston capable of leading this offense to new heights: “When you look at Sampson, the progression he made, he kind of got thrown into the mix without much preparation a year ago. I felt like he progressed in a very positive manner throughout the entire year. He’s a competitor. …He’s an athlete playing quarterback. He’s not going to be a drop back passer from the pocket. His best attribute is his feet.”
Huston will have reliable targets in the passing game, including 6’6” senior receiver Deshawn Hanika. Hanika, a basketball standout, caught 39 passes last season for 474 yards and six touchdowns.
Defensively, Peavler – an All-City Top 11 and All-Centennial League player – will lead an experienced defense looking to improve, as they surrendered 20 points per game. They will focus on shutting down the run, where they gave up 202 rushing yards per game.
“We were not a very good tackling team early on,” coach said regarding his defense. “Early on in the season we stayed away from a lot of contact. Just didn’t feel like we could have the risk of losing someone in practice. As a coaching staff what we found out through the course of all that it’s a double-edge sword because if you don’t work on the tackling fundamentals and actually doing a good job, you don’t make the plays on Friday nights anyways.”
Playing in the Centennial League, Hayden plays above their classification on a yearly basis. This year, Hayden kicks off at Topeka High, one of four 6A teams in the league. They also have to travel to Seaman (5A) and Washburn Rural (6A).
Hayden started last season 1-4 against the same schedule, but continued to build for their playoff stretch.
“I felt like our seniors a year ago did a fantastic job of dealing with that,” Arnold said. “I think there are tons of high schools around the country that would have folded their tent at that time. Our kids didn’t, the coaches didn’t, we didn’t here in the office.”
Playing against the 6A and 5A schools during the season has benefitted Hayden when playoffs start. In the last three years, Hayden has outscored 4A-I and 4A-II schools 36-19 on average. The Wildcats have fallen short in the state semi-finals or state championship in that same stretch. Arnold looks to capture the school’s fourth state championship and their first since 2008.
Arnold understands that if Hayden stays consistent, those expectations will be met: “We’re still going to be fundamental in every single thing that we do. We want to consistently be able to hang our hat on our values. …All told I don’t think we’ve changed a whole lot, we’ve tweaked things every once in awhile.”
All stats accredited to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
