Mike Keese spends no time reading text messages from major-college football recruiters. Big Football has no interest in the Sunflower League’s Big Arm.

A senior quarterback at Olathe South, Keese has thrown for 2,084 yards and 18 touchdowns, basically double the numbers of any other league QB. And yet the 6-foot-2, 175-pound left-hander is being pursued only by small colleges, meaning he is a quarterback who was made, not born.

“He works at it : he works at it all the time,” O-South coach Mark Littrell said. “He has a good strong arm, he has good vision, and he doesn’t get rattled too much.”

Good vision may, in fact, be Keese’s strong suit. When the Falcons toppled Free State High, 34-27, in the season opener, Keese’s passes went to seven different receivers. On that night, Keese threw for 282 yards and three touchdowns – 23 yards to Kyson Ginavan, 30 yards to Alex Nixon and 74 yards to Anthony Sanchez.

Sanchez, a 6-foot, 175-pound senior, is the Sunflower League’s leading receiver with 29 catches for 648 yards and seven TDs.

While the Falcons boast the league’s best passing attack by far, they also have the Sunflower’s third-leading rusher in 5-9 junior Jake Byrd, who has 860 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“We feel like we have a lot of weapons in the air and on the ground,” Littrell said.

Statistics don’t lie. O-South is averaging 405.8 yards per game, or 55 more on average than the league’s second-best offense, which happens to be Free State.

Still, in spite of the glossy offensive numbers, the Falcons have suffered three defeats. All have been close – two points to league champion Shawnee Mission Northwest, four points to Olathe North last Friday and six points to SM West.

“In all three losses,” Littrell said, “we had leads going into the fourth quarter and didn’t take care of business.”

If the Falcons had held those leads, they would have fulfilled the projections of the other Sunflower League coaches who tapped O-South as the overwhelming preseason favorite.

“I felt good about that at the time,” Littrell said of the coaches’ poll, “but I knew there were other good teams. And you know you’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”