The Free State High School football team bursts onto the field against Shawnee Mission South in this Sept. 11 file photo from Haskell Stadium. Following a 1-2 start, the Firebirds are 7-3 entering their game against Olathe North on Friday in the Class 6A state playoffs.

It was not long after a 34-27 road loss to Shawnee Mission Northwest in the third week of the season that the light stopped flickering and the bulb stayed bright for the Free State High football team.

The Firebirds had just dropped their second game in three weeks and sat at 1-2 with a locker room full of question marks.

But no one panicked.

Instead, the Firebirds found out how to trust each other. The offense started to click. The defense began to stiffen. And, one by one, elements emerged that turned Free State from a 1-2 team with a questionable future into a Class 6A quarterfinalist that will take on Olathe North at 7 p.m. Friday.

For some, it began with that loss in Week 3.

“Shawnee Mission Northwest, the first game, we were decent offensively,” Free State coach Bob Lisher said. “We had 400-some yards of offense and still lost the game. But at the same time, I felt, offensively, we were almost there.”

For others, it began the following week, when the Firebirds took a giant step forward with an 18-0 shutout of Olathe South.

“That was definitely the beginning, that was Step One,” senior Taylor Stuart said.

Five more steps followed, as the Firebirds won six of the seven contests that followed the SMNW loss and improved to 7-3 heading into the second round of the playoffs.

“We knew that once we got on the right track, we’d be all right,” said senior tailback Chucky Hunter, who leads the team with 1,323 yards rushing. “There wasn’t just one game where it happened, it just kind of happened. We came together. And from that point on, we were out there laughing with each other, having a good time, having fun playing football.”

To say “it just kind of happened,” does not give credit where credit is due. Lisher agreed with Hunter in that there was no magic moment or memorable breakthrough. But the only head coach the Firebirds have ever known was able to pinpoint how the train started rolling.

“Our kids came to work every week and they continued to get better each game,” Lisher said. “I don’t know that there was a point in the season where we, as coaches, said, ‘Here it is.’ But I do know that each week we felt like our guys were working hard and doing their very best to get better.”

That has shown in just about every aspect of the game. Despite entering the season with lofty expectations for a talented and experienced offensive line, the Free State front men struggled out of the gate. According to senior guard Doug Bittinger, all it took to fix that was a change in attitude.

“It just became time for people to step up,” Bittinger said.

With the line in place, the offense was able to flourish. Junior Camren Torneden, who took over at quarterback in Week 2 after starting the season as a wide receiver, flashed his dual threat skills right away. In time, he and Hunter teamed to become the most dynamic one-two punch in the league.

That, too, did not happen over night.

“First of all, the trust and the belief in each other has improved,” Lisher said. “And that is a direct result of our fundamentals improving and being in the right spots on both sides of the ball.”

Torneden felt the benefits of that firsthand, as he went from unknown signal caller to confident leader in the span of a few weeks.

“It wasn’t necessarily me feeling more comfortable with the rest of the team,” Torneden said. “It was a matter of them feeling comfortable with me. Because they didn’t know me. They didn’t know what I could do.”

At the same time the offense was jelling, the defense was shifting people in and out of the lineup in order to establish an identity and shore up its weaknesses.

Each time the coaches asked the players to bend, they bent. Each time the coaches demanded more, the players gave it, in part because they wanted their team to succeed, in part because they owed it to the Free State program.

“We’re not out there trying to play for the teams that came before us,” Stuart said. “We’re trying to play for the team we are now. We do want to live up to that standard but we have to do it with our own fire.”

Lisher, who played and coached at Lawrence High during some of that program’s most tradition-rich days, said he sensed this year’s Free State team put in the work and went the extra mile because of the pride they had in what came before them.

“It’s the old adage that a scared rabbit runs faster,” Lisher said. “And what I mean by that is our guys understand what’s been accomplished in the past couple years and what’s been accomplished, basically, in the first 12 years of this program. They want to continue to carry that on and they’re doing a very good job of it.”

In 11 previous seasons, the Free State High football program had won just two playoff games. The Firebirds’ third postseason victory came last Friday in the form of a 41-21 triumph over Shawnee Mission Northwest, the same team the Firebirds lost to in Week 3. The same team that helped the Firebirds find their focus.

That full-circle trek was not lost on Lisher.

“Our guys understand what kind of a football team they can be and have become,” Lisher said. “I think they’re feeling pretty good about themselves right now, and they should be. We’re playing our best football of the season.”