Firebirds didn’t lose faith

Offensive linemen tend to be football’s version of baseball’s catchers. They sacrifice their bodies in the name of grunt work, and their minds remain bruise-free, always working overtime.

That’s why Josh Hill, a senior O-lineman for the Free State High football team that is one of four teams still standing in the Class 6A playoffs, seemed a good person to ask to pinpoint just how the Firebirds were able to turn around a season that started with a 1-2 record. He didn’t disappoint.

“I think we hadn’t really been shocked by anything yet,” Hill said.

Meaning?

“Even in our junior year, we had pretty much a fresh team, especially on offense, and we lost three games,” he said. “I think we kind of walked in expecting to win and got a little bit of a shock when we lost that first game. We moved a few people around and things started rolling.”

Moving the lightning quick Camren Torneden to quarterback was one of the sparks, but the switch that came in the fourth quarter of the season-opener created an adjustment period.

“It takes awhile for everybody to jell, especially with a new quarterback,” Hill said.

He also credited head coach Bob Lisher with doing far more than making the calls on position switches.

“He kept us confident,” Hill said. “He kept us together. He really did have faith. We started off 1-2, and he honestly did make us believe we could keep winning and go deep in the playoffs like we have. He’s a great motivator. He kept telling us we’re a good team, and everybody believed it. Nobody gave up.”

Least of all Hill, who took awhile to figure out the best method of blocking for ball-carriers as creative as Torneden and Chucky Hunter.

“I feel like I’m blocking somebody one way and he goes the other,” Hill said. “But as long as you stay with your guy, Chuck will find a hole, same with Camren. Sometimes it puts us offensive linemen in not the best situations when you’re blocking a guy one way and he cuts the other. But they see stuff down field that we don’t see, so you just have to stay on your guy. It’s good to have them, especially when there’s a little hole and they’re going 30 or 40 yards.”

Count Hill among the subtle factors in Free State’s inspiring improvement. Ditto for senior linebacker Mitch Werts.

“Mitch is very calm and cool,” Hill said. “He’s always in the right spot. It seems like every time someone runs to his side, they just don’t get around him. He’s always dragging them down.”

There was nothing subtle about Mitch’s brother Ryder, now a freshman linebacker at Baker. The lick he gave a Lawrence High defender on his way to the end zone is one of the most talked-about plays in the history of the city rivalry.

“I’ve seen that quite a few times,” Mitch said with a huge smile. “We always get a laugh out of that at home when we see it on TV. I’m not so much the heavy hitter that Ryder was.”

It takes all different types to make a family and to make a team. To hear these guys tell it and to watch them show it on Friday nights, there is no difference between the words “team” and “family.”