Through the first two weeks of the high school football season, Free State High senior Zack Sanders ranks among the state leaders in receptions and receiving yards.

His teammates and coaches aren’t surprised by his success. Actually, it was a few years in the making.

In two games, Sanders has recorded 16 catches for 294 yards and two touchdowns. He will look to add to those numbers when the Firebirds travel to Park Hill (Mo.) at 7 p.m. today, the first game in program history against a team from Missouri.

His progression to the team’s leading receiver started during his sophomore season. That’s when then-seniors Joel Spain and Andrew Keating took him under their wing and taught him the ropes of the varsity level. Sanders played quarterback at Lawrence High in his freshman year and was new to receiver.

Last year, Sanders had a more prominent starting role on both sides of the ball for the Firebirds, but he was still learning from quarterback/free safety Bryce Torneden, now a freshman defensive back at the University of Kansas.

“All of them developed me as a player and just told me never be satisfied with what I’m doing and always try to get better,” Sanders said. “I needed to wake up and know what I need to do to get better.”

Part of that “wake up” included more effort in the weight room, offseason workouts and daily practices.

“There was kind of a point — a lot of kids go through it — where you think that, ‘I’m good where I’m at,'” Sanders said. “I realized there’s a lot of guys out there that are better than me and why not try to get to where they are.”

Pushed by his former teammates, Sanders is more comfortable on the field this season. He set single-game school records in Week One with 13 catches for 239 yards.

But even this past offseason didn’t foreshadow such a big start.

Last spring, Sanders planned on pinch-running for Free State’s baseball team and running track. He took sixth at state in the 300-meter hurdles as a sophomore and seventh in the 110 hurdles.

On the first day of baseball practice, he dove for a ball and tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb, which required reconstruction surgery. It ended his spring of playing sports and left him with a sizable scar.

“Things happen for a reason,” Sanders said. “I feel like the injury, when I had to get surgery, that woke me up a lot because I saw that I was back behind everyone else and I need to catch up to everyone. I feel like that helped me during the summer in the weight room.”

Gradually progressing into a senior, Sanders wants to pass on his knowledge to his younger teammates, just like his former mentors did for him. He said sophomore receiver Keenan Garber has the speed and talent to “hopefully be better than me.”

“(Receivers) coach (Max) Cordova always pounded on me, ‘You need to be like Joel Spain! You need to be like Joel Spain!'” Sanders said with a laugh. “Even last year, he’d keep saying it. Now coach Cordova kind of turned it into telling the sophomores and juniors, ‘You need to be more like Zack.’ I like that a lot because I feel like I’m turning into a leader that coach Cordova wanted me to be.”

FSHS probable starters

Offense

LT — Chase Houk, sr.

LG — Jay Dineen, sr.

C — Nathan Spain, jr.

RG — Nico Guier, sr.

RT — Spencer Roe, jr.

QB — Dallas Crittenden, sr.

RB — Zion Bowlin, sr.

H — Zack Sanders, sr.

WR — Daniel Bryant, sr.

WR — Bo Miller, jr.

TE — Noah Kema, sr.

K — Kameron Lake, so.

P — Jake Rittman, jr.

Defense

DT — Noah Kema, sr.

NT — Sam Hambleton, sr.

DT — Nick Eddis, sr.

ROLB — Gage Foster, jr.

ILB — Jay Dineen, sr.

ILB — David Johnson, jr.

LOLB — Drew Wise, sr.

CB — Zack Sanders, sr.

CB — Daniel Bryant, sr.

FS — Bo Miller, jr.

SS — Zion Bowlin, sr.