photo by: Mike Shaw/Special to the Journal-World

Free State senior Tai Newhouse sheds a block and closes in on Shawnee Mission East quarterback Parker Leise, during the Firebirds' 33-7 win over the Lancers on Friday, Oct. 15, 2021 at FSHS.

Free State senior Tai Newhouse comes from a long line of football players, a handful of whom played some pretty meaningful snaps in the NFL.

Offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse, a cousin, played 10 years in the NFL and won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers.

Robert Newhouse, a more distant relative, played fullback for the Dallas Cowboys for 12 seasons from 1972-83.

With those men as part of his family tree, and others who played football at some level on it as well, it was only natural that Newhouse, at a young age, discovered that he wanted to follow in their footsteps.

Doing so, however, proved to be more difficult.

Not because Newhouse didn’t have the drive or the desire. Rather, because the early days of his football playing career were fraught with obstacles.

In elementary school, when he played for the Gorillas, Newhouse said he liked the game but did not know how to dedicate himself to it.

In eighth grade, at West Middle School, a Bell’s palsy diagnosis cost him the second half of the season. As a freshman at Free State the following year, poor grades left him ineligible for the entire season.

Rather than give up, Newhouse found a way to dive in.

Knowing he would never play a snap as a freshman, Newhouse still showed up to practice and put in the kind of work that paved the way for what turned out to be a standout high school career.

“I was there every single day,” Newhouse said during a recent interview with the Journal-World.

It was then that he learned key lessons that allowed him to become a big part of the next few Free State teams, including this year’s squad which is 6-1 heading into Friday’s regular season finale against 5-2 Lawrence High.

“In order to be successful player, I realized I needed to take the school side serious too, along with every other aspect of my life,” he said. “It’s all really important to me now.”

Newhouse’s first big moment as a Firebird came midway through his sophomore season after a starter on the D-Line went down with an injury. That week in practice, Newhouse filled the spot at nose guard against Free State’s varsity first stringers. On his very first snap, he made a tackle for a 3-yard loss.

That was enough for the Free State coaches to plug him in that Friday night, and Newhouse remembers his debut like it was yesterday.

“That was the first time I’d been able to play a football game since early eighth grade,” he said. “It was really exciting and also kind of surreal. Just seeing all the people cheering and hearing my name on the loudspeaker was amazing.”

From there, his career soared. This summer, Newhouse orally committed to play college football at Tulsa and he’s been a huge part of the last two Free State squads.

After his 10-tackle performance in last week’s victory, Newhouse moved into second place on the team with 38 total tackles. His 14 tackles for loss are far and away the most on the team and his total of three sacks ranks him second behind Free State senior Brian Lane (4.5).

While Newhouse initially despised the “running and conditioning and stuff” that was required to succeed in his sport of choice, he now uses it to his advantage, along with a little unexpected kindness on the field.

“I’ll do the thing where I’ll knock someone down and I’ll help them up or I’ll just completely blow some guy up and be like, ‘Oh, you’re good,'” he said with a laugh. “I love to destroy people and then say the nicest stuff afterwards. It throws them off. They hate it.”

Newhouse credits several people in his corner for helping his career take off and getting to this point.

Newhouse said youth coaches Asheiki Preston and Darnell Nash played a major role in growing his passion for football. And he said his dad was there for him every step of the way, after both the highlights and low points.

“They just wanted me to play,” he said. “I’m just really glad that I’m here right now and I’m grateful for the people that stuck with me.”