COLUMN: Hays' Rise Seems Familiar

 

An upstart program has found its way into the big game for the first time in eons.

It's a cold November day. Winter has given an early glimpse of what's to come and the sidelines are loaded with all of the snow that had been cleared from the field. It's bitterly cold outside, but excitement warms the ambiance.

The underdog is hanging tough with sheer guts and guile against a team that always seems to play big games. The underdog's defense is keeping it in the game, while Goliath is as stout as they come - as unrelenting as ever.

Late in the still-scoreless contest, the underdog's coach calls on his secret play - a seemingly simple sweep to the right. But suddenly, the tailback stops, pivots and throws the ball back to the left where a receiver is standing alone - there's nobody within 20 yards of him.

All he has to do is catch the pass and navigate the final 15 or 20 yards and he has himself a touchdown - and likely his choice of dates for the prom.

But on this blustery night, the ball hits a jet stream and is blown askew. The pass hits the receiver in the helmet before falling harmlessly to the ground. There would be no heroic story to tell. No prom date, either.

It sounds a lot like a made-for-Hollywood story of past failures and modern-day redemption with football serving as the vehicle. Robin Williams played the bumbling horn-rimmed-wearing receiver. Kurt Russell, the pretty boy quarterback with a golden arm and those white shoes.

But in actuality, it is a true story.

There's no need for Hollywood embellishment. That scenario sums up Hays High's best - and worst - football moment of the last two decades. Disappointment is standard fare when it comes to football in Hays. The cuisine - the culinary style of choice, if you will - is wrestling, and football is usually nothing more than an hors d'oeuvre.

But every now and then, football becomes the main course - even in a meat-and-potatoes town. That was the case in 1993, when the Indians were having their best season in years. They had lost to powerful Liberal in the season opener, but had reeled off eight straight wins to make the Kansas Class 5A playoffs.

A victory in the first round of the playoffs put them a step closer to a state championship game, but standing in the way was that same Liberal team.

The Angry Red ended Hays' dream that day with a 7-0 victory that featured a signature play - that dropped pass.

"I remember that day very well," said Ryan Cornelsen, Hays High's modern-day football coach and son of Gary Cornelsen, who was the head coach for those great Liberal teams of that era. "I remember that play. He was wide open down the seam. There was nobody near him.

"He dropped the pass. It was unfortunate."

That's a matter of perspective. Ryan Cornelsen was a schoolboy at that time - a ball boy for Liberal - and he remembers the euphoria he felt following Liberal's hard-fought victory. It never dawned on him that one person's joy came courtesy of another's anguish.

It's all part of the even-handedness of sport. There are winners and losers. There is joy and pain. Sport represents perfection personified.

And it always seems to come full-circle, when you consider the Hays coach's perspective on that game.

"It's a unique angle to this game, that's for sure," said Cornelsen, who, in his third season as head coach, has led Hays back to the state playoffs after a long drought. "The last time Hays made the playoffs, I was a ball boy on the other sideline and most of the kids in our football program right now weren't even born."

In that essence, the Indians are that wonderful football story that surfaces every now and again - much like that Hutchinson team of 2000 that found its way into the playoffs for the first time in 14 years and used that as a springboard to becoming the most dominant football program in the state.

No one is saying Hays is on the verge of that kind of explosion. It's way too early to know. Time will tell. But when Hays hosts Hutchinson on Friday night at Lewis Field, you'd have to be brain dead not to notice the juxtaposition of those two football programs.

"You have to start somewhere," said Hays athletic director Clint Albers. "Sometimes it's a signature game - a signature win - that sets you up for future success."

That's what the Indians are hoping. This football team has been knocking on the door since Cornelsen arrived. The Indians have won 22 of 27 games in his tenure but up until now have had their noses pressed up to the window, looking in as the state playoff party took place.

Last year, the Indians beat Salina Central in their final district game, but wound up losing a tie-breaker to both Great Bend and the Mustangs.

"That added fuel to our fire," Cornelsen said. "We played well enough to make it last year, but by the rules, we didn't make it. We weren't going to use that as an excuse."

On the surface, Hutchinson looks like a tough first-round opponent for the Indians. Cornelsen wouldn't have it any other way.

"People think we got a bad draw in this system," he said. "We're playing Hutchinson and for us that's a great opportunity. What a measuring stick this is for our program. We're going to find out in the first week if we're at that caliber."

Win or lose, it's nice having Hays in the field. Welcome back. 
Pat Sangimino is sports editor of the Hutchinson News. psangimino@hutchnews.com