By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

Seven years ago, Quinter added a fifth-grade teacher and football coach named Greg Woolf.

His first class was the current crop of Bulldog seniors, a group that included many future Quinter football players. The close-knit, competitive class bonded further with Woolf. Many players had Woolf as their youth group leader at church, too.

"To most of us, he is like a second dad to us," senior lineman Thatcher Deaton said. "Anything that we needed to talk about, we could go talk to him. Probably one of the greatest influences on my life."

"For a lot of us, he is our mentor," senior Skyler Wittman said.

This fall, the senior class and Woolf have encountered several roadblocks.

Woolf announced to the team in Week 2 that he had stomach cancer, and senior lineman Zach Nemechek's mother, Pam, discovered the next week that she had lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease. The team, though, has still stayed close and produced a football season to remember.

Quinter (11-1) has won nine straight games and reached the Eight-Man, Division I state championship game Saturday at Newton's Fischer Field. Kickoff is 11 a.m.

In last Saturday's sub-state title game, Quinter defeated last year's state runner-up Clifton-Clyde 28-20, the first time in 69 games that the Twin Valley League powerhouses (Baileyville-B&B, Clifton-Clyde, Hanover) had lost outside of league play.

"Because of the cancer and what is going on with it, our team just came together and it is kind of a motivation, kind of a purpose because there is nothing more than Coach Woolf would love than a state championship," Wittman said. "For us, that is probably the best treatment for him."

The Bulldogs will face Baileyville-B&B (12-0), the defending state champion which is on a 25-game winning streak. The Falcons will try to become the first team to repeat in Eight-Man I since Coldwater in 1994-95.

Baileyville-B&B, led by senior quarterback Kyle Haverkamp (639 passing yards), has beaten all but one team by the 45-point rule.

"There is a lot of hype about Baileyville-B&B, and there is talk of them pointing us, but this group that we have together is really solid, and we have a lot of support from our family, from our communities," Deaton said. "We are ready."

Woolf has missed time throughout the season. Assistant coach Brian Roesch was named the interim head coach.

Last Saturday, Woolf delivered an emotional speech before Quinter defeated Clifton-Clyde. After the victory, Woolf headed to Omaha, Neb., for treatment and came back Tuesday night.

"It kind of touches you, touches your heart," senior Matt Bird said. "Really makes you feel for him and really makes you get out together and go win."

The senior class has helped Quinter enjoy one of the state's biggest turnarounds. As freshmen and sophomores, the Bulldogs went 4-14 in Class 2-1A. They moved to eight-man two years ago and have produced a 21-2 record.

"They've played so well together," Woolf said.

Behind the omniscient "One" slogan that's on T-shirts, the locker room doorway, school walls and sidelines on game day -- "I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do. What I ought to do, by the Grace of God, I shall do" -- Quinter has a chance to win the school's first football title since 1992.

"Believing in the program and everything, building souls and building lives," defensive coordinator Jeff Ruckman said. "Playing for something bigger than ourselves. They go all out."

This season, senior running back Jordon Hargitt leads Kansas eight-man teams in rushing yards (1,881), among teams reporting statistics to MaxPreps.com.

Senior quarterback Brady Reed has 1,380 total yards and 31 touchdowns, while Bird has averaged 16.6 yards per touch with 14 scores. The offensive and defensive lines are Quinter's foundation; Nemechek and senior Cody Corwin have picked up 11 sacks each.

"We always  tell the linebackers that the reason why you are making tackles is because Zach has three guys on him or the reason why you made a sack is Zach being triple-teamed," Ruckman said.

On Saturday, Nemechek will match up against Baileyville-B&B's all-state senior center Nathan Haug, a player who has helped the Falcons outscore opponents 633-70.

"That will be a battle between those two," Clifton-Clyde coach Russ Steinbrock said. "I would definitely probably (say) B&B at times, they are going to have to burn another guy and try and double (Nemechek). He is a stud inside, that's for sure."

Growing up, Quinter's senior class has always been strong in sports. In sixth grade, the group went 6-0 in Solomon Valley pee-wee football. The boys all went into Scouts in elementary school. After meetings, they played tackle football in Nemechek's yard.

"Zach Nemechek is a great leader, and it all just kind of fell into place," Deaton said. "There was always a sense of us wanting to get (to state) from a long time back."

The coaching staff helped the players grow. Woolf led the Bulldogs at youth group meetings and Ruckman is a pastor in town.

"Through that, we have really bonded," Wittman said. "For a lot of us, (Woolf) is our mentor. It's just the way God works. It's awesome."

In 2006-07, Quinter had trouble matching up with bigger 11-man schools that carried more players. The Bulldogs, who list 27 players on their roster, moved down to the eight-man ranks in 2008 and saw a seven-win improvement to 10-1, the biggest one-season jump in Kansas.

"We knew that if we made the switch to eight-man that we had to be good enough athletes to make a good run in the playoffs," Roesch said. "You have to be fortunate enough to make it this far."

Quinter has overcome multiple obstacles en route to Saturday's title game. In 2008, Wittman attended a summer church camp but decided not play football, his favorite sport.

"God was telling me not to go out for football," he said. "... That was really hard on me and I really wanted to play, but religion comes first for me."

Wittman returned home, and then, before the school year started, he found out his left shoulder was damaged. There was no way Wittman could have played football, he thought.

"Through prayer and a lot of rehab, I got my shoulder back into working order, so I was able to play this year," said Wittman, who has picked off a team-high five passes.

Nemechek, who has 105 tackles, found out in Week 3 that his mother had lupus. Since then, he has all 11 of his sacks and delivered the game-saving fourth down sack at the Quinter 2 in the final 90 seconds on Saturday versus Clifton-Clyde.

"She is an extremely great woman," he said. "An extremely hard worker. She puts herself last before anything else. What lupus did was she now has to watch out for herself before anything else because if she has flare-ups, that might be the calling card, that might be her last one. She has to take care of herself now."

The team has also played well since Woolf's illness. Quinter has not used the illness as an excuse. Instead, it's motivation. Roesch has taken on more coaching responsibility, including staying up until 2 a.m. on Tuesdays breaking down film.

"These kids deserve it," Roesch said. "They deserve our very best. So we are going to give them our best clear to the very end."

On Saturday, the close-knit senior class will complete its long and successful career with one more game in an emotionally tough -- yet terrific -- season.

"We have been dreaming about this Saturday for a very long time," Bird said.