Click for complete story
and more photos

By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

They've lived in the same house since 1985, watched hundreds of games, have seen a generation of students come through Ellis High.

Their side yard is pockmarked with ruts, hills, wrinkles and lines formed by their five boys who used the grass for pickup football and baseball games. Yardage markers weren't drawn on the grass. They were formed.

"You name it, they did it out here," Leitha said. "This was very nice, well kept, until we moved in and had a bunch more boys."

The Kings have five sons, Calvin, Casey, Cole, Clay, Chase and a dog, CK. The kids range from 31 to 18. Chase is the youngest, an Ellis senior, football team captain and two-year starting quarterback. Wade also is an Ellis graduate.

About 30 minutes before kickoff of Tuesday's Class 2-1A bi-district championship between Ellis and Washington County, the two, along with grandfather Marvin King, listened to election coverage on a radio.

Results from early states crackled as the trio watched the two teams warm up. Hundreds of fans filed into the stadium.

A short time later, the Kings would watch Ellis, which led 35-0 at the half, win 42-28 against Washington County and improve to 9-1.

Ellis, for the first time in school history, has won three straight bi-district championships.

The Railers, who haven't had a tradition of winning, are 24-9 in the last three years. Before 2006, Ellis had not won a playoff game since 1990.

"I think it is finally all coming together. Like Smith Center, you have a couple winning seasons, and it just snowballs," Wade said. "You have that tradition going now, and it is catching on here."

The Railers have been state-ranked nearly all fall. Ted Fuchs, father of junior Gideon Fuchs, one of the team captains and running backs, believes it's the first time Ellis has nine wins since the '60s.

The football team is one of the top sports at Ellis -- and one of the highlights for the town. Last winter, girls' basketball reached the state tournament for the first time since 1993.

Girls' track finished third at state in the spring, and boys' track nearly won the 2007 team title. Volleyball was state ranked this year and finished 18-8.

Senior Haley Wolf, the school record-holder in cross-country and the 1,600-meters, finished third at state cross-country Saturday, her fourth straight top-10 finish.

King was named an all-state quarterback as a junior, while Whitney Taylor, the homecoming queen, leader and role model, earned all-state in track for three years and basketball the last two.

It's possibly the best stretch for Railer athletics ever -- and its success has permeated the academics and town.

"The kids get that mentality," Wade said. "They know they can win now and that made a difference. They believe in themselves now. They are playing with more confidence with a few wins under their belts. The football is doing good, that carries on to the other sports and academics. It's a total package deal."

The students recently earned a 100 percent rating on their Kansas reading assessments, the top score in the three-year era under principal Corey Burton.

Ellis, which also scored a 93 on math, was named as one of the 2008 top high schools in U.S. News and World Report.

"If we have a well-rounded respectful student from Ellis High School, I think that is where we need to be, and I think that is where our kids are at," Burton said. "We have got really good kids. They excel academically. They excel with activities."

The community has seen an increase in housing, rare for a small town. A new travel plaza was built alongside Interstate 70 in the last two years, a boon for the community. A hotel also might be constructed along the highway.

"We have had a lot of good things going for us with some growth in the community, and now have your football sitting at (9-1), it creates some excitement," said Allen Weber, Ellis State Bank vice president and an Ellis High graduate.

'We haven't prayed yet'

It's 70 minutes before the start of Tuesday's school day. The family and consumer science room at Ellis High is filled with Railer coaches, parents and players. Every game day, the parents of the football captains host a breakfast before school.

Ted Fuchs is one of the leading parents, helping with food, washing dishes and cleaning. The food changes every game day as the senior parents rotate every contest.

This time, Ellis has breakfast pizza from Casey's, pancakes and fruit, while past helpings included breakfast burritos, sausage and eggs.

Two cheerleaders have cooked dozens of pancakes for the last three years.

The three coaches, head coach Butch Hayes and assistants Craig Amrein and Troy Dale, sit at one table. The players eat together on the other side of the room.

Each one wears a black shirt with the outline of several players in the background. It reads: "Ellis Railers: Band of Brothers," off the hit HBO World War II miniseries.

The message is apt for the team.

As they leave, each one walks over to the coaches' table and either shakes hands or fist pumps the three coaches before they head to class.

"If you are not winning, it's not that much fun to be together. But if you are winning, they just love to be together, all of them," Fuchs said. "They are a close-knit group. The coaches are pretty laid back, they enjoy it as much as the kids. It's not a job for them at all."

The players eat supper together nearly every Thursday night. On Tuesdays after practice, they head down to Arthur's Pizza and Mexican Food for the Mexican buffet. Sometimes the restaurant will have 15 to 20 players.

On Saturdays, a group normally would travel and watch the volleyball team play. Several cars full of football players made one trip to Salina to watch.

In the last three weeks, they've eaten at three different homes, including junior running back Dylan Pfeifer's house in the last week of the regular season.

The players all pray together before they eat. If a player doesn't pray, teammates make him spit out the food.

"Matt Erbert forgot last time," Linda Pfeifer, Dylan's mom, said. "They were like, Matt, remember, we haven't prayed yet."

The top players are leaders off the field. Taylor and King are active in St. Mary Catholic Church. King, with a 4.0 grade-point average, is one of the top students in senior calculus and is student body president.

"He has pretty much led us our whole lives," senior offensive lineman Clay Barton said. "He does a great job."

Ellis has a first-year music teacher. King, who stopped singing in junior high, joined the vocal class this year. Multiple players tried out.

"I can't even imagine what the boy teacher was thinking when they all came," Leitha King said.

"This group of kids, when they decide to do something, they all want to do it as a team," Wade added. "No matter what they do, they still think of themselves as a team in every aspect."

'Football, football, football'

Linda Pfeifer works at the credit union. The Railers' success is a main topic at her workplace -- and throughout the 1,900-person town, a community support Hayes calls "outstanding."

"Everybody that comes in, that is what they talk about -- football, football, football," Pfeifer said. "It's very exciting."

James Bieker, a server at Arthur's, is an Ellis graduate and a business management student at Fort Hays State University. He hears talk about the program -- even when the players aren't in on Tuesdays.

"A lot of people pay attention to it," he said. "Even people who don't have kids in the high school still seem to know what's going on."

Arthur's has a sign that reads "This is Railer territory" in the front window, and customers can order "Railer orange" shakes.

"They support us a lot in everything we do," Chase King said. "It makes us feel proud, and it makes us feel good to have their community support in us."

Burton has two kids, 8-year-old Abby and 5-year-old Easton. Easton has learned the players' names and numbers and even spent time with King.

Burton once had a meeting to discuss Ellis' new baseball and softball programs. So Burton could attend the meeting, King played cars with Easton for an hour.

"That's a testament to Chase," Burton said. "Easton loves that. He knows the quarterback of the high school football team, so he thinks that's pretty cool."

'Bedroom community'

Burton, a former administrator in Hillsboro, moved to Ellis three years ago. Two aspects were enticing to his family: the proximity to Hays and the growth of Ellis.

"I would guess that as far as the number of new homes that were built in a town our size in western Kansas, Ellis leads that pack by far," Burton said. "Any time you have growth in housing -- and for the most part all of our houses were full -- that in turn is a positive for everybody.

Ellis, only 12 miles from Hays, is considered a "bedroom community."

The close distance allows people to live in Ellis and work in Hays. Burton will take Abby to gymnastics in Hays. Townspeople will shop at Wal-Mart SuperCenter, get their medicine, eat and shop in Hays.

That's helped Ellis stay strong as a rural community. Weber lived in Hoxie for five years before he came back to Ellis.

"(Hoxie is) a county seat, and they are struggling. Not only them, but a lot of these small towns are struggling," he said. "Because of being along interstate, being an aggressive community and being next to Hays, that has kept us strong."

Buisnessman Doug Shaw helped create new housing on the south side of town. A bridal shop has opened, and more young families have moved to Ellis.

The travel plaza has provided more jobs for high school kids that can work in Ellis instead of Hays. Wheelchairs of Kansas, a longtime employer of Ellis residents, has solidified the town.

"You have more people in town spending more money, your schools are at least maintaining, and that's a positive," Burton said.

Ellis maintains a consistent population in the school and town. Currently, the high school has 141 students, a number that's expected to drop, then stay steady.

The enrollment is expected to drop down to 108 for the next few years and then rise to 137.

Ellis, entrenched in Class 2A, might dip down to 1A, especially if Class 2-1A splits in football.

"It's going to be an interesting ride as we move through the next few years," Burton said. "I see that causing a lot of different ripple effects that we will be caught in the middle of. We don't know how that is going to play out."

'Looking nice'

Ellis, though, has been subject to change. Four friends sit together every afternoon for coffee at Arthur's. All four women are longtime Ellis County residents and remember a different town.

"We had American elms on both sides of 12th Street that arched in the middle," Mary Ann Disney said. "Oh gosh, they were gorgeous."

The elms are gone. Ellis used to have two pharmacies; now there are none. Doctors come from WaKeeney during the week.

"You look at Ellis, and we don't have some of the stores that WaKeeney has, that Plainville has, or something like that. But the reason for that is we are so close to Hays," Weber said.

The town doesn't have a Dollar General Store or a dime shop. Some vacancies remain on Main Street. Once considered the antique City of the High Plains, many of the shops have closed.

"I think the main street has kind of gotten rundown," Mary Lou Armbruster said.

Helped by the school and people, Ellis has stayed strong.

"We have a very good school system, an excellent school system," Disney said. "It has always been a friendly town, real outgoing. ... You don't see a lot of trashy homes. Everyone seems to take pride in their yard, looking nice."

'Little more accepting'

That friendship has extended to the school and football team.

"A lot more kids get along over here, I think," Bieker said. "I think they are a little more accepting, actually of out-of-town kids, new people, anybody that might be a little odd. You go to Hays, and you kind of have more groups."

Kids from different grades and sports socialize. In classes, the student body is at the forefront for one of the stronger technology-based small schools and towns in Kansas. Ellisradio.com broadcasts all of the Railers' games.

At the school, the high school went to a one-to-one student to laptop ratio last year.

Ellis has its own Web site that consistently is updated with news, video, photos, stories and scores. The site stats the Class 3-2-1A state wrestling tournament in Hays. Amrein, the offensive line coach and technology instructor, said "it's probably not common" to have multimedia classes like Ellis.

One student, senior Kerry Robb, constructed an online video of the Ellis football team. Set to the "Friday Night Lights" theme, Robb has video from the Railers' locker room, newspaper clippings, team photos and the town.

'Who are you?'

The players report to the locker room shortly before 5 p.m. The players dress quietly. Pfeifer sits on an orange bench with his head down, his helmets and pads next to him.

He rubs his hands together, clasps them and looks down. A few minutes later, he pulls on an armband and slips on an iPod. King lays on the floor and looks up at the ceiling. Erbert does, too.

Then, the players head out for warm-ups. For the first time all season, parents and relatives tailgate on both sides of the field.

"Parents are pumped," Linda Pfeifer said.

On the west side, near the King residence, Leonard Schoenberger leads a cookout that includes Marvin King.

Schoenberger, the self-described "biggest supporter with a non-child playing that they have in Ellis," believes this is the best football team in school history.

He was impressed with the team's play and sportsmanship -- and even congratulated Hayes after a game this season for showing high class.

"There is no distinct favorites," he said. "They play like a team, and they are solid."

A few minutes before the kickoff, the players meet back in the locker room. One wall has a triangle with the team goals, including a bi-district championship, a goal Ellis met with Tuesday's win. Regional champs, sectional champs, sub-state champs, state champs rest above, goals Ellis still can meet.

"We are on a path, we are on a mission," Hayes said.

Amrein leads the team in school anthem. Amrein starts the 11-segment anthem with "Do you believe in the orange and black?" The players respond, "I do." Amrein finishes with "Who are you?" The players say, "I am a Railer," the crescendo growing.

Ellis led just 7-0 at the end of the first quarter before they scored 28 second-quarter points, played the junior varsity in the second half and moved to 9-1. After the game, Hayes sat on the bleachers in the school gym and held the bi-district championship plaque.

"We have good kids here," Hayes said. "It seems like every football team we have is a group of kids that are close, they look after each other, they make good decisions off the practice field, out in the school, they make good decisions.

"In school, they are doing an excellent job of being good students," he said. "They are excellent kids to work with, and I wouldn't trade them for anybody else."