By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

Ringneck coach Chris Shank's wall next to his classroom desk is adorned with pictures and achievements of his head coaching career at Linn and Hill City. Another squad, though, is prominently displayed by the coaching mementos: Kansas State University.

Shank, a third-generation Kansas State graduate, is a lifelong Wildcat fan. One poster has coach Bill Snyder, the architect of Kansas State's memorable turnaround and the leader of the 1998 Wildcats, a squad that featured running quarterback Michael Bishop, superb special teams and finished 11-2 overall, 8-1 in Big 12 play.

"I always look to the K-State '98 team," Shank said. "They get tired of me talking about K-State. The '98 team is the greatest team that K-State ever had."

Shank, entering his fifth year at Hill City, has similarly orchestrated a massive change with the Ringnecks. In the previous eight years before Shank, Hill City went 11-60. Shank was 5-13 in 11-man before the Ringnecks moved to Eight-Man, Division I. Hill City finished 6-3 in 2008 and broke through with a 7-3 record, the first playoff berth in school history, last fall. This year, Hill City, ranked No. 4 in the preseason poll, looks to continue its Wildcat-esque climb and play for a state championship in 2010.

"Definitely do better than we did last year, always a good building point," senior center Eric VanLoenen, a three-year starter, said. "Make it to the playoffs. Now let's win a couple of couple of playoff games, keep going, building."

Hill City loses lineman/linebacker Clinton Johnson, an all-state player, but returns senior quarterback Reggie Jordan, a three-year starter who has accounted for 4,397 total yards and 66 offensive scores.

"Always loved running quarterbacks because I think you can do a lot," Shank said.

The speedy, shifty Jordan cleared 210 yards four times last season, including his favorite performance, a 9-carry, 234-yard, 4-touchdown effort against Rexford-Golden Plains on homecoming. He, VanLoenen and junior running back Adam Pfeifer (711 total yards) return on offense.

"I just felt like Reggie Bush out there," Jordan said. "I was just running wild everywhere. It felt good."

During the summer, Jordan worked on improving his passing. Jordan has thrown for 1,585 yards in his career, but completed just 48.3 percent of his throws. He watched film, especially games where he threw often, and looked for errors. He also experimented with different arm angles and had wideouts run routes.

"Just think I need to improve on reading defenses a lot better and understanding what the defenses are giving me," he said.

Jordan, who played defense sparingly in 2009, is expected to step in as a starting safety. He will join a defense that lost five starters, including Johnson (135 tackles). Hill City returns senior linebacker Nathan Hanna, Pfeifer (73 tackles) and senior defensive linemen Kyle Babcock and Tyler Bess off a squad that allowed 18.6 points per game, ninth-best in Eight-Man, Division I.

"Everybody just has to pick it up a little more now, just to fill in what we are losing with (Johnson)," Pfeifer said. "Can't replace a guy like that right away. He was just one of those guys, lived and breathed football."

Hill City, which ranked 10th among eight-man teams with 28 sacks, expects to stay in a 5-1 defense that relies on speed.

"We are going to have one of the better secondaries that we have ever had," Shank said. "We have got a lot of speed. The nice thing is, we have got about four or five guys in the secondary, so we have got some depth."

Hill City has veteran specialists, an critical part of a Shank-coached squad. Senior kicker Marcus Goetz collected 21 touchbacks, tied for the most among Kansas eight-man kickers, according to MaxPreps.com. Hanna averaged 34.7 yards a punt, including a 56-yarder, second-longest in eight-man football.

"If you want to make a run at a state championship, you have got to have good special teams," Shank said.