Continuing their flight
By RYAN CHRISTNER
WaKEENEY — On a wall inside the cafeteria at Trego Community High School, handmade posters with the name, number and picture of each player on the school’s football roster are prominently displayed around an intricately detailed painting of an eagle — its wings spread and talons open as if descending to pluck its unsuspecting prey from the ground.
It's an inspiring sight, and an obvious sign of support from the school. But it's the Golden Eagles who have been more prey than predator this year.
With no wins to their credit so far this season, things have not gone as planned on the field for Trego.
In the middle of each poster is a simple, five-word phrase, perhaps offering advice for how to go forward during this difficult athletic stretch: "One play at a time."
The new coach
John Petrie rifles through his memory bank, withdrawing all the information he has about Trego football history.
After recalling the school's performance throughout the 1960s and '70s, he gets to the part that intersects with his own personal experiences.
"I think it was 1984," Petrie, now the new head coach at TCHS, said of the year the team in his hometown of Hugoton played Trego in a bi-district round.
"I can remember the game because on a last-second pass, with like 38 seconds left, Hugoton ends up winning the game."
Petrie is a football guy. He has played it, he has coached it -- at district rivals Hoxie and Plainville before stepping in here -- and loves to watch it. He likes to watch all sports, especially when his 11-year-old daughter, Kelly, is playing basketball or volleyball.
He was lured to WaKeeney by Myron Flax, who coached the Eagles for 12 seasons and posted a 56-62 overall record before hanging up his hat last year.
"Since that time, everything has just fallen into place really good for me and my family," he said. "The pieces all fit, in and here I am now."
A troubled year
The previous three seasons, Trego football teams finished 4-6, 5-4 and 6-4.
This year, heading into last Friday's Class 2-1A showdown against neighboring Ellis, Petrie's players were fighting for their first win.
"We've struggled," Petrie said Friday afternoon, reclining in a creaky desk chair inside his office following a pep rally inside the high school gym.
That's putting it lightly.
The struggles have come from many different areas and, in a way, Petrie counts himself among one of them.
"They've had to learn a new offense, new defense, new special teams, new terminology," he said. "(Success) doesn't happen overnight."
The Trego roster also has been depleted due to injuries and suspensions.
Of the 23 members on the squad, 17 suited up for Friday's game, less than half of the number of players on the opposing sideline.
That's related to the third problem: low participation.
It's the reason cited by Coach Flax when he announced last December he would be stepping down.
With such a small selection of students to choose from, he said, it is difficult to compete against teams that can afford to rotate players to avoid fatigue.
A different path
It was because of the declining student turnout that the USD 208 Board of Education voted in August to scale down the Trego football program to an eight-man format for at least the next two years.
The change mirrors that made by several other districts in northwest Kansas, who have dropped to eight-man football in the hopes of being better able to compete.
The decision created some "ruffles" among some people in the community who might have had difficulty parting with the current tradition of 11-man football, Petrie said.
Ultimately, though, the change was made on behalf of the players.
"It's not fair for them to go out to compete against a team that has 50 or even 40 kids, because they have so many more numbers," he said. "Our school population, as you can see from our pep rally, is kind of dwindling, and will for probably the next four to six years.
"I think eight-man is going to fit those kids. I think it will give them opportunities to be more successful in football."
That's not simply a coach's ramblings, as Petrie said his players also realize the potential for them to play more evenly matched games in the future.
Exodus
The absences on the football field can be traced back to a general decline in population.
At 431 kids, enrollment across the district is down by 30 students this year, USD 208 Superintendent Mark Bejot said from the stands of Custer Field, a short walk across the street from the high school.
Next to him sat TCHS Principal John Luhrs, who later said the enrollment declines have resulted in smaller class sizes.
"Some parents are leaving to look for work," said Luhrs, who grew up in Nebraska and spent 20 years teaching and administrating in Alaska.
A look at WaKeeney's official U.S. Census Bureau population trends during the past 18 years shows a decline of about 400 residents -- down to nearly 1,700 people in 2008 from more than 2,100 in 1990.
Ruth Tinkler, an assistant librarian at the WaKeeney Public Library, said she has noticed the decline.
"Compared to when I was growing up, there's a lot that move in and out," the WaKeeney-born Tinkler said.
That follows the trend of about every small town in America. As life encourages an increasingly busy lifestyle, young residents are enticed to bright city lights and hopes of big-time careers.
What isn't often considered, TCHS library aide and WaKeeney Travel and Tourism Director Cathy Albert said, is the safety and security small towns can provide.
"Lots of times, they're determined they're never coming back," she said while supervising a packed room of students working on research.
"Then, they get out in the world and they think, 'WaKeeney. You know, that's not really so bad.' "
Albert said she often uses her position in the high school library to pump up the youth participation in community events, hoping that will influence some to want to stay or move back to the city later in their lives.
"There are always good things going on," she said.
A silver lining
Despite the loss of population, there still are signs of expansion and new life in WaKeeney.
Heading south on Main Street, past the railroad tracks where TCHS students gather after football games, a large, white, metal structure dominates the landscape.
Inside, Trego County Recreation Commission Director Joe Spangler oversees the progress on a new rec center.
"This is just bigger, and we have more opportunities here to add more programs," Spangler, formerly of the Hays Recreation Commission, said of the building.
Adding onto an existing structure containing tennis courts and portable basketball goals, the building now is larger than any Spangler said he has seen in a community this size.
At 11,000 square-feet -- 3,800 of which come from the addition -- the space is about five times the size of the current facility, located a couple blocks northwest of the new site.
It's on track to finish in December, and there already is a buzz about town pertaining to its opening.
"I think they're really excited," Spangler said as he walked through the large, but currently empty, main room of the addition, which will house exercise equipment.
"This is just going to be a good asset to the community."
Locals have offered to help get it going, too, whether through volunteering to coach or pledging to lend their trucks at a moment's notice to move items over from the old building.
Up the street, Amanda Pfannenstiel helps ring up customer orders behind the cash register at the Bargain Bin thrift store, which opened Sept. 3.
All of the merchandise, and a lot of the interior furnishings, were donated by people in the community or from other parts of the state.
Pfannenstiel, who owns the store and also works in the American Family Insurance office of Mary Jo Haflinger during the mornings, operates her business as a kind of "community fundraising event."
Employing a staff of about 20 volunteers, including a group from the TCHS foreign language club, the proceeds of product sales will go directly to organizations in the area.
"I just really thought it would work, and I'm the biggest thrift store fan," said Pfannenstiel, who grew up in Park and married a native of WaKeeney.
Sales have been good so far, coming in at approximately $500 on a "not so good week."
Community
Being contained within the name of the county's only high school, it's clear community means a lot in these parts.
While waiting for lunch inside the Western Kansas Saloon and Grill, Chris and Doug Carr said they picked up on that "immediately" when they moved to town five years ago with their four children.
"This is a supportive and friendly town," Chris, a substitute teacher at Trego Grade School and TCHS cheerleading sponsor, said, her purple apparel no subtle indication of which team she would be rooting for that night. Then again, the circular pin stuck to her shirt featuring a picture of her son, Trego running back Derek Carr, didn't do much to conceal that fact, either.
The Carrs moved to WaKeeney from Liberal, and they said they appreciate knowing their kids will be safe when they're out playing.
For them, life in a larger city was not conducive to a sense of belonging. But here, friendships have come easily, and they feel part of something bigger than themselves.
"I think this community does a good job, especially in the school system, of making everyone feel incorporated," Chris Carr said. "It's totally intertwined."
And the smaller numbers in class make it easier for kids of all ages to get to know one another.
"They're like mentors to each other," she said. "The little kids know who those big kids are."
A learning experience
Derek Carr and his teammates might not have found much success getting touchdowns this year, but one thing they've gained, Petrie said, is invaluable knowledge for how to handle future difficulties in life.
"To me, there are no bad seasons," he said. "There's just more learning."
Without question, every player on the team will face additional hardships down the road. When those times come, they will know it will not be enough to simply roll over, and Petrie said his kids understand that.
"One thing to say about it is they go out there every Friday night, and they go out and they compete as hard as they can," he said. "As a coach, that's all you can ask of them.
"If it was easy, we'd probably have 55 kids out, but it's not. ... When they go off the field, they may be a little disappointed that they've lost, but they've learned something for it.
"They're going to know that the sun is going to come out the next morning, and it's going to be alright."
Rudy
If Petrie had to pick one player who most embodied all of the characteristics he preaches, it might be Rubin Sherwood.
At 5-foot-5 and 145 pounds, the senior nose guard is by no stretch the most physically imposing person on the Trego roster.
He's a starter now, but signs during his first three years with the squad were less than encouraging that he'd ever see much playing time.
"When I was a freshman, I was really kind of small," said Sherwood, who began as the team manager. "I realized I was too small to play."
But that didn't deter him from trying out again.
As he said, he simply wanted to play football. It didn't matter that he only got to make contact in practice.
After being warned during his sophomore and junior years that low turnout likely would affect the formation of a junior-varsity team, and thus his chances of playing in games, he said he made a vow to never sit on the sidelines again.
The result is a senior season in which Sherwood has been named Player of the Week for a strong defensive performance against Phillipsburg last month and has earned him a nomination for an award given to the nation's most inspiring player.
"I guess he liked what I was doing with the team," Sherwood, who also is the president of the TCHS Family, Career, Community Leaders of America club, said of his nomination by Petrie for the inaugural High School Football Rudy Awards.
He could not be more like the diminutive Notre Dame football fanatic who fought for his shot at 27 seconds of playing time in a Fighting Irish uniform.
"You look at the success stories from your team," Petrie said. "We may not have the best record, but, man, you talk about a young man that's come a long way in the last four years and he's definitely it.
"It's been a real joy to work with Rubin. He never complains. You can ask the kid to do anything. He'll run through a brick wall for you."
As if he had memorized the text on the Rudy Awards Web site, Petrie spoke at length about the size of Sherwood's heart and dedication to giving every play his absolutely best effort.
A whole team of Rubin Sherwoods would be a foolish gift to turn down, he said.
"If everybody had the heart that Rubin has, there's no telling what they could achieve in their lives," Petrie said. "I see great things for that young man in his future."
Lesson learned
As the Trego Golden Eagles made their way back to the locker room at halftime, trailing 42-0 against a dominant Ellis team, senior Brennan Anderson was all smiles.
Kept warm inside the insulated suit of faux feathers that made up his mascot costume, Anderson played his role superbly.
He danced. He clapped. He made his presence known on the sideline.
It hasn't always been easy to get fans motivated this year, he said, but they still come to watch their sons, nephews, grandchildren, neighbors or friends play ball.
"I always try to find a way to get people up," Anderson said cheerfully.
Even with a 50-12 final score, it doesn't matter so much what the outcome of the game is. It's about getting together and enjoying each other's company.
"Everyone's really close," he said. "Kind of a family bond more than anything."
So, people don't mind so much that their home team could very well go winless for the season? It still is possible to have fun in an environment like that?
"We always do," he said.