2023 Wellington High School football team. (Click to enlarge)

By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington Crusader football program will launch the red helmets this Friday night.

The Crusaders will travel to Andale, weather permitting, to make its new entrance: gleaming red helmets with a silver stripe down the middle. There will be numbers on the side – just as last year. Soon, it will have Buckeye “type” Crusader decals when players make big plays during the season. The program did the decals last year.

Some Wellington alumni have grumbled that the helmets look too much like Rose Hill, Kingman, or Conway Springs. “Where is the Crusader logo?” — others have murmured.

But Wellington Head Football Coach Jeremiah Meeks said this was a decision by the football team.

“They designed it,” he said. “We haven’t included the stripes and numbers yet. We’ll see how it looks on Friday.”

The Crusaders also have several uniform combinations for its five road and three home games during the regular season.

Of course, helmets and threads don’t really count for wins and losses. With that in mind, what is in store for the future of the Wellington program?

There appears to be plenty of optimism for this fall. Wellington is returning nine offensive and seven defensive starters from a team that went 5-4 in 2022 – its first winning season since 2019. \

It is also fielding its biggest squad in years: 68 players.

2023 WHS Football seniors and managers.

And for the first time in three years, it now has a good nucleus of upperclassmen. There are 13 seniors and 28 — that’s right, 28 — juniors.

“We have some depth this year,” Meeks said. “And that is so big in football. During practice, the first-team offense can square off against the first-team defense.”

Meeks hopes to have as few two-way starters as possible. Keep the players fresh – especially in the early part of the season, until the heat subsides.

Of course, depth is essential to injuries. In recent history, Wellington took a significant hit when a starter went down. This year, up to 25 players will be in the rotation. One goes down – it will hurt, but not as much.

Wellington does have some holes to fill, especially at running back. Last year, its lead running back, Malachi Rogers, tore up the football field, accumulating 1,315 yards. This year’s team will be a running back by committee approach.

The starting five offensive linemen are Andrew Helpingstine, Ethan Brungardt, Greer Buchanan, Jamar Armstrong, and Derrick Lowe, holding up quarterback Dusty Bannister.

The lineup:

The offensive line

Let’s start with the offensive line – you know, the guys who never get their name in the newspaper and rarely get the recognition they deserve.

Rarely has Wellington had such a nucleus return completely intact. Rarely have the five starters been this promising.

Meeks has moved the linemen around a little. Greer Buchanan (6-1, 270, jr.) will start at center this year. That position was held by Andrew Helpingstine (6-2, 230, sr.). But he has been moved to right tackle.

There is plenty of experience and depth in the trenches for the Crusaders.

Joining Helpinstine on the right side is right guard Ethan Brungart (5-11, 205, so.).

On the left side, three-year returning starter Derrick Lowe (6-2, 260, sr.) will be joined by two-year starter Jamar Armstrong (5-9, 230, jr.).

The unit is as big as any offensive line has been in quite a while in Wellington.

“We’ve been working to get their weight up,” Meeks said. “Feeding them peanut butter sandwiches at practice and that kind of thing.”

Dusty Bannister got off to a good start in 2022 before he got hurt.

Quarterback

Dusty Bannister (6-1, 190, jr.) will return as the starting quarterback. Meeks said his presence is huge for the team. Last year, if you remember, Bannister injured his middle finger in a freak accident during practice in which it got smashed between two helmets.

He had played three games and had already thrown for 432 yards for a 12.3-yard per-play average. He was replaced by Kenny Redford (5-10, 170, sr.) for the rest of the year.

Meeks said there is no lasting effects from last year’s injury.

“Dusty is a good facilitator with the ball,” Meeks said. “He knows how to get the ball where it needs to go.”

Meeks said he has also worked hard during the off-season, getting stronger in the weight room.

Malachi Rogers will need to be replaced at running back. 

Running back

This could be a battle between the backfield’s four or five best rushers.

“You just don’t replace a kid like Malachi, but you can get a running back that best fits the situation,” Meeks said. “We have specific running backs for specific productions – fitting to their strengths.”

Redford, who played quarterback for the latter part of last season, will be the featured runner in a one or two-back set. Other running backs include: Nick Giefer (5-11, 175, jr.), Riley Nichols (5-9, 160, sr.), Jilik Armstrong (5-9, 155, so.) and Parker Thornton (5-10, 165, jr.).

Some of these guys will fill in as a fullback.

Skylar Branam will be one of the key returning starters. 

Wide receivers

Wellington should have a very strong set of receivers – including four who caught more than 10 passes in 2022.

Grady Norris (6-1, 150, jr.) and Skylar Branam (6-0, 180, jr.) are the starting wideouts and will receive plenty of looks from Bannister. Rotating in for them will be Maddox Black (6-1, 170, sr.), Carter Burnett (6-4, 190, jr.) Axel Norris (6-1, 150, jr.), Jagger Norris (6-1, 150, jr.) and Chance Thomas (5-9, 160, sr.).

Tight ends

The Crusaders will be led by three-year starter Brody Weir (6-4, 240, jr.) who caught 15 passes for 153 yards and was significant in blocking schemes.

Brody Weir and Carter Burnett.

Defensive line

Not to get too caught up in superlatives, but this group will again be pretty good. The tag-team cousins of Weir on one side and Carter Burnett (6-4, 190, jr.) on the other side should give any offensive lines fits all season.

At one point, Weir led the state in sacks, ending 2022 with 11.5 sacks. Burnett had 4.5 sacks. Weir finished the year with 49 tackles, while Burnett had 65. The two accounted for 114 of the team’s 554 tackles in 2022, for 20.5 percent of all defensive stops.

But those two are not alone. Milo Elder (6-1, 215, so.), Cases Ramirez (5-9, 195, so.), Couper Buchanan (6-0, 240, jr.) and Colton Clark (6-1, 270, sr.) will also be on the defensive line.

That makes 11 players playing in the trenches on both the offense and defensive line for Wellington.

Carter Burnett, Brody Weir, and Nick Giefer were a three-man wrecking crew in 2022.

Linebackers

Giefer will be returning as the middle linebacker, gumming up stuff. He had an excellent sophomore year, getting 50 tackles for the season – including 16 of those as solo hits.

Colton Bannister (5-9 178, so) will be another inside linebacker. Kaden Martin (200, 5-10, sr.), Nolan Russell (6-5, 210, sr.), and Thornton will also see playing time in the linebacking corp.

Defensive backfield

There is still some uncertainty at the starting cornerback spot. Meeks said it could come down to A. Norris, Thomas, or Branam defending the outside edges. The defensive safeties will probably be Black and G. Norris.

Kicker

Elder has been slotted as the team’s field goal and extra point kicker.

Wellington vs. Rose Hill has become a fun game over the past few years.

The schedule and competition:

Sept. 1 – Wellington at Andale – The Indians are on a 51-game winning streak (the second longest in the United States) and winners of four consecutive state championships. Rumor has it they may be pretty good this year.

Sept. 8 – Wellington at Clearwater – The Indians finished 3-6 last season. They have a new coach in Justin Burke.

Sept. 15 — Wellington at Wichita Collegiate — The Hesston quarterback transferred to Collegiate in another example of a “private school makes a tremendous recruit to save the season and the program” scenario. High school has nothing on college when it comes to transfer portals.

Sept. 22 — Labette County at Wellington — The Crusaders finally come home after three consecutive weeks on the road. Wellington has beaten Labette five straight times since they started playing in 2018.

Sept. 29 — El Dorado at Wellington – These two teams have exchanged blowouts over the past two seasons. El Dorado defeated Wellington in 2021, 46-25. The Crusaders returned and beat the Wildcats 45-8 at Butler County Community College in 2022.

Oct. 7 — Wellington at McPherson — The Bullpups and Crusaders put on quite a game last year, with McPherson kicking a last-second field goal to win 34-32. Maybe we will have a similar game in McPherson’s new stadium.

Oct. 14 — Wellington at Circle — Probably Wellington’s most impressive win of the year when Circle came to town in 2022. The Thunderbirds are rumored to be the latest up-and-coming program – going 8-3 in 2022.

Oct. 21 — Rose Hill at Wellington – These two teams have put on some exciting football over the years. Rockets have a new coach in Landon Wright.

Play-in game — Coach Meeks says the Class 4A-West is loaded with Wamego, McPherson, and others vying for the top spot. Last year, Wellington hosted Winfield after sporting a 5-3 record. It was subsequently upset, which Meeks said has served as motivation throughout the off-season.

With 65 players, it made for a long photo shoot on Wednesday.

The roster:

Number, player, year. 

Odds and ends:

As was stated last week in the Wellington school board meeting report, the board has decided to move forward with natural grass instead of artificial turf for Sellers Park.

The plan is once the season ends after Wellington wins the state championship (Ok, the author apologizes for that sudden burst of hyperbole), there will be major excavation work to flatten out the hill in the middle of the field that has developed over the years. There will be a re-grade, a new irrigation system, and installation of Bermuda sod. The price tag of the work would be $186,810.

That’s a sizable savings compared to putting in artificial turf, which would have cost the school district $1.4 million.

•••••

Only three home games are scheduled for this year (excluding a possible playoff). That’s payback for having five regular season games last year. As you remember, Andale had to move its home game to Wellington because it was building its track around the stadium. Now Wellington returns there, thus making for a lopsided schedule of having five road games, including the first three weeks.

•••••

Oh, the heat. Wellington players practiced early this past week, avoiding the 100+ afternoon temperatures. There seems to be a little relief this week as day highs will get into the mid-90s. Still, things are far from being in the clear. Friday is calling for a high of 98 degrees, and 100+ temperatures are predicted after that through Sept. 9. If it is too hot, officials may move the games to 8 p.m. or even later, or maybe on Saturday morning. Stay tuned for the rest of the week.

As far as how the heat has affected Wellington’s practice, Meeks states:

“It is inconvenient. We have to condense our practice in the morning compared to what we would be able to do in the evening. But, as far as it being a disadvantage, I don’t think so. Every team in the state is doing the same things.”

Follow us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter.