Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — I’m a little late this year with the annual “hand wringing about the high school football team” column. Usually, I am cranking out my angst column by week 2 or 3. It’s week 5 this year. I’m slow on the switch.

Perhaps, it’s my age and I don’t care like I used to. For example, Saturday K-State blew a 16-3 lead against West Virginia and I was like over it 10 minutes later. In years’ past, it would have taken me the whole weekend.

It also might be because I’m suffering with a “been there, done that” mentality. This marks the seventh consecutive year the Crusader nation is suffering from “we aren’t as good as we used to” angst. After all, 2009 was the last year, Wellington was both winning games and making playoffs.

Maybe it is becoming repetitive. I’ve been spending time holding down the comment section with the same kind of comments that were being said last year and the year before. The readership is restless. I did let one slip through from a gentleman that was rather comical. He somehow related the plight of the high school football team to higher utility rates. I love it. We should wrap up all our social media rants in one big colossal “Wellington stinks” paragraph.

I can do one better. I think the Wellington City Council is to blame for the plight of the football team because the Etter-Hansel controversy caused the high school players so much stress that they couldn’t perform to their capabilities (that was sarcasm by the way).

Perhaps, the best prose I’ve read so far was summed up by Terry Deschaine following Friday’s game story between Wellington-Wichita Collegiate. I’ll reprint it below.

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Here are my five reasons for Wellington’s 0-5 start:

1. Youth.

This is huge. Friday night, Wellington had eight sophomores and one freshman playing in the varsity game. Wellington head coach Zane Aguilar spoke at Crusader Club that against Rose Hill, two weeks earlier, he was using just three seniors.

Some say this bodes well for the future because these young players are getting varsity experience. Maybe. But is placing a sophomore into a losing varsity lineup, better than having them play and winning in junior varsity?

Learning to win is everything. But it takes time to develop. I’m not going to speculate why we are using so many young players because that would be another column in itself. But the Zane Aguilar coaching staff was behind the eight-ball from the very start of the season.

2. Numbers game.

I maintain quality is more important than quantity. When I moved here in 1992, I covered the Class 4A Wellington State Runner-up team, who had Lance Russell, Nick Struble, among others. That team was similar to this year’s squad as far as numbers were concerned. They had a small number of seniors (maybe seven of them if I remember right) and the team as a whole was really small – like 28 or 29 players. They also were depending on a number of sophomores as varsity starters.

The difference? Those seniors were playing behind a very talented 1990 and 1991 class, and had time to develop into varsity ballplayers after years of going through the junior varsity ranks. They also had talented classes behind them. Those were the years of David Heath and Billy Conwell, who would go on to be UFC Championship fighters. I remember those teams as hellacious hitters.

Development is huge in football success. You see this with the Andale and Collegiate programs. They plug and play. They have enough varsity players that if one goes down, someone can step in. They aren’t depending on a good group of sophomores to make it through a game. Their sophomores are having fun in the JV ranks.

Wellington used to have that luxury. But not now. And that may take years to get back.

3. The competition.

Former head football coach Linn Hibbs made this point about seven years ago in a Crusader Club meeting that has stuck with me.

To paraphrase him:

“We made other teams better. It used to be we could count on a few weeks when we knew we would out-coach our opponents, who didn’t take football as seriously as we did. But what I’ve seen in just the past five years, that all of our opponents are working harder each and every week and during the off-season. They saw our success and try to duplicate it.”

There is no doubt the area is producing more Division 1 athletes than in years past. Programs like Mulvane, Andale, Collegiate, and Rose Hill have upped their game. And those who saw Collegiate the other night, could attest: that’s a team that plays extremely smart football.

4. Special teams game.

No, I don’t think if we had a Felipe from Brazil every year, Wellington’s world would be right. But special teams and a lack of a field goal kicker cost us the game against Rose Hill, and being 1-4 is a whole heck of a lot better than being 0-5. We failed to kick a field goal that was the equivalent of an extra point in the final seconds.

Last weekend, a 125-pound Wichita Collegiate freshman girl nailed a 20-yarder. We have a friend down in Texas who kicks field goals, and that is all she does. She even hates football.

Surely there is someone in the Wellington hallways who can be trained to kick the ball through the uprights and get the ball downfield.

Also, it doesn’t help on kickoff coverage that the opponent is usually starting around the 40.

5. Lack of experience.

We have a new coaching staff, a new offense, a new group of starters with a huge percentage of sophomores.  And we have no depth. Did I mention, we are not very big? This is not only a rebuilding team, but it is as if we are an expansion team, just starting out.

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Here are five reasons I don’t think is the reason we are losing:

1. The youth program.

This is a tiresome debate. Wellington has a strong youth football program. Inevitably when things aren’t going well in high school, people say the kids are suffering from burn out. Conversely, others say our kids aren’t being properly developed in the younger ranks.

Blah, blah, blah. Yes, I do believe the youth football teams play too long of season, and there is that worry about concussions at that age. But what a player does at that age has no effect on his years of football in high school. Football is about a kid’s ability and desire to go out and make the tackle.

By the time a player reaches high school he either likes to play football or he doesn’t.

My son was an honorable mention all-league cornerback his senior year. He never put on a football uniform until his freshman year. Would he have played his senior year, if I forced him to play little league football when he was younger? Who knows? I never could force him to do anything. He chose to play high school football on his own, mostly because his friends wanted him to go out.

If Wellington starts winning again, it won’t be because of the success or decline of youth football.

2. Concussions.

Wellington has had its share of concussions this season. But so has every other high school team.

Concussions may be the ultimate demise of high school football, but if it happens it won’t be just here.

And truthfully, I like the idea we are addressing this issue as a society. No stupid football game is as important as sustaining a lifelong brain injury.

3. Work ethic.

I drove by the Wellington High School football field the other night at 6:30 p.m. Those boys were still practicing, and from what I could tell they were working hard.

I realize in the 1970s, many of you football players went into the game with severed legs and blood pouring out of your eyeballs because you were so tough and wanted to win for the red and silver. But this group of Crusaders are working really, really hard and maybe as hard as you.

They make me proud to be a Crusader.

4. Coaching.

Maybe four years from now, if the Crusaders aren’t progressing, the numbers are lower than ever, and the players really hate the coaches, then that becomes a factor. But because of the reasons I have aforementioned, it is way too early to be pointing fingers at the coaching staff which is just starting. Bill Snyder or Bill Walsh would have a difficult time getting Wellington to win this year. It is going to take time folks. Patience.

5. Lack of community support.

Nobody loves their high school team more than Wellington, Kansas. You saw that last week when the stands were packed for Andale which everyone knew was going to win.

Nevertheless, it is natural for people to be frustrated. That is what fans do, including myself.

I can’t speak for others, but as for me, I love the Crusaders, and as long as I live here, or do this website, or am mentally and physically able to do so, I’ll be there rooting on my Crusaders while being an objective journalist.

Don’t misconstrue criticism for hatred. Criticism is sometimes born from love and the desire to make people better.

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And here’s a dirty little secret, no one is talking about. If Wellington beats Winfield in two weeks, which will be a mammoth game for the program, the Crusaders could be traveling to Ulysses for a chance to make the playoffs. This Tiger team, losers to Scott City 58-7 last week, is not the greatest team Ulysses has ever assembled.

So don’t give up on the 2016 Wellington team quite yet.

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