One might be able to count the number of Kansas schools which probably had a better decade than Wellington in football on one hand. But one of those schools just happened to be 20 miles down the road.
Quick... name the one school that has won as many Kansas high school football state championships in the 2000s as Conway Springs?
Hanston and Hope in eight-man football? Nope.
Pittsburg Colgan? It needed one more to tie the Cards.
Andale and Topeka Hayden in 4A? Maybe if each had won three more state championships.
OK, how about Smith Center. Yep. The school that has had a novel written about it and won 80 straight football games have won five this decade. Call it a tie.
There is just one school that has won more state championships this decade than Conway Springs. That's Hutchinson. The Salthawks have won six.
What a decade.
Conway Springs opened the decade losing a first-round playoff game to Wichita Collegiate.
Then it wouldn't lose another one — state championship or any game — for five long years.
Conway Springs would win Class 3A state championships in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Finally in 2005, Garden Plain would snap Conway Springs' 61 game winning streak during a regular season game. The Cardinals would lose in the state semifinals that year.
In 2006, Conway Springs would miss the playoffs entirely and many had penciled this dynasty as over.
But Conway Springs came back.
In 2007 the Cards were back up to the state semifinals. In 2008, Conway Springs would win one more state championship — after a four-year drought when it went into Hutchinson and beat Silver Lake.
So how does one account for such success?
One dynamic coach? Conway Springs has had four head coaches over the decade. There's no doubt the Cardinals owe a lot to head coach Mark Bliss, who introduced the single wing offense to the community and brought Conway Springs four state championships.
But this may be about tradition, coaching stability (all three of the coaches following Bliss had already been working within the system), hard work, and having great players.
There are so many players who have made a difference in Conway Springs over the years. It's almost fool-hardy to start a list.
So we won't.
Let's just say it's been a great decade for the Cardinal red and if the 2010s are even half as successful as the 00s, then it will be one heck of a decade.
Wellington, Kan. —
