Olpe football heads to Sub-State with tradition and family in mind
OLPE, Kan. (KSNT) - Olpe football will take on Lyndon on Friday in a repeat of their toughest matchup of the year, this time in Sub-State.
When you think about Olpe football, there's a lot of tradition, and that all starts with their head coach Chris Schmidt. He grew up there, he played there, he's been a coach for nearly 30 years and he knows better than anyone that this program doesn't rely on just one person.
"It's next man up, I really feel that way. Our community supports us really well." coach Schmidt said.
Olpe saw a state title in 2014 and cheered the Eagles every step of the way. A chance to get back to that game means a lot.
"The community go real involved, and then seeing them come home and then us getting them to celebrate with them it was really special so I'm hoping that we can be a part of that again," senior lineman Max Blaufuss said.
"We're really blessed to have that opportunity, it's something that's really special that we get to have around here. So I think that would be really awesome for the younger guys who are in the shoes that I was in to get to see that, assuming that we can get there," senior running back and corner Kynden Robert said.
Coach Schmidt attributes the success to passing down the tradition of Eagle football.
"Their fathers that went through the program or uncles, cousins whatever. They put it on their shoulders that they're the next group to come up, we put that olpe jersey on for a reason so let's go out and see what we can do so and they work hard at it," Schmidt said.
That reason differs exactly depending on who you ask, but they can all agree it's bigger than any one of them.
"We play with a lot of heart. My dad actually went to school here so he played football here, my brother played football so we have a lot of tradition, year by year we have a lot of people that are familiar with the program and that's what makes this program special," Blaufuss said.
"We take a lot of pride in our program, I feel like we put in a lot of hard work not just for ourselves, for our coaches, our family, just the olpe community so that's just really special for us," Robert said.