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Wheatland-Grinnell coach Jesse Vincent talked extensively with Axtell coach Eric Detweiler at a summer combine in Salina. In 2020, Wheatland-Grinnell lost 58-18 at home in the season opener to the Eagles.
Vincent was aware of Axtell’s personnel returning for this season. Axtell had well-known standout junior quarterback Isaac Detweiler, though zero seniors in key roles. Isaac Detweiler, sophomore Grady Buessing and a pair of linemen, sophomore Sawyer Deters and junior Owen Strathman, were the only returning starters from a 7-3 squad.
In the 2021 Kpreps preseason rankings, Wheatland-Grinnell was ranked fifth and considered the second-best team in Eight-Man, Division II West behind Victoria. Axtell was just out of the top-five. The Thunderhawks made the 284-mile one-way drive northeast to Axtell. The Eagles beat Wheatland-Grinnell, 62-16, and solidified itself as an early state favorite.
“The same thing we always do, great blocking up front, spread the ball around and just come out with a victory,” Isaac Detweiler said.
Vincent was shocked with Axtell’s new talent, especially its speedy freshmen threats Brandon Schmelzle and Eli Broxterman and talented line.
“I am guilty for sure, if the boys weren’t as well, of being overconfident going into that game, just based on their age and inexperience,” Vincent said. “Wow, I mean those freshmen and sophomores that he has, they had obviously put their time in in the weight room, and he’s such a good coach that he had them fine-tuned and ready to play.”
Since then, Axtell and Wheatland-Grinnell have each won 11 straight games. The Eagles beat rival Hanover, the defending state champion, in the regular season and playoffs. The Thunderhawks have reached the first state title game in school history.
Axtell, the state runner-up in ’19, has its best record since an undefeated crown in ’93, the lone football title in Eagle annals. Eagle defensive coordinator Dale Buessing was on the ’93 squad. Axtell’s Quinn Buessing, the record-setting quarterback on the team two years ago, is back as an assistant coach. Coach Detweiler stands at 68-21 in his eighth year with his alma mater.
“When we first started this summer, I didn’t know what we were going to have,” coach Detweiler said. “And anytime you start a season off, you are kind of pulling your hair out, because you learning a new system, it takes a while to learn, but man they have really got our expectations up high now. They have grown every game. They learn really fast, and they just seem to be doing well.”
On Saturday, Axtell (12-0) will play Wheatland-Grinnell (11-1) for the Eight-Man, Division II state title at Newton’s Fischer Field. Start time is 3 p.m. Detweiler believes it’s “going to be a lot different ball game” from the first meeting.
“I compare them about the same,” coach Detweiler said of ’19 to ’21. “I don’t know if there is a lot of differences other than we are extremely young. We have got to do more learning I would say maybe in practice than we did back then. We kind of had four or five seniors that year, so maybe a little more education going on.”
State championship rematches are exceedingly rare.
Per Prep Power Index archives, the 1971 and ’73 Class 5A state title games featured Shawnee district schools in rematches. However, that’s when the KSHSAA system was in infancy when only a semifinal and championship round.
In recent history, the closest occurrence came in 2013, when Hanover and Sharon Springs played a regular season neutral site game in Natoma. Then, Sharon Springs went to the Division II final and lost to Baileyville B&B. Hanover had lost to B&B in the semifinals.
As Wheatland-Grinnell approached playoffs, Vincent wished and hoped the Thunderhawks would get a challenging opponent again to better prepare for a possible state title berth.
“It’s going to prove, I think here for us to be hugely important, and I felt like we were shell shocked in that game,” Vincent said of Axtell. “We did not play well. Our boys took a beating, got hit hard and did not respond like they have every game since. And to get hit and knocked back that way was a great learning lesson up front. … A great, great thing for us to get them on our schedule for that two-year period and see what state caliber football looks like, and this is what we wanted to model ourselves after.”
Isaac Detweiler, the current frontrunner for Division II Player of the Year, has taken over as team leader.
“We need a leader on the team, and we need somebody to step up this year, and he stepped up, and filled that role really good,” sophomore center Grant Buessing said.
He accounted for 47 scores as a sophomore. This year, he has completed 108 of 140 passes for 1,720 yards and 32 scores. Detweiler has rushed 170 times for 1,132 yards and 25 TDs. The Detweilers watch at least five to six hours of film per week together. Isaac will often change plays at the line of scrimmage before his dad makes the call.
“It’s kind of hard sometimes, but honestly it’s good, because we can sit at home, we can go over film, he knows what I am thinking a lot of time before we change plays,” coach Detweiler said.
Schmelzle attributed his great speed to his parents, both former Axtell track standouts. Last season, he raced the Axtell varsity as an eighth grader. Coach Detweiler said he was probably the fastest person. Schmelzle has 62 carries for 709 yards and 19 scores, along with 35 catches for 565 yards and 11 TDs.
Schmelzle scored long rushing TDs off option plays to the left on Axtell’s first two snaps in a 46-0 semifinal win at Thunder Ridge. Broxterman has 68 offensive touches for 835 yards and 13 scores. Schmelzle and Broxterman are first cousins and have grown up together.
The line has been dominant, with Grant at center, and Deters and Strathman at the guards. Axtell is usually known for passing, but ran ground-and-pound in a 30-24 district win versus Hanover in Week 4.
“Ever since the Hanover game, they have kind of taken pride in what they did, and kind of run the ball,” Detweiler said. “And they don’t get enough credit where maybe our running backs or our freshmen or Isaac even is getting the credit, where our line probably deserves way more credit than what they have gotten.”
Before the 2019 season, Wheatland-Grinnell had no playoff victories since the schools consolidated in the mid-2000s. Grinnell had the all-time best showing for the teams with a state semifinal showing in ’84. Vincent coached the current seniors in junior high. Vincent told the group they would accomplish school history in high school.
“The athleticism, and the competitiveness, and their just drive and their love for the game of football, and if they stuck with it, they worked their tails off in the weight room, and by the time they were seniors, they would play for a state championship,” Vincent said.
In 2018, the Thunderhawks finished 1-8 with a freshmen quartet of Trey Vincent, Isaac Mendez, Ryan Heier and Tyrell Chapin. All are now four-year starters. Trey has thrown for 5,515 career yards and 72 scores.
Heier has 392 tackles, while Chapin has 28 sacks and 16 forced fumbles, tied with former Wheatland-Grinnell standout Trevor Zarybnicky for most any Kansas player in recent history. Mendez, with an Ottawa offer, has 3,864 rushing yards, 88 total TDs, and 365 tackles. Plus, Mendez, known for his athleticism, took over as the team’s kicker in early season and has 26 touchbacks.
Notably, Mendez had just six carries for six yards and wasn’t the kicker in the first Axtell game. Wheatland-Grinnell had its preseason jamboree cancelled, and its first-year starters have greatly improved since the loss.
“He doesn’t hold back anything,” Vincent said of Mendez. “In junior high, he was an average-sized kid, and then I just remember when we were first in pads in junior high, the way that he would just fly around and hit, and then giggle about it. He has always been that way and still is. You will hear him on the game field – actually I remember South Barber (in the quarters), he made a hit. You could hear him laughing on the film.”
As freshman, coach Vincent knew they all had to be on the field. However, Vincent tried to “protect them” and not use them both sides, even though there were times he believed they “could have been and maybe should have been” two-way players. Trey started at quarterback, Mendez as running back, while Heier and Chapin were on defense.
“Not give them the beating that freshmen bodies just aren’t ready for,” coach Vincent.
Vincent ended up liking the philosophy and has tried to keep players, especially linemen, to one side, a rarity at the Eight-Man, Division II level. Some recent eight-man team championship squads, including Osborne, have started just nine combined players. Since then, the Thunderhawks posted 8-2, 8-3 and 11-1 seasons. Wheatland-Grinnell lost to Victoria in the 2020 state quarterfinals before a 42-30 win over the Knights last week.
Wheatland-Grinnell’s six linemen only start on side. Chapin is a returning starter. Junior Robert Mason (6-1, 216) is at left guard. Junior Kaleb Dohm starts at center. Sophomore right guard Hunter Stroup is undersized, but coach Vincent said he “has got a big heart.”
Freshman Kaden Aeschilman starts at nose guard, and junior Nathan Vollbracht, who played some center in 2020, is at defensive end. They have helped Wheatland-Grinnell averaged 9.2 yards per play and have an average margin of 50-18. Last year, the Thunderhawks averaged 6.9 yards per play with an average score of 41-33.
“If it’s a possibility to get more guys on the field and be competitive, then at the end of the season, when guys are getting worn down and beat up, we might be healthier and more fresh,” Vincent said.
This season, Trey Vincent has completed 139 of 225 passes for 2,235 yards with 27 scores against nine interceptions. Mendez has 181 carries for 1,577 yards and 35 scores. Mendez leads the defense with 146 tackles, 15 TFLs and 11 sacks. Heier has 111 stops and seven passes defended, tied for the team-high. Chapin, known for his motor, has caused a team-best five fumbles.
Plus, Wheatland-Grinnell has well-known junior Jett Vincent, Trey’s brother and coach Vincent’s son. A three-year starter and two-time first-team all-state player, Jett is one of Kansas’ best players in the class of 2022. He has 60 catches for 1,194 yards and 17 scores.
Defensively, he has 109 tackles and six interceptions. Vincent has 28 career interceptions; the all-time Kansas record is 32 set by St. John’s Travis Neidig (2004-07). Trey is much quieter than his brother and carries an inner confidence. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Jett is known for his outgoing nature and his work ethic. Jett has set a goal to play Division I football and puts his extra time at 5:30 a.m.
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