On October 13th Andale High School Football took a tough loss to Cheney in overtime 36-30, this ending their 57 game winning streak. The media has clearly displayed our loss by using that same sentence as their way of drawing views to their news articles and social media platforms. What the media doesn’t display as much is the great plays made by Andale during the game. 

Gage Prosser (SR.) on the return ran the ball to a touchdown on the first play of the game. Followed by an amazing catch by Karson Butts (SR.) that led us to another touchdown. The environment Friday night was one I have never witnessed throughout my years at Andale as a high school student, people going from sitting at the edge of their seats to jumping up and down uncontrollably. So much emotion and support for our team was shown throughout the crowd on Friday. 

It was undeniably the most competition we have seen in the 2023 season, thus changing the whole environment. Though we can no longer say we have been undefeated since 2018 it doesn’t change all that was accomplished between 2018 to 2023. It not only takes an extraordinary team but also a dedicated program year in and year out to accomplish being undefeated for that great length of time. Along with four consecutive state titles in a row, and until last week the nation’s longest winning streak at 57 games, it’s easy to say that the Andale Football Program has made its mark. 

Many out there are hoping this loss leads to the downfall of Andale football, but with our strong tradition, athletes and coaches we hope to see this loss turn into motivation. Ultimately the goal of Andale Football is to win championships and no one said that has to be in an undefeated manner. The athletes and their coaches will continue to focus on playing in the state championship title in November, mind you this loss doesn’t take away from that possibility. This was a regular season loss, something that many teams experience. 

I asked Coach Schmidt what words of motivation he spoke to the players after their loss on Friday, take a look at what he had to say. Schmidt started off by saying their ultimate goal is the state championship and that they will just have to take a different path there. Schmidt then spoke of how hard they (Andale Football players) played and how he gives the players full credit for the fight they put up against Cheney. This loss doesn’t change the way he looks at the main goal of his team, which is to keep improving. Lastly he shared a quote with the players called “The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt. “It is not the critic that counts”, “the credit belongs to the man that is actually in the arena”.

Now let’s take a quick glance at the remainder of the 2023 season of Andale Football. First, Andale will play Pratt in game 8, after that they will take on Hoisington in game 9. If Andale defeats Hoisington, Coach Schmidt then predicts they will play Scott City at Scott City for game 10. If Andale wins that match up it will follow game 11 which would be against Collegiate on our home field. Following Collegiate’s game Andale will travel back to Cheney and play against them once more to battle for the sub-state championship. Coach Schmidt then predicts Andale will play Topeka Hayden during the state championship in Hutchinson, KS.