By Amy Bickel
Kansas Agland
RANSOM − If there is discouragement behind the eyes of Luke Ritchie − it’s difficult to tell.
It’s Monday afternoon. The Western Plains High School football coach stood with his whistle to his mouth, directing 14 boys running across a neatly mowed and painted field. They line up − as they’ve been doing all afternoon. A small but fast youth runs through the struggling offensive line − and coach Ritchie quickly blows the whistle.
“It doesn’t matter how good your running back is if you don’t block,” Ritchie tells them.
“My suggestion is on Saturday or Sunday, watch some real football,” he tells them.
“Can you watch it on Netflix?” asks one boy.
Afterward, Ritchie doesn’t sugarcoat his words.
“This is what I’m dealing with.”
Fall is marked by combines cutting corn and milo – a time when the air turns crisp and the days shorten. It also brings out community spirit across Kansas as residents – wearing their school colors – head for the high school gridiron.Here, on the football field at Ransom, a former football powerhouse in Ness County where All-American and NFL
Pro-Bowler Nolan Cromwell once played, Ritchie and other school officials are doing everything they can just to keep the Friday night lights burning.
Yet, here, on the football field at Ransom, a former football powerhouse in Ness County where All-American and NFL Pro-Bowler Nolan Cromwell once played, Ritchie and other school officials are doing everything they can just to keep the Friday night lights burning.
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