Wichita East football back on the rise? Aces have high hopes and a clear vision

In the first football game of the 2020 season, Wichita East set the school record for points and margin of victory.

The Aces beat Wichita North 80-0 on Monday night. They had their backups in by the third quarter but couldn’t stop scoring. Coach Ene Akpan said he believes this year’s team is “different.”

“We have to play to the level that we are supposed to play at, not the level of our competition,” Akpan said. “Last year, that was one of the biggest things. When we played North last year, we played to their level. It wasn’t that way this year.”

For the past three years, Wichita Northwest has had a stranglehold on the City League. The Grizzlies have gone to back-to-back Class 5A state championships in that time and have won their past 16 games against other Wichita public schools.

In 2017, Northwest’s closest game against a USD 259 school was decided by 17 points in a win over Heights. In 2018, a 24-point win against West was the closest. And last year, West’s 49-point loss was the closest any Wichita public school came to Northwest.

East hasn’t beaten Northwest since 2013. Since then, Northwest has pried open the scoring margin. In 2018, East lost 56-0 in Akpan’s first City League game. The Aces beat North by 16 that year, 64 fewer points than they did Monday.

“Northwest is the measuring stick for everybody,” Akpan said. “Honestly, in terms of the talent level, I think we have more talent, but we have to be disciplined. We have to do things the right way if we want to be able to compete against those guys.”

Last season, East lost 75-8 to Northwest. The Aces were meant to contend with the likes of Heights and West toward the top half of the league, but they finished with a 5-4 record and didn’t win a playoff game.

So why is East so much better this season?

“We are starting to get East High kids coming to East High,” Akpan said. “For the longest time, a lot of East High kids were going elsewhere: Heights, West, all over the place. Now we are starting to get our core guys and guys that are wanting to come to East.”

For the 2020 season, senior linebacker Darius Cooper transferred from Northwest, senior receiver AJ King transferred from Southeast and senior cornerback Marion Ponds transferred from Valley Center.

Akpan called Cooper one of the best linebackers in the Wichita area and the defense’s leader. He said King is perhaps the most underrated player in town and maybe the best receiver in Kansas. And he said Ponds, son of Mario Ponds who holds the state record in the 100 meter dash, has the potential to be the best player on the team.

But those three high-caliber transfers aren’t the only reason East could see an uptick in 2020. Freshman quarterback Daeonte’ Mitchell already has the composure of an upperclassman. Junior safety Tobi Osunsanmi has the size of a college player at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds. Senior Daylan Jones and junior Caquoy Patterson might be the best receiving duo in Wichita. And Senior defensive end Brenden Barley provides great speed off of the edge.

On top of the eye-popping talent at East this season, arguably the greatest high school football player in Wichita history has returned. Former NFL running back Bryce Brown is the Aces’ offensive coordinator.

With so many new parts to the system, the worry is whether they can all push in the same direction and work toward a common goal. Akpan said that shouldn’t be an issue.

“Watching Derby and some of these other 6A schools, I think we can compete on that level,” he said. “It’s not about winning one or two playoff games. We want to win the whole thing.”

East is seeking its first City League football title in more than a decade. In fact, the Aces haven’t finished runners-up since the 2007 season. They haven’t had more than six wins since 1983, the last time they won a state championship under coach Chuck Porter.

The Aces’ 80-point win against North made school history, but Akpan said that is only the beginning. Wichita South is next; the Titans are coming off of a 52-0 win against Southeast.

“Honestly, we expect to beat South the same way that we beat North,” Akpan said. “We are starting to get that culture of when we show up at ballgames, we know we are supposed to win. This year, when we go up against Northwest, it has to be the same way.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 1:15 PM.

Hayden Barber

The Wichita Eagle

316-269-6760

Wichita Eagle preps reporter Hayden Barber brings the area updates on all high school sports while adding those hard-to-find human-interest stories on Wichita’s student-athletes.