‘Can’t say enough’: Conway Springs football back on top with back-to-back state titles
Since moving to Conway Springs in 1998, Matt Biehler has fallen in love with coaching football in a small town.
He loves how football consumes the community, not just every Friday night in the fall, but year-round. He loves the support he receives from parents, who want nothing more than to see their sons play for the Cardinals. Most of all, he loves the winning tradition.
There’s nothing quite like the buzz in Conway Springs when the Cardinals are winning championships, and Biehler has the town buzzing again like it was during the start of the century during their dynasty run.
Conway Springs won its second straight Class 1A state championship in a decisive 41-6 victory over Centralia on Saturday at Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson, completing a perfect 13-0 season and title defense — the program’s first undefeated season and back-to-back title run since 2004.
“I can’t say enough good things about the people and community of Conway Springs,” Biehler said. “They have been so great to me and my family. If we ever needed anything, they’ve always been there for us. It’s just a really neat place to be and that’s something I’ve always really enjoyed being a part of.”
No one has a better perspective on Conway Springs’ longevity than Biehler, who has been on the coaching staff for all nine of the program’s state championships. He’s been an assistant under three different title-winning head coaches in Mark Bliss, Greg Rosenhagen and Lelin George and has now led the Cardinals to three more titles as the head man in charge.
He credits the continuity on his staff for helping keep the tradition alive at Conway Springs. Brent Martens, the team’s offensive coordinator since 2001, has turned the Cardinals into one of the premier single-wing offenses in the state, while line coach Greg Hullinger has been with the program since 1998 and Ryan King, who was on the 1998 title team, has coached for his alma mater since 2008.
“I’m really happy because I am so blessed to have such a tremendous coaching staff and we’ve all been together for a long time,” Biehler said. “And then our kids, I can’t say enough about how they went about their business all year and prepared every week.”
Conway Springs entered the season with some question marks after the graduation of star running back Brayden Kunz, but navigated a season that was filled with injuries to extend its winning streak to 24 games. The Cardinals outscored their five postseason opponents 211-68 with no game closer than 15 points.
Isaac Winter finished off a standout senior season with 227 rushing yards and three touchdowns in the state championship game, as he finished with 1,934 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns on the season. Junior Logan Osner also was superb after winning a quarterback battle in the summer, posting 97 rushing yards to finish the year with 1,238 rushing yards and 13 scores.
Conway Springs led Centralia 21-6 at halftime and shut out the Panthers in the second half.
“Our senior class has been unbelievable this season with their leadership,” Biehler said. “They have been great leaders to the younger kids and they made practice a lot of fun. It never felt like it was a grind this season. It was a very enjoyable time to go to practice and then the games were just icing on the cake with these guys.”
The 10 seniors on the roster this season were Winter, Grant Fisher, Eli Howard, Cade Howell, Cooper Koster, Charles May, Levi Mies, Connor Rusco, Gage Schmidt and Layne Whitney.
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