By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's football team is coming off back-to-back banner seasons, posting 16 wins over the 2021 and 2022 campaigns, including an 8-3 record last fall.
And with a strong returning nucleus, Steve Buhler's Junior Blues would appear to have the experience and talent to be a major player in the Centennial League and Class 6A ranks this season.
Washburn Rural football coach Steve Buhler returns a strong nucleus from a team that went 8-3 and reached the third round of the Class 6A playoffs a year ago. [File photo/TSN]
"Especially with our senior group, they've been playing a lot of varsity football and the expeection now, even from them, is to go a step further,'' said Buhler, who is starting his 11th season at Rural and has a 173-96 career mark. "You've got a lot of steps to keep working towards if you haven't won that state championship yet, so we always have something in front of us to keep working on, but I think the expectation is to be there late in the season, late in the playoffs and see where you can put yourself.''
Washburn Rural returns 30 lettermen, including five starters on both sides of the ball and 10 returners who earned TopSports.news All-Shawnee County recognition (Top 22, Second 22 or honorable mention) a year ago.
That group includes returning senior Top 22 picks Packson Bettis, Branton DeWeese, JC Heim and Titan Osburn.
Washburn Rural senior linebacker JC Heim (25) is a returning TopSports.news All-Shawnee County pick. [File photo/TSN]
Bettis, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound defensive end, recorded 61 tackles (38 solos) with 10 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, 12 quarterback pressures and a forced fumble last season while Heim, a 6-3, 215 outside linebacker, was in on 73 tackles (48 solos) with 15 tackles for loss, five sacks,
seven quarterback pressures, five forced fumbles, three recovered fumbles (one for a touchdown) and three blocked punts.
Washburn Rural senior quarterback Branton DeWeese is a two-time All-Shawnee County Top 22 selection. [File photo/TSN}
Offensively, DeWeese, a 6-0, 185 quarterback, was named to the All-Shawnee County Top 22 for the second straight season after completing 143 of 234 pass attempts for 1,884 yards and 25 touchdowns. DeWeese had a 61 percent completion rate while also rushing for 253 yards and six TDs on 61 attempts.
A 6-3, 170 wide receiver, Osburn had a breakout season in 2022, catching 32 passes for 668 yards and 12 touchdowns while averaging 21.1 yards per catch.
Other returning starters on offense include senior guard Nate Miller (6-3, 270) and junior tackles Jacob Hawks (6-8, 290) and Caden Estrada (6-2, 270) while sophomore running back TJ Minikwu (5-11, 190) is expected to make a major impact this season after seeing considerable playing time as a freshman.
Also back on defense are senior outside linebacker Jaren Heim (6-1, 215), senior defensive end Jamond Lane (6-0, 280) and junior free safety King Leonard (5-9, 175).
Lane was named the county defensive newcomer of the year last season.
Buhler gave his squad high marks for its offseason and summer preparation to get ready for the upcoming campaign.
"We felt really good about our numbers in the weight room, probably the best since I've been here, and I will say especially on the freshman side we had a group of freshmen up in the 40s and 50s that were at weights and came to team camps and were very active and that's great to see,'' Buhler said.
"As the head guy you're always looking a year or two down the road so it was really nice to see the enthuasiasm. We were probably averaging 85 kids in the weight room over the course of the summer, so it was a really good summer for us.''
Buhler also feels good about the balance between the Junior Blues' four classes.
"The last couple of years we've had a good mix of seniors, juniors and sophomores and we still have that mix this year,'' he said. "We have a good senior group but we have a lot of juniors that played a lot and we've got some sophomores that got in last year that will be starting this year.''
Washburn Rural will be at home Friday night to open its season against Wichita East.
WASHBURN RURAL
2023 football schedule
September -- 1 Wichita East, 8 De Soto, 15 at Piper, 22 Manhattan, 29 at Junction City.
October -- 6 Topeka High (Hummer), 13 at Emporia, 19 at Topeka West, 27 Playoffs.
