During practice on Tuesday, Emporia High coach Bill Lowe reminded everyone within earshot who was playing quarterback for the Spartans the last time they locked up a district championship: the same guy they had playing QB at that moment in Tuesday’s practice. The same guy who finished for EHS under center during last week’s win to clinch a playoff spot. The guy Lowe has called “Mr. Cool.”
Two years ago in the district finale at undefeated Junction City, then-sophomore Bryce Childs took control of the Spartan offense in the fourth quarter in relief of Taylor Euler, who had suffered an apparent concussion. Led by the running of Edd Noonan, the Spartans pulled off one of the most storied comebacks in EHS history, erasing a 33-15 deficit and shocking Junction 34-33 to win the Class 6A District 5 title.
Now, here’s Childs again in potentially the same position. With starting quarterback Brandon Gentz nursing a hip flexor injury this week, Childs could be called on to lead the Spartan offense — from the start this time — as EHS tries to seal the Class 5A District 5 championship on Friday with a win at Salina South.
Mr. Cool is, well, cool with that prospect.
“Brandon’s my buddy,” Childs said. “We’re pretty tight friends, and I’d rather have him out there, (us) playing our respective positions, because he’s worked hard all year. He should be in there (for) the district championship.
“Unfortunate that he got hurt, but I can step in.”
Normally a receiver and cornerback, Childs already did some reliving of history last week, when he stepped in for the ailing Gentz to help the Spartans seal a playoff spot with a 32-28 win over Salina Central. Gentz left the field during the Spartans’ first possession of the second half, and soon afterward, Childs contributed a 19-yard run to help put EHS in position for a 20-yard TD run by Mark Kolmer. Later, Childs finished off a scoring drive with a one-yard sneak for a touchdown, then scampered 49 yards down the right sideline — on a broken play — on the drive that ended with Kolmer’s game-winning three-yard TD.
Childs ended up with 88 big yards on eight carries, and he would be the first to admit that was a whole lot more than he had to do against Junction City in 2007. But Childs’ playmaking ability wasn’t what impressed Lowe that night two years ago; his poise was.
“Most sophomores that go in there at quarterback would be freaking out,” Lowe said. “But he did a great job.”
Childs agrees that he keeps calm in most any situation, not letting himself get rattled. But although he wasn’t freaking out the moment that Euler went down in ’07, he was certainly nervous, admitting that his thought when told to warm up was, “Oh, God.”
Ask him if that game forced him to grow up quickly as a player, and he’ll shrug the question off and laugh about how easy his job was that night.
“I guess you could say that,” he said. “I just went in there, handed the ball off to Edd. I mean, he’s pretty good.”
His role this Friday, if he starts under center, will be quite a bit bigger — he’ll have to do more than just hand the ball off to Kolmer, EHS’ stud running back of the modern age. Gentz’s running ability has been a threat to Spartan opponents all year long, and although Childs bears some similarities in style to Gentz, he’s also different.
“Mainly their personalities,” Lowe said. “Brandon’s a little more upbeat, moves a little quicker. But Bryce is smoother when he runs. He’s smooth, and it doesn’t look like he’s going very fast, but he really is. ... But there’s not any dropoff, for sure, as far as counting on him.”
Not getting as many snaps as Gentz does in practice, Childs asks a few more questions when he’s in the huddle.
“Just the fact that, like he said, we’ve gotta help him out a little bit on certain plays that he might’ve forgotten or he isn’t too sure on them,” senior left tackle Emmanuel Aceves said. “But we’ve been playing with him... since eighth grade, we’ve been playing together as a team, so we were used to having him as quarterback. So, there’s really not that big of a difference.”
Which is good for Emporia, because Gentz’s status for Friday seems to still be a toss-up at best. On Tuesday, Lowe believed it was looking like Gentz wouldn’t be ready in time. On Wednesday morning, Gentz’s hip was feeling better, and Lowe was somewhat hopeful once again. But having Gentz healthy for the start of the playoffs is more important to Lowe than securing a district championship.
“If he’s not 100 percent, (he’s) probably not gonna play,” Lowe said, “just because I don’t want to take a chance on getting him hurt worse for the next week.”
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