It was the worst kind of déjà vu for Ashland’s Kale Harris. 

After seeing his freshman football season halted after tearing his ACL in Week 4 against Moscow, Harris’ sophomore season was derailed last year by the same injury to the same knee at the exact same point in the season.

“I didn’t realize how bad it was early on, being so young,” Harris said. “I always heard of it, but really never expected it to happen to me. Worked my tail off, got back for the next year and then against the same team the next year, I intercepted it and made a cut and it happened again.”

It was a devastating setback for a talented player who was struggling to get a promising career off and running. 

“It was pretty tough, not going to lie,” Harris said. “Watching my team from the sidelines having fun, it was tough.”

While sidelined, Harris stayed engaged and did his best to offer advice and encouragement for his teammates. 

“We’re all really close here, so I always tried to give the pep talks," he said. "Just keep their head up, whatever I could do. If I saw something I would come tell the coaches.”

This year, Harris, the Capitol Federal ® True Blue® Student of the Week, finally got his chance to shine without interruption. 

Back healthy, Harris has been a big reason why the Ashland Blujays are preparing for the Six-Player championship game against Cunningham on Saturday in Dodge City. 

The junior has made up for lost time by helping lead the Blujays to a 10-1 record, rushing for over 1,000 yards and leading the team in tackles.

“It’s a pretty great feeling,” Harris said of being able to contribute after going through the knee injuries. “Just getting past three games was a great feeling. 

“Our team’s playing pretty well, and it feels great.”

Harris said he tried to block the past injuries out of his mind this year. 

“They told me to try not to think about it,” Harris said. “If I was thinking about it, I could put a brace on, but they said the brace won’t do anything. 

"I just told myself, ‘If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.’ I didn’t think about it, just went out and played.”

Ashland athletic director and assistant football coach Jeff Chambers said it’s been rewarding to see Harris thrive after his freshman and sophomore seasons were cut short.

“It was very disappointing to see him not finish the season even as a sophomore,” Chambers said. “Week 4, we all kind of held our breaths, and he made it through with no problems. We played Moscow, Week 6, and then we all kind of held our breaths as well. 

“He was a trooper, because to him it was no big deal. He just played and did what he was supposed to do and got through. But the coaches and his parents sighed a real big sigh of relief that he made it through.”

Chambers said Harris is a quiet leader for the Blujays. 

“He’s really shy,” Chambers said. “He doesn’t talk real loud. But his actions speak a lot louder than his words.

“Anything we ask him to do, he does it full speed without any hesitation. He doesn’t hold back. He’s a leader on the field because of his actions. He doesn’t give himself a lot of credit, which is something that you look for in athletes. He’d just assume somebody else be the stud. But he is the player that we look to, if we need something really big to happen, Kale’s going to be one of the guys that can help us do that.”

Harris has rushed for 1,088 yards and 21 touchdowns. He has a team-high 94 tackles.

A week after Landen McPhail ran for six touchdowns for the Blujays in the quarterfinal, Harris went for seven touchdowns last week against Cheylin in the semis. 

“I’m kind of a lead blocker,” Harris said. “We run a lot of sweeps behind me. And I’m kind of a power runner, I run a lot up the middle. Sometimes, I’ll go out for passes if I need to, but we’ve got some other guys that can do that. 

“On defense, I stay in the middle and help (stop) the run.”

Harris started playing football in the fourth grade. He played eight-player football in junior high before making the transition to the six-player game in high school. 

“It’s pretty fun,” Harris said. “It took a little getting used to. Not being able to run without an exchange was probably my biggest thing. But we got used to it pretty quick.”

After taking third place in the Wild West Bowl last year, Ashland took another step forward this year behind a strong core of returning players in the first season of sanctioned six-player football for the Kansas State High School Activities Association.

“Our junior group is pretty solid,” said Harris, who also plays basketball and does track and field but has missed those seasons the last two years because of the knee injuries. “Last year, making it to the (semifinals), we obviously knew that we had a chance and we could do something special.”

Saturday’s title game in Dodge will be a rematch of the season opener, which saw Cunningham hold off Ashland 38-30. 

Harris said there’s a buzz and excitement around the school and the community ahead of the championship game. 

“The community has been great,” Harris said. "They’ve shown a lot of support. The school’s decorated, the hall’s decorated. Last week before our sub-state game (Tia Harris, Kale’s mother and Ashland’s cheer coach) made a video and a lot of community supporters were in the video saying good luck. It was pretty cool to watch. It really got our confidence up.”