Brayden Kunz left gigantic shoes to fill as the featured back in Conway Springs’ single-wing attack. 

The All-State Top 11 pick capped his career with a monster senior campaign last season, rushing for 2,806 yards and 24 touchdowns to lead the Cardinals to a 1A state championship before heading off to Northwest Missouri State. 

Waiting in the wings was Isaac Winter, who proved to possess both the demeanor and the skills to be more than a worthy successor to Kunz. 

“I knew that he would be able to handle the pressure,” Conway Springs coach Matt Biehler said. “I wasn’t expecting him to be as superb as he was all year, but as hard as he worked, I wouldn’t have doubted it. We talked about how if he could stay healthy, he could be really dynamic.”

Winter answered the call with a phenomenal senior season, landing him a spot on KSHSAA Covered’s Top 11 team to follow in Kunz’s footsteps. 

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior ran for 1,934 yards and 23 touchdowns on the season. He ended his career emphatically with a 227-yard, 3-touchdown performance in Conway Springs’ 41-6 win against Centralia to help the Cardinals defend their title, cement a 13-0 season and extend their winning streak to 24 games. 

“Kunz was a great player and I knew it was a big hole we needed to fill this year,” Winter said. “I had good teammates to help me fill that role and help me be the back that I needed to be for the team.

“As a team, we did a good job of replacing that leader in our offense.”

Making sure his teammates receive credit has been a common theme for Winter, exemplified by a selfless act late in the state championship game.

With the game already locked up, Winter broke loose for a long run and was headed for the end zone before slowing and taking a knee at the 1-yard line. 

“I already had three touchdowns,” Winter said. “I had deserving teammates, either Cade Howell or Logan Osner, and I figured they deserved a touchdown at the state game for the season they had.”

Osner was the recipient of Winter’s generosity, scoring on a 1-yard plunge. 
 
“That’s the type of kid he is,” Biehler said. 

A complementary weapon to Kunz last season, Winter rushed for 825 yards with nine touchdowns as a junior.  

“(Kunz) was always teaching me the little things,” Winter said. “How to hold the ball through traffic. The steps to take for a spinner look. Just all these little things that he knew from experience.”

Nothing slowed Winter down this season, not even a deep bone bruise in his foot that he dealt with late in the season. 

“We tried to sit him and he came out and had 152 yards in one half,” Biehler said. 

The Cardinals did end up holding Winter out for the regular-season finale against South Sumner County, but he found peak form for the playoffs. 

With great vision and athleticism, Winter only needed a tiny seam to unleash big runs. 

“He really trusted his teammates,” Biehler said. “Cade Howell is out in front blocking for him from the blocking back position, and he’s a 220-pound guy. Isaac was so patient waiting on and reading Cade’s blocks. They just had the trust factor when they were out there together. He trusted the offensive line and trusted to follow that fullback block. 

“Some backs want to press the issue and think they have to do everything, but he was patient and knew how the plays developed and knew how to read defenses.”

The huge championship game marked Winter’s last ever football game. He’s headed to Kansas State University where he’ll major in engineering. 

“For him to have the best game of his career (in the title game), that was just a really phenomenal thing to watch,” Biehler said. “I was really proud that happened for him. You want every kid to be his type of way. If he had to play right guard, he would have been our right guard. He’d play wherever he was needed.”

“In August, we always start practice with a victory formation and talk about how we want to end the season in a victory formation, which we did,” said Winter, who was also a solid linebacker. “That was always the goal the whole year and everybody put their heads down and worked for it.”

Winter is one of 13 players on this year’s team that are sons of former Conway Springs players who won state championships. His father, Curtis, was on Conway Springs’ first championship team in 1998, while Isaac’s uncles had a hand in helping the Cardinals win four straight titles from 2001-2004. That run included a 62-game win streak. 

Isaac’s older brothers, Peyton and Jacob, also played for Biehler at Conway Springs. 

“It’s fun to be a part of a community like that,” Winter said. “You want to be like (the past players). That’s the attitude around here.”

“I’ve had the opportunity to coach his dad, as an assistant, and his brothers,” Biehler said. “Just a phenomenal family. Isaac’s the last boy so I’m kind of shedding a tear that there’s not another boy coming up.”