Be careful what you wish for, the old fable states. You just might get it.
Such is how the Hays Indians find themselves moving on from a dream football season that culminated in their first state championship game appearance to a 2025 opener against perennial Class 6A powerhouse Derby.
“We were kind of joking and kidding around, and they called our bluff,” Hays coach Tony Crough said.
Hays, which finished 8-5 last season after a 35-13 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas in the Class 5A title game, will actually open against Derby for the second consecutive year. The Panthers are coming off an 11-1 season that began with a 40-7 victory over Hays last September at Fort Hays State’s Lewis Field.
The second game of the home-and-home series is 7 p.m. Friday at Derby’s Panther Stadium. Derby, a state semifinalist last season, is No. 2 in KSHSAA Covered’s preseason Class 6A rankings; Hays starts No. 4 in 5A.
Hays, with eight returning starters on offense and defense, will run a non-league gauntlet this month leading up to its Western Athletic Conference opener against Garden City on Sept. 26. After Derby, the Indians return home to host Oklahoma’s reigning Class 6A-II champion Choctaw before traveling to Manhattan to face last year’s Kansas 6A runner-up.
The genesis of the Hays-Derby matchup can be attributed, in part, to opposing assistants from the same hometown.
Crough’s offensive coordinator, Cole Cherryholmes, and Derby coach Brandon Clark’s defensive coordinator, Austin Wuthrich, were standout athletes at Remington. As Crough recalls, a discussion between the two helped stir the possibility of a brief series.
“It’s kind of hard to find anyone who wants to play out here and nobody wants to play Derby,” Crough said. “I think Austin said, ‘I’ll talk to Clark and see what he thinks.’
“I think they were looking for something different. They hadn’t had much luck finding a competitive game, and we’re not super competitive with them. But we’re someone that plays a little different style than they see all the time.”
Even though Clark’s team used a second-quarter flurry last year to build a 33-7 halftime lead and handily defeated Hays, he sees the Indians in a different light.
“We kind of knew this was going to be their two years to be really good,” Clark said. “They’re got a really big offensive line, big defensive line, really good skill athletes. You can’t turn that down.
“You want to get tested Week 1 and find out where your weaknesses are and find out what you need to work on.”
The test will go both ways.
While Hays returns an 1,800-yard rusher in senior Holden Lind and a massive line led by Division I prospect Gus Corsair, this will mark the start of senior Zane Viegra’s turn at quarterback. Viegra, a backup to the now-graduated Carter Graham throughout his career, is returning from a broken tibia he sustained in relief of Graham during the Indians’ 5A semifinal victory over Eisenhower last November.
Graham broke his collar bone earlier in the contest. Viegra’s injury created a scenario that sent the Indians scrambling down the stretch last season.
“It was a six-month recovery for him,” Crough said. “It was probably mid-May, almost summer, before he really started running again. It was a heartbreaking thing for Zane. We had two quarterbacks who were capable and in a lot of programs, Zane would have been the starter. When he came in that game, he was going to lead us into the state championship. He was playing great.
“Now, there’s not a quarterback in the state who’s got a tougher first month than him. Our first three weeks, even five weeks with Junction City, there’s not a tougher month for a kid who’s never started at quarterback.”
Derby faces a similar situation as it looks to replace now-graduated Drew Kemp at quarterback. Senior Kris Dorsey and junior Blade Clark have competed for the spot in the preseason. The Panther offense has the luxury of returning junior tailback Arieus Finley, who ran for 1,512 yards and 26 touchdowns last season.
Clark said his curiosity on Friday may center on the action in front of the skill-position players, where Panthers like offensive tackle Max Robinson and defensive end Dalton Hornback have impressed him over the summer.
“Their o-line is humongous. Our defensive line is decent size,” Clark said. “Our offensive line is kind of tiny except for Max, and they’re huge. I just want to see how physical we are with our front seven on both sides of the ball.”
Crough’s concern has a wider view. While the Indians played in a state final last year and won 10 games in 2022, he knows a visit to Panther Stadium on the opening night of a football season is different than most.
“Their crowd, their environment is great,” Crough said. “We talked after a practice and I reminded our kids they were getting ready to go into what might be the best Friday night environment in all of Kansas.
“I know there are some great small-school atmospheres and I’m not trying to downplay any of those. But Panther Stadium on a Friday night, there can be 4,000, 5,000 people there and all the little Panthers are running around. It’s something that Coach Clark has built and we’re excited to go see it. I hope we’re not starstruck. I’m worried it might be a little bit much for us, but we’re excited to see where we stack up.”