Wichita recruits have led K-State football to glory before. A new group aims for more
Long before he became the top football recruit in Kansas, Avery Johnson played on two of the most dominant youth teams that Wichita has ever known.
One was called the Bears. Johnson played quarterback, his father served as coach and his teammates included Dylan Edwards and Wesley Fair. They teamed up in first grade and stayed together until high school. They were so good that they lost a grand total of four games over the span of eight years, despite often playing against older competition.
“We were doing things at a young age that a lot of other teams simply couldn’t do,” Johnson says now. “I mean, I was calling my own plays in the third grade.”
The other team was called the Steelers. They played on the hardwood instead of the gridiron. But Johnson found just as much success when he switched to basketball each winter. That team’s roster featured many of the same players from football, plus the notable addition of Will Anciaux. No one can remember that team’s exact record over the years, but they didn’t lose many games either.
“We went around and just ran everyone off the basketball court,” Anciaux says. “We had a pretty salty little team that won its fair share of trophies.”
Parents saved many pictures from those days. Johnson’s blond hair was just as long and curly as it is now. Anciaux was the tall kid, same as now. Fair was always smiling, same as now. It seemed like they constantly had something to celebrate.
Perhaps the same will be true when they reunite as Kansas State football players in 2023. The last time this much in-state talent decided to play together in college, memorable things happened. K-State’s roster was loaded with Wichita recruits the last time it won a Big 12 championship. The metro area produced enough talent to make the Wildcats national championship contenders in both 2011 and 2012.
Is that kind of success once again on the horizon now that Anciaux, Fair and Johnson are all bound for Manhattan?
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Anciaux says. “I think we’ve got the chemistry there already. Just get us back out on the field together and I know we can make something really special happen.”
Wichita for the win
Those are some bold words. But they aren’t without merit.
Wichita, the largest city in the Sunflower State, has always been an important recruiting area for K-State football. The Wildcats are typically at their best when they convince the metro area’s top players to stay home. Conversely, there have been times when they watched in disappointment as recent Wichita products such as Blake Bell (Oklahoma), Trace Clark (Oklahoma State), Deandre Goolsby (Florida), Breece Hall (Iowa State), Xavier Kelly (Clemson) and Joseph Randle (Oklahoma State) won big elsewhere.
But K-State rarely lost to anyone a decade ago when its Wichita connections were at their strongest.
A group of star players that included Arthur Brown (Wichita East), Bryce Brown (Wichita East), Anthony Cantele (Kapaun Mt. Carmel), B.J. Finney (Andale), Chris Harper (Wichita Northwest), Tysyn Hartman (Kapaun) and Jonathan Truman (Kapaun) were at the heart of an unforgettable two-year run that saw the Wildcats win 10 games and reach the Cotton Bowl in 2011, then claim a conference title and a Fiesta Bowl berth in 2012.
“One of the coolest things about those teams was that we had so many Wichita guys,” Cantele said. “We grew up as rivals, constantly trying to beat each other, and then all of a sudden we were on the same team, working toward the same goals. But we still had high school memories to talk about. It made it fun.”
Five of those key contributors went on to play in the NFL. One will be added to the K-State ring of honor this season. They are all still heroes in Manhattan.
But they got their start in Wichita.
“The city is loaded with talent,” K-State recruiting coordinator Taylor Braet said. “Just look at what we’ve been able to do with local kids on our roster. Hopefully the guys from there, and all over the state, are starting to figure out that if you stick together nobody is going to beat you.”
Will history repeat itself?
You won’t find quite as many rosy predictions about K-State’s football future as you would have at this time last month when Edwards was also committed to the Wildcats. Back then, he liked to say “we’re going to have the best recruiting class that Kansas State has ever had.” And fans were in no rush to disagree with the coveted running back from Derby.
But there is still hope that the Wildcats have lined up enough Wichita talent to make a run at another homegrown championship, even now that Edwards has flipped his allegiance to Notre Dame.
Anciaux is a 6-foot-6 tight end from Kapaun who chose K-State over Iowa State, KU, Michigan State and Nebraska. He is the type of player that the Wildcats have let slip away too often over the years. His hands, size and versatility should make him a perfect fit for Chris Klieman’s offense.
Fair is a 6-foot-2 quarterback from Collegiate who plans to play safety in college. He chose K-State over KU, Iowa State and Harvard. You’re not alone if you have already compared him to Hartman.
Tobi Osunsanmi, a 6-foot-2 linebacker from Wichita East, was a key member of K-State’s 2022 recruiting class. There is also a chance the Wildcats can land four-star running back John Randle out of Wichita Heights later this cycle. If that happens, it will make Edwards’ defection much less painful.
“There’s something about putting on that purple and playing for your home state,” Anciaux said. “We’re all excited to go out there and represent our families together. It’s something we’ve been building toward our whole lives. The direction K-State football is going is really exciting. We all see it, and it’s only going up from here.”
And then there is Johnson, the crown jewel of K-State’s recruiting efforts. The 6-foot-2 quarterback from Maize is a consensus four-star recruit who boasted scholarship offers from major programs like Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin before he committed to the Wildcats.
Johnson also passed for 2,550 yards and 20 touchdowns, on top of 1,080 yards and 22 touchdowns as a rusher, last season while leading Maize to the 5A state championship game.
His announcement ceremony was such a big deal that at least one Manhattan bar, located in Aggieville, opened early on a summer Tuesday to hold a watch party. Many drinks were then consumed in his honor.
Fans roared in approval when Johnson said he wanted to be a Wildcat, because it had been a long time since K-State landed a player of his magnitude. Before him, the Wildcats hadn’t secured the top-rated recruit in their home state (per Rivals) since Nick Patton in 2004. And he never actually made it to Manhattan. An academic issue sent him on a detour to Dodge City Community College.
The Brown brothers were both five-star recruits, but they each joined K-State later in their careers as transfers.
In other words, Johnson will be the first No. 1 recruit in Kansas to play for the Wildcats straight out of high school since recruiting services began keeping track of such things.
“He could end up being the best recruit to ever come out of Wichita,” said Brian Butler, an athletic trainer who previously mentored the Brown brothers and other elite players across the area. “He’s a quarterback who has never made a B in his life. He has a 4.125 GPA. Add that onto his athletic talents and, to me, that puts him in a different class.”
Butler is in a unique position to compare Johnson to many of the Wichita recruits who came before him. About 10 years ago, he hosted a youth football camp with K-State’s last batch of great local players. The Browns were there. So was Hartman and lots of other NFL talent.
As they worked to share advice with dozens of youngsters from across the area they all became fixated on the same player — Johnson.
Did you see the throw he just made? Did you notice how fast he runs? Doesn’t he seem like a natural leader?
Needless to say, Johnson won MVP honors that week.
“You could see his drive to win in every single drill all the way back then,” Butler said. “We all wanted to take pictures with him afterward, and it’s fun to see them pop up in my Facebook memories now, because we could tell he was going to be a super special kid. I think he has proven that he is with everything he has done as an athlete since.”
Building another Wildcat connection
Anciaux didn’t think of himself as a trend-setter when he became the first Wichita recruit to commit to K-State this cycle. He chose the Wildcats because he likes their trajectory under Klieman and felt at home when he visited Manhattan.
Fair committed to K-State for similar reasons. It was important for him to stay close to home and he saw a bright future for himself in purple.
Both players were happy with their college decisions before Johnson joined the fold. But they were doing cartwheels after.
“It’s almost like I’m watching a movie,” Anciaux said. “Having all these guys that I’ve known and played sports with for a long time decide to come to Manhattan with me has been a lot of fun. It’s all worked out perfectly.”
They hope others have taken notice.
“Everything has fallen into place,” added Fair. “We all have a lot of pride about staying in state and proving that Kansas kids don’t have to leave and go someplace like the SEC. Kansas has great players and I know we’re going to do something special.”
K-State coaches seem to understand the importance of this Wichita group.
The first thing they did when on-campus recruiting trips were re-instated following the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 was invite Edwards, Johnson and Fair to Manhattan for an unofficial visit. They weren’t even juniors in high school yet, and the Wildcats could have prioritized more pressing recruiting needs. But they felt it was important to make a strong impression on a promising crop of in-state prospects.
Later in the week, the Wildcats also had Anciaux on campus for a visit. K-State sold them all on the same vision.
Stay home, stay together and win big.
“We’ve been friends since we were in the sandbox,” Johnson said. “We were dominant when we were younger. Having that off-the-field chemistry is a lot of times overlooked. I feel like it is really going to translate on the field at Kansas State.”
All four early visitors ended up committing to K-State. Three are still all-in. More could join them.
In any case, there are enough Wichita connections to make Johnson reminisce about his days playing youth sports ... when his teams were dominant.
This story was originally published August 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Wichita recruits have led K-State football to glory before. A new group aims for more."