Ark City Football Readies For First State Championship Game Since 1986

Posted By: Brady Bauman November 26, 2020

Ark City High School Student-Body President Baylee Musson, a senior, paints a window of Travers Flooring Gallery on 225 S. Summit St. with messages in support of the Ark City football team. (Photo by Brady Bauman)

During a time when there’s no shortage of bad news, the Arkansas City High School football team has been a source of very good news in Cowley County.

The Bulldogs are in the state championship game for the first time in 34 years, and the instances to correct out-of-towners who say “Arkan-SAW City” instead of “Ar-KANSAS City” have skyrocketed since the team has wowed — and upset in thrilling fashion — high school football fans across the state.

Ark City will play St. James Academy, a private Catholic school in Lenexa, for the Kansas Class 4A State Championship Friday at Gowers Stadium in Hutchinson. 

The game will be broadcast live on KSOK, ksokradio.com and the KSOK Mobile App starting with pregame at 12:30 and kickoff at 1 p.m.

“This is kind of a childhood dream when you get into coaching,” Ark City Football Head Coach Jon Wiemers said following the Bulldogs’ state semifinal win at McPherson last week. “And it doesn’t happen very often…. it’s really special.”

It’s the second trip for Wiemers at Ark City. 

Wiemers was 36 and had already spent time as offensive coordinator at the junior college and NCAA Division II levels when he was first hired to became coach of the Bulldogs in 2011 and the next season was named league Coach of the Year after leading the Bulldogs to a 6-5 record and their first district title and state playoff appearance in 16 years.

In 2013, Wiemers left Ark City and coached the offensive line and was offensive coordinator for one season at William Penn. After that, he was offensive line and assistant head coach at Southeast Missouri. He also joined the staff of Southwest Oklahoma State University the season prior to coming back to Ark City.

When Wiemers came back to the Bulldogs three years ago, he told the newspaper he missed being a head coach and wanted stability for his family.

Last week, after upsetting McPherson in McPherson Stadium — after back-to-back prior seasons of the Bulldogs’ playoff run ending in McPherson — Wiemers told KSOK-NewsCow it wasn’t a difficult decision to return to Ark City.

“I’ve had a lot of jobs,” Wiemers said. “I lived in 13 houses in 13 years. When I knew at that moment I wanted to coach high school football again and Coach Bucher called me, I just felt like I fit. I just felt home.

“It’s full of hardworking people. Their kids are hardworking people. It’s just a good fit, and I love it.”

Ark City ended its regular season 2-6 but again has shown the Ark Valley Chisolm Trail League is no slouch at Division II, and leaves the Bulldogs plenty battle-tested when it’s time for the Class 4A playoffs.

After defeating Winfield in Bulldogs Stadium for the Cowley Cup 33-0 to start the season, Ark City saw a four-game stretch with road games at Andover, at Goddard, and at Salina Central.

The other home game in that 1-5 start?

Maize, who finished its season 9-2 and lost its quarterfinal in the Class 5A playoffs to Bishop-Carrol 49-35.

The Eagles beat Ark City in September in Bulldogs Stadium 53-8.

While Ark City showed flashes at Andover and at Salina Central that there was a lot of fight bubbling underneath the surface of the final scoreboard tally, the Bulldogs put it all together at Goddard-Eisenhower, and upset the Tigers 22-14.

But after a game where it seemed Ark City had done almost everything right, the opposite seemed to be the case for homecoming against Valley Center.

While Ark City clearly out-played the Hornets between the 20s, the overall youth of the team showed and the Bulldogs beat themselves in key moments and fell to Valley Center 27-21.

The Bulldogs were 2-5 with one game left, and was against the defending 4A runner-up in Andover Central, another league opponent of the AVCTL D. II.

The Jaguars ended Ark City’s season methodically and without excitement 37-6.

But there’s just something about the Bulldogs when playoff time hits, since Wiemers has returned.

In each of the past three post seasons, the Bulldogs have proved how hardened their league leaves them for the playoffs. For three-straight seasons, Ark City has won the regional title and made it all the way to the Elite 8.

Every game of every post season in that stretch, including this one, has been on the road.

And this post season has seen epic, thrilling endings with the Bulldogs’ seven seniors making clutch plays and at times stealing the show from Ark City’s talented stable of sophomores.

After opening the playoffs with a rare win at Wellington 27-6 — the Bulldogs first win against Wellington since 1988 — Ark City did the unthinkable and avenged its regular season finale loss to Andover Central with an amazing, last-second, goal line stand win at the Jaguars brand-new stadium 33-28. 

Andover Central, the No. 2 seed in the west side of Class 4A and last year’s runner-up in the state title game, fell.

But Ark City — the No. 10 seed in this year’s bracket — had plenty of excitement left.

The Bulldogs led by one point with 15 seconds left and held Wamego’s quarterback from running for a 2-point conversion to try and win the game. 

He was stopped short of the goal line by the Bulldogs defense. 

Ark City secured the ball on Wamego’s onside kick attempt and beat the Red Raiders 21-20 for the Bulldogs first sectional victory in decades.

Next was at McPherson, where Ark City had lost in the Elite 8 the previous two years.

But this was for Ark City’s first trip to state in 34 years, and the Bulldogs thrilled again, holding off the Bullpups with an interception by senior Devon Watkins in the final nine seconds to finally beat McPherson 28-27 and end its season instead.

The Bulldogs have appeared in the state championship game in football five times in the program’s history. 

Ark City’s lone title was in Class 5A in 1979. 

The Bulldogs were expected to win it all in 1979.

In 1978, Ark City lost the state championship game by a point in Ark City at a rain-soaked Curry Field.

The 1979 Bulldogs — quarterbacked by future MLB All-Star and 1997 World Series Champion Darren Daulton and also featured future KU running back Harvey Fields, among several other stand-outs — went undefeated and at times didn’t allow opposing teams to put up positive offensive yardage, much less touchdowns. 

The 2020 Bulldogs are classic underdogs against a St. James Academy team that also wasn’t expected to win its semifinal.

The Thunder (7-4) beat Bishop Miege.

Bishop Miege has won the 4A championship every year since 2013.

But not this year.

Ark City (6-6) is one more thriller away from partying like it’s 1979.

This Bulldogs team took a far different path than the 1979 team did, but a win’s a win — and there’s been some sweet ones for the 2020 Ark City Bulldogs.

Maybe there’s one more.