By Matt Browning
The Conway Springs football team lost so much talent from the 2023 state championship team that any thought of going back-to-back seemed unrealistic.
Except to Cade Howell.
He knew with hard work, determination and belief, the Cardinals could win another state title.
Behind Howell’s stellar defense, Conway Springs indeed won its second straight championship.
“From Day 1 with summer weights and practice we had one goal and that was to make it back to state,” Howell said. “With a lot of hard work, grit and determination we achieved it and did so by also going undefeated. So not did we achieve back-to-back state titles we did so by remaining No. 1 all season.”
Howell racked up 106 tackles, 16 tackles for a loss, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries for the Cardinals, which defeated Centrailia 41-6 in the 1A title game.
“One memory that stands out to me was setting the tone in the state game by being the lead blocker on Grant Fisher’s punt return for the first score of the game,” Howell said. “That gave the crew momentum and also gave us the confidence we needed to go through the rest of the state game on the gas and not letting up.”
While winning state was the most important game to Howell, the most memorable one came a few weeks earlier.
“The Marion game because of the weather and field conditions,” Howell said. “Also, because we are two hard running football teams who don’t pass the ball a lot and for the past two years it has been tight games with them to advance further into the playoffs.”
