Return of the Raiders

If you look at all the banners hanging in the Kaiserslautern High School gymnasium, you’ll find numerous championships for basketball, baseball, track, volleyball and even a couple of banners for varsity golf championships. Many of them are as recent as last year.

Amid those recent tributes to the school’s sports achievements, you will find one lone banner for America’s most popular sport — football. That seminal American sport played on grass and Astroturf every fall from pee wee to the pros has garnered this high school exactly one championship — circa 1980.

Thirty-three years is a long time to wait for football glory, no matter how you measure it. That’s 33 senior classes that have passed through KHS without a football championship. The U.S. presidency has changed five times since K-Town hung a football banner from the rafters.

In 1980, Dr. Barrett Smith, the current principal of Kaiserslautern High School, was just four years removed from being a student there. And prior to this year, things got even worse, as the varsity racked up zero wins. Teams started looking at the schedule and chalking up K-town as a win before the game was even played.

But something changed this year.  Whether it’s the new stadium, the first time in the 60-year history of KHS they’ve had their own facilities, a senior class that has finally said “Enough” or head coach Aaron Scalise’s system fully taking root, the Raiders of Kaiserslautern High School have been able to utter two words not heard in the hallways in a long time.

“Winning streak.”

From the rubble of what he inherited two years ago, Scalise has begun to build his program on what he calls “1440 football.” That’s how many minutes there are in a day, and that’s how many minutes a day he is committed to making the Raiders a winning team. It is also how many minutes he expects his players to devote to the effort as well.

“1440 football is our philosophy, which questions our student athletes, ‘How do you spend your time?’” Scalise said. “If you want to be a great football player, what are you willing to do to become a great football player? If you want to be a great lawyer, an architect or a military leader, what are you willing to do with your time to maximize your potential?”

The belief and dedication is beginning to show results. In their inaugural game at the new stadium, K-Town demolished the local national team from Hanau, 44-0, before a full house. That was the team’s first win of any kind in two years, and the mixture of relief and joy showed not only in the players but the coaches, fans and family members as well.

Next was a road game in Vilseck and the first true test of the team’s newfound winning ways. The Raiders found themselves down 13-0 to the Falcons late in the third quarter. Instead of folding or giving up, like past teams would have done, this team dug deep and came from behind to beat the heavily favored Falcon’s 14-13. The team that, prior to kickoff, was overheard being described as “scrubs” by the Falcons’ players, sent the home team and its fans away with what was, for some, their first loss to K-Town in their high school football career.

“That victory set the tone for our season. In years past, when we would fall behind early, the game seemingly was over,” Scalise said.  “Our comeback win demonstrated a great attitude our student athletes hold, understanding they will battle to the final whistle.”

“It feels good. This team has hope now,” said senior linebacker Tyshon Hendrix. “Before, no one wanted to play football because we were losing. Now, everyone is coming out; everyone wants to see the games.”
Hendrix said that after two years of playing on teams that racked up no wins, where they are this year isn’t taken for granted in the locker room.

“We know what it’s like to be down, and now that we’re coming up. This feels nice,” he said with a smile. “Our goal was to just make the playoffs. Now, our goal is to be playing on Nov. 6. We’ve just got to take it one step at a time”

In addition to the new stadium, new equipment and new winning attitude, this is also the first year since taking over that Scalise feels the team and the system is completely his, he said.

“Beyond our new stadium and field and new equipment, the biggest change that has occurred over the past couple of seasons is I finally have ‘my guys.’ The guys in our program this year have only played football for me at KHS,” Scalise said.

The Raiders have improved to 4-0 after a narrow road win at Patch in Stuttgart and a win against a second local national team. The Raiders’ record is a spotless 4-0 (2-0 in Division I), and the junior varsity is now 2-0 after defeating the Vilseck and Patch JV squads.

“My goal for the varsity team was to make the playoffs and from there, we’ll see what happens. For a team that hasn’t won a game in a long stretch, some people believed this was too lofty a goal,” Scalise said. “We have not reached our goal as of yet, and still have to play some great teams ahead of us. However, we are certainly going to try.”