The Manhattan High School Freshman and Junior Varsity football teams combined for a shutout victory against Emporia High School on Oct. 3, taking down the Spartans 56 – 0.

First-year coach Chad Wolf said what he looks for in good players is hard work, effort and willingness to listen. 

“Just play hard every play,” Wolf said. “Effort — that’s the main thing. We want good effort and just play hard like we don’t care if you mess up. That’s alright, just make sure that you’re playing hard. Most of the time good things will come out of it. We expect and want them to do the right thing,  but if they mess up we really want 100% effort out of it.”

Freshmen joined the J.V. team for the game because their game was canceled due to numbers on the EHS team. Because of the combination, a couple of freshmen took the field including runningbacks and members of the O-Line. One of those players was freshman Kha’mario Davis. 

“I feel good,” Davis said. “I mean the team wasn’t that good …I feel like we can get better competition to get better.”

The Freshmen players leveled up to the J.V. players’ energy. Davis felt he played his part well and was able to take it up a notch.

“We played well, we still have some things to improve,” Wolf said. “I think the score board showed that as a team, we’re getting better, and it’s really allowed us to get more players in and more experience, which is good.”