Brendan Steele

Nicknamed him last week Brendan "man of" Steele. Steele has been a workhorse all season not only leading the 6-3 Hiawatha District Champion football team but also running on the state Red Hawks cross country squad. Steele earned All Big Seven cross country honors by placing 14th in the league meet and was on the state team finishing 54^th place this past Saturday, to help the boys team take fourth out of 12 teams at State.

Steele (a junior) has paced the Red Hawks on the gridiron with 193 carries for 1,076 yards this season. However, he has really turned it on as of late with five consecutive contests of more than 125 yards. It's no coincidence that Hiawatha has won four games in a row. In district play, Steele has also been racking up the carries and touchdowns. He had 27 totes for 158 against Horton, 36 for 185 yards and 4 TDs against Riverside and then produced 182 yards and two more trips to the endzone with 182 yards against Sabetha this past week.

Steele is also fifth on the Hiawatha defense in tackles and made his second interception of the campaign against the Bluejays, which set up the first Red Hawks score and gave them a 7-0 halftime lead.

The Red Hawks are 6-3, but only 8 points short of an undefeated season, after losing to Nemaha Valley (8-1) by 1, #1 Holton (9-0) by 2 points and Jeff West (7-2) by 5 points. Hiawatha football is making their third straight post season appearance this week and Steele hopes to help the senior-laden team make a deep 3A Playoff run.