“It’s kind of like a Cinderella story,” said Kole Schankie, senior middle linebacker for the Emporia State Hornets.
There’s no glass slipper in this one though, just a lot of hard work by a small-town kid from down the road.
Schankie is from Madison, Kansas, a town of about 700 people just 20 miles from Emporia.
He was a two-time all-state selection for the Madison High eight-man football team and was the two-time Emporia Gazette Area Player of the Year. Schankie had 5,152 yards rushing and 122 touchdowns in his career for the two-time state champion Bulldogs.
“I enjoyed runningback. It was a lot of fun just running around and making plays, but there’s something about defense that is just hard-nosed football,” said Schankie.
Now in his fourth year at Emporia State, Schankie has found his role for the Hornets in backing up the defensive line.
“The first day of camp they told me to go to the linebacker meetings,” Schankie said. “I was just coming in as an athlete, they didn’t really know what they were going to do with me. I’m glad they switched me to linebacker though, it’s a position that’s really stuck.”
Through just nine games this season, Schankie has a team-high of 61 tackles, with four for loss. He has forced and recovered a fumble and leads the MIAA in interceptions with five.
ESU linebacker coach Bryan Nardo was also new to the school in 2012, joining the coaching staff after spending 2011 as an assistant coach at Missouri S&T.
“The second I got here, they showed me Kole’s recruiting film. They said he’s from right down the road, he’s a big, long athlete. We don’t know where he’s going to play, but we know he’s going to help us at some point,” Nardo said.
Schankie admits his initial struggles at his new position made him consider dropping the sport altogether.
“He had moments where he was frustrated because it’s never easy coming into a college defense and trying to learn it when you came from an eight-man school,” Nardo said. “It’s a different game, but we saw his ability and we saw him make plays. All of a sudden, his sophomore year, that’s when I saw the click of ‘Okay, he’s got a chance. He’s starting to really buy in.’ From that point on, he was just everything we wanted him to be.”
In the MIAA, Schankie knows he is up against some of the most talented offensive players in Division II football.
“I’m definitely not the fastest guy or the most gifted, but I just try to play hard and with a lot of heart,” Schankie said. “That’s really what separates me from other people. I just play with a chip on my shoulder.”
It is this attitude that has made Schankie one of the leaders on the Hornet defense.
“This year, Kole has really stepped up. He’s always been vocal, but he’s been even more vocal in a positive way. He knows the direction the team wants to go. He does a good job of keeping everyone focused to get to where we want to be,” said Rem Whitley, junior linebacker.
With his hometown just down the road, Schankie knows that he not only impacts his teammates, but also Madison’s youth football players who make the trip to Welch Stadium on Saturdays.
“That’s one of the things I do, I try to set an example for the younger guys on the team and not only them, but for the younger kids as well. Being so close to home, there’s a lot of kids who look up to me, so I really just want to be a positive role model for them,” Schankie said.
While the Hornets will miss Schankie as a player on the field next year, they will miss who he is off the field even more.
“We’re gonna miss having Kole because he’s a leader and he’s a really good football player. But we’ll miss him more as a person,” Nardo said. “You’ll find that players come and go, but the relationships you make with them are what’s special, he’s a great kid.”
