17 November 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Kapaun Mt. Carmel football has had a dominant season. The Crusaders head into the sub-state round of playoffs as the top seed in 5A with an eight-game winning streak.
Leading the way for the team is dominant running back Omari Elias, who became the all-time career leading rusher in Greater Wichita Athletic League history during Saturday’s game against Maize South.
Elias rushed for 364 yards and five touchdowns against the Mavericks. He now has 7,363 career rushing yards.
“I was already excited we won the game. A lot of wins piled on top of each other in a short time, so really just keeping the energy up,” said Elias.
Crusaders head football coach Weston Schartz delivered the news.
“I told him, ‘Omari, you just became all-time City League rushing record.’ It was almost like, ‘Hey, I’m kind of tired. can you go talk to somebody else?’ He’s very unassuming,” explained Schartz.
He’s a humble player, but Schartz has seen his potential to break the record since the summer.
“That wasn’t our goal, but if he got close, we were going to make sure he got it. You know I got to tell you, we’ve been looking forward to that,” he said.
The tailback has topped former Blue Ace Bryce Brown’s 2008 record by 154 yards.
“Bryce Brown is probably one of the greatest backs in Kansas history, so being even mentioned in the same sentence as him is pretty good,” added Schartz.
It took Brown four seasons to achieve the feat. Elias did it in three since he didn’t start his high school career as a running back.
“He was actually the second-team tailback. He did not start on the freshman team. He was our middle linebacker,” said Schartz.
Elias switched to offense as a sophomore, showing his versatility on both sides of the ball. Coach Schartz says he sees similarities between Elias and his father, whom Schartz coached at Wichita West High School years ago.
“They’re both strong, fast, and intelligent. They both love the game, and they could both play any position they wanted on the field,” he said.
Elias no longer keeps track of his personal success.
“Most of the time when I had any idea of records was when I was getting close to Kapaun records, and kind of when I started to chip away at those, it kind of just started to leave my mind,” he said.
His main motivation is playing hard for his team.
“It takes 11 guys to accomplish anything. The guys up front do their job. We have a lot of chemistry just being able to feed off each other emotionally as well as obviously physically,” he added.
The last achievement Elias is aiming for is a state title. But his legacy in Wichita is already secured.
“We’ve had a lot of great players in this league, and Omari will forever be mentioned as one of them,” said Schartz.