Year after year, Karns City finds a way to get it done on the football field.

Why?

“I’ve waited my whole life to play for this team,” sophomore Mitchell Kelsea said after the Gremlins’ 42-14 District 9 title win Thursday night against Punxsutawney.

That’s why.

You could take a poll of the entire Karns City roster and would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would disagree with that statement.

Tradition can do that to kids.

And the Karns City football tradition goes back a long way.

Current head coach Ed Conto is wrapping up his 18th season with the Gremlins and has only had one losing campaign. KC just won its sixth consecutive district championship.

Conto is 167-51 at Karns City. But this program was winning even before Conto.

Mel Semenko coached the Gremlins for 14 years, reaching the Little 12 Conference title game four times. When the program stumbled for a couple of years, Lon Hazlet took over.

All he did was go 27-6 with three playoff wins over his final three seasons. Hazlet led Karns City to back-to-back perfect regular seasons, the first Butler County football program in 38 years to turn that trick.

Since Conto came over from A-C Valley, the Gremlins have not slowed down.

They’ve sped up, actually.

Even when it looks like KC is headed for a down year, it doesn’t happen.

This year’s team started off 0-2, getting blown out by Armstrong and losing to Brookville. The Gremlins allowed 40 points to both.

Since then, they’ve won seven of nine games.

Since then, Conto picked up the 200th win of his coaching career.

Since then, the Gremlins secured that sixth straight district title.

Karns City has been dealing with numerous injuries, particularly late in the year. Leading rusher Dalton Beham missed action with a badly sprained ankle. He still managed a 1,000-yard season.

The Gremlins rushed for more than 3,000 yards as a team again. They seem to do that all the time. Beham has rushed for 25 touchdowns this year.

Nine other KC players have rushed for at least one.

That’s the Karns City way.

The more varsity players trained and prepped to produce, the less costly injuries become.

Karns City has had more than its share of physical ailments, especially late in the year.

Erik Pfeifer, a receiver-defensive back, suffered a badly broken ankle in preseason and had not played the entire year.

But Pfeifer worked hard to get back and made his season debut in the Gremlins’ district title win Thursday night.

He wouldn’t quit on the prospect of donning that uniform this year.

Who can blame him?

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle