STORY BY CORA TASSET
Picture: Left to right & Back to Front:
Jakob Benjamin, Kolten Bennet, Chaten TassetEvan Benjamin, Trace Tasset, Corbin Schmidt, Isaac Bowman, Konnor Habiger
On Friday, September 27, the Spearville High School Royal Lancers hosted the Kinsley High School Coyotes for their homecoming game. The Royal Lancers won 54-6, but the real story on the field was about eight young men.
There are 36 total players combined on the teams (Spearville 22 and Kinsley 14); however, there are players who are related by more than an interest in high-school football. Eight players, (5 from Spearville and 3 from Kinsely) are great or great-great-grandchildren of Matt and Mary Dockendorf, who raised their five kids in Kinsley. Three of their daughters are grandmothers or great-grandmothers to the boys.
“Gathering eight boys from two different teams is like trying to nail jello to a tree! It was fun watching them all, I love me some football boys,” said Matt and Mary’s youngest daughter, Rosann Tasset.
Matt and Mary’s first child, Geraldine Dockendorf married Joe Habiger and they lived in Kinsley and raised eleven children. Geraldine’s great-grandsons, Corbin Schmidt, Isaac Bowman, and Konnor Habiger took the field for Kinsley on Friday.
“I knew they were all my cousins, but I am only close with Corbin and Konnor,” said Isaac Bowman, a quarterback and middle linebacker for Kinsely. “It felt a little weird playing against them at first, then it turned into just another game.”
Matt and Mary’s third child, Dorothy Dockendorf married Anthony Trenkamp and raised their four children in Spearville. Kolten Bennett of Spearville is Dorothy’s great-grandchild.
“I knew Isaac was my cousin, but not the other two from Kinsley. I am not that close with any of them, but I do know the Spearville guys better,” Kolten said. “Every game is just another game to me, the most important game is the next one.”
Matt and Mary’s fifth and final child, Rosann Dockendorf married Dave Tasset and they moved to Spearville and raised six children. They have seventeen grandchildren, but the four boys that took the field Friday night were, Evan Benjamin, Jakob Benjamin, Trace Tasset, and Chaten Tasset.
“I didn’t really know the guys from Kinsley were my cousins; I am only close with Evan, Jake, and Trace because we grew up together,” Chaten said. “It wasn’t weird at all playing against them, I didn’t even really know them. It just felt like another game to me.”
The boys may have been on different teams that night, but at the end of the day, they came together as a family.