National Football Foundation honors 12 Kansas athletes
LAWRENCE (KSNT) – The Bill Snyder Family Sunflower Chapter of the National Football Foundation gathered in KU’s Burge Union on Wednesday to recognize 12 high school football scholar-athletes in the state of Kansas.
The evening was spent honoring these Kansas high school seniors for their contributions on the field, in the classroom and in the community. From Northeast Kansas, Jaren Heim represented Washburn Rural while Clay Center’s Brody Hayes was also one of the student-athletes invited.
“Helping out in the community, being a leader on and off the field,” Heim, who will play football at Washburn University, said. “Also I run two or three clubs at my school and also staying sharp in school came to this.”
“You can’t find your identity in your sport all the time, you need to find it in other things,” Hayes, another Ichabod commit, said. “Take respect for your family and your friends and God, I think. I think it’s good to have other identities other than just your sport.”
Two K-State commits, Gus Hawkins and Gianni Rizzi, were recognized. KU pledge Colter McDaniel was one of the dozen recognized, too.
“I use football to glorify God, that’s really why I’m here,” Cheney’s McDaniel said. “I think that platform for my faith has been great. I think we can reach a lot of people through football and this life is so much bigger than that.”
McDaniel will play defensive back at Kansas.
“I’ve worked pretty hard both in the classroom and on the field,” Hawkins, a Mill Valley senior offensive lineman, said. “It’s very nice to see my hard work be rewarded.”
Snyder spoke at the event and told 27 News it’s significant for young men in Kansas to know, regardless of how talented they may be, they’re more than just football players.
“I think that’s been the foundation of the state of Kansas, throughout the state – large or small schools,” Snyder said. “And it’s just so meaningful, and it makes sense.”
The fall of 2024 will be the first season with no remaining players on the team from the Bill Snyder era at Kansas State. The legendary K-State coach says as he looks back on the decades he spent leading the program, it’s the caring, considerate and passionate people he was surrounded with that ring loudest in his memory.
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