Football Team Wins Multiple Awards

This past week, multiple members of the 2013-2014 East football team have received prestigious awards regarding their play this season. These awards range from league, state, and regional recognition.

For most of the team, this came as no surprise that there was so much great recognition for their teammates.

“There wasn’t one person that just stood out this year,” junior Sam Pottenger said. “There were so many role players, and great athletes on our team that it’s fitting so many got recognition for their play.”

The most notable of awards went to junior defensive end Kyle Ball. Ball was elected to be on the All Simone Team, which is the best 40 players of Missouri and Kansas, elected by 810 Varsity Sports.

“Kyle is extremely deserving of all the awards and accolades coming his way,” senior defensive back Mitchell Tyler said. “I’m especially pumped for Kyle, because he’s only a junior, and the sky is the limit for him.”

Ball was also a member of the first team all-state category, which is selected by the newspaper Wichita Eagle for the best players for their respective position in the state. Along with Ball, senior noseguard Dominique Atkinson was selected to be on the first team all-state.

“I was happy to hear about Dom’s achievements, because he works so hard and gets overlooked because he is a noseguard,” Ball said. “But he is really one of the most dominant players out there.”

There were also many players selected to receive honorable mention for the state of Kansas. These players included senior runningback Luke Taylor, senior defensive back Mitchell Tyler, senior linebacker Ryan Carter and junior offensive lineman James Wooldridge.

“All of these guys were deserving of all-state recognition,” Pottenger said. “All of them put in a ton of work to play the way that they did during the season, and everyone on the team is glad to see that they got awarded.”

Ball, Atkinson, Carter, Tyler and Wooldridge also received first team awards for the Sunflower League.

“I was proud of what I accomplished,” Carter said. “But I was more proud of what our team was able to accomplish this year, making history and making it to the state title game.”

Along with these players, second team all-league awards were presented to offensive lineman junior Devin Price, Tyler for wide receiver and punt returner junior Charlie White.

Honorable Mention all-league recognition went to Christian Blessen, Sam Huffman, Will Kaiser, David Spivak, Luis Adame, Sam Pottenger, Will Oakley and Charlie White.