White chooses Kansas Wesleyan to continue football career
Jan. 8—Cade White has been a model offensive lineman for the Comanche Indians the last four years. This past Wednesday, he made his choice official and chose Kansas Wesleyan to continue football career.
Playing for Coach Casy Rowell since seventh grade, White has been one of the mainstays on the offensive line that has seen some playoff berths during his four year high school career.
The ceremony at Comanche High School had all of the football team, coaches and family members cheer for White as he put pen to paper for his letter of intent to join one of the top football schools in the NAIA level.
Rowell, before taking photos with White, said that the offensive lineman has been a big part of the program and he is happy to support him playing at the next level.
"It is an awesome feeling. I just think about when he was in seventh grade, getting to know him and seeing his character back then and seeing him work throughout the years to where he is at now," Rowell said. "He has turned into a fine young man and it just feels good talking to his dad right there and having his dad shaking my hand and thanking me for the time. It kind of puts it in perspective, why we do what we do as coaches, regardless of how the season goes. To see moments like this just kind of shows you everything was worth it."
White has been involved with wrestling with Rowell as well as football and the coach knows one thing that will be hard to replace is his dedication to the programs.
"He has been huge and has almost been like an assistant coach for me for the last several years," Rowell said. "Last weekend during the Christmas break, we had a youth wrestling tournament going on in the city and of course, he goes up there and coaches them for two nights. There is not many high school kids out there that are spending weekends coaching youth tournaments. So to lose a guy like that it is going be huge, but I hope he has inspired some of the younger ones to pick up where he has left off."
Going on a game day trip to Kansas Wesleyan, White saw the connection he made with the Coyotes' coaching staff and believes this is a good fit for the future of his football career.
"I made a really good connection with the coaches there and them being close with God and you know me being close to God ... I feel like it was a good fit," White said. "When they got to me and the money was right, everything looked right. So I said why not Kansas Wesleyan? They are a top program in the NAIA level, so I will be going up against good competition and just playing good football."
White said that he loved his time with Comanche and was very thankful for his family, coaches and teammates during the four years of high school. He is happy to represent the Indians' program.
"The Comanche Indians, in the program, we develop kids and don't get a lot of kids that transfer in and do all that kind of stuff," White said. "So the people like Rowell and all the coaches we have here, we invest in our junior high programs because that is what makes our high school program better. Him taking me from that seventh grade year with that class, bringing us all the way up — we brought Comanche three playoff years back-to-back-back and I felt we turned the program around here."
With the coaches supporting him and the family also supporting him, White believes he will be successful in the next level as the system will always be behind him.
"I've got one of the best support systems there is — my mom and dad, you know all those Saturdays we would be traveling five hours away to Kansas Wesleyan," White said. "I also went to Fargo this summer which is a 13 hour drive and they made it, so the support system I have here is just unimaginable. Also, my coaches being able to put me into situations and helped me get to this situation. I hope to pay it back one day and I thank them and thanking God for putting me in this situation giving me the ability to have this happen."
