Membership Strengthens The KFBCA

Hello, this is Joel Applebee, President of the Kansas Football Coaches Association, and the head football coach at Mill Valley High School.

The KFBCA is proud to partner with Kansas Pregame Football Magazine to bring a comprehensive statewide preview to the state of Kansas. For the last 18 years Kansas Pregame has been the number one name in preseason high school football coverage in the Sunflower State.

Publisher John Baetz has been a great partner of the KFBCA for years and has given us this opportunity to reach out to high school coaches across Kansas and highlight some of the important benefits of KFBCA membership:

• Membership gives your players an opportunity to be selected to the KFBCA AllState teams. The KFBCA hosts Kansas High School Football coaches at the annual All-State meeting in December to select the best senior football players in the state of Kansas. Coaches meet with colleagues in their respective classification and watch film of nominees to select All-State teams for each 11-Man classification. Members met at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in Wichita following the 2022 season.

The 2023 All-State selection meeting will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency in Wichita, Sunday, December 3rd. Players selected for this team will receive a plaque from the KFBCA and recognition on KansasPregame. com and other statewide media. College coaches are invited to attend this meeting to watch film as part of their recruiting efforts. Only member schools are allowed to nominate players for the All-State team. Added this year to the All-State selection meeting is our annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony. We are excited to induct the following coaches to the 2023 Class of the KFBCA Hall of Fame on Sunday evening, December 3rd, at the Hyatt Regency: Larry Garman, Dan Lankas, Larry Taylor and C.J. Hamilton.

The following day, all of the coaches in atten dance will meet to select a Top 11 team, talk through rule changes, and agree on initiatives the KFBCA would like to endorse and share with the statewide athletic directors association and the Kansas State High School Activities Association. This meeting will be at the Hyatt Regency on Monday, December 4th, at 10 a.m.

• The KFBCA annual Winter Coaching Clinic held each February is free to dues paying members. This two-day event has been held in many locations in Wichita. We have had many great college and high school coaches speak at our clinic. The KFBCA plans to continue this great event for our coaches February 18th and 19th, 2024.

• The KFBCA message board allows coaches to find and share information about job openings, camps, and other important news. To register and post visit http://kfbca.proboards.com.

• The KFBCA is open to all football coaches in your program: Head, assistant, and youth coaches. A staff membership is a great way to network with your fellow football coaches around the state and have a voice in the future development of the sport of football in Kansas.

If you, or your staff, are not currently members, please consider joining the KFBCA and further strengthening this valuable organization. An email will be sent to all current head coaches prior to the 2023 season with membership information.

By Keegan McCullick, Staff Writer

Each day in the United States, an average of 100 people die in traffic crashes, a statistic that could be decreased considerably with the lifesaving habit of wearing a seat belt.

While everyone has heard the benefits a seat belt can provide to prevent serious injuries and death, it can be surprising how often people skip pulling the belt across and clicking it into place.

That fact is exactly why, back in 2008, law enforcement in Crawford County, a county that had one of the lowest seat belt compliance rates among teens, decided to band together and find a way to raise awareness and fix the issue.

After some collaboration by officers, it was decided a student-driven project would be the way to go, with the belief peer-to-peer communication would be most effective.

Students appropriately named the program “SAFE,” or “Seatbelts Are For Everyone,” and now it’s a name known by across Kansas that has doubtlessly saved lives.

The message was simple, “If you don’t buckle up, you could get a ticket or be killed.”

“SAFE provides our students and staff with learning opportunities and small reminders to help increase our awareness of safe driving,” said Beloit High School’s SAFE Sponsor Stephanie Litton.

The program further incentivized students with gift card drawings and a grand prize given to the school with the highest percentage of seat belts worn overall, as well as the biggest increase from the prior survey count.

The implementation of the program started at Crawford County schools, and in the first year saw a 16.3% increase on the average rate at which students in the county were wearing seat belts.

Girard High School had the largest increase from 55% to 89%, while Southeast High School in Cherokee, Kan., went from 82% to 94%, holding the highest overall percentage mark. The grand prizes awarded to each school were worth approximately $2,700.

Soon after the program’s initial success, the combination of Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP), Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT), and Kansas Traffic Safety Resource Office (KTSRO) decided to expand, and since then has been very successful.