Tanner Hageman took over as Kingman’s head football coach in 2019. Hageman knew little about Nolan Freund, then entering as an Eagle freshman. Freund and his family moved 18 miles down US-400 from Cunningham to Kingman. Cunningham had re-started its football program and elected to play six-man.
Hageman, a former Cheney quarterback, Fort Hays State wide receiver and St. James Academy assistant coach, inherited a program with very limited tradition. From ’04-18, Kingman posted two winning seasons and never won more than seven games in a fall. In Hageman’s first year, Kingman went 3-6. Nolan’s older brother, Dalton, played immediately with 31 tackles and three touchdowns.
Nolan had always been a quarterback in the younger ranks. As a freshman, he was around 5-foot-8, 120 pounds. During the ’19 summer, Nolan continually impressed Hageman. He constantly made plays against bigger, stronger, faster athletes. Hageman wondered how Freund made some throws and wiggled out of tacklers. Plus, Freund exuded a competitive spirit, charisma and leadership, traits he had displayed for a long time.
As a freshman, Freund quarterbacked a winless JV squad that struggled with injuries and roster changes. Still, Hageman knew Freund would be his starting varsity quarterback as a sophomore – whether he changed physically or not. Freund put on around 40 pounds and led the best stretch in Kingman football history.
“Right before his sophomore year, we are like, ‘All right, if he grows, he’s going to have the potential to be a pretty good player,’” Hageman said.
Kingman went 6-3, 10-2 with a state semifinal showing and 12-1 with a 2A state runner-up finish in the last three years. Kingman, paced by seven seniors, including Freund, receiver Avrey Albright and linebacker Ty Birkenbaugh, had its first state semifinal and championship game appearance since 1972. Freund set at least 12 Kingman school records and holds basically every quarterback record in the Eagle record book.
He is a standout basketball player, an all-state baseball performer and has committed to play baseball at Cloud County Community College. The 6-foot, 180-pound dual-threat quarterback passed for 2,110 yards with 27 passing touchdowns, along with 964 yards and 14 TDs this past fall.
Plus, he picked off three passes, converted 53 of 59 extra points and also kicked a 36-yard field goal in the state championship game. As a junior, he threw for 2,341 yards, rushed for 519 and accounted for 33 scores. He was first team all-league basketball and threw a perfect game for Kingman baseball this spring. On the hardwood, he finished top-five in Kingman history in assists and steals.
“First and foremost, Nolan is the highest quality character kid that I have ever met,” Hageman said. “He comes from a great family of which he, and them, are involved in our community and giving back to something bigger than themselves.”
Freund’s leadership in his record-setting career and community service in Kingman has yielded him the annual Kpreps Dylan Meier - Get Busy Livin’ Player of the Year honor.
This is the most prestigious Kpreps award and is handed out to one senior football athlete each season. The award honors Dylan Meier, a former All-State quarterback at Pittsburg High and starter at Kansas State University who died in a hiking accident in 2010 at the age of 26.
“It was pretty cool just to be able to receive the award,” Freund said. “And the award just being in honor of a really good football player and a really good person. Kind of just lived life like it’s called. It was an honor to get that call.”
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The award goes to someone who has not only shown excellence on the field but also demonstrated the values that Dylan embodied and GBL strives to promote: adventure, fitness, curiosity, and daily zest for life experiences.
The annual GBL 5k race will take place this Saturday April 29th, at Hutchinson Football Field located next to Pittsburg Middle School. Start time is 9:00 a.m.
Previous winners include: Hays High’s Jaren Kanak (Oklahoma football), Bishop Miege’s Carter Putz (Notre Dame baseball), Bishop Carroll’s Denzel Goolsby (Kansas State football captain) and Mill Valley’s Tyler Green (Dartmouth).
Freund was known for his level-headed play, a calmness that permeated through Kingman. He started at least three years in football, basketball and baseball.
“If your best player is the hardest worker, then you have a chance to be good,” Hageman said. “And that holds 100 percent true for us. He is the first one in the weight room, he is staying after practice throwing with Avrey Albright – he turned into a really good receiver. But he is also staying with some freshmen guys, helping them.
“His consistent work ethic, his attention to detail, his study of the game, he is an extremely cerebral player,” Hageman added. “Maybe the best I’ve ever been around. Just all of those things just kind of embodied, and then obviously he goes out and does what he does on a football field, or a basketball court or a baseball field, and kids what to follow that.”
A Kansas Shrine Bowl pick, Freund was a two-year team captain, posted a 27 ACT and a 3.98 GPA. He earned both conference and district offensive MVP honors and earned first team all-league at three positions: quarterback, kicker, and punter.
As well, Freund was part of 4H for 11 years, Catholic Youth Ministries for four years, FBLA four years, National Honor Society three years and class vice president. He helped with more than 25 community service hours, including writing cards for the elderly for holidays.
“Everything this award represents, Nolan is the perfect fit,” Hageman said.
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When Freund was in eighth grade, Cunningham did not have a varsity football team. His dad, Neil, had served as Cunningham’s boys’ basketball coach. Cunningham elected to re-start football, quickly improved from a one-win season in ’19 and won the inaugural KSHSAA six-man state title this past fall. The Freunds elected to play 11-man.
“Our parents just kind of wanted to give us the best opportunity to kind of succeed,” Freund said. “And they just thought that coming here would be better for us, and I think it’s totally paid off. It was probably one of the best decisions that they ever made. Kingman has been awesome since we got here.”
Freund accomplished similar success with Kingman. Additionally, his sister, sophomore Morgan, averaged 14 points and five assists per game for Kingman this winter and was second all-time in single season assists. Kingman girls’ basketball went 10-11, its most wins in five years.
“They have been a great addition to Kingman,” Hageman said. “The move that they made from Cunningham to Kingman has been very, very seamless. But they’ve also, not just Nolan, but the family as well has just really invested everything into the community. They are really active members of the church, they are active members of 4H. We have different fundraisers and different services.”
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In ’18 and ‘19, the Eagles posted 3-6 seasons. While Freund played JV on the ’19 squad, he saw the leadership qualities of a senior class that included his brother, Dalton.
“They just kind of took us under their wing and got us going a little bit,” Freund said.
In ’20, Kingman, with Freund a sophomore quarterback, enjoyed the three-win improvement and averaged 36 points per game, nearly triple the previous season. In ’21, the Eagles again posted 36 points a contest.
“When I was a sophomore, the leaders we had that year kind of like groomed everybody, like ‘We are going to be at least better than we were in the past,’” Freund said. “And we finally got good, and they were just really good at getting everybody to do stuff, so they definitely helped me.”
Last year, Kingman was third in 2A with 41.4 points per game. The Eagles were preseason ranked fifth. Kingman was one of five teams for all classes that was not ranked in the preseason top-three and made a championship game. Kingman consistently has had a top-five 2A defense.
“The community support has been awesome all four years,” Freund said. “And just to like put Kingman on the map has just been really special, getting this far as we did is just a great time.”
This fall, Kingman entered a Round of 16 playoff game last season against much improved Ellsworth squad. The Nov. 4 game occurred in very windy and rainy conditions. Hageman told Freund “we are going to lean on you.”
That game, he rushed 17 times for 104 yards and accounted for five scores. In the quarterfinals, Kingman faced Beloit, which knocked them out of the 2021 playoffs. This time, Freund delivered 23 carries for 115 yards and four total TDs.
In the semifinals, Kingman defeated top-ranked Southeast of Saline in double overtime. On an incredibly cold night with temperatures well below freezing, Freund delivered 24 carries for 69 yards. With the season on the line, Kingman faced a fourth-and-goal from the Southeast of Saline six-yard line in the first overtime. Freund retreated back nearly 15 yards under Trojan pressure. He found Tristen Davidson for a touchdown. Kingman tied the game on a two-point conversion.
“We really relied on him late in the season to just kind of carry the workload for us, and just protect the ball, and let the offensive line do what they needed to do,” Hageman said.
Freund’s game-winning 5-yard score in the second overtime propelled the Eagles to a state football title game appearance for the first time in 50 years.
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Dylan Meier – Get Busy Livin’ Player of the Year Award
The award is in honor of Dylan Meier, a former All-State quarterback at Pittsburg High School and starter at Kansas State University who died in a hiking accident in 2010 at the age of 26.
The award goes out to one Kansas high school senior who not only has shown excellence on the field but also has demonstrated the values that Dylan embodied and Get Busy Livin’ (GBL) strives to promote: adventure, fitness, curiosity and a daily zest for life experiences.
The award is made possible by the Get Busy Livin’ Foundation and Kpreps.com.
Past award winners include:
2021 – Jaren Kanak, Hays
2020 – No award named
2019 – Tyler Green, Mill Valley
2018 – Jace Friesen, Basehor-Linwood
2017 – Carter Putz, Bishop Miege
2016 – Will Schneider, Shawnee Mission North
2015 – Tucker Horak, Rossville
2014 – Denzel Goolsby, Bishop Carroll
2013 – Austin Chambers, Shawnee Mission West
2012 – Brad Strauss, Lawrence
2011 – Kole Schankie, Madison
ABOUT DYLAN MEIER & THE GET BUSY LIVIN’ FOUNDATION
Dylan Meier, a 2002 graduate of Pittsburg High School, was a two-time All-State quarterback for the Purple Dragons. He continued his football career at Kansas State University and started 11 games from 2004-06 as the Wildcats’ signal caller.
On April 19, 2010, Meier died at the age of 26 in an accident while hiking with family in Arkansas.
In addition to his time in Kansas, Dylan played professional football in Germany and Italy, served as a bodyguard for Italian fashion models, worked in a vineyard overseas, ran with the bulls in Spain and went skydiving in the Alps. His next plans included coaching football in Europe, teaching English in Korea and possibly a return to Kansas State as a graduate assistant.
“He had a real zest for life,” Merle Clark, Dylan’s high school coach and family friend said days after the accident. “He lived a lot in his 26 years.”
That zest for life is the basis of the Get Busy Livin’ Foundation that was established in Dylan’s honor. The mission is to provide support for individuals and groups that embody the values that Dylan pursued: adventure, fitness, curiosity, generosity and a daily zest for life experiences.
The GBL Foundation is determined to break down the boundaries that keep people from living life to the fullest, whether those boundaries are social, economic or imaginary.
GBL uses donations to promote these values in the following ways: student/athletic scholarships, sport camp sponsorships, student travel abroad scholarships, community service needs and other activities that inspire and build character.
For more information, please visit http://getbusylivin.org.
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