De Soto High School football’s head coach Brian King was awarded KC Chiefs Coach of the Week by former Chiefs player Gary Spani for the week of Sept. 12 on Wednesday Sept. 14. King was presented the award with his players on the football field before practice.

The award was a $500 grant, a certificate and a football signed by Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. Because of this, King is also a finalist for the Chiefs Coach of the Year Award.

For King, the award was for the program, not just himself.

“You have to understand that our kids, coaches and coordinators are the ones who won this for us,” King said. “I think this reflects positively on our program and the ones who’ve earned this are our kids and coaches. I’m really glad that they’re getting some positive recognition and I hope that kids at the middle schools are seeing this and looking at our program to see the positive things that are going on here and want to be a part of it.”

Senior football player Colton Pasquale is glad that King received the award and that the program is getting recognition because “this means that the program has a good, respectable coach … It was a great feeling to see one of our coaches being awarded. It shows that our team and school is known for more than just academics.”

As far as the football team itself goes, the Wildcats have a 2-1 season at the time of publication and are ranked fifth in the 4A classification for the state of Kansas.

King says that every year the team has been improving, and he is glad to see “the program keeping forward … Going from an 0-9 season to a 3-6 season then to a 6-3 season last year. This group is working to improve on that even, so it’s great to see the ball rolling in the right direction and these kids work so hard,” King said. “They worked harder than anyone this summer and hard work pays off. So I’m really glad that these guys are doing well.”

For Pasquale, King’s award is a reminder that hard work pays off, and that  “the award has given coach a real pop in his step when he walks around the field now,” Pasquale said.

However, King believes that the team should not get side tracked with an award, and needs to focus on the weeks ahead.

“We need to go on a run here and start with Paola this week. I just want us to take it one game at a time and get some momentum going to keep improving. That’s all we can do. I hate to look too far ahead, but we’ll just keep improving,” King said. “Obviously our goal is to be to get into those playoffs again, so we just have to keep getting better every week.”

The Wildcats play this Friday, Sept. 23 at Paola.