By Ken Hansard

VYPE Sports recently had a chance to interview and get to know a little more about Field-Kindley Memorial High School’s Head Football Coach Deonta Wade.

VYPE: Tell us a little about your background. Where are you from originally and where did you go to school?
Coach Wade: I graduated high school from Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Missouri. While in high school, I earned an athletic scholarship to play football at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri. I
graduated from Avila University in 2012 with a degree in Kinesiology. In the Fall of 2016, I began my coaching career at Russell High School in Russell, Kansas.

VYPE: What would you say is your coaching philosophy?
Coach Wade: I believe in making football as fun as possible for the kids. We are going to have fun and play football the right way. To me this means being disciplined and executing. Those two things, in
my opinion, are the pillars on which to build a program.

VYPE: Name two or three goals you have for yourself for this year – either coaching or personal.
Coach Wade: I just want to be better for this program than I was last year. That means being
better every day and practicing what I preach to the young people.

VYPE: I know coaches don’t have a lot of “free time,” but when you get it, what are some
of your favorite things to do?

Coach Wade: My family. They are only second to my faith. Especially with younger kids, I
want them to know I am present and that they are loved.

VYPE: What is your favorite memory in coaching?
Coach Wade: It will always be when a young athlete or someone new to the sport has that moment where things click for them.

VYPE: What inspired you to get into teaching / coaching?
Coach Wade: I wanted to play at the highest level; however, when I finally understood this was not in the cards for me, I decided to coach. It started with me coaching my little brothers in youth football, and from there I realized that I loved helping young people develop and watching them continue to grow.

VYPE: What is your favorite sports movie, and why?
Coach Wade: Friday Night Lights. It shows the pressures that society applies not only to coaches, but also to players. It provides a dive into what everyone associated with high school football goes through.
From the players at home and the pressure put on them, to the pressures of the coach, and
the pressure on the coach’s family, FNL shows the kinds of pressures that often come