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Wichita Independent begins new tradition after sidelining football

By CNN Newsource

Published August 20, 2025 8:38 am

By Micaela Dea

WICHITA, Kansas (KAKE) — High school football returns Monday with first official practices kicking off across the state. As teams gear up for the new season, Wichita Independent will be taking the field in a different way.

For the first time in the program’s history, the Panthers will not be suiting up this fall, with low turnout at the high school level.

“During the spring, we were thinking about if we were going to have football or not,” Wichita Independent athletic director Tyler Keim said. “It was difficult for me because I enjoy football. I love Friday nights football games when it’s nice and cold and chilly out and stuff like that.”

“In this day and age, you need a core group of players, and if you don’t have at least, well, really, most of the schools that we compete against have 30, 40, 50 kids on their roster, and when we have 10 or eight or 15, that’s really tough to field tackle football,” Wichita Independent head of school Paul Druzinsky said.

However, the Panthers have turned it into a positive. Students proposed a new idea to keep the school’s spirit alive. The school is calling it, ‘Panther Night Lights.’

“(We were) just coming up with the ideas of thinking, what would be fun to still have everyone come out here and just spend Friday nights together, and obviously just to have a lot of fun for all the players,” Wichita Independent junior Ben Sackett said.

This new alternative will feature plenty of competition, including kickball dodgeball, powderpuff, and even softball games with students competing against faculty.

“After I realized that there was only like two or three guys that were going to be interested and able to play, I really enjoyed the idea of having this competition between our school,” Wichita Independent senior class president Jack Roe said.

The Panthers aren’t alone in the state. The Burrton Chargers will also be sitting the season out.

The school said on its website that due to lack of interest, it’s unable to field a team.

In a statement to KAKE News, Burrton athletic director Tyler Dansel said, “Due to various factors, the enrollment at Burrton High School is down to 20 students for the 2025-26 school year, and because of this there was not enough student interest to field a football team. We were only able to play two games last year before running out of healthy players. Sadly, we are also unable to field a volleyball team. However, we are anticipating seven students participating in cross country this fall, including two-time state qualifier Isaac Jones. And we are going to have enough middle school students to play both volleyball and football. We are hopeful in the coming years that enrollment will improve enough at Burrton High School to once again field teams.”

Other schools across the state are hurting as well.

Stanton County announced at the end of last season its football program would be dropping to 8-man, forfeiting its shot at the postseason.

Then over the summer, Bucklin and Ashland announced a co-op agreement at the 6-man level after both played 8-man last fall.

And low turnout isn’t the only concern.

“Our not having football this year is not a lack of support for football because we love it, and it’s not a statement on where society is wrestling with whether or not to have it. For us, it’s a safety reason and practical reason,” Druzinsky said.

“We were worried about kids getting hurt and concussions, and we just didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do right now for us, which is why we transitioned into Panther Night Lights,” Keim said.

With a new tradition filling the void, the Panthers are looking forward to once again coming together as a community this fall.

“I think everybody was a little bit disappointed that there was no football, but we all very much embraced this new tradition that we were trying to build, and I’ve received a lot of support from all my peers, my family, other parents as well, to just make this as great as it possibly can be, and I think we’re all really excited for it,” Roe said.

The Panthers kick off Panther Night Lights on Friday, Sept. 5.

KAKE News photojournalist Matt Henderson contributed to this report.

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