K-STATE FOOTBALL PLAYER COMES OUT

Kansas State sophomore offensive tackle Scott

Frantz publicly came out as gay in an interview with ESPN, joining incoming Arizona freshman My-King

Johnson as the only active openly gay Football Bowl Subdivision players for the 2017 season. Frantz, who started 13 games for the Wildcats last season, said the first time he came out to anyone was with all of his teammates during an offseason team-building exercise in 2015 — after Frantz’s redshirt season. Coach Bill Snyder brought in a motivational speaker, who encouraged players to reveal authentic details about themselves. “So the very first time I said those words were in front of, you know, 110, 120 football guys,” Frantz told ESPN. “So you can imagine how scared I was, how nervous I was. ... This could go either really bad or could go really good. And thankfully, my teammates embraced me with open arms, and it was great. I came out to my teammates, and I’ve never felt so loved and so accepted ever in my life than when I did that. And ever since then, it’s been great. I’ve grown so much closer to my teammates since. So it’s been an amazing experience.” Snyder said Frantz’s sexual orientation wouldn’t have swayed his decision one direction or the other, and he wasn’t surprised with the way the team embraced him. “I was quite comfortable that they would be very receptive and that they would treat him as they always said — as ... his teammate and someone that they cared about. And they did,” Snyder told ESPN.