Sports : Keeping an Eye on the Kids: Drew Wiley Kansas State

It's refreshing to see something pop up in Vinton news that reminds us of the ones from our area that are away from home but are doing well.

Andrew Wiley, son of Todd and Denise, (grandson of Ross and Shirley) was one that arrived in the inbox this week.

Andrew plays for the Kansas State football team in Manhattan as a junior this year. In 2017 as a freshman he played in all 13 games, had three tackles and in 2018 also played in every game making two tackles against Mississippi and Oklahoma which earned him the first-team Academic All-Big 12 honors.

While he was in high school, under Coach Womochil, he was a three-year letter winner at Vinton Shellsburg on our Vikings football team and was also received first-team All-Class 3A honors from the Iowa Newspaper Association when he was a senior in 2016 and was a second-team pick as a junior.

Three times he was an all-district pick and as a senior, he was named the district defensive player of the year and was named the CR Gazette's all-area team during his senior year. While at Vinton-Shellsburg he was chosen to play in the Iowa Shrine Bowl, and also lettered in wrestling, basketball, track and field.

Andrew was on the radar for Iowa, Iowa State, South Dakota and South Dakota State but chose Kansas over them all.

It looks like he will be competing for an increased role and possibly the starting duties in the interior of the defensive line this season for Kansas. As a junior, he's accomplishing a lot on the field for Kansas State.

That's probably not a surprise to his high school coaches. While he was in high school his coaches and future college mentors praise Wiley's work ethic and athleticism. It was the first time in decades that a local athlete has received a Division 1 scholarship.

Growing up on a farm, he entered Kansas State to also study Agriculture Science. The four-year FFA member at the time, said that both the Ag program and football program at KSU were the main reasons for his choice.

As a Vinton-Shellsburg senior he was known for doing the simple things that were important to his future career in football. He rarely missed workouts and then only because of other commitments, but he spent a lot of time in the weight room setting a school record in the squat record.

Even then the coaches noticed that Andrew had the ability to be as fast at the end of the games as he was at the beginning because of the commitment he made in the strength and conditioning part of his training,

Good luck this year at Kansas State, we're all cheering for you here in Iowa!