M ANHATTAN, Kan. | The Cat Pack — Kansas State players linking arms and jogging from midfield to the locker room after games — is going strong 20 years after its debut.“I’ve never seen that anywhere else in my life, and I watch a lot of football,” quarterback Grant Gregory said. “But it’s pretty cool. The crowd goes nuts every time we do it. It really brings us together.”It’s one of the oldest Bill Snyder traditions, used to symbolize team unity.There are others.K-State players are required to leave the locker room after games in matching attire: gray dress pants, white shirt, tie and a black sport coat with a Powercat sewn onto the breast. The point is that even though players are free to go where they wish, they remain united in their appearance.It’s another sign of what Snyder has done best during his first year back on the job. Coming off a three-year retirement at age 70, he has made his players believe not only in themselves, but also in each other.When former coach Ron Prince went 17-20 in three seasons and interest around the program dropped, team unity fell with it.Under Snyder, it has been restored. It may be the biggest reason a team that few expected to contend for a bowl is preparing to take on Nebraska for the Big 12 North championship Saturday night. Snyder may have made college football’s biggest Cash For Clunkers deal.“It’s more fun to be around the group collectively,” junior center Wade Weibert said. “There was some division last year. There were a lot of cliques, and you could see it. But he’s definitely broken down those walls. We’re all together now.”•••Snyder likes to write notes. Not e-mails, Facebook status updates or text messages, but handwritten notes.Earlier this year, K-State athletic director John Currie casually mentioned to Snyder that his son had scored a goal in a soccer game.What did Jack Currie read three days later? “There he was with a handwritten note in his hand from Bill Snyder,” Currie said. “And it not only was congratulating him on his goal, but making sure he’s doing good in school, too.”During his time away from coaching, he wrote notes to every coach who played K-State, praising their teams for what they did well.When Louisiana-Lafayette coach Rickey Bustle received his a year ago, he needed only two words to describe Snyder: class act.The letters symbolize everything about Snyder. They’re old-school, and they show effort, thought and respect. During each road game, he encourages players to leave thank-you notes for the hotel housekeeping staff.“Treating people with respect,” Gregory said. “It goes a really long way.”That’s what Snyder wants his team to project. “He takes pride in us being men of character,” Gregory said.When asked this week what gave him the most pride in his first season back, Snyder mentioned nothing of games or the Big 12 North standings. Instead, he pointed to the way his players have grown in the short time he’s known them.“The little victories, so to speak, that are not on the scoreboard,” Snyder said. “Some young people have been able to respond to life’s lessons that maybe they couldn’t deal with, and learned through a variety of different mechanisms how to deal with some of those things. Things that made their life a little bit better.”

Posted on Wed, Nov. 18, 2009 11:09 PM

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Snyder has united the Wildcats

By KELLIS ROBINETT

The Kansas City Star

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M ANHATTAN, Kan. | The Cat Pack — Kansas State players linking arms and jogging from midfield to the locker room after games — is going strong 20 years after its debut.

“I’ve never seen that anywhere else in my life, and I watch a lot of football,” quarterback Grant Gregory said. “But it’s pretty cool. The crowd goes nuts every time we do it. It really brings us together.”

It’s one of the oldest Bill Snyder traditions, used to symbolize team unity.

There are others.

K-State players are required to leave the locker room after games in matching attire: gray dress pants, white shirt, tie and a black sport coat with a Powercat sewn onto the breast.

The point is that even though players are free to go where they wish, they remain united in their appearance.

It’s another sign of what Snyder has done best during his first year back on the job. Coming off a three-year retirement at age 70, he has made his players believe not only in themselves, but also in each other.

When former coach Ron Prince went 17-20 in three seasons and interest around the program dropped, team unity fell with it.

Under Snyder, it has been restored. It may be the biggest reason a team that few expected to contend for a bowl is preparing to take on Nebraska for the Big 12 North championship Saturday night.

Snyder may have made college football’s biggest Cash For Clunkers deal.

“It’s more fun to be around the group collectively,” junior center Wade Weibert said. “There was some division last year. There were a lot of cliques, and you could see it. But he’s definitely broken down those walls. We’re all together now.”

•••

Snyder likes to write notes. Not e-mails, Facebook status updates or text messages, but handwritten notes.

Earlier this year, K-State athletic director John Currie casually mentioned to Snyder that his son had scored a goal in a soccer game.

What did Jack Currie read three days later?

“There he was with a handwritten note in his hand from Bill Snyder,” Currie said. “And it not only was congratulating him on his goal, but making sure he’s doing good in school, too.”

During his time away from coaching, he wrote notes to every coach who played K-State, praising their teams for what they did well.

When Louisiana-Lafayette coach Rickey Bustle received his a year ago, he needed only two words to describe Snyder: class act.

The letters symbolize everything about Snyder. They’re old-school, and they show effort, thought and respect.

During each road game, he encourages players to leave thank-you notes for the hotel housekeeping staff.

“Treating people with respect,” Gregory said. “It goes a really long way.”

That’s what Snyder wants his team to project.

“He takes pride in us being men of character,” Gregory said.

When asked this week what gave him the most pride in his first season back, Snyder mentioned nothing of games or the Big 12 North standings. Instead, he pointed to the way his players have grown in the short time he’s known them.

“The little victories, so to speak, that are not on the scoreboard,” Snyder said. “Some young people have been able to respond to life’s lessons that maybe they couldn’t deal with, and learned through a variety of different mechanisms how to deal with some of those things. Things that made their life a little bit better.”

Posted on Wed, Nov. 18, 2009 11:09 PM

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