Lincoln Prep’s undefeated football team playing ‘for the city.’ Will KC show support?
Lincoln College Preparatory Academy’s football team is undefeated after winning 11 games for the first time in school history.
On Friday, the Blue Tigers will host Platte County High School in a bid for Lincoln Prep’s first district championship since 1999. The visiting Pirates are a formidable opponent, but Lincoln Prep has been been waiting 20 years to hoist this trophy.
“This is something that I never thought would happen,” Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell said. “Just because of the makeup of the educational ecosystem here in Kansas City, we generally do not have the ability to keep enough students together to be able to matriculate four years into building a team that can really compete at a high level in the playoffs.
“But, we’re here.”
Kansas City’s school district has faced decades of steep challenges. While significant gains have been made during the last few years, the district hasn’t yet regained full accreditation.
High student mobility rates and an overwhelming number of students who qualify for free or reduced lunches are just two of the factors that can impede student achievement in the district. And gun violence has claimed the lives of more than a dozen Kansas City Public Schools students and recent graduates during the last two years.
But the district now has some positive momentum, and Lincoln Prep, affectionately known as “the school on the hill” near 21st Street and Woodland Avenue, is a great example of excelling on and off the field.
The school has earned a national reputation for academic achievement. In 2008 and 2014, Lincoln received a Blue Ribbon designation from the U.S. Department of Education, the highest award bestowed on a school.
U.S. News & World Report named Lincoln the best public high school in Missouri in 2015 and 2016.
Now its football team is changing the narrative that city kids can’t compete with their suburban counterparts on the field. Using the catchphrase, “For the City,” the Blue Tigers have pumped up a loyal alumni base that’s dispersed across the country.
“People that … have graduated from Lincoln have a strong sense of pride,” said football head coach Bill Lowe, now in his fifth season on the staff, and third year in charge. “It’s something for people to get behind and something for people to have for their own and bring a sense of pride back to Lincoln.”
For years, the Blue Tigers have dominated the five-team Interscholastic League made up of the KCPS schools that have football programs. But they often struggled outside the league.
This year, the team defeated Pembroke Hill, then-undefeated Summit Christian Academy, and just last week, Lincoln downed Excelsior Springs to advance to the Missouri Class 4, District 8 championship game.
Lincoln knocked off Hogan Prep Academy for the first time in three years, spoiled Washington High School’s Homecoming game in Kansas City, Kansas, and quieted a little cross-state chatter with a win against University City High School of suburban St. Louis.
“Our football program has really helped our community within Lincoln and the alumni coming back to school this year,” said Anthony Moses, a senior at the school. “With us being undefeated this year, it’s really helped our sense of community and our sense of family within the school.”
The Blue Tigers are easy to like. They’re poised and disciplined. They have talented players who are receiving interest from major Division I programs. Alum Charles Harris is in the NFL. He donated money along with the Kansas City Chiefs to help install new Boise State University-like blue field turf inside the school’s $3.5 million home stadium that opened this year.
The Blue Tigers are also playing for a larger purpose.
Two weeks ago, star running back Israel “Rocket” Gentry was critically injured in a car wreck. He remains hospitalized, and a GoFundMe page has been set up to help Gentry’s family cover medical and other expenses. The fund has raised almost $8,000.
Seldom does a Kansas City public school have an undefeated football team playing this late in the season. Each team is guaranteed at least one district playoff game under the state of Missouri’s postseason setup. In the Interscholastic League, that usually means teams are one-and-done.
But not Lincoln Prep. Not this year, at least. And the team deserves Kansas City’s support.
“What they’re doing is a true representation of what Kansas City is all about,” Bedell said. “(In) Kansas City, we fight, we believe that the impossible can be done.”
Win or lose on Friday, the Blue Tigers’ success this season should be celebrated. A team achieving at such a high level is good for all of Kansas City Public Schools — and the entire community.
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 5:00 AM.