White makes return as Empire wrestling coach

When life threw Cade White a curveball, he had to learn to adjust quickly. It also led him back home.

The 2023 Comanche High School graduate completed his first year at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kan. this past spring. A few months later, he finds himself back in Stephens County as the head wrestling coach and an assistant football coach at Empire.

White played football for the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes and had every intention of returning for his second year until recently.

Several months ago, things started stacking up against him. The college dropped its secondary education program and the coach that recruited him left the program.

“I was still feeling okay because I was a primary education major,” White said. 

It wasn’t the ideal situation, but his loyalty kept him committed to the school and the football program.

The changes kept coming, however. He discovered Kansas Wesleyan was also dropping its primary education program, followed by more coaches leaving.

He made the hard decision not to go back to Salina as reasons to return to Kansas dwindled.

One great experience he had while he was in Kansas had nothing to do with football. White was a three-time state placer in wrestling and an All State selection his senior year in high school. He used that experience working as an assistant wrestling coach at a local high school in Salina.

“I loved it,” White said. “I knew I had always wanted to go into coaching.”

Now he finds himself doing just that even if it may be sooner than expected.

White applied for the head wrestling coaching job at Empire, which will be beginning its third year of resurrecting the program.

He got the job.

“I think I will be the youngest (high school) head wrestling coach in the nation,” White said with a laugh. “I’m extremely happy and excited to get the ball rolling.”

White will also be the third coach in three years for the Bulldogs.

“They haven’t had a steady coach, so I want to go in and create stability,” White said. “Stephens County has some great wrestling and I want to bring that back to Empire. They had some great wrestlers in the 80s and 90s.”

White is a proud Comanche alum, but with Empire competing in the same classification as the Indians, there will be some unavoidable head-to-head battles with the Indians.

“Comanche’s been great to me,” White said. “Coach (Casy) Rowell is a great coach, but I’ll be going out there to win. Coach Rowell instilled in me a competitive spirit, just like he has, and we will both want to win.”

The team, still in the start-up phase, will be hosting fundraisers during the year to get the equipment they need to practice and compete.

“I’m not sure how many wrestlers I’ll have right now,” White said. “I’ve had a couple of guys come up to me and tell me they are going to come out for wrestling. It’s probably going to be a small group but that’s okay. It will allow me to spend a lot of time working with people individually, which was hard to do at a big school like South Salina.”

White will be transferring to Cameron to finish his degree in elementary and special education.

“It’s great to be back in Stephens County,” White said. “I am a youth leader at Ray of Hope and would help out when I was home from Kansas, but it wasn’t the same. Now, I’ll be able to get fully back into it.”