By Travis Sloat

Caquoy Patterson said he fell in love with the game of football in the second grade, and for the same reasons any young person would have in a game as intense as that which takes place on a gridiron. 

“Honestly it was just the excitement football gave me,” Patterson said. “When I’m scoring a touchdown or making a tackle, and then looking up in the stands to see all those people cheering for you is just a different type of feeling.” 

Patterson is a senior for the Wichita East High School Aces, and he also runs track in the off season. He said the football season is starting in a somewhat tumultuous way. 

“We’ve had some ups and downs so far,” he said. “We are 3-3 on the season. We feel confident, and a lot of folks came into the Garden City game thinking we would lose. So to come out with a win there was big for us, and we are looking forward to making the playoffs.” 

As a senior, Patterson said he’s looking to make an impact in more ways than one when it comes to the benefit of the team. 

“I’m pretty confident, because even as a sophomore I was one of the players on the team who had a voice. Coming into my senior year, that’s nothing new. I hype up the younger guys by not taking it easy on them, they might be young but that’s no reason to baby them. I just want to keep going all out every game and playing as hard as I can so we can prove all the haters wrong.” 

In his free time, Patterson said he enjoys playing Madden, WarZone, and 2K on his PS4, as well as scrolling through TikTok.