Patrick opted to try out for the team along with Jackson Bartlett and Braden Shryock.

“We decided we were going to try out for the cheer team together,” Patrick said. “It was just an instinct senior year and the urge to do something different.”

That whim has led Patrick to another squad — the Kansas State University cheer and yell team.

Patrick tried out in May for the team and was one of 20 males to make the 2015-16 team.

Patrick already had plans to attend K-State. With his spot on the high school squad, he decided to make the K-State team a goal throughout his senior year at THS.

“I had determination that I was really going to try my best to make that happen,” Patrick said.

The THS grad put in extra hours of work honing his skills. He attended several camps and even worked in private sessions with some Kansas University cheer squad members to prepare for his tryout at KSU.

Tryout practices in Manhattan actually took place in the middle of finals at THS, so Patrick and his mother were commuting daily between Tonganoxie and Manhattan for three days so he would not miss any finals.

Tryouts consisted of stunting, tumbling, cheers and chants. Oh, and Patrick had to run the length of the practice field while carrying a flag, a common practice with all the touchdowns K-State scores at home games.

“After making it, I was just so elated,” Patrick said. “I just kept thinking ‘wow, I’m a Division I athlete now.'”

After learning along with others that he had made the team, Patrick got a taste of workouts as a member of the team.

“It was ‘congratulations, now get on the line,'” Patrick recalled. “We did a 30-minute workout right there.”

The THS grad has been working out four times a week with the recommended offseason workout and conditioning regimen.

Veteran cheer members have told Patrick that a preseason boot camp will be strenuous. The squad then will have practice three times a week, two practices of nearly three hours and another one-hour practice. It’s his understanding that the yell leaders will be on hand for all of the home football games. Members then will rotate for other KSU sporting events, Patrick said.

Along with his one year of high school cheer, Patrick ran on the cross country team his junior and senior years. He also was heavily involved in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America and FFA, formerly known by its full name of Future Farmers of America, all four years of high school.

He’ll stay busy in college. Patrick plans to major in chemical engineering and will be a member of the Acacia fraternity, one of only about 30 chapters in the nation. He said there are several fellow engineering majors in the fraternity.

As for his spot on the KSU cheer and yell squad, Patrick said he couldn’t have made the team without guidance from THS coaches Stacy Willis and Mary Welsh.

“They allowed me to do new stunts they hadn’t tried before because they didn’t have guys on the team,” Patrick said.

The coaches were encouraging of Patrick’s pursuit of his K-State cheer goal, along with the other two yell leaders on the team last year. Bartlett also graduated in May, but Shryock is back for more yell leading this year.

Patrick, meanwhile, is ready for the challenges that lie ahead at K-State and eager to yell for the Wildcats.

“I’m definitely very excited for the atmosphere on gamedays, walking out on the football field and hearing the entire crowd screaming and yelling and being a part of the family that K-State is,” Patrick said. “I know that it will definitely be worth all the sweat and work put into it.”

K-State opens the football season Sept. 5 at home against South Dakota.