Rhett Lathers, No. 42, leads the Bulldogs on the field against Andover Central in Ark City’s Bulldog Stadium last season. (Photos courtesy Larry Schwartz)
The Ark City High School football team will not play McPherson Friday night in the opening round of playoffs across the state.
Tuesday night, Bulldogs senior linebacker and tailback Rhett Lathers was killed in a rollover accident in rural Kay County that critically injured another Ark City teen, who remains in intensive care at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. Another passenger, a female ACHS senior, was also injured in the crash.
The driver, Walker Moulton, a teammate of Lathers and 2021 ACHS grad, was not injured and is facing charges of DUI and first degree manslaughter.
Bulldogs head coach Jon Wiemers said Thursday night the decision to forfeit Friday night’s playoff game at McPherson — thus ending the season — was made after discussions with the team’s seniors, assistant coaches and Lathers’ parents.
Instead, the team will dress out and take the field at Bulldogs Stadium one more time Friday night in honor of Lathers — even though Wiemers said he is confident Lathers would object and is angry at him right now.
“We talk about effort all the time and your best — what you can give,” Wiemers said. “Rhett would want us to play this game, but I also want to give 100 percent of what I have, and because of what happened, I can’t.
“It’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life.”
Wiemers said if the team told him they wanted to play, he would, but said honoring Lathers this way was the consensus of players and coaches.
“We had a great Tuesday practice, we were ready to go,” Wiemers said. “After that happened Tuesday night, Wednesday, we were like, ‘What would Rhett Lathers do and Rhett Lathers would want to go practice,’ but Rhett Lathers was a hard head and that’s what made Rhett Rhett, and he was that guy and I loved him for it.
“He was one of our leaders. That happened and it really broke a lot of people. We were going to go practice on Wednesday, but it broke me. I think you can rally around somebody at some point, but not when it’s that raw.”
Ark City Bulldogs head football coach Jon Wiemers directs players on the sideline against Goddard this season with Rhett Lathers, No. 42, to his right. Also pictured is fellow linebacker and tailback Wyatt Bahm, No. 2.
Wiemers said coaches took it hard.
“A lot of our coaches are fathers,” he said. “It’s been a lot for me and it’s been a lot for these kids.”
Wiemers said the team is coordinating with the high school for Friday night’s ceremony. He said it is geared for players and family, but added that nobody will be turned away.
“You can either emulate Rhett Lathers or you can honor him,” he said. “If we were to emulate him, we would go play that game tomorrow, and I don’t know the result and I don’t have a crystal ball — I can’t do all that — but I want to honor him and I want to honor him in his own stadium, and ultimately, after talking to my team, my coaches and his parents, it’s the right thing to do.”
Early Thursday evening, McPherson High School tweeted the announcement of the forfeit.
“There are bigger things in life than the game,” the statement said. “This is one of those times. Our thoughts are prayers go out to the Rhett Lathers family, the Ark City football program, the students at Ark City High School, and Ark City community.”
Wiemers said he’s navigating waters he’s never had to in his 23 years of coaching.
“You can’t predict how you deal with a situation like this,” he said. “There’s no coach’s playbook for this. It’s unprecedented. I’m crushed. We’re human beings, and a football game is pretty secondary to what just happened, and there will be plenty of football games played after this, but right now my whole thing is how do we honor Rhett Lathers, and to me, this is the best way we do it.
“Right now people need to understand it’s okay to grieve. Life is precious. It’s a tragedy.”
Wiemers said he reached out to Moulton, who was on last year’s state runner-up team with Lathers, since the accident.
“We’ve all been one decision in our lives away from disaster,” Wiemers said. “The big thing I wanted Walker to know is that there is nobody with any common sense right now who is blaming you for a death. He is a great human being — sometimes we forget to humanize people, we want to demonize people.”
Wiemers said Lathers, who often sprinted out of the pregame tunnel with the American flag, inspired coaches and teammates, and that his number — 42 — will not be worn again.
“He’s our Captain America,” Wiemers said. “And he’s not here anymore, and it hurts.”
