Kansas State sophomore offensive tackle Scott Frantz revealed to the world that he is gay during a Thursday morning interview ESPN.
Frantz said he made his first announcement with all of his teammates during an offseason team-building exercise in 2015.
“I came
out to my teammates, and I’ve never felt so loved and so accepted ever in my life than when I did that,” Frantz told ESPN’s Holly Rowe on Wednesday. “And ever since then it’s been great. I’ve grown so much closer to my teammates since. So it’s been an amazing experience.”
Frantz said his biggest fear in high school was that being gay would detract recruiters for a major college scholarship and that he wasn’t able to come to terms with his sexual orientation until his junior year.
“I told them that for as long as I remembered I struggled with who I am,” Frantz said. “I didn’t think that anyone could love me, didn’t think that they could accept me. I was afraid of who I was, I was angry of who I was, and I just felt myself needing to say it. So I did.”
Head Coach Bill Snyder expressed confidence in how his players would respond the news.
“I was quite comfortable that they would be very receptive and that they would treat him as they always said as, you know, his teammate and someone that they cared about. And they did,” Snyder said.
According to ESPN, Frantz and incoming Arizona freshman defensive end My-King Johnson will be the only two openly gay FBS players when the 2017 season gets underway.