Troy Hartman's story is full of tragedy and hope. His story of alcoholism and the horror it brought to his life is powerful, and it's one he shares so people can understand the darkness in which he traveled until the power of forgiveness changed his life. That forgiveness grew from the death of a close friend while attending College of the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri, where he went to a local church and began to serve. In 2003, Troy had the opportunity to help start North Point Church in Springfield, Missouri, and met his wife, Lacey, while serving. The Hartmans were on staff at NPC for 11 years but felt God asking them to leave a place they loved to start a new church. Troy and Lacey and their daughters Jovi and Jade moved to Manhattan in 2015, knowing one person. In the first few months, they lived in Manhattan, a team of 40 people committed to the launch of Rock Hills Church. Rock Hills officially started September 13, 2015, at the Boys and Girls Club of Manhattan, and over the years, the church has welcomed thousands of men, women, children, military personnel, and college students to find and follow Jesus. Rock Hills relocated to the former Seth Child Cinema in Manhattan in 2017, and after several years of month-to-month rent, the church was able to purchase its "Nine Acres of Hope." The remarkable growth of Rock Hills has now led the church to renovate two theaters into one larger auditorium for their three services per Sunday, which are typically packed with a wonderful congregation of believers of many ages and different backgrounds. That congregation now includes Tim and Becky Fitzgerald, as well as Tim's older sister, Amy, who recently moved to Manhattan to teach at Kansas State.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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Jareem Dowling is entering his third season at Kansas State after being the first announced member of head coach Jerome Tang's inaugural coaching staff on March 29, 2022. Dowling was part of a coaching staff that helped reenergize a K-State program in 2022-23, guiding the Wildcats to their third-highest win total (26) and a thrilling run to the Elite Eight despite being picked last in the Big 12 preseason poll after three consecutive losing seasons. The 26 wins are the third-most in school history, trailing the school-record 29 in 2009-10, the 27 in 2012-13, and just the eighth 25-win campaign. An assistant coach with 17 years of experience as well as 12 years of international head coaching experience, Dowling came to K-State after spending six seasons (2016-22) on staff with current Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland at both Arkansas State (2016-17) and North Texas (2017-22). In addition to his time with the Red Wolves and Mean Green, he has also been an assistant at the NJCAA level at Cecil College in Maryland (2005-08), the Division II level at Slippery Rock (2008-11) as well as Morehead State (2011-12) and Southern Miss (2012-15). Dowling also has extensive international experience having served as the head coach for the U.S. Virgin Islands Junior National Team and as an assistant coach on the Senior National Team since 2007. A native of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dowling moved to Wilmington, Delaware, during high school. Dowling earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from UMES in 2005, while he added a master's degree in Sports Management from California University of Pennsylvania in 2011. Dowling and his wife, Cierra, have a daughter, Laiya.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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Pete Mundo is currently the morning show host and assistant program director at 710AM KCMO in Kansas City, Missouri. Additionally, Mundo owns and operates an independent Big 12 sports digital media outlet, Heartland College Sports. Mundo, a graduate of Villanova University, had previous stops at CBS Sports Radio, Fox News Radio, and Sports Illustrated, and even spent time in Oklahoma, where he gained a love for Big 12 Conference sports.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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Bud Elliott graduated from Florida State University in 2007 and then proceeded to law school at the University of Alabama, graduating in 2010. After that, Elliott quickly took a career turn into sports, launching an independent Florida State site that quickly joined the SB Nation network. His time running Tomahawk Nation led him into the world of college football recruiting — acting as SB Nation's recruiting analyst until his eventual departure in 2020. Elliott moved to 247Sports Network in 2020, and he's worked with the national recruiting staff and created content for 247's college football coverage. Elliott is part of the CBS Sports' Cover 3 Podcast panel, one of the top college sports podcasts in the nation.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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Jill Shields, a 23-year veteran of the K-State Athletics Department, was promoted to Deputy Athletics Director in 2017 after serving as Executive Associate Athletics Director for Student Services since 2015. In her role, Shields oversees the daily internal operation of the entire athletics department and also serves as the department's senior woman administrator. She oversees the day-to-day operation of the football program while also serving as the sport administrator for women's basketball and volleyball. In fall 2019, Shields was appointed to a five-year term on the NCAA Women's Basketball Committee. She will also serve as the Big 12 Chair of the Senior Woman Administrators for the 2022-23 academic year. Shields had previously worked as Senior Associate, Associate and Assistant Athletics Director and Associate Director of Student Services with stints directing the support services for football, women's basketball and volleyball, as well as Life Skills programming. Shields came to K-State after working at Wichita State for six years, including the final year as a senior admissions representative in the University's admissions office. She spent the previous five seasons as an assistant women's basketball coach for the Shockers. She also had coaching stints at the University of Central Florida, North Georgia College and Florida Southern. She earned her bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Central Florida in 1990. A member of the Golden Knights basketball team, Shields was named most valuable player her senior year. She earned her Master's degree in education from North Georgia College in 1992. Shields, a native of Assaria, Kansas, and her husband, Mark, have two children, Sydney and Sam. Sam is a sophomore offensive lineman for the Wildcats.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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Travis Geopfert was named K-State's seventh full-time Director of Track and Field/Cross Country by Director of Athletics Gene Taylor on July 11, 2024. Geopfert was a four-time National Assistant Coach of the Year during two stints at Arkansas across 12 years, with 22 total years of experience also at Tennessee, Northern Iowa and Central Missouri. At Arkansas with the men's team, he was a part of two NCAA Championship teams (2013 indoor and 2023 indoor), 21 top-10 NCAA team finishes and 25 SEC Championships. Geopfert has coached 15 Olympians, including eight who have advanced to this summer's Paris Games. Geopfert was born on August 20, 1978, in Panora, Iowa. He is married to Nicole and they have three children — sons Jones and Jax, and daughter Ellyn.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

Sign up for GoPowercat VIP access and get your first month for just $1!

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K-State Alumni Association president and CEO Amy Button Renz '76, '86 retired on June 30, 2023, from the K-State Alumni Association after more than 45 years of service to Kansas State University. Renz began her career with the Alumni Association in 1977. She was named president and CEO in 1994, becoming the first female alumni director in the Big Eight and later the Big 12 conference. Renz was instrumental in the creation of many programming efforts, including the Student Alumni Board and the K-State Student Ambassadors. She served as the lead fundraiser for the Alumni Center building campaign. The $12.7 million facility was dedicated in October 2002. Under her leadership the Alumni Association has raised more than $6 million for student scholarships and recognition through the K-State License Plate program. Since 1996, the program has expanded to include four states. Additionally, the Alumni Association has raised more than $3.7 million for student scholarships through Wabash CannonBall galas in Kansas City, North Texas, Houston and Colorado. Renz is a third-generation K-Stater. She earned two degrees from K-State, a bachelor's degree in political science in 1976 and master's degree in public administration in 1986. Her husband, Allen Renz '87, is also a graduate of K-State, as are their three children. They have three grandsons and four granddaughters — including one K-State graduate and one current K-State student.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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Tim Weiser served as the Director of Athletics at Kansas State University from 2001 to 2008. During his tenure, K-State became the first Big 12 institution to win conference championships in three top-tier sports in a single year (2003-04; football, volleyball, women's basketball). The athletic department generated record revenues in the areas of fundraising and corporate sponsorships under Weiser's direction. Weiser then joined the Big 12 as Deputy Commissioner in 2008. He serves as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) in the day-to-day functions of the Conference office and is also the primary liaison to the board of directors in conjunction with the Big 12 legal counsel. Weiser served as Athletics Director at Colorado State University from 1997 to 2001. He began his career in collegiate athletics administration in 1983 at Wichita State. In 1988, he was named athletics director at Austin Peay before taking the same post at Eastern Michigan in 1993. The Great Bend, Kansas native is a graduate of Emporia State with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in counseling. Weiser has been active on the national level, where he was president of the Division I-A Athletic Directors' Association, in addition to serving on the NCAA's Championships/Competition Cabinet and Division I Baseball Committee. He was inducted into the Emporia State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005.

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The National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF) will soon be in operation in Manhattan, Kansas. Its construction, which took more than 10 years, was recently completed. The facility was turned over to the USDA, which will operate NBAF.  NBAF enhances the U.S. government's research, development, testing, and evaluation countermeasure capabilities by establishing a modern, integrated foreign animal and zoonotic disease research, development, and testing facility.

Overseeing the construction was a Kansas State graduate who returned to Manhattan to continue his work for the Department of Homeland Security. Tim Barr was eventually given the title of program manager to lead the facility through the construction process and into the handoff to the USDA. Barr and his wife, Cathy, also happen to be Tim and Becky Fitzgerald's neighbors. When the two couples gather, talk usually surrounds family, music, and their shared interest in landscaping, but Barr's work was rarely brought up because of its nature. Now that his job is complete — the project returned more than $10 million to the state of Kansas after coming in under budget — Barr received permission to discuss the project in depth.

Designed and built in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the new facility provides modern, safe, and secure biocontainment laboratories for licensing animal vaccines, defending against high-consequence diseases in livestock, and providing the essential infrastructure for threat characterization, forensics, and detection. NBAF sits on a forty-eight-acre lot in close proximity to the KSU Biosecurity Research Institute to allow for shared learning and research and costs $1.25 billion to build. Replacing and expanding upon the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, NBAF enhances the DHS's and USDA's capabilities to meet mandated national biological and agricultural defense mission requirements by creating an integrated and comprehensive system to rapidly recognize and characterize biological agents in animal populations, food, water, agriculture, and the environment.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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Spearheading a defense that has been one of the best in the Big 12 over the last three seasons, Joe Klanderman enters his sixth season at Kansas State in 2024 and his fifth as the defensive coordinator. In addition to running the defense, Klanderman also tutors the Wildcat safeties as he has done so since arriving in Manhattan in 2019. Leading a dynamic shift in defensive philosophy before the 2021 season, Klanderman implemented a three-man front for the first time in his career, and the returns paid off as the Wildcats have ranked in the top four of the Big 12 in both total yards and points allowed each of the last three seasons, K-State's longest streak since doing so the 2000 through 2003 campaigns. K-State has averaged 21.3 allowed points per game over the last three seasons – a span of 40 games – to rank 20th nationally, 15th among Power 4 teams and second in the Big 12, the latter being just 0.1 points per game behind the leader. K-State has allowed fewer than 22.0 points per game each of the last three seasons, the first time doing so since 1991 through 2003. Turnovers are a key factor in the limited points surrendered. The Wildcats have ranked in the top 20 nationally each of the last two seasons, doing so for the first time since 1999 and 2000. The K-State defense has forced 47 combined turnovers in the last two seasons to rank first among returning Big 12 schools. A 2001 graduate from Minnesota State with a degree in social studies, Klanderman also obtained his master's degree in sports administration from MSU in 2004. Klanderman and his wife, Amanda, are the parents of four children: Elle, Corryn, Jarrett, and James.

***

Tim Fitzgerald is a sports journalist who writes, does TV, radio, daily YouTube videos, and is a long-time podcaster. He has served as publisher of GoPowercat.com, a website that focuses on Kansas State sports, for more than 25 years. Fitz also has metastatic Stage Four prostate cancer, so during the initial stages of the pandemic, his doctors advised him to stay home and lay low. Now, after a brief period of remission, Fitz is back in the fight for his life, but this podcast lives on. Welcome to his life and the Life of Fitz podcast.

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