As first reported by Kansas Pregame, after ten seasons at the helm with the Smith Center Redmen football program, Darren Sasse announced he is stepping down from the position, citing his desire to spend more time with family leading to his decision.
Sasse took over for Hall of Fame coach Roger Barta in 2013 and continued to have the program toward the top in the state of Kansas. After Barta went 323-68 and won eight state championships, Sasse kept that standard for the Redmen as he amassed a 94-22 record in his ten seasons, leading Smith Center to three state championship game appearances and two state titles, winning 2-1A in 2017 and 1A in 2018. The Redmen finished 12-1 in both of those seasons and also went 12-1 in 2019 with a 1A state runner-up finish.
Sasse’s teams had a winning record all ten seasons he coached. His team also made the playoffs nine out of ten seasons, only missing in 2014 with a 5-4 record. Counting opening round games in the new playoff format over the past ten seasons, Sasse went 24-7 in the postseason. He also put together a 37-10 record against Mid-Continent League opponents. In what ended up his final season, Sasse led the Redmen to an 8-3 record, falling in the Sectional playoff to the eventual 1A state runner-up Inman in 2022.
Here at KD Country 94 and Z 96.3 “The Lake” Sports we caught up with Sasse and he was able to expand on his reasoning for stepping aside at this point in his career.
When asked what his best memories of his tenure will be, Sasse did note that he’ll always remember how unique each set of players were. However, he also created great relationships with some rivals.
We will have our full interview with Darren Sasse on the Sports Ticket on Friday morning on KD Country 94. We will also follow this story and keep up on who Sasse’s eventual replacement will be.
