Foster one of nine finalists for GBL-Kpreps Player of Year

Dodge City's Beau Foster is one of nine finalists for the Get Busy Livin'-Kpreps Player of the Year Award, in conjunction with the Dylan Meier Foundation.

Other finalists include Quinn Buessing of Axtell, Turner Corcoran of Lawrence Free State, Landon Everett of Canton-Galva, Jordan Finnesy of Plainville, Tyler Green of Mill Valley, Max Kalny of St. James Academy, Bryce Krone of Bonner Springs, and Ty Lindenman of Shawnee Mission Northwest.

The award, gien out annually since 2011, is in honor of former Kansas prep star and Kansas State player Dylan Meier, who passed away after a hiking accident in 2010. Meier was a former All-State quarterback at Pittsburg High School and starter at K-State.

The annual award goes out to one Kansas high school senior who not only has shown excellence on the field but also has demonstrated the values that Dylan embodied and Get Busy Livin’ (GBL) strives to promote: adventure, fitness, curiosity and a daily zest for life experiences.

If successful, Foster would be the first player from Southwestern Kansas to earn the honor.

Foster, a Fort Hays State University signee, passed for 1,537 yards and rushed for 1,120 yards with 25 combined touchdowns.

Lakin High offensive lineman Hadley Panzer, two-way player Austin Snyder of 6-man State Champion Moscow and do-everything back Calvin Stapp of Colby were semifinalists for the award.

ABOUT DYLAN MEIER & THE GET BUSY LIVIN’ FOUNDATION

Dylan Meier, a 2002 graduate of Pittsburg High School, was a two-time All-State quarterback for the Purple Dragons. He continued his football career at Kansas State University and started 11 games from 2004-06 as the Wildcats’ signal caller.

On April 19, 2010, Meier died at the age of 26 in an accident while hiking with family in Arkansas.

In addition to his time in Kansas, Dylan played professional football in Germany and Italy, served as a bodyguard for Italian fashion models, worked in a vineyard overseas, ran with the bulls in Spain and went skydiving in the Alps. His next plans included coaching football in Europe, teaching English in Korea and possibly a return to Kansas State as a graduate assistant.

“He had a real zest for life,” Merle Clark, Dylan’s high school coach and family friend said days after the accident. “He lived a lot in his 26 years.”

That zest for life is the basis of the Get Busy Livin’ Foundation that was established in Dylan’s honor. The mission is to provide support for individuals and groups that embody the values that Dylan pursued: adventure, fitness, curiosity, generosity and a daily zest for life experiences.

The GBL Foundation is determined to break down the boundaries that keep people from living life to the fullest, whether those boundaries are social, economic or imaginary.

GBL uses donations to promote these values in the following ways: student/athletic scholarships, sport camp sponsorships, student travel abroad scholarships, community service needs and other activities that inspire and build character.

For more information, please visit http://getbusylivin.org.

Information from Kpreps.com was used in this story.