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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nReynolds was just the second head coach in program history. He had an interest in coaching at Fort Hays for the higher level of competition.
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\u201cI was really looking for an opportunity to coach at the division two level. Obviously, being at Kansas Wesleyan just down the road, we played Fort Hays a lot, so I had a good idea of how successful Coach Shaw had been and how nice the facilities were, so it was easy to be interested when the job was open. I talked to Coach Shaw about it as well and he had great things to say.\u201d
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After four official seasons, Reynolds’ overall record at Fort Hays is 39-27-11. The team\u2019s best record during his time was 11-7-2, and they had two more seasons with at least 10 wins.
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One memorable moment that Reynolds reflected on was a playoff game against Missouri Southern during one of his first years. The game went into 13 rounds of penalty kicks after overtime.
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\u201cI\u2019ve never experienced anything like that,\u201d he said. \u201c[The kicks] were on the far side of the field, so it was on the Missouri Southern side, and we were all standing in a line watching the kicks, and as they go on and on, I started kind of creeping away from the team and by the end, when we finally won, I was standing on the opposite fence 120 yards away from everything. It was just the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced. So that was a pretty fun moment.\u201d Reynolds also spoke about what has made him proud during his time at Fort Hays. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the big moment that I thought I would have, of getting to the national tournaments and winning a conference championship. That\u2019s something that we weren\u2019t able to achieve while I was here. But, just the daily impact that you have, when you stay in touch with alums, that\u2019s why I got into this in the first place, was the relationships,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cWe won some big games and had some success, but I\u2019ll just always remember the years and every single person that\u2019s come through the program. I\u2019ve gotten to be a part of their lives for however long their journey was, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll miss for the ones that are staying, is that I won\u2019t get those memories with them anymore.\u201d Aside from the relationships, Reynolds said that the biggest takeaway from his time with soccer is how much he has changed as a person. \u201cThe first 15 years of my career were about winning, being successful, making an impact on the lives of the people I coached, but then looking for the next opportunity to move up. That came to a halt halfway through my time here when my priorities changed,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t had a daughter, I think I would still be full steam ahead doing this job and trying to win a championship next year. That\u2019s the biggest thing for me. \u201cSoccer brought me so many places, and opened so many doors for me in life,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019ve been playing soccer since I was seven or eight, and then coaching since I was 23 or 24, so it\u2019s been a part of my life for 75 percent of the time I\u2019ve been alive. Just the places that it\u2019s brought me and the people I\u2019ve met, that\u2019s what it\u2019s been all about. \u201cBut, those late nights and long nights are taxing. To do that at this level you have to make some sacrifices, and I\u2019m not willing to make those sacrifices right now. I don\u2019t want to be one of those dads that looks back on life and regrets that he wasn\u2019t there for all of his children\u2019s \u2018firsts\u2019, so that\u2019s kind of why I\u2019m doing what I\u2019m doing.\u201d Reynolds closed with his appreciation for the community he has been a part of for the last five years. \u201cI\u2019m thankful to the Hays community and the university itself. It was such a fun five years,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve worked at six universities, and this was the best place in terms of the atmosphere. It was just a really cool place, so I\u2019m going to miss all the people here and I\u2019m thankful for the relationships that I have. I\u2019ll certainly miss it.\u201d BY RAEGAN NEUFELDPHOTOS BY ALLIE SCHWEIZER After five years with the Fort Hays women\u2019s soccer program, Blake Reynolds is leaving his head coaching position. In… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":63066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7349,3393],"tags":[13844,604,2493,14226,103,290],"class_list":["post-63065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-womens-soccar","tag-blake-reynolds","tag-fhsu-athletics","tag-fhsu-womens-soccer","tag-raegan-neufeld","tag-tiger-media-network","tag-tmn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/B95A8645.jpg?fit=5268%2C3512&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63069,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63065\/revisions\/63069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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