Veteran administrators step down from WAC schools
Jay Gifford and Lance Krannawitter could reflect on their respective careers and understand exactly what Frost meant in that famous poem more than a century ago.
The two have served as respective athletic directors at Dodge City and Hays high schools and have been instrumental in guiding the Western Athletic Conference five-school athletics and activities for a combined 28 years.
JAY GIFFORD, DODGE CITY
Gifford has been the athletic director for the Red Demons since the 2004-2005 school year while Krannawitter’s tenure at Hays was a bit shorter (7 years, 2018-2025).
Those two made decisions during the recent school year to retire, and retire at an age much earlier than most. And while their roles at the two schools look much the same, their road to these positions was not even remotely similar.
Gifford was born in Lawton, Okla., and then moved with his family to Amarillo, Texas, at the age of 6. They lived there until his junior year of high school when the Gifford family moved to Dodge City.
A 1989 DCHS graduate, Gifford was a standout football (wide receiver) and baseball player for the Red Demons. He played in the 1989 Shrine Bowl and will now oversee the 2025 Shrine Bowl being played at Dodge’s Memorial Stadium on Saturday, June 21. It will be one of the final events in his administrative career with the school.
Upon graduation from high school, Gifford attended the University of Nebraska-Kearney on a baseball scholarship. He was set to play shortstop for the school until a severe knee injury ended that career.
He became a graduate assistant for the baseball program which allowed him to pursue and earn a Secondary Education Science degree with a coaching endorsement.
From there he was hired at Haysville-Campus High School, serving as an assistant coach in both football and baseball. He remained there for just he one year before heading west back to his alma mater at Dodge City High School.
That was 1995 and he became the head baseball Coach and also served as an assistant in football and basketball. Those roles remained the same until nearly a decade later he was hired to lead the athletic department.
Now age 54, Gifford has indicated that he wanted to retire when he still loved what he was doing.
“I’ve seen a lot of people who kept teaching, coaching until they didn’t enjoy it anymore and I didn’t want to be that person,” said Gifford in a recent interview. “In any job, there are some things that can be frustrating and in recent years perhaps became more frustrating. I still loved coming to work every day, and I wanted to feel that way on my last day.”
With many different projects still in the works, Gifford said it would be a Sprint to the finish line.
As with most athletic directors in the Class 5-6A WAC, Gifford oversees a sprawling sports program of more than 20 varsity sports. Upgrades to facilities has been a major undertaking over the past two decades as well as the addition of boys and girls soccer, boys and girls bowling, boys and girls swimming and girls’ wrestling.
“There have been so many changes in our facilities,” Gifford said. “At the 5-6A level, you just have to have good facilities for your student-athletes to be able to succeed. It’s all been for the better. We have new turf, its safer and now we have video boards for marketing and enhance the experiences that our fans can enjoy. Even at the high school level, it’s become more entertainment for the fans. We have one high school and part of the value that we can provide is entertainment to families who live and work here.”
Gifford has stressed with all of his coaches the importance of not just coaching to have winning programs, but to help the young men and women become better people.
“Are we developing the young men and women to be better individuals?” Gifford asked. “We want them to become good citizens who can jump out into the world and make a positive contribution to society.”
Gifford said it has always been a priority to watch the student-athletes compete, but in a way that they succeed no matter the wins and losses.
“Obviously, when you have a state championship team, it’s a unique experience and we all enjoy it,” Gifford said. “But understanding the bigger picture is more important. Having a strong camaraderie with our coaches has been so fulfilling.”
One of the major challenges is the schedule that an athletic director must assume.
“There are many nights and weekends where you’re gone to a game,” Gifford said, citing about 100 nights and 15 weekends being at Red Demon events. “At some point, it wears on you.”
Having his own children playing sports and attending events when they were much younger provided Gifford an opportunity to make these a family affair.
His youngest son, Jace, plays baseball and football for the Red Demons and Gifford will now get to watch from the stands as Jace completes his high school career next school year. His oldest son, Jalen, works in the athletic department at the University of Alabama where he served as the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) Content Director and Creator.
“I think one of the most satisfying things is to see how the community, the administration and the school board have all come together and made great efforts to improve the quality of our athletic programs over the years,” Gifford said.
At the time when he announced his retirement from DCHS, Gifford was uncertain as to what he might do in his next career.
That question was answered recently (June 17) when the Kansas State High School Activities Association announced that Gifford has been hired as general manager of sales for TPG-Kansas.
Teall Properties Group just entered into a contractual relationship with KSHSAA to help align strategic partnerships with patrons.business owners who share the association’s values and an interest in support of high school students through education-based activity participation across Kansas.
LANCE KRANNAWITTER, HAYS
While Gifford’s path to Dodge City would be the more normal road taken, Hays’ Krannawitter was nearly a diametrically opposite journey.
A 1984 graduate of Hoxie HIgh School, a small Class 1A school in northwest Kansas, Krannwitter then attended and graduated from Fort Hays State University in 1991 with a Bachelor’s of Education degree for K-9.
Rather than jump into the traditional school career, Krannwitter instead signed up for the Peace Corps where he taught in the African country of Tanzania for two years, teaching English and Agriculture. He then went halfway around the globe to take a one-year graduate program in South Korea.
From 1996 to 1998 he taught English at a South Korean school and it was there that he met his future wife, Miran. In 1998, Krannawitter and Miran moved to America and in 1999 he began teaching at Luray-Lucas school district, with his classes being in technology, math and science from fifth to eighth grade levels.
“I coached football, basketball and track and did other odd jobs while there,” Krannawitter recalled.
In 2008, he was named the head principal at Colby Grade School and remained in that position until 2015, when he accepted the promotion to become an assistant principal and athletic director at Colby High School.
He stayed there for three years before accepting the position of associate principal and athletic director at Hays High School in 2018. Seven years later, he felt it was time to call it a day for high school administration.
“It came down to just being able to retire,” said Krannawitter, age 59. “I would be eligible for the benefits and retirement. My father retired at about the same age and it gave him the freedom to do what he wanted and this will allow me the same opportunity.”
A 32-year career in education proved to be a good run, Krannawitter said.
“I’m turning it over to a younger man (Chris Drees) who is a Hays native,” Krannawitter said.
While he is uncertain what the next chapter of his life looks like, he says he is not averse to a possible teaching position. He also says he will likely be involved in renovating properties, looking at investment opportunities or even driving a truck.
“In the short term, I just want to enjoy it and do what I like when I want,” Krannawitter said.
Krannawitter and his wife have two children, Erin, 25 who lives in Champaign, Ill., and a son, Jason, 22, who graduated from Hays in 2021 and attends the University of Kansas.
When Krannawitter graduated from Hoxie, it was KU (Kansas) where he first attended university for two years before going to FHSU.
“The track coach at Hays invited me to walk on,” Krannawitter recalled. “I wasn’t that fast, but I did run on the relays and did sprints when I was in high school.”
Krannwitter, like Gifford, has seen many changes in high school athletics during his three-plus decades in education.
“We’ve done a much better job of adding women’s sports and I think this provides many more opportunities for kids to do something,” Krannawitter said. “There’s more time now dedicated to sports, especially with what we can now do in the summer. KSHSAA has changed the rules to allow more contact in the summer.”
Fund-raising has become another major responsibility for athletic directors, Krannawitter said.
“It’s a large part of the job,” Krannawitter said. “But we’ve got more students and the cost of travel, equipment has increased exponentially. It’s not a large portion of the district budget (about 1% he says), so we have to have money to cover all the other expenses.”
Krannawitter is proud of the success of the Hays’ athletic programs during his tenure, citing more student-athlete participation than when he arrived.
“We’ve had a lot of good student-athletes, but I’m also of the belief that is because we have a lot of very good, dedicated coaches,” Krannawitter said. “It’s a real testament to them for their commitment to the kids.”
Krannawitter said he will miss the relationships that he has built with the other athletic directors in the WAC, citing the group as a small fraternity.
“There are some differences in the five schools, but more similarities,” Krannawitter said. “It feels like a small school atmosphere at times when we are all working on the same goals. We work really well together on all aspects of our programs. We always find a way to work things out and put the pieces of the puzzle together.”
While indicating there is nothing easy about the job he has performed, he says there will be one thing he misses more than anything.
“The buzz you get when a championship trophy is presented to your kids and the buzz that gives to the entire community,” Krannawitter said. “There’s nothing like it. Seeing all the things come together on Game Day gives you a real sense of accomplishment.”
