Coaches Luncheon Connects KWU Athletics With Salina Community

Kansas Wesleyan athletics stepped away from the playing field and into downtown Salina on Tuesday, Oct. 20, as Martinelli’s Little Italy hosted the university’s Coaches Luncheon. The event offered a chance to connect the programs people follow with the coaches and student-athletes who represent them.

The gathering was the second installment of KWU’s 2026–27 Coaches Luncheon Series, presented by the Jeff Wells Agency of American Family Insurance. This edition focused on winter and early spring sports, giving supporters an opportunity to learn more about those programs as their seasons approached.

For a university closely connected to its surrounding community, an event like the luncheon provides another place for those relationships to grow. Games bring people together in the stands, while a shared meal offers a different setting for conversation and connection.

For KWU baseball player John Lanterman, the community aspect provides one possible way to describe the event’s importance.

“It’s cool to see people from Salina take an interest in what we’re doing at KWU,” Lanterman said. “When people support our teams, it makes you feel like you’re playing for more than just the school.”

The luncheon’s announced lineup included coaches representing basketball, indoor track and field, bowling, dance, cheer and men’s volleyball. Tyler Henry, the Voice of the Coyotes on Eagle Radio, was listed as the event’s emcee. Together, those programs represented a range of activities within Kansas Wesleyan athletics.

That variety gives the series an appeal beyond any one team. A supporter who regularly follows basketball can become more familiar with bowling or track and field. Students who spend much of their time focused on their own schedules can also gain a better understanding of the other programs representing their university.

For student-athletes, that broader connection can be easy to overlook during a busy semester. Between classes, training and team responsibilities, much of a player’s attention stays on the next assignment or practice. Events involving several programs offer a reason to look beyond those daily routines.

“You get used to focusing on your own team because that’s who you’re around every day,” Lanterman said. “Something like this gives you a chance to hear about the other sports and appreciate the work they’re putting in, too.”

Holding the luncheon at a downtown restaurant also places the university within the everyday life of Salina. The setting creates an opportunity for campus conversations to extend into the community, where local supporters can connect with KWU outside an athletic facility.

Those connections matter because support for college athletics often develops through familiarity. Knowing more about a program can give someone a reason to attend a game, follow a season or take an interest in a team they have not watched before.

The same connection works in the other direction. Student-athletes have an opportunity to recognize the people whose interest helps make university athletics part of the community. A conversation over lunch can make that support feel more personal.

“As players, we appreciate when people show up and support KWU,” Lanterman said. “Getting a chance to connect with those people makes that support mean even more.”

Although baseball was not the focus of October’s program, the series will turn to spring sports at its next luncheon, scheduled for Jan. 26, 2027. Baseball coach Bill Neale is among the coaches listed for that event.

That schedule gives different programs their own opportunity to connect with supporters throughout the academic year. It also offers the Salina community a continuing way to stay involved as the university moves from one sports season to the next.

At its heart, the Coaches Luncheon creates space for a simple part of community building: spending time together. For Kansas Wesleyan, gathering at Martinelli’s offered another opportunity to strengthen the relationships that carry from downtown Salina to the sidelines.