Kansas Pregame 8-Man Top 8: Kaedin Massey and Tanner Heckel

Kansas Pregame polled 8-Man coaches earlier this month who voted for the top four seniors they coached against this season. Kansas Pregame staffers then used those votes to develop a Top 8 list of seniors for each division. Check out another Top 8 capsule below, and find the complete list of Top 8 selections, and the honorable mention list, here for 8-Man I and here for 8-Man II.

Lyndon made program history in 2023, winning the school’s first ever football state title, downing Wichita County 34-6 and finishing with an unblemished 13-0 record. 

The championship win capped off a great career for a talented senior class led by two of the best players in the state, Kaedin Massey and Tanner Heckel, and coached by the KEMFA 8-Man I Coach of the Year Michael Massey.

However, aside from having no state championships to show prior to 2023, none would have predicted the above paragraph to be true.

After playing his freshman season at Northern Heights, Kaedin Massey made the move to Lyndon for his sophomore season, the Tigers' last playing 11-man before making the switch to 8-Man in 2022.

During that 2021 season, Massey, standing at  6-8, 255 pounds, quickly established himself as a force on the field, serving as a key member on the offensive line and recording 32 tackles, a tackle-for-loss, two sacks, and two fumble recoveries on the defensive line.

Lyndon finished the season 6-4 with losses against a tough Osage City team, state champs Olpe, and state semifinalist Centralia in the regular season, with another matchup with Centralia ending their season in the state quarterfinals.

Entering the 2022 season, head coach Scott Jones and his staff proceeded to successfully transition to the 8-Man I level with Massey transitioning from a good player, to one of the best in the state.

The junior recorded 67 tackles, four sacks, and six tackles for a loss in the middle of Jones’ 3-2 defense, while offensively he established himself as one of the top offensive lineman in the country.

Lyndon again made it to the state quarterfinals in their new division and finished the year 8-3 with quality losses to Madison, Chase County, and Burlingame in that quarterfinal contest.

Massey earned All-State honorable mention on the offensive and defensive lines and eventually rose to the status of four-star prospect earning scholarship offers from a multitude of DI programs.

Along with the major recruiting attention, the following offseason saw two major changes early in the summer for Massey and the Tigers.

Massey’s uncle, and head basketball coach, Michael Massey, effectively swapped coaching positions with coach Scott Jones, who took a job outside of education while still remaining on the coaching staff.

The second major change for the Tigers was the arrival of another one of the state’s top athletes, a transfer from Inman High School. 

Prior to coming to Lyndon, Heckel had already led Inman to back-to-back 1A state title games as a sophomore and junior at quarterback and defensive back before he transferred after his mother, Megan Heckel, took the head basketball coaching position for the Lady Tigers after formerly coaching volleyball and basketball for the Teutons.

Individually in 2022 for Inman, Heckel had over 2,200 combined yards rushing and passing with 27 touchdowns while also serving as a lockdown defender, recording 47 tackles, a tackle-for-loss, and two interceptions, with both in the 1A championship game. His efforts earned All-State honors on both sides of the ball.

After the move was made, the transition for Heckel and the Tigers was seamless.

“Tanner fit right in from the start,” coach Massey said. “He did a great job of learning what we do and picked up our system quickly. We felt like with what we had returning from last season we could compete for a state title. When Tanner moved in I felt like if I didn't mess something up we had a really good chance to win the title.”

Along with Heckel and Massey, the Tigers had no visible weak spots with six starters back on both sides of the ball, including senior All-State selections Jalen Massey at safety, Casten Wirth at linebacker, and Caleb Anschutz on the line.

Massey, who by this time stood at 6-8, 280 pounds, had continued working on his game through the summer, along with Heckel and the Tigers talented returning group.

“Kaedin continues to improve his skillset,” coach Massey said. “You can't teach his size and ability to move at that size. That is what makes him a DI player. His knowledge of the game continues to grow.”

With the top ranked O-line prospect in the Kansas Class of 2024, along with Anschutz and junior Eli Feltner, the Tigers fielded a tough wall of humanity for any team to deal with up front.

“Kaedin was solid for us up front,” coach Massey said. “He, along with Caleb Anschutz and Eli Feltner, did a great job up front for us. We set school records for rushing this season and obviously the line creates a lot of that.”

Individually on defense, Massey recorded 65 tackles, four tackles-for-loss, and a sack, while Heckel recorded 81 tackles, eight tackles-for-loss, seven interceptions, 18 pass deflections, and three forced fumbles. 

The Tiger defense pitched five shutouts and were particularly tough in the final two rounds of the playoffs, holding Cair Paravel and Wichita County – two elite offenses – to six points each.

Lyndon was far from being just a defensive minded team, however, with coach Massey’s record setting offense being led masterfully by Heckel, who went 56 for 100 with 1,062 passing yards and 19 TDs to two interceptions with his arm, while carrying the ball 186 times for 2,313 yards and 50 TDs on 12.4 yards per carry.

“Tanner is an outstanding athlete,” coach Massey said. “We were able to get him in a lot of one-on-one situations and he won those match ups. His dual-threat ability was a game changer.”

Aside from a 38-34 win against Chase County in Week 6, nobody came close to beating the Tigers, who won all their other matchups by a minimum of 28 points. 

Massey and Heckel both earned All-State honors and along with Kaedin’s cousin Jalen Massey – who also earned votes for 8-Man Top 8 honors – received nominations for Sports in Kansas 8-Man I Player of the Year, with Heckel ultimately selected as the SIK 8-Man I Offensive Player of the Year.

The duo, along with Wirth and coach Massey as head coach, were also selected to compete in the 39th annual KEMFA All-Star game coming up in June in Beloit.

Nearly a month after the state title victory in late November, Massey officially signed to Kansas State over other scholarship offers including those from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Ole Miss, KU, Stanford, and others.

While at K-State he plans to study Computer Science.

Heckel, meanwhile, plans to study Business and has a number of options to play college football including scholarship offers from Emporia State, Washburn, Hutch Community College, Butler Community College, along with a Preferred Walk-On offer from K-State.

The Lyndon singal-caller is equally impressive on the track and also has DI interest that includes K-State. As a junior at Inman, Heckel finished first at state in the long jump and triple jump, second in the 100 meter dash, and third in the javelin for the 1A state champ Teutons.

Massey is no slouch in the spring either, taking fourth at state in the shot put and second in discus last year.

Before either sets their sites on spring sports or their athletic and academic careers beyond that, however, Heckel and Massey are in the midst of leading a talented Lyndon basketball program, while continuing to play for their state championship football coach. The Tigers are also looking  for its first basketball state title and currently sit at 6-0 with all wins coming in convincing fashion.

“Both have started basketball strong,” Kaiden Massey said. “It took a few games to get our legs under us, but we feel like we are starting to play to our potential.” 

Regardless of the outcome of the remainder of this basketball season, the Tigers have at least one storybook ending to cherish for years to come.

“The title run was very special for our team and community,” coach Massey said. “This senior group started as sophomores and took some lumps. They have always worked hard spending extra time improving. They are also very unselfish and don't care who gets the credit. They just want to win. That's what is so special. They did things the right way and were rewarded for it.”