‘She brought the light’: Andover Central mourns death of beloved coach Rita Frakes

The Clearwater and Andover Central communities are in mourning following the death of beloved coach and teacher Rita Frakes on July 5 following a seven-year battle with breast cancer. Frakes was 63.

A memorial service has been scheduled at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 15, inside the Northwest High gymnasium.

In the Kansas high school sports world, Frakes was considered one of the state’s best softball coaches. She led Andover Central to two state championships and earned state and national coaching awards following her 2018 title, which came a year after her initial diagnosis.

Even though her win-loss record was outstanding, it was her relentless enthusiasm in life that made a far greater impact on those who knew her.

“It didn’t matter who she was working with, she was going to make them feel their best,” said Andover Central girls basketball coach Stana Jefferson, who worked with Frakes for the past 19 years. “Every time you walked away from a conversation with Rita Frakes, you felt better. About your day, about your life, about what you could accomplish. She was that kind of person who brought the light to you.”

‘You’re never going to replace someone like Rita Frakes’

While Frakes was best known for her coaching ability, she was a two-sport star during her college days at Emporia State.

She played volleyball and was a starting outfielder for the softball team that won national championships in 1980 and 1981.

Following graduation, Frakes began teaching and coaching at Clearwater Middle School. She helped launch a volleyball program and reeled off winning seasons in 11 of her first 13 years, eventually being named Middle School Coach of the Year by the Kansas Coaches Association in 1998.

She also helped start the high school softball program from scratch, once again with immediate success. Clearwater won six league titles in its first nine years under Frakes, a span that included a pair of run-rule victories over Andover Central and its new coach, Stana Jefferson, a basketball coach masquerading as a softball coach to help establish a new program of her own.

“It was clear that I didn’t know what I was doing, so she sat with me after the game and gave me all of these pointers,” Jefferson said. “And then she looked at me and said, ‘If you can find a way to get the most out of your kids, you will win games here.’ I’ve never forgotten that talk. It didn’t matter if you beat her or you lost to her, she was always going to help you. I went back to our admin and was like, ‘Hey, I know who needs to be our next softball coach at Andover Central.’”

Two years later, Andover Central athletic director Doug Carr hired Frakes to lead the fledgling softball program.

“I remember watching her coach against us and thinking, ‘Man, this gal has got the enthusiasm of 10 people,’” Carr said. “I knew she would do great things for our program and luckily I was right. She was tremendous.”

The Jaguars were struggling to win six games in a season at the time. Frakes led the team to a 16-4 record in her first year. By her fourth season, Andover Central won the Class 5A state championship.

She turned Andover Central into a consistent title contender for the past two decades. But even more impressively, she inspired the entire softball community around Wichita with her courageous fight with breast cancer. Even in the later stages, Frakes remained in the dugout and coached the Jaguars this past season.

“Rita was a fighter and she took on the fight like none other,” Andover Central athletic director Chad Gerwick said. “You read some of these Facebook tributes and they all say the same things and that speaks volumes about her. She was a great teacher, a great softball coach, but it was about what she meant to you as a person, how she listened to you and how she treated you. It’s pretty easy to recognize really good people and she had a bigger heart than anyone. You’re never going to replace someone like Rita Frakes.”

‘Her love was genuine, it was unconditional’

Over the span of 41 years of helping coach volleyball, basketball, softball and track at Clearwater and Andover Central, Frakes won far more than she ever lost.

She knew the work required to excel in sports, but more importantly, she mastered the art of connecting with young girls. Jefferson, who has two state titles of her own in basketball, considered Frakes a role model because of how Frakes was able to empower kids and make them believe in themselves, which was far more powerful than any coaching scheme or strategy.

“Our girls need strong female role models out there and Rita Frakes was one of the best,” Jefferson said. “She was a shining example of what you could be with your life. I would always hear her tell her girls to be yourself, be independent and be strong. I always looked up to Rita and thought, ‘I want to be like her.’”

What made Frakes a rarity was her enthusiasm and impact was not reserved for only the volleyball and softball players at Andover Central.

It didn’t matter if the student played a sport, was in the school band or debate team or didn’t do an extracurricular activity at all, Frakes shared her unique brand of positivity with everyone.

Just like in sports, Frakes even found a way to bring out the best in her students in the classroom. That’s why her art classes at Andover Central were so popular.

“Her love was genuine, it was unconditional, it was true, it was judgment-free and there were no strings attached,” said Becca Schulte, a former star softball player for Frakes. “That’s why her classroom was such a safe space for so many people. They knew the second they walked through that door, they would feel how loved they were. Whether they got that at home or from their friends or not, they could always get it from Frakes.”

Her unwavering positivity also made her beloved by her fellow faculty members and coaches at Andover Central.

Andover Central baseball coach Grant Bacon can still remember a season where his team was struggling and Frakes could tell the stress was weighing on him. She implored him to borrow her boat for the weekend and take his family, which included two young girls at the time, to the lake for fun. She even made the nearly hour-long drive from west Wichita to El Dorado Lake to drop off the boat for Bacon.

“I mean, who does that? Rita Frakes, that’s who,” Bacon said. “She just embodies selflessness.”

After graduating from Andover Central in 2015, Schulte went on to enjoy a standout collegiate softball career with stops at Butler Community College, LSU and Houston. Through it all, Frakes was always there for her along the way.

In the days since Frakes’ passing, Schulte has found herself scrolling through her phone and listening to voicemails that her former high school coach had left her. In almost every one, Frakes had left some tidbit of advice that still rings true today.

Schulte finds peace in knowing that she is far from the only one who will see to it to continue Frakes’ legacy.

“It’s going to be something that I carry with me until I’m not here anymore,” Schulte said. “I have two daughters now and they literally meant everything to me. I want to make sure that my girls feel the same amount of love that Frakes made me feel. And I want them to be as strong as she was and be as big of a fighter as she was. I want to instill all of those same characteristics in my daughters. I want to live my life knowing that she will be looking down on me and be very proud.”