Scott Frantz is to be commended for revealing his sexual orientation ahead of the college football season.

Frantz, a graduate of Lawrence’s Free State High School who is an offensive lineman at Kansas State, became a trailblazer of sorts when he announced last week that he is gay. When the season kicks off next month, Frantz and incoming University of Arizona freshman My-King Johnson will become the first openly gay players in Division I college football.

Unlike Johnson, who has yet to play at Arizona, Frantz is an established star at Kansas State. After redshirting in 2015, Frantz last season became the first freshman to start at left tackle for the Wildcats in more than 25 years and was heralded for shutting down Texas A&M’s Myles Garrett, the top player taken in this year’s NFL draft, in the Texas Bowl.

Frantz came out to his Kansas State teammates during his first semester at the school. He said he had never told anyone before that moment and that holding onto the secret made him feel sick and angry. A young man who had once feared no one would love him, was stunned by his teammates’ response.

“I came out to my teammates and I’ve never felt so loved and so accepted ever in my life than when I did that,” Frantz told ESPN’s Holly Rowe in making his announcement.

He decided to go public with his sexuality in the hopes that it might help others with similar struggles.

“I was very skeptical of coming out in such a public way, but ultimately wanted to use this platform as a tool to reach out to people who feel like they can’t be who they are,” Frantz wrote on Twitter.

That reasoning resonated with Bill Snyder, the legendary head coach at Kansas State. Snyder, notorious for avoiding the media spotlight, gave the OK for Frantz to go public.

“What (Frantz) wanted to do was help others, number one. That was important to me,” Snyder said this week. “Number two, he wanted the opportunity to feel free to live his life as he would like to do so, and he felt hindered prior to that being able to do so.”

Frantz’s announcement earned praise from his friends, teammates and coaches in Lawrence.

“He’s definitely one of the key role models in my life, for sure,” said Bryce Torneden, who played with Frantz at Free State and now plays at the University of Kansas. “He’s always doing the right thing. This is kind of another pivotal thing in his life that shows the leadership qualities that he has and that he’s always possessed. I couldn’t ever imagine going through that and just the courage and the strength that it takes to do this. It’s very humbling.”

There will be a time when football players’ sexuality won’t be newsworthy. That time is closer thanks in part to the courage Scott Frantz showed in coming out last week.