Logan Mize at a recent performance in Colorado.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — For four years, Logan Mize, a 2003 Clearwater High School graduate, was a running back for the Indians. And every time his team played the Wellington Crusaders, he was on the losing end.

Come this Thursday, Mize returns not with a football helmet but a guitar. And he is on the cusp of being a major country music star.

Mize will be the featured performer this Thursday night at 9 p.m. at the Kansas Wheat Festival downtown street dance in Wellington. His performance will be part of what is arguably the best lineup of entertainers to ever perform at the Wheat Festival.

Jason Boyd opens for Mize at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Friday “The Banned” will be on the main stage in front of Memorial Auditorium at 9 p.m.

Then on Saturday, Kinsey Sandler, who is a country rocker from Oklahoma, will take to the downtown Wellington stage at 9 p.m.

The Mize concert has been a two-year deal in the making. He was originally set to perform on stage at Memorial Auditorium around Thanksgiving in 2014, but schedules were unable to mesh.

So Mize will instead be her Thursday, set to perform a slew of songs including his latest hit, “Can’t Get Away from a Good Time.”

Sumner County residents can safely call Mize one of their own. Logan’s home is on a river in Peck. His grandfather opened Mize’s Thrifty, a grocery store in Clearwater.

“I used to get off work and take the dirt road route to watch the Kansas sunset,” Mize said in the 2015 Official Travel Guide. “As much as I love traveling and meeting new people, there’s definitely a sense of feeling at home.”

The Mize stop in Wellington will be a quick one in Kansas this week. It will be his one and only performance this week in his native state. He will be in Nebraska the next night on a tour that has taken him recently through Rhode Island, Delaware, New York City and Milwaukee.

Mize is not quite a headliner in Nashville, but he is very close. “Can’t Get Away from a Good Time” reached the Billboard No. 58 position in 2015. His latest album Pawn Shop Guitar peaked at No. 32.

He is most certainly working the stage for Country’s biggest acts. He has opened for Lady Antebellum, The Band Perry, Leann Rimes, Eric Church, Diers Bentley, the Charlie Daniels Band, Blake Shelton, Stoney LaRue, Hank Williams and was part of a special tribute with Merle Haggard.

He also doubles as a song writer for performers like Bucky Covington.

“It has been a lot of work getting where I am now,” Mize told Sumner Newscow. “I spent the bulk of my 20s driving a van and playing music in any bar I could find.”

Mize signed with Big Yellow Dog Music in April 2009.

“Nashville is a funny place and it most certainly is an interesting industry,” Mize said. “I stay in the lane and do what I do. If something doesn’t work, I’ll tweak it a little. But you have to be true to yourself.”

To get into the Mize concert requires a Wheat Festival button. You can purchase one at the door for $10 or $5 if you purchase one at the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce or at an official Kansas Wheat Festival event.

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