Varsity Kansas - The Blog

 Equal Time asked this question on our forum (which is being phased out, so please either e-mail questions or put them on the blog)

 ”I have noticed that you characters always quote that RB Brown from East when East wins and he rushes for 300 yards. But no one interviews him after the East loses. Are you guys a-scared to talk to the losing players? Maybe he would have something interesting to say. If he’s the story of the year and a national story, like Joanna C says, then he’s a story and worth interviewing when East gets beat. Yes?”

Thanks, Equal Time for the question. Not sure about the “characters” reference, but here you go.

Let’s say we’re covering a game between two local teams. Usually how it works after the game is we make sure to talk to the winning coach and at least one player from the winning team. We also try to get the losing coach, as well. It’s pretty rare that we grab a losing player, regardless of who that losing player is.

Now, take the instance of Carroll at Great Bend last year in the semifinals. My focus there is on the area team, which lost, because it’s an area team. So I get the winning coach, the losing coach and the losing players.

There’s no conspiracy to only talk to the Browns when they win and not when they lose. I think it would have been wrong last week, for instance, to focus only on the East player and disregard the Derby players who were victorious.

Again, thanks for the question.

Mulvane’s football team might be 7-0, but as you’ll see in a story we ran today on the Wildcats — click here – there’s obviously more to this team and more to this town than simply playing football.

This was an enjoyable story to write because it’s pretty rare to have such raw emotion bared by such tough, strong men. But it was tough, as well, primarily because of my interview with Sam Keys’ dad, Mulvane assistant Phil Keys. Phil was amazing, willing to talk about his son’s death and what the memories mean to the team and to him.

I’ve done these types of stories before, but Phil got me when he said the following after I told him that I couldn’t imagine what he was going through.

He said ”You know that feeling you get on that first day in the spring, when it’s really warm and nice and you roll the windows down and you turn the radio up and you sing at the top of your lungs — that feeling doesn’t come anymore. That feeling sneaks in and you know something’s missing. That’s just the way it is.”

If that doesn’t hit you in the heart, I don’t know what will. I can’t imagine losing a child, and I certainly don’t know what the families of those four kids who died feel. But Phil gave me an insight there that made it all too clear.

Thanks to Phil, coach Dave Fennewald, Huldon Tharp and Jordan Gosch for opening up and talking about something that isn’t easy to discuss.

I know you all want to chat about this. Even though I know Southeast has talent and is probably better than its record, I was still surprised by this result. I guess I just figured East would come out with some desperation and really hand it to Southeast.

What’s lost in all of this is Carroll wins the City League title. I’m sure it’s sweet, but definitely anticlimatic. I’ll be trying to get a hold of Carroll coach Alan Schuckman today to get his thoughts on the league title.

 Feel free to share your comments — try to keep it civil, folks — on Southeast’s upset.

OK, here’s something new. I want to know what your predictions are for football this week. Here’s five games that you need go on record as to who you predict will win.

• East vs. Southeast at South (this game is tonight) — I’m picking East — even without an injured Arthur Brown — because this is definitely a desperate team that desperately needs to win to get into the playoffs.
• Heights at Junction City – I’ll take Junction City here, even though Heights is playing extremely well right now. Heights QB Chris Boyd is already second in the CL in passing (543 yards) and he’s played in just four games.
• Garden City at Goddard – Goddard, because this team is just as desperate as East, especially because the Lions didn’t make the playoffs last year.
• McPherson at Great Bend – Sorry, Pup fans, this was tough, but I’m taking Great Bend. Why? Well, Great Bend is at home.
• Wichita Collegiate at Garden Plain – Garden Plain, no question.

All right, let me see those predictions. You can agree with me or not, you can hate on the pick or not, but you must give your prediction.

Collegiate tennis coach Dave Hawley called with an interesting note about the Tournament of Champions that the Spartans hosted last month.

Check this out: The second- and third-place finishers in Class 6A girls tennis (Maize and Blue Valley West) were at the TOC, so where the first- and  third-placers in 5A (Kapaun and McPherson), and so was the 4A champion (Independence), and the champ and runner-up in 3-2-1A (W. Iindependent and Collegiate).

Not bad, huh?

It seems kind of strange to think of Wichita Heights as a Northeast Kansas team. But if you look at the regional cross country schedule, you’ll find the Falcons firmly planted in Topeka on Saturday morning. Heights is the unfortunate traveler to a Class 6A regional, which includes two Johnson County teams, two Douglas County teams and one Leavenworth County teams.

Heights is simply a victim of changing geography. More 6A schools continue to pop up in Northeast Kansas while fewer remain in the rest of the state.

 One team from the Wichita area was forced to go to the regional meet at Topeka. Heights, which is at 5301 N. Hillside, is the closest to Topeka.

The rest of the five 6A schools from the City League will compete in town.

Volleyball sub-states are on Saturday — check out Kansas.com for the sub-state pairings, either later today or Thursday. They will run in Thursday’s paper.

But  before we get into that, Tuesday was ridiculous. Derby beat Maize, ending the Eagles’ opportunity to win the AV-CTL Division I title outright. That put Goddard, Derby and Maize all into a tie for first place.

It was just as crazy over at Heights, where Heights beat North in three, then North beat Northwest in three and Northwest beat Heights in three. There were some of us wondering if the night would ever end (especially me. I didn’t even start writing on this game until 10 p.m. Can we say ugh?)

Northwest was in worse shape than me, though. The Grizzlies, who had started the season so well — cruising through the first half of the City League with an 8-0 record, beating Bishop Carroll and Kapaun Mount Carmel in consecutive weeks. It sure looked as though the Grizzlies would finally win their first volleyball league title. It looked as though this was the year when, finally, Carroll and Kapaun, weren’t at the top.

But Northwest lost to Carroll and Kapaun in its first matches of the season’s second half. Still, they were all tied with two losses, and Northwest still had a chance. But the Grizzlies couldn’t get past North. What was interesting, though, was Northwest didn’t fall apart. That could have happened, and I know I wouldn’t have been surprised to see it happen. Northwest rebounded with a tough win over Heights in the night’s final match.

As for sub-states, Cheney’s got a tough sub-state at Rose Hill. Despite being the No. 1 seed, the Cardinals (29-5) have the possibility of facing Andover Central (27-11), Clearwater (30-7) and Rose Hill (25-10).

Goddard, the top seed, could meet up with Maize — if the Eagles get by North — which would be interesting. Especially considering these towns are so close together, but will drive all the way to Dodge. Northwest will likely face Dodge City. Derby (25-13) could meet up with top-seeded Washburn Rural (33-5) at Southeast’s sub-state.

The Circle sub-state could mean a matchup of Andover and Circle. Circle won in two when they met last month.

Moundridge (36-2) has got to be the favorite at its sub-state — no other team has a record better than three games over .500. Plus, it’s Moundridge.

As for 5A, I still haven’t seen the pairings, but I’m counting on Newton getting out of its own sub-state.

And here’s you’re installment of the weekly Can’t-Miss Events.

Starting off with golf: Class 6-5A golf is today at Auburn Hills, while Class 4-1A is at Buhler’s Cottonwood Hills. Check out kansas.com for coverage in Tuesday’s paper.

As for soccer: There’s some pretty good matches in Dodge City-East, Augusta-Andover Central, Maize-Northwest all on Tuesday. On Thursday, there’s Andover Central-Andover, East-Kapaun. Regional action starts next week. Also, regional pairings come out on Saturday.

Volleyball on Tuesday: Derby’s at Maize — with a Maize win, the Eagles win the AVCTL Division I title. Derby, Goddard and Salina South are a game back, so a Derby win  could mean a four-way tie for first. Northwest is playing North and Heights, two teams it lost to on Saturday.Sub-state action starts on Saturday. The highlight could be Andover and Circle meeting in the finals of the 4A sub-state at Circle.

Cross Country: Regional meets are on Saturday — check out Sunday’s paper or  kansas.com for results.

Onto football: East meets Southeast on Thursday night, and the Aces are desperate for a victory. If East loses, Southeast clinches a playoff berth, while East is out despite its most highly anticipated season in years. East must rebound from its loss to Derby in the opening game of districts. Will the Brown brothers be at full strength? We don’t know yet.

Heights at Junction City — both are 1-0 in district, which gives this game some meaning. OK, not as much as it used to, given that half the teams in Kansas advance to the playoffs. Ugh. Regardless, should be a good game.

Derby at South — Derby could clinch a playoff berth with a win. Unbelievable, huh? Especially considering the Panthers were 1-17 over the past two years.

Garden City at Goddard (edited) – This game lost some luster with Goddard losing last week, however two straight wins could still mean a playoff berth. (P.S. — thanks to City for setting me straight)

Andover Central at Augusta — Augusta got a big overtime victory last week, so both are 1-0 in districts. Not bad for Augusta (3-4), considering the Orioles started the season 0-2.

Collegiate at Garden Plain — Both got easy wins next week, so it’s pretty fair to say they’ll both advance to the playoffs. Still should be an interesting game. The Owls won it last year 27-20.

There’s obviously other games that will be good — Hesston’s at Hillsboro, Rose Hill’s at Andover. What game or event do you not want to miss this week?

Just to prove that we’re always looking for interaction on this blog, here’s some comments from ya’ll:

From Catfan1971:

“What are your thoughts about some of the areas smaller schools. Hesston and Remington play tonight. Hesston may not be tested until they see Garden Plain (again).

Is there decent 2-1A team that will Challenege Smith Center?

This is just a gut feeling, but get ready for Derby’s Coach (Brandon Clark) to open up the play book (ala Bill Snyder) and throw everything but the kitchen sink at East. If Derby wins is it really an Upset? Nothing personal… Just think Derby is getting better and we could mention Derby as a spoiler yes, but UPSET?
LAter”

First of all, congrats on bringing up that Derby could win this game. Yes, I still think it was an upset, but you obviously saw this coming. As for opening up the playbook, it sounds like Derby didn’t have to since Snodgrass was so potent on the keeper.

As for my thoughts on some smaller schools, here you go. Garden Plain continues to impress, and Logan Dold is still putting up great numbers. The Owls have Collegiate this week, which will be a test, but I’m still picking Garden Plain.

Hesston continues to roll, with its third straight shutout coming Friday night against Remington. The most points Hesston has given up is 15 to Nickerson in Game 2.

Class 2-1A is Smith Center’s. Need I say more about this dominant team that continues to shut out each of its opponents?

OK, onto a note I saw on the football rankings.  If there is a correction to be made in records, the best thing to do is let us know at duane@varsitykansas.com or joanna@varsitykansas.com. We don’t have time to go through every story posted and read all the comments, so if there’s a mistake, we want to know. By the way, remember that rankings are awfully subjective. Use them as a talking point.

Onto cross country: There’s been comments on here that we are ignoring Mulvane cross country. Actually, Duane hit on them earlier in the season when the Wildcats had a near-perfect score in a meet. Also, we plan to be at Mulvane’s regional on Saturday.

From Rackit:

Hey nice responce to the question asking if Cheney could bounce back. Do you 2 really know sports or are you just refering to a magic 8 ball?

Actually, the magic 8 ball works really, really well for us. I’m a little perturbed that you told everyone our secret. Thanks.

And, as always, thanks everyone for the questions and comments. Love hearing from you!

I’ve been a little surprised by the amount of comments from some of the readers of this blog that knock Arthur Brown. That has especially come out after his recent drop in Rivals.com’s rankings to No. 25.

Here’s Levi:

“I cant wait until some televised All-Star games at the end of the year to see Brown look like a fool on the field. FYI-Kansas football is a joke! I would really like to see what the Brown boys could do against any of hte major Tulsa area schools. ie…Jenks, Union, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa, Owasso. ANY of the schools would show Brown a thing or two about playing football on another level.”

And ko:

“Like i said before… its ez to be a star in Wichita, but lets see what the brown boys do against outside teams who dont know or care about the brown boys…”

These are just a few of the comments I’ve seen on the blog and the discussion forums (which I only glance at because there’s a whole lot of hatin’ going on there about a wide range of folks).

Here’s my point of view on this — Arthur Brown is obviously extremely talented. Regardless of where he plays his high school ball, he would stand out. I just don’t think that college coaches such as those from USC, Florida, Oklahoma, etc., would waste their time recruiting a kid who wasn’t an elite athlete. Sorry, but Kansas isn’t just a stop-over state for extremely busy coaches. If the kid isn’t talented, then Kansas becomes a fly-over state for those same coaches.

Another point is Arthur Brown is a high school kid, a nice, respectful kid at that. Does he deserve such vitriol? Uh, no. He’s in the spotlight, so there will be plenty of people dissecting his game. No problem. But hatin’ on him? Get over it.

As for his brother, Bryce, the comments seem to be even worse. Probably because he’s more outspoken and does more immature things, such as crying after a regular season loss to Kapaun.

But people, this is a junior in high school. Does he deserve such hatred? Comment on him, then move on.

Let me point out, also, that it’s been an awful long time since we’ve had two such high-caliber athletes in the city. Even when Kamerion Wimbley played here, he didn’t receive such attention nationally. Obviously there are plenty of you out there checking on East’s games — the stands are always full. I know many want to say: I saw him play in high school.

So enjoy the fact that Wichita is actually a little in the limelight; who knows when it will happen again. As I’ve referenced earlier, the Brown brothers are in the spotlight, sort of public figures, so criticism is sure to follow praise. But remember when you’re criticizing, these aren’t college athletes getting paid with a scholarship for their education and they’re not pro players getting millions. Just remember that.