Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

It’s a nearly full slate of basketball games a night early. This weekend is going to be crazy with wrestling, so why not get the final game of basketball out of the way for most teams.

Actually, for 4A, 3A and 2A, the Thursday games are because they play again on Monday. For teams like the City League, it’s a good chance to get a little break before sub-state starts on Wednesday. I think initially the idea was to get the sub-state pairings done sooner, but not all 6A and 5A teams are wrapping up that early, so I’m pretty sure pairings won’t come out until Saturday. There might have been the idea in the City League to move the games from Friday to Thursday because then the focus can be on wrestling. My thoughts on that? If you’re a wrestling fan, you go regardless. If you’re not, you still don’t go, even if there’s no basketball being played. Just my thought.

All right, onto tonight. I’m heading to North at Southeast simply because I haven’t seen North play since the very first part of the season, and I haven’t seen the girls play yet. The boys game probably won’t be much of one, but the girls game has a little bit of interesting tidbits with LaToya Randle having coached their last season and their tie in the City League for fifth with 6-9 records.

South is at Kapaun, which could have two good games or none. I have a hard time with the South girls because they should be so good, so dominating — Megan Lassley is clearly one of the top guards and Christine Elliott one of the state’s top post players. Yet this team struggles. I like the matchup inside of Elliott and Darice Fountaine. Fountaine isn’t very big, but she’s tough and can score. On the boys side, Kapaun lost a heartbreaker to Carroll on Tuesday and needs a win here. The Titans have fourth in the league wrapped up, but they don’t want to drop yet another game. They’ve lost three of four.

West is at East. Good chance for East’s guards to play against West’s. I like the West guards. They can cause problems.

Then there’s Heights at Carroll. On the boys side, Heights needs to win to stay in a tie for second with East. On the girls side, that’s where the action is. I wish I could be at this game because I think it will be outstanding. I saw the first one and was impressed by both teams, especially Heights’ late run. If Carroll is going to beat Heights, the Eagles must shoot better. Heights has so many offensive weapons — Jennifer Lane, Amanda Orloske and Mary Sims — and I don’t know if Carroll can hang with them. Certainly the ability is there — Abby Fawcett and Julia Marshall have the scoring ability, but they must have at least two other players knocking down shots.

There’s not much drama in the other leagues. Hutch has the AV-CTL Division I wrapped up, McPherson Division II, Andover Division III. Clearwater needs a win over Andale to stay out of a tie with Andover Central for Division IV.

The MCAA will come down to Friday’s game — Collegiate at Hesston. Another game I’d love to see. I’m not going to call that game, but I think because of Collegiate’s penchant for playing bigger schools, the Spartans may have the edge.

On the girls side, Goddard has Division I wrapped up, McPherson Division II, Buhler Division III and Andover Central Division IV. In the Central Plains, Garden Plain went 9-0, while Haven and Collegiate have one loss each in the MCAA.

Still, I think Clearwater at Andale could be good, both boys and girls. Clearwater’s 17-2 — not a bad follow to the football team, huh? — and Andale’s 13-6. The Clearwater girls are tough, too, at 13-6, while Andale is 12-7.

Can’t believe the regular season is almost over. I know. I’ve said it before. Still, I can’t believe it.

by joanna

We recently posted an updated story on the female official that wasn’t allowed to referee a boys game involving St. Mary’s Academy. I understand people’s beliefs are different than mine, but I just don’t understand this one.

Keep in mind that this is a school that is owned and operated by the Society of St. Pius X, which follows older Roman Catholic laws, so it’s a little different. It’s not the same even as the Catholic schools like Kapaun and Carroll. I’ve actually seen a female official at Kapaun.

I’m treading lightly on this topic because I really don’t want a vicious religious debate. But am I so crazy to think that in 2008 this wouldn’t happen, regardless? Then again, maybe not. I’ve seen what people have said about having a female president in the United States. There are plenty of other countries who have had women as leaders, yet here in our so-evolved country, there are still people who think women shouldn’t be in power. (By the way, that comment is related to women as president, it’s not about Democratic or Republican. Just so you know.)

by joanna

Congrats to Southeast for winning the City League title. I always give props to whoever is able to come out on top in this league. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the best league in the state. Southeast has lived up to all the expectations so far. The Buffaloes had those two bumps — losing to Carroll and then to East last week. But they usually have some struggles, just as all teams go through difficult times.

Now it’s a week from the true test for the Buffaloes — can they get to state. What a disappointment last season as. They had such a nice team and then didn’t make it out of sub-state. I just don’t think that will happen this time.

That Southeast beat South last night is not surprising. And for the Titans, at least they didn’t give up 113 points this time. South was without Marky Nolen, but even with him, the Titans had been faltering. They have to get it together soon or this season will be a major downer.

How about Kevin Klein banking in the game-winning shot for Carroll against Kapaun? What an exciting finish. I am bothered by the fact that he didn’t call the shot first, though. And Brett Steven scoring 18 of the Eagles’ 37 points — um, wow!

On the girls side there, Carroll was fortunate to get away with a victory. Wouldn’t that have stunk for the Eagles, who were given a chance to win the City League title when South beat Heights, to lose two nights before they play the season finale against Heights. With the league title on the line? But they won, so move on.

Northwest ended its regular season with a win over West. What a sad season for the Grizzlies. They’re 8-12, their best player quit on them late in the season…. Not a good year.

It’s times like this that I really feel sorry for coaches. I think too often teams are given expectations by fans — and me — and we all just don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. I’m not even referring directly to Northwest, I just know that every program, no matter how successful, goes through some crappy times that we never know about. There’s some kid who has personal issues that the coaches try to help him through or there’s chemistry issues that a coach needs to try to alleviate or there’s parents getting way too involved and causing friction behind the scenes. So many times it’s not just a matter of playing well or not, coaching well or not. So many times there’s lots of extra things we just don’t see.

OK, I’m off my soap box. East beat North by 21. Shocker.

The Goddard girls beat Derby. Again. For the third time. I just think Goddard has a deeper team. Too often Derby’s games come down to Joanna McFarland and Cammi Stith, whereas Goddard has more offensive weapons.

Sounds like it was an exciting game at Trinity, with Cort Lindley hitting the game-winning three. And without Cole Graddy, too.

Tonight’s an off night, but we’re back to basketball on Thursday night. The big game there is obviously Heights at Carroll girls.

by joanna

OK, so I’m a little late on this today. I’m sorry. I’m actually not covering a game tonight because I’m working on a project. So I am working. Really.

Now to the games. Kapaun’s at Carroll, which always makes for a good game, boys and girls. I’m pretty sure they’ll split — Kapaun will win the boys, Carroll the girls. I’m more sure about the girls than I am the boys. I think the Carroll girls are stronger across the board, although Darice Fountaine probably makes that inside game of Kapaun’s tougher. On the boys end, there are a lot of questions. I think Kapaun could have the edge inside and Carroll on the perimeter, especially with  Brett Steven’s scoring ability.

Southeast at South boys is not as interesting as it could have been. Southeast is coming off a loss, but there’s little likelihood that the Buffs will lose their City League title. Plus, Marky Nolen got kicked out of South’s last game, which means he won’t be playing tonight.

I’m not interested in North at East or West at Northwest.

Goddard at Derby girls should be a good game, even though Maize beat Derby on Friday. This has to be the best matchup around for forwards — Goddard’s Lindsey Keller and Derby’s Joanna McFarland.

Andover Central’s at Clearwater, which could be good because Clearwater has pretty tough boys and girls games.

Again, sorry folks for being late on talking about tonight’s games. I’ll try to do better. Really.

by joanna

OK, but it’s not me hatin’. I know I’m a little late commenting on this  story about St. Marys not allowing a female official to referee a boys basketball game. But I have to admit I was flabbergasted by this.

The NBA has women officials, other high schools don’t have a problem with women officials. I realize that the school stated it was for religious reasons, but I can’t imagine God wanting them to discriminate based on gender.

I certainly don’t want to turn this into an ugly debate on politics or religion. I just can’t believe that there are still people in power who make such ridiculous decisions.

And don’t tell me that women can’t officiate boys games, that they can’t keep up. I’ve seen several women officiate boys games in the area, and they do fine. They keep up much better than those overweight male officials do. Do the women make mistakes? Of course. So do the men.

And the men coaching during those games, how did they act toward the women? Exactly the same. Just as it should be.

by joanna

Hard to believe, isn’t it, that the winter sports seasons are nearly over? Winter sports always seem so long when you’re looking at them in November — practice starts in mid-November and postseason awards are finished by mid-March. That’s a loooong time.

Of course, for me, it hasn’t seemed so long, thanks to a maternity leave that took me through the mid-way point of the season! Not that I was sitting back eating bon-bons during that time away. I’m sure my lack of sleep rivaled that of most coaches.

Anyway, we’ve got wrestling this week, and I have to admit I always have mixed feelings about this time of year. See, wrestling stresses me out like no other sport. This dates back to when my brothers wrestled, when my mom would sit in the stands crocheting something or other. She’d get so into the matches that she wouldn’t even realize her yarn had fallen under the bleachers until she pulled, pulled and pulled and the yarn didn’t move.

That intensity definitely affected me, even to this day. There are times in other sports where I can feel a rush of adrenaline when a game comes down to the final seconds. But in wrestling, it happens from the beginning of every match I watch. No lie. I feel it. I get stressed. Even though I have nothing involved in the match except what I’m going to write later.

I have to admit that there were years when I dreaded this time, but that was only because I was covering 4A, 5A and 6A. That’s a lot of schools in those three classes and a lot of kids to make sure you are watching for, story lines to check out. It was a lot.

This year, well, I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to 6A at Koch Arena. A huge difference in coverage. I know the teams, I know the athletes.  I don’t know the story lines yet, but that will come. That’s the fun part.

Goddard certainly looks to be the best story again this year. The Lions did well at their regional, and I can’t imagine that wouldn’t translate to state, too. There’s a lot of kids looking to defend their titles, and Boaz Beard and Tyler Caldwell are looking to become three-time champs. Heights also has a set of kids that could win titles — possibly as many as four. Northwest could make a statement there, too. Derby is strong again, too.

I know all those coaches, too, so I’ll know just who to go to for the information — and those story lines. I also wrote about some of those athletes last year, so they won’t be wondering who the chick is.

Wrestling’s not the only postseason starting up. We’ve got bowling sub-states on Saturday.  Isn’t it amazing how this sport has grown? When the City League decided to start up bowling — thanks to the proprietors who are footing the bill — it seemed a little crazy. Who didn’t ask if bowling’s a sport? Obviously it is, and what I appreciate about it is that it draws a different type of kid, many who don’t play any other sports at their high school. How can that be wrong?

As for teams to watch, the Northwest boys came on strong at the CL meet, and how about Maize sweeping boys and girls in Divisions I and II of the AV-CTL and Augusta doing the same in Divisions III and IV?

Basketball sub-states aren’t far off, either. I’ll be tracking down sub-state pairings for 2A, 3A and 4A on Wednesday. 5A and 6A will mostly be available on Saturday. I’m curious how this basketball postseason will pan out. You can’t count on really any locks to make it to state — if you think you can, look at what happened to Southeast and East last year in sub-states. If that didn’t shock you, you’re lying. OK, I will give you one lock — the Heights girls will advance. There.

That’s my last prediction, folks. But I think I’m pretty safe here.

This is normally the part of the day where I would plug the iPod headphones into my ear and jam to some Eagles, blink 182, Akon and whatever country song I happen to be feeling at that particular moment. Then I’ll log on and ramble about high school sports for a few minutes. But I won’t eat Zingers. Not again.

But the problem with that plan is that my iPod’s battery has been dead for a few days now. I always mean to go home and charge it, but for whatever reason I never get around to it. And let me tell you, some music right now would be awesome. Monday’s around here are kind of dull to begin with, and today is no exception. So instead of listening to music, how about I take time out to think about what today, President’s Day, really means.

OK, I have no idea what the significance of President’s Day could be. Let’s talk sports.

Just finished up the boys basketball rankings that will run in next week’s paper. Pretty glad these are about over, since it seems like all the No. 1 teams lose every week. This week, No. 1 overall Southeast lost, No. 2 Manhattan did, and Trinity, No. 1 in 3A, did too.

It was a bad week for me because I was kind of iffy on South being ranked No. 6 in 6A. So I went to watch the Titans play North, thinking they would pulverize the Redskins and solidify such a high ranking. Nope, South lost. Then I wanted to go see Trinity play because I’ve been hyping the Knights up in this blog, so I wanted to make sure they were as good as I said. Nope, they lost.

But that was actually a fun game. I went up to Cheney with my uncle, who has two kids in the Trinity feeder system and watches a lot of its games. Trinity was short a starter, but never quite could get over the hump in that game. After getting behind big early, Trinity came back to tie it twice but never took the lead. Cole Graddy scored 28, but he could have had about 40 if he wasn’t trying to get his teammates involved so much. I guess sometimes you CAN be too unselfish.

This week it’s more wrestling for me. Covering the 5A tournament in Hutchinson on Friday and Saturday. Obviously the two big stories there are Bishop Carroll’s likely easy victory and Hutchinson’s Romero Cotton going for his fourth straight title. Writing a story on Romero for Friday, seeing what it means to him to likely become the first four-time football and wrestling champ in Kansas.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Another busy week on the high school beat, so we’ll do our best to fill you in on all the good wrestling, basketball and swimming stories. Hopefully we can get some sunshine soon.

by joanna

Well, the wrestling pairings are out, which makes it even more real that the sport has just a few days remaining in its season. We’ve already lost one sport — swimming — and bowling sub-state is this weekend. Basketball sub-states are next week. Amazing how a season seems so long, and then suddenly, it’s over.

Click here for the wrestling pairings below for any who haven’t seen them yet. Like a specific matchup? Feel free to chat about it.

Edit: Thanks to Jack, I put the pairings in as a link. Should have done it in the first place.

by joanna

I went to the Valley Center wrestling regional yesterday and was impressed. Impressed by how well it was run, impressed by how quickly it went, impressed by Bishop Carroll (7 champs and 11 through) and Valley Center (11 through).

Overall a good night there. I thought Bishop Carroll might have a tougher time because this regional was so difficult, but that proved to not be the case. I mean, seven finalists and seven champs? That’s nice. I know we write about Carroll quite a bit, but what are we supposed to do with a team that is so strong? I really enjoyed watching Kyle Detmer. He had some sweet moves and, of course, pinned his opponent.

Valley Center showed how deep it is. Even though it didn’t have any champs, it finished second.

In 6A, Goddard got 11 through and has got to be the favorite to win this year. The Lions probably should have won last year, too. No surprise, Tyler Caldwell and Boaz Beard advanced. I do enjoy watching those two wrestle. I’ve seen them since their freshman seasons, and they’re just so talented.

Northwest had three champs, including sophomore Kyle Caylor at 215. I’m also amazed when young wrestlers  do well at the higher weights. You know, you kind  of expect them to do that at the low weights, such as 103, where there’s so many youngsters. That’s not so much the case at the heavier weights.

Andale got eight through out of its meet at Clearwater, although Colby won the meet.

I see Derby handily won the Junction City regional. The Panthers had champs at 125, 152, 160, 171, 189 and 285. Wow. Heights got four through and had champions at 112, 119, 130 and 135.

Another expected finish was Hutchinson’s Romero Cotton advancing. He won 20-5 in his win at 189. Hutch had four champs.

In 3-2-1A, Hillsboro won at Eureka, but W. Independent wasn’t too far behind. Independent had three champs.

The state tournaments are Friday and Saturday and all will be separate. 5A in Hutch, 6A at Koch Arena — although these two will be back at the Kansas Coliseum next year. 4A is in Salina and 3-2-1A in Hays.

Should be a fun week.

by joanna

Well, I went to Derby tonight and, well, it was OK. The boys game was difficult to watch because neither team could hit a shot. Seriously. It was 7-7 after the first, 12-10 at halftime and 23-19 after the third.

That is not fun basketball. It was excruciating. I know Maize has had offensive problems all season, and it continued, shooting 28 percent from the field. Although — and how’s this for weird — the Eagles made 8 of 17 threes. Go figure.

The girls game was much better, with Maize beating Derby. The Maize girls are much improved and really ran their offense to perfection. It was impressive to watch their quickness, quick passes and shot selection. I still think Joanna McFarland is one of the best players in the state, but there’s not much around her. Maize ran a zone defense, which is no surprise, and Derby struggled to penetrate or even get it in to McFarland.

On the boys side, Heights narrowly beat West, winning by one. Not a great showing by Heights, especially against a struggling West team. But West has some strong guards that can create havoc.

Kapaun beat Northwest and Carroll beat North. Ho-hum.

Andover had a tough time with Mulvane before pulling it out. Cheney beat W. Trinity. Those were two good games in the area that I’m especially glad we were at.

How about those Cheney Cardinals? Quite the season, huh? I can’t believe we haven’t been hearing from those fans. I’m a little disappointed or is it because it’s not football?