Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

Baseball has started, that’s true. But there are two big games tonight with Carroll at Maize and Northwest at Goddard. I’ll be interested to see how they turn out. Feel free to fill us all in here if you know. I’ll blog on them on Wednesday.

Glad to hear all of you getting us going with your spring sport favorites. I have to admit that I enjoy track, too. I was out at two track practices today — East and Heights. There’s just such a laid back atmosphere, except when the relay handoffs were being worked on. That was pretty intense. I loved when I was in high school track. Especially the meets. How much fun is that, just hanging out then competing, then hanging out some more.

I was out driving around, checking out some of the athletic facilities in the area today, and I have a quiz for you. There’s no prize, sorry. I offered a prize for state champs and like two of you gave your picks. Show me your loyalty to this here blog and I’ll try to hook you up.

Anyway, I went to McKay-Petrie Athletic Complex and the K.T. Woodman Athletic Complex. Where was I?

I need topics, folks. I can write all day about this and that or whatever the heck interests me, but what’s on your mind?

We can chat about track. I see there’s someone who thinks we don’t give enough love to track. Now, my husband accused me of not caring about track when we started dating in 1998 — that’s so not true. I love track. But I’ve been out of the spring sports loop for the past six years, so if there’s a story idea (not just track related) out there or a blog idea, let me know.

by joanna

If one of the seven spring sports hasn’t begun competition, it will awfully soon. Check out The Eagle this week for previews on a whole bunch of interesting teams.

What I want to know, though, is what is your favorite sport to watch or play in the spring. But tell me why, too. No one-word answers.

Mine is softball and baseball. I love to watch them and I love to cover them. When I’m covering them, there’s nothing like sitting there, keeping score — I love to keep score! — and eating my seeds. Of course, that’s much more fun in May than it is in late March or early April where you’ll freeze your buns off.

I’ve watched a lot of baseball in my life. My dad was a junior high coach, one of my brothers played and we went to a lot of Minnesota Twins game. There’s just nothing better than sitting back, relaxing at a baseball game. I really didn’t watch softball until I started covering high school sports, but, boy, the game has grown on me. It’s such a fast sport, which I had to get used to again last May when I covered the Class 6A state tourney after I’d been covering the Wranglers. Just the difference in the size of the field was crazy.

OK, there’s mine, now give me yours.

by joanna

Just wanted to take a break from the fist-bumping debate, here’s an update on Bryce Brown:

Rivals.com has said that East junior running back Bryce Brown, who has committed to Miami (Fla.), will play in the 2009 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. His brother, Arthur, played in it in January.

by joanna

Sorry, couldn’t help but post this — I’m watching a very boring, yet very close Arizona-West Virginia game (I could not care less about either one of these teams), so I’ve got the computer on and I’m going through all the different games, waiting for whatever catches my eye. I love this! Get bored with a game, go to another one, all at my fingertips. Even better than the live look-in.

Gotta admit that I was dying for Belmont to beat Duke, even though I picked Duke to move on. Just painful to see that ending — and there it is again on the highlights. Yuck. But KU and K-State did just what I wanted by winning. I didn’t think Texas A&M would win, though, because the Aggies had been playing so badly recently. How about Baylor getting smacked? I sure wanted Drew’s team to win. Winthrop let me down — they were my upset pick a year ago, but couldn’t come through for me this year.

by joanna

This was a comment by MCLwriter (keep the ideas coming!):

Why do so many teams find it necessary to bump fists with the officials during pre-game basketball introductions? It disgusts me to no end, and I want to puke every time I see it. I have written about it AD NAUSEAM for more than two years, but my pleas seem to fall on deaf ears, except for most schools in the Mid-Continent League. If NCAA teams don’t do it, why do high school teams in Kansas find it necessary? It go so bad in another state, the director of officials now keeps the crew off the court during introductions to make sure that doesn’t happen. 

I’m not sure why this is an issue. Do you see it as a sign of disrespect? I guess I just don’t see anything wrong with it. I’ve always accepted it as similar to the hand shake that a few officials offer. And I’m pretty sure officials don’t have a problem with it, considering they are the ones who lead with the fist.

The way I look at it is, this is what kids today are doing (and have done for a number of years now). It’s not a nasty gesture or disrespect, it’s just the way they greet each other. I think it’s either an attempt by the officials — many of them on the old side, OK, older side — showing they’re cool, they’re down with it. Or it’s what they do, too, in their own personal lives. I personally don’t use the fist bump, I use the two-arm hug and then the squeeze when I see anyone I know. HA! just kidding.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

 By the way, I plan on having a tournament bracket, coming out soon, in which teams will advance based on your votes. More info to come!

Keep the ideas coming in! (Man, that is way too many exclamation points. I think I’ve used up my quota.)

by joanna

CLFAN, I don’t know if he’s the Southeast student who yells I love you Joanna at games, but he says he’s a student and actually has an idea for a post. So here we go.

Best interview: My favorite coaches to interview are the ones you ask a question to and they just go — Collegiate basketball coach Mitch Fiegel, Heights coach Joe Auer, East coach Ron Allen; football — Northwest’s Weston Schartz, East’s Brian Byers, Heights’ Rick Wheeler, Mulvane’s Dave Fennewald, Carroll’s Alan Schuckman; soccer — Northwest’s Bobby Bribiesca; volleyball — Kapaun’s Terri  Hessman. Those are just a few. One of my favorite players was Collegiate quarterback Joseph  Houlik. Man, I’d ask him one question and he was off. Not just rambling, either. He was amazing.

Worst interview: Oh my. I’ve had plenty of those. I’m not going to name names — I’m not that evil. But it’s those coaches who just don’t want to talk, who are uncomfortable. The athletes who are bad usually are the ones who nervous. Not always, though. Some of the kids who are nervous are extremely honest. But then there are those who look at you like you’re the biggest idiot in the world. That happened to me during state basketball. Wow, how an 18-year-old can do that is truly impressive.

Best athlete: (this dates me — 1996 on) Southeast’s Rashad Washington. He could do it all, in basketball and football. I once did a story on him and Rashad Jackson, then at Northwest — the two Rashads. It was a fun interview. Others include Korleone Young, Brett Steven, Carlin Witten, John Randle, Kristy McClain, LaToya Jackson, Angela Buckner (she was a great inside player). These are just a few, off the top of my head. Can’t forget Bryce and Arthur Brown, Chris Harper.

Favorite athlete: Arthur Brown. That guy was always so nice, from the moment I did a story on him as a sophomore, about the biggest hitters in the area, to right before he left for Miami. Impressive. Rashad Washington was always one of my favorites, just a nice kid. Jordan Cyphers falls into that same category. Brett Steven, Andrea Mohr, Joseph Houlik, Tammie Rech. Again, just a few to name but these are kids I interviewed many times and were just fun to talk to.

Favorite student section: (Staying in the Wichita area) Goddard. It certainly can’t be anyone in the City League. Goddard does a nice job of being involved throughout the game, having chants. Nice job.

Best Rivalry: Kapaun vs. Carroll (always good, no matter what sport); East vs. Southeast vs. Heights

Favorite school to cover: I’ve always loved to cover Conway Springs football because I so enjoy those men in the press box. What a fun bunch of guys.

Best gym: McPherson’s Round house. Without a doubt, especially since they put in brighter lights in the past few years. It’s always a great atmosphere and it’s cozy.

Biggest celebrity (sports wise) I’ve met: (CLFAN has a lot of questions!)  I covered the St. Louis Rams while I was in college, so I interviewed Jerome Bettis frequently. There’s the high school kids who’ve gone on — Jackie Stiles, Kendra Wecker, Kamerion Wimbley.

Favorite moment: I always enjoy the state basketball tournament. It’s four days of basketball — that’s a lot of games — and you get to see so many different teams, talk to so many different people and chat with all the other media. That’s always fun.

Worst moment: When Brian Rosenthal, then of the Hutch News, unplugged my computer (which then didn’t have battery backup) at the McPherson tournament right before my deadline on a story about McPherson-Moundridge girls playing an epic game. I lost everything, 20 minutes before deadline. That was a scramble. I laugh about it now, but I about threw up then.

Thanks to CLFAN for the good ideas, anyone else have any other topics? I’m game!

by joanna

Bishop Miege’s Travis Releford was named Kansas’ Gatorade Player of the Year, as was Labette County’s Kendra Frazier.

Both are outstanding players — and were named to The Eagle’s All-State boys and girls teams — and both will be staying in the area for college. Releford is going to KU, while Frazier is going to Mizzou.

Missouri sure likes the Kansas girls. Circle’s Bekah Mills is there, Andover Central’s Bailey Gee is going there, and so is Frazier.

We’ll have to keep an eye on that program and see what the Kansas girls can do for the Tigers. K-State has obviously benefited from keeping girls in-state — Shalee Lehning, Marlies Gipson, Ashley Sweat and Kari Kincaid are the most recent. Although it doesn’t sound like Christine Elliott, Joanna McFarland, Lindsey Keller and Gee even considered KSU. KU also has talent from inside the state, with Taylor McIntosh, a senior, as well as Danielle McCray, a former all-stater.

by joanna

I’ve always felt bad for the athletes who play sports over spring break. As one poster said recently, Baseball players don’t get a spring break. I’m betting softball players and golfers and track athletes and tennis players don’t either. When I was growing up in Minnesota, it was the basketball players who missed out on spring break because the state tournament always fell that week.

That’s when I was glad I wasn’t a basketball player.

But at least the weather is beautiful, whether you’re on vacation or not. We’ll have a steady diet of previews coming up soon, with previews on all the spring sports, City League and area, so be watching the paper. Tuesday night we’ll have coverage of baseball and softball, too.

Now to respond to two previous posters.

To the state cross country preview person: There was a time element to the state cross country preview – it had to run before the state meet, which it did, that Saturday morning. So yes, the preview can be bumped until the day of. That could happen with state basketball previews, as well, possibly running the previews for those teams that don’t play on Wednesday, so running them on Thursday. All-State has a set day each year — Top 11 for football always runs the Sunday after the Sunday of state football (so a little over a week). It’s been that way for years previous to me. Same with All-State basketball, which runs the Sunday following the Sunday after the state championships. Again, it’s always been that way.

As to the most recent poster talking about my bringing up Sam Edwards from East. I actually mentioned him during state when I was at Hutchinson and talked to him briefly after he finished practice. As for last year, good Lord, I had to mention him on our Q&A forum (which preceded the blog) because Duane and I got at least one question or statement about him every five days. There was no way to avoid writing about him on the internet. Now in the paper, of course we wrote about him. Again, an important player.

As for the person who thinks we are biased against Christine Elliott, which is why she wasn’t All-State. Sorry, I won’t bite. Christine is one of the nicest people out there, so she wouldn’t be kept off a team because we didn’t like her. And for that matter, no one is kept off because we don’t like them.

Seriously, people, there are no politics that come into play here. We feel that we picked the best five boys and the best five girls, regardless of class, race or likability. Was Christine considered for All-State? Yep, she was. Feel free to disagree — hey, I love the dialogue — but don’t make this a personal issue. When it comes to my job, nothing is personal.

By the way, where are the ideas for topics in this slow week? You guys are slacking!

I’m doing the high school baseball preview that is scheduled to run in Monday’s paper. Two things are hindering my ability to accomplish that:

1) The surveys we send out to all the spring sports coaches went out much later than we anticipated. That meant, by the end of last week, we hadn’t received many of them back.

2) I’m out of town and unable to receive the surveys that may come in this week.

I realize that the coaches are on Spring Break, too. So what I’m asking is that if you’re a high school baseball coach in the Wichita area, e-mail me with the following information:

Top players and their positions
Record last season, including league record
Outlook for the season
Season schedule (non-City League coaches only)

Also, if you’re a coach and you know another coach, make sure he gets this too!!!! I’m trying to get as many coaches as possible, so I can make sure as many teams as possible are reprsented in the preview. You can send all that stuff to jlutz@wichitaeagle.com. I appreciate your help. Let’s get this done together.

by joanna

I’m on vacation. I am. Really. Yet I’m here to keep this blog viable. And you guys are doing your part. Love the conversation.

First of all, check online for all the all-league teams. As soon as I saw a post that they weren’t online, I contacted the perfect person to rectify that issue. So look there.

On to All-Metro. It is tough to compare different athletes with different schools and different classes, but I am a firm believer that the top athletes are not only in the top classes. I wrote about this before, during one of my hundreds of state tourney blogs. Several of the greats are females — Kendra Wecker, 4A; Nicole Ohlde, 4A; Laurie Koehn, 2A and then there’s Miklannet Tennal, who played in 1A, won a juco national title and then went on to Texas Tech. And she was about 5-foot-1. But what a player.

Comparing 3A Cole Graddy with 6A players is fine. This kid is one of the best shooters that I’ve ever seen, he’d be fine in any class. Luke Meisch is 4A, but my goodness, people, he led his team to a 23-0 start. It’s pretty tough to ignore that.

There were some points that South doesn’t get love because Christine Elliott was All-Metro, not All-State, and that Lance Russell wasn’t All-Metro. Man, if we had places for more than five people, surely that would be rectified.

Finally, there’s the Adonis Gantt issue. Obviously an outstanding guard. Without a doubt. Could he have been All-Metro? Sure. So could Kelton Marshall from Heights, Lance Russell and a few other players. But I am sure he feels the love. What a following this guy has — probably even more than Sam Edwards of East had last year.

Hope this helps! Hey, gotta topic for the blog? Let me know. We need to keep this alive — even if I’m writing while my kids are running around the house screaming!