by joanna

Thanks, All-Metro softball posters, you put the blog post in the top 10 with your back and forth.

I think there is definitely a sensitivity about anything posted on this board. I keep going back to this, but the e-mail I got about a comment I said saying I was surprised that Jaydan Bird had transferred to Conway Springs from Andover Central. I explained that all that meant was here he was going to be a senior and he was transferring to a new school. That’s it.

I currently have a coach who I have known for my entire tenure here, who has returned every phone call I’ve ever left for him, who is always kind to me –  but he has ignored my past three phone calls, even though they’ve been about former players of his, and he blew me off at state track last weekend. And the reason that I hear? Because I didn’t take something off the blog that I guess he didn’t like. If you all have noticed, I don’t delete anything. Yet this coach is mad at me about what other people said. Well, there’s not much I can do about it. I’m still the same person.

We’ve had similar situations on this blog with people taking things out of context, with people getting huffy over slights — imagined or not. The current one is concerning all-league softball. I really have not had a problem with the comments posted recently. And I really believe this dad came out and said he disagreed, made sure that he pointed out that there was nothing wrong with the girl who got the all-league selection.

I just didn’t have a problem with it. Yet he has gotten bashed. Seriously, is there no room for someone to have an opinion? It’s OK to disagree with All-League, All-Metro. Really. Don’t like how I picked All-Metro softball, bring it on. I don’t care as long as we’re not getting person and reaming the kids. He did not do it.

I like the discussion, I do. It’s what keeps this blog viable — and fun. But just remember that we don’t have to be so super sensitive. You all are great and I even felt like the discussions against the dad weren’t blatantly evil. Just keep it clean and try to be kind. My God, I sound like a mom. But I do love this blog and I don’t want to lose anyone.

Hey, I’ve already lost a coach/friend over this blog. What’re ya gonna do.

By: J. Long

I don’t know if you noticed, but a couple of all-league teams have players listed at multiple positions.

Erroneous (in my Vince Vaughn voice). Erroneous, I say.

How can you have one guy on a team at multiple positions? Logan Watkins is a great player, but seriously, he’s one of the first-team pitchers and the first-team shortstop. Not picking on Logan, because he was just one of several kids that was on an all-league team at multiple positions.

Aren’t there enough talented players out there for a guy to only have one spot?

I was telling K-State reporter Jeff Martin this, and he said that if he was a player, he’d want to play an inning at ever position so that he can try to lock up all the infield spots. Brilliant idea. How would that look when you go on a recruiting visit and you tell the coach I was the all-league infield? Not a position, but the entire infield. Yes, I know it sounds absurd, but that’s no more unreasonable than being on the team as a pitcher and outfielder. So if this team played against another all-league team and Logan was pitching would he have to be responsible for fielding the shortstop position?

The worst part about this is that there’s probably a kid that was on the verge of being on the team, but was left off so one kid could be at two positions. That’s just not right.

by joanna

I was thinking about how we talked about the best memories — a few of you did, anyway — of the past school year’s sporting events. And then that got me on the thought of what was tough to watch or see happen. Kind of a sad moment to witness.

This could be a variety of things, too. It could be an injury, a heartbreaking loss, a sad — as in disgustingly ridiculous — moment. I leave it up to you. But if you read this blog, you need to write here because I know all of you have seen something.

Here’s my abbreviated list:

Goddard’s loss in the 6A girls basketball final. The Lions had that game, they had it. I can still see in my mind what coach Lee Keller looked like as that game slipped away from the Lions. He was impassive and you just had to wonder how sick he was inside.

Carroll’s loss in the 5A football final. This is because a few players made poor decisions and it was costly. Kudos to Carroll, though, for making a stand.

West High’s losing. This is truly sad. This school was once one that I went to quite often — for football, wrestling and boys basketball.  I went there once this year, to interview three soccer players for my “5 minutes, 3 Pioneers” thing. To see any school struggle so much is depressing for fans, administrators, teachers, students and athletes.

The bond issue. The City League obviously needs improvements to its athletic facilities, yet who knows if this bond issue vote will even come to pass. What’s really sad about it is the folks who think the kids in that district don’t deserve decent facilities. You don’t want your tax dollars raised? Fine. Just don’t say the don’t deserve decent stuff.

That’s all for now, I’m sure I’ll have more later.

by joanna

A couple posters beat me to this discussion on all-league softball. I was absolutely flabbergasted when I saw that Augusta catcher Kayla Sears was not first team all-league in AV-CTL Division III. (this is by no means a rip on the Rose Hill catcher, this is a question/criticism of the coaches who picked the team)

And this is not about Sears being an All-Metro selection and not all-league. It’s about how Sears is not the all-league catcher but is the league’s MVP. I called Augusta coach Ray Aguirre about it yesterday to find out what the heck happened.

Before I get into that, I’m not bothered by certain teams cleaning up in the all-league category. The fact that Augusta had 7 first teamers, that Ark City had eight, I’m not bothered by. Some teams are successful based on a strong team that doesn’t have superstars. Others it’s obvious that their success is because of superstars. It happens. Now, no representation by Valley Center, I’d be concerned about. Were there other players in Division III more deserving than the Augusta kids? I don’t know, feel free to discuss.

I’m actually surprised that so many from one team get represented because what I see happen so often is that other teams in the leagues seem to think like this, “Well, I already voted for two kids from that team, we need to spread this around.” There’s nothing more frustrating for a coach to see than a kid who is a mediocre player be chosen over a stud player simply because there’s too many players from that team already named. At the same time, is it fair that only the most dominant team gets all the selections? This is so subjective.

But back to Sears. I think her being named MVP is a way the coaches tried to rectify the voting and her being left off first team, so in that regard, I give them credit for fixing it, kind of. You see it happen a lot where a kid ends up DH or utility because there was tough competition at the real position so the coaches found a place for them.

I kind of did a similar thing with Heights’ Charlotte White and  Goddard’s Jenny Heerey. Both are known most for their pitching, but both play other positions and play them well. So because pitcher is always a competitive position for all-Metro, you try to get those kids on somewhere else. It’s the same in football. On our all-class teams, there’s only one QB, but there’s multiple quarterbacks who deserve to be on the team. So when they play another position — usually defensive back — you get them on in that way.

I still remember when Kamerion Wimbley was a junior at Northwest in 2000. He was such a jack of all trades that he didn’t have outrageous numbers anywhere that he was only All-City at punter — just to find a spot for him. The next year he was at defensive back and punter.

All-leagues, they are crazy.

by joanna

You probably saw our All-Metro soccer team in the paper today or online. It sure looks like a good team to me. There’s a whole lot of success on that team, too. Truly impressive what they have done, individually and as teams.

I cracked up at the All-City League soccer team. Coaches, really, it’s OK to not name everyone just because they started. Really, make it an honor, not an expectation. If someone’s feelings are hurt, they’ll try harder for next year. If they should be on there because they are one of the best, great, but otherwise….

It was figured up by a co-worker of mine that the average was 7 soccer players per City League team made the all-league team. Really, it’s unnecessary. Are you being too nice? Probably.

I really think this is a symptom of this age we live in that nobody should ever lose and everyone should have high self-esteem. But then the kids go in the real world and mom and dad and coach aren’t there to soften the blows of a boss’ words or a client’s annoyance. Just make it the best kids so it’s an honor.

On a side note, I also don’t think we should have All-Nice teams. Just because a kid is nice, shows up to practice, gives 110 percent. Doesn’t mean that kid is all-league. I remember one year in the City League when the boys coaches decided that Northwest had too many bad boys and didn’t give a single kid first team all-league. That’s ridiculous. It really is. If you don’t like a kid, OK, but are they the best? Vote for them. If that coach thinks that kid is good enough to be able to start, how can you decide that he’s not?

Feel free to comment….

by joanna

This blog is definitely a baby of mine. Late last summer when we discussed different ways to get Varsity Kansas off the ground and get people coming to our site — there will be more improvements this fall — this blog was something I was dying to do.

I love having this forum for you readers to talk, discuss, ask questions. I kind of miss our question and answer forum because I do believe that invited questions more than the blog does. But know that we are always open to any questions you have — I’m at jchadwick@wichitaeagle.com or joanna@varsitykansas.com.

I also love this forum for me because it gives me an area to talk about things that interest me or happenings that don’t really work in a game story or fit in the newspaper. That includes what we call color — the sights and sounds of an event that I really don’t have the space to include in a story. Or when I see someone and have a conversation with them that might interest you guys. Or a minor controversy, such as the official staring down Marky Nolen of South High during a basketball game.

The cool thing for me was seeing the development of this into recruiting, where people were keeping me up-to-date on what their kids were doing or where they were visiting. Let’s keep that up as we head into the fall.

One of the problems I have with this blog, though, is the nasty comments that crop up every now and then. I’ve often said that the crap written on here about Bryce and Arthur Brown was ridiculous. Many of you are grown-ups and to write like that is unbelievable. Arthur has got to be one of the nicest, most respectful kids I’ve ever dealt with. Certainly Bryce is a little more vocal, but honestly, what has he done to get such negative attention? Nothing that I’ve seen.

Now we’re seeing the same stuff with Independent softball and baseball. What bothers me with all the hate that’s going on about this school is two things. No. 1, Independent is a private school and people spend a lot of money to have their kids go there. Fine. Get over it. It’s a good school academically and if they have the money to go there, so what? How does that affect any of us? It doesn’t. Let’s move on.

No. 2, the problem I see with these discussions is with parents. Fact is, Independent had some parents act pretty crazy — according to what our correspondent Levi Wolters wrote, it didn’t look good for this school. These parents brought negative attention to a school and their kids’ teams that won’t go away any time soon. That really is too bad.

The other thing is, along these same lines, is too many of you keep coming to the blog and saying harsh things to other people. If you don’t like what’s on the blog or what other people are saying, respond once and move on. People are trying to get a rise out of you and they are succeeding. The same thing happened with the comment about a coach recruiting. If you keep coming back and responding, people keep writing. If you let it go, the conversation will drop.

It’s a frustrating thing for me because I love the blog, I love the interaction, but I do get irked with the fact that the only things that seem to get the posters’ fingers flying is anger at someone else. Case in point, my two posts regarding what you’re annoyed with and what makes you happy. As I pointed out earlier, the negative one got all the posts, the positive one barely any. Even when I talk nicely about an athlete, someone makes a nasty comment.

I don’t want this to be an angry place. Is there room for that? Sure. Things make us upset, but that’s not all this is about.

Jonathan and I will be sitting down to discuss what our plans are for this blog this summer. I don’t want it to die this summer. There’s plenty for us to discuss.

Now, I’m off my soapbox, let’s get moving to another conversation.

Last time I checked the number five was an odd number. So if there are five people voting on between two things there should be a decisive winner.

If that is the case then I’m going to need the members of the AV-CTL Division 2 soccer league to get together and pick one coach of the year and one MVP. No disrespect to either Jim Post of McPherson or Galen Anderson of Campus. Both of them I’m sure did fine jobs this season, however how can both of them be the coach of the year.

When it comes to matters like this and MVP people have to start making tough decisions. I don’t like the idea of Co- anythings. However, I understand how it can happen when their are an even number of people choosing. But not with five people. That’s unacceptable. Even worse is that it’s five teams. FIVE TEAMS. It’s not like they have to choose between 12, 18, 30 coaches.

Seriously, what’s the significance of being the coach of the year if almost as many coaches were the coach of the year as there were coaches in the league?

It couldn’t have been that hard of a decision, but if so there is always this tie-breaker: McPherson did go 3-0 in the league while Campus finished 2-1. That could be a pretty legitimate deciding factor.

Picking the MVP is a little harder as both Beth Biehler of McPherson and Kaitlin Reed were given the award. Yet, when it all comes down too it someone needs to make a clear choice.

I don’t understand how this whole movement of everyone getting a trophy and every team is a champion came about. When I was growing up the better the finish the bigger the trophy. And Mr. Magoo could see the difference in first and second place. But in today’s society it’s as though their’s an over-emphasis of being fair. Nobody wants one kid to feel worse or less significant than the other. I’m sorry but it’s called winners and losers. And if you are a loser and want to be a winner then you go out, work harder and become a winner.

Or study real hard, make a lot of money, and them buy a team of winners.

My first season of high school sports here in Wichita has come and gone. I must say it went quite well. Got a chance to see some quality baseball. Talked to several intriguing individuals, and enjoyed the state track meet.

But now I get a little time to really get acquainted with the area. Looking forward to it. But I’m also interested in finding somethings that you might find interesting over the summer. So hit me up with your ideas.

by joanna

With Goddard’s loss in the 6A baseball final on Sunday, it officially ended the 2007-08 school year and sports season. Unblievable, huh?

There were a lot of great moments throughout this year, a whole lot of success in the Wichita area in all the sports, whether it was football and basketball or bowling. We compiled a nice wrap-up page in sports with pictures, a list of team champions and some quotes.  

There were so many high moments — Andover Central girls going undefeated and winning the 4A basketball title, Southeast winning the 6A title, Trinity winning the 3A boys title. Andale, Garden Plain and Hutchinson all won in football and Bishop Carroll got to the championship game in 5A football but made a bigger statement in my mind of suspending some key kids for the game because they broke team rules. That says so much about that administration.

There were some down moments, such as West struggling in all sports, Goddard girls losing in the championship game of 6A basketball, the Wichita area only coming away with one title — Andale-Garden Plain softball — outside of track this weekend.

The saddest things were the deaths — Ed Kriwiel, Hanston’s Jerry Slaton, Stan Pulliam.

East’s Arthur Brown committed to Miami and then graduated early to get started. Northwest’s Chris Harper committed to K-State, took it back, committed to Oregon and then graduated early to get started out there as a quarterback. East’s Bryce Brown has committed to Miami, too.

The Wichita area has shown itself to be a hotbed for girls basketball and baseball this past year (not that it’s the first).

So there were a lot of high points and some low points. While Wichita area didn’t come away with as many titles as it would have liked to this weekend, many teams put themselves in the position to win — Goddard baseball, Carroll softball, Kapaun baseball, Andale-Garden Plain baseball and softball, Kapaun soccer, Maize soccer, Independent baseball and softball, Udall softball. That’s impressive

Overall it was a great year.

Now tell me your memories — good and bad.

Writing on deadline can be a tricky deal. If you read my story for today’s paper, I focused on the fourth inning when things went way south for Wichita Independent in last night’s championship game. That’s mostly because, at that point, it was after 9 p.m. and I thought the Panthers would have a very difficult time coming back. And indeed that was the case. However, I failed to capture Independent’s attempt at a comeback. The Panthers are a good team — obviously — and they showed that last night overcoming that brutal fourth inning and chipping away. As coach Jamie Fowler pointed out, they actually had the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning. That note — a relatively important one, at that — wasn’t included in my story. My point to this is I hope my story didn’t insinuate the Panthers quit after the fourth inning. That wasn’t the case.

As for softball, I found my new favorite high school coach to cover. Corey Lyon impressed me tremendously this weekend. Obviously he’s a great coach, but he also delivered a lot of great, well-thought out comments in speaking with me after tournament games, even after Independent’s loss in the yesterday’s title game. And I appreciate that. He talked about a lot more than softball and more to what he was really trying to get his girls to take away from their trip to state. He got choked up in speaking with me after the final game yesterday, and I thought that was pretty cool for the young kid with the cool shades and soul-patch goatee, who less than an hour before was ejected for standing up to the umpire on a play he believed could cost his team the championship, to show some emotion afterward — whether it was voluntarily or not. He’s a good guy who his team respects a lot.

Final note: Unfortunately, because of a few ‘bad apples’ the Independent fan base got bad name for itself this weekend in Manhattan. There were three incidents, all directed at umpires, I personally observed that I was stunned to witness. One of which ended when tournament administrators had to physically restrain a man and threaten to call the cops after he rushed the umpires after a game. I’ve covered 3A baseball for three years and there are a lot of great people running and help running the tournament who had some very nasty observations about what they saw from Independent fans. There’s that cliche about how most people form an opinion in the first few seconds after meeting someone. Well that goes for a weekend of state baseball and softball, and those first few seconds — in this case, days — didn’t go too well. Looking at the respective rosters, I’d imagine Independent baseball and softball have a great chance to be back to Manhattan next year. I hope the fans realize they’re in a hole as far as public opinion goes when they get back to Manhattan, and I hope they do everything they can to change that opinion. I talked to a lot of friendly, sportsmanship-minded fans on the Independent side this weekend, and I hope they are the ones that the tournament officials remember after the next trip to state.

Congrats on two great seasons.