Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

The Kansas City area has an all-star challenge, pitting Kansas vs.  Missouri and it was held on Thursday. Did any of you see this game? Hear about it before this? Sounds like Olathe South’s Kyson Ginavan was the man in the game.

The Shrine Bowl game is a little more than a month away, so we’ll get to see all-stars from the whole state of Kansas in an East vs. West game.  Will you go to that?

I think the Shrine Bowl is a great event that certainly benefits a wonderful group — did any of you see the idiot Opinion Liner who dogged the silly Shriners who drive around in the little cars? How, honestly, can you say anything negative about a group of people who raise a whole lot of money for children needing medical care? Go figure.

Anyway, are all-star games a big deal to you? Is it something you want to see? If you’re an athlete, is it something you aspire to play in? And if you’re an athlete, if you’re a big-time recruit, do you play in that game (basketball, baseball, football, whatever)?

Just looking for your thoughts.

Was checking out my old employer and I saw that Jack Porter of Blackman high school won the Class AAA (highest public school class in Tennessee) 110-meter hurdles with the best time in the state, this season, 14.6.

Just thought I’d pass since they said he’s from Kansas.

By J. Long

Since I’m still pretty new to most of the readers here at Varsity Kansas, I should let y’all in on a little something.

Sneakers are my anti-drug. Seriously.

Ever since I laced up my first pair of Air Jordan 11’s in the seventh grade, I’ve been hooked. My collection started with MJs’ signature shoe, but has since grown to include a plethora of Air Force Ones and several other shoes made by Nike.

I’m mentioning all of this because Nike has released one of my favorite Jordan’s, the Air Jordan III, in cleat form. These were released online exclusively at Eastbay.

As if I needed another reason to want to get on the football field.

by joanna

OK, I’ve done the “What annoys you” and got quite a few heated comments. Then I did the “What makes you happy” positive post and got nothing.

Now I want to know what makes you laugh. Let me get you started.

Tonight I was at Quik Trip — I like making the Quik Trip trip, ha! — getting my 69 cent pop before work and I saw a very funny scene. Now, humor tends to offend someone, so bear with me. I saw a guy, probably in his 60s, looked down on his luck (I’m being nice here!) with scraggly hair and beard and ripped jeans. But you know what he was buying? Two cans of Starbucks  mocha-something-something. I nearly bursted out laughing. It was an oxymoron, you know.

I feel the same when I see a grandmotherly sort walking around with a bluetooth on her ear.  I laugh, not out loud, but to myself.

America’s Funniest Home Videos — some unsuspecting person getting hit in the face, or elsewhere. Followed by the requisite Oh, that has to hurt.

The soccer mom blaring rap music. Hee, hee.

Now, I want to know what makes you laugh. I know you’ve got some.

by joanna

I was out of town for Derby’s passing and receiving camp — it was Monday and Tuesday — but I checked in with coach Brandon Clark to get his thoughts on how it went. The camp included quarterbacks, receivers, running backs and tight ends.

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by joanna

I’ve been on a short vacation — camping in Minnesota with the boys. Now that is fun…. and stressful…. and many sleepless nights. I haven’t camped in many, many years, and let me tell you, this girl who is used to having fans on in the bedroom heard every single noise of the great outdoors. I heard the campers next to me snoring, I heard every snuffle, I heard when the birds started chirping at 4:19 a.m. I am sure that I heard a deer on the other side of the fence. I do not lie. But it was fun.

When I came back yesterday, I checked the blog and loved this following comment so much that I read it aloud to my husband. Here it is, from Joey Fatone:

“I think “Competing” should replace “Winning” in this discussion. People who learn to “Compete” take losses in life much better and it makes them stronger as people. People who learn to “WIN” usually dont handle adversity well because they consider themselves “Losers” when they don’t. What is the negative opposite of “Competiting”? I would much rather have my kids know as competitiors in life than winners, because you are stating their are losers when you do. Just my thought.”

This is a great, great post by our resident ‘N Sync. It might not seem like much of a difference, but it is. I am in complete agreement, as well, that competition is great, win or lose.

Winning is great, losing sucks, and both are a part of life. How do you handle it when life throws you a curveball and you lose out on a job or a girl or a house?

Your thoughts?

4A Football = Andale dominance.

That’s what I’ve heard. I have talked to Andale coach Gary O’Hair and that success has paid off as he’s got a lot of talent to choose from this season. Approximately 100 kids came out for team camp and a couple of them could turn some heads on the field this season.

Andale made the road to its second straight Class 4A championship look easy winning every playoff game by double digits except for it’s quarterfinal game against Topeka-Hayden winning that 29-28.

So now educate me. Who will be the must see players and teams in 4A? What will be the best 4A games of the season?

By J. Long

Tonganoxie senior Roxi Grizzle was named the 2007-08 Gatorade Kansas Girls Track & Field Athlete of the year.

No disrespect to Grizzle who won the Class 4A javelin event setting a meet record at 165 feet, 5 inches which was the fourth best throw in the nation at that time. However, when I think track athlete of the year I think of someone who dominated in more than one event. Maybe someone who competed in several events to help her team compete for a team title.

But that’s just me. So who do you think should have got it?

By J. Long

So a press release was sent out today by the Kansas State High School Activities Association with this statement in bold letters at the top:

Kansas High School Championship Games to be Broadcast on Television

The document was sent out to spread the word about the agreement between local television stations KWCH/KSCW (Wichita), KCTV/KSMO (Kansas City), KTKA (Topeka), and KOAM/KFJK (Pittsburg) and the KSHSAA. What the agreement was exactly didn’t quite jump out at me from the 8.5 x 11, so I gave the numero uno at the KSHSAA, executive director Gary Musselman, a call.

Since this deal was made recently, Musselman didn’t know a lot of specifics, but he did shut down the one part that I “thought” I knew for sure. The part that was boldly labeled in the top of the release.

“Right now we don’t know if or when we will be able to televise the championship games,” Musselman said. “We’d like to be able to broadcast two of the championship games in football and in basketball this year, but I don’t know if that will happen and if it does, we don’t know which ones.”

Musselman and I had a very candid conversation and though I’m not confident that we will see televised state championship contests this year, I do think this was a smart business move for the KSHSAA.

What people often forget is that the KSHSAA isn’t just a governing body for Kansas high school sports. They are in charge of lots of other things and many of those things have nothing to do with sports. Of course you, me and probably everybody but the parents of those non-athletes care more about the sports side, but Musselman and KSHSAA can’t. Musselman told me that the first step in this agreement will probably be having public service announcements appear on TV and online for various KSHSAA items.

If this agreement is done right, and from the convo with Musselman it seems to be headed this way, the students in many of the broadcast/media classes will be putting this and other things together to appear on television or the web. Doing this gives these kids a chance to have a real-world experience in what it takes in this field. I’m a big believer in gaining work experience when you can, so I applaud the association for taking advantage of this opportunity. Will games eventually be aired live? I would think so. The proposal is for three years, so I hope the entities involved would be able to figure out a way to do that at some point.

So maybe we sports fans will have to wait a minute for our needs to be served, but in doing so it seems that these kids will have a great opportunity.

by joanna

I couldn’t believe it when I got the call that Burt Helmer was returning to coach boys basketball, this time at Circle. He’s before my time (he finished at Southeast in 1990, I started in the fall of 1996), but I knew who he was. I’d heard about him and his son, Mike, was always one of my favorite coaches to deal with.

I do understand why Helmer’s getting back into coaching, though, because I really don’t think that passion ever dies. I’ve always thought coaches are wired a bit differently than the rest of us. The good ones are constantly looking for new ways to win, new ways to get the most out of their athletes. Then again, maybe that’s not so differently than any other person who’s got a passion for something.

Circle’s certainly fortunate to get a coach like Helmer, though. It should be fun to watch.