by joanna

With Wednesday being the last day of the year, I want to look ahead now. What do you think 2009 will bring us? You can take this as only a high school sports topic, or you can take it elsewhere and look at the bigger picture of Wichita, sports in general, the world.

I’m going to go out on a limb with my two predictions here (if you remember, longtime readers, I detest predictions. Pretty much because I detest being wrong. Hey, I’m one of the few that people know their real name!) My predictions for basketball are the Heights girls will win 6A and either East, Heights or Southeast will win 6A boys. There. That’s as far as I will go.

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by joanna

You had to know this blog post was coming. It has to be here. So let’s talk about what was the best of 2008. I’ll give you a few of mine, then feel free to get your thoughts posted.

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            I wasn’t a bad junior varsity wrestler in high school, I was dreadful.

            Perhaps I should explain.

            Growing up, I always played basketball.  We had a goal and backboard in our back yard, for goodness sakes, not a wrestling mat.  Wrestling, however, was big in Douglass, which had wrestling families with children born, I think, wearing singlets.  And during the 1970s, the Bulldogs had quite a few state champions. (more…)

by joanna

I personally love this time of year. It’s vacation time, time to spend with family, presents, way too much food. You get the picture.

Because I’m selfish, I especially love that Kansas takes a break when it comes to high school sports. There’s a dead period where athletes can’t even practice, there’s no games until, at the earliest, Jan. 2 and usually not before Jan. 5 this year.

Thanksgiving is different, though, because the state title games are now the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Selfishly, I think that stinks but that’s just because I want to head to my family for the holiday. But if you have a kid playing in the title game, does it matter when it is? Then again, if you’re in basketball, you only get Thursday off of Thanksgiving week, maybe Wednesday.

So what are your preferences? Would you love a wrestling tourney or big swim meet over Christmas? How about a basketball one? Would love to hear your thoughts.

by joanna

I was asked to start this blog item, so here it is.

Collegiate is the team to beat on the boys and girls sides in Class 3A. Both teams are deep and will be tough to stop.

Luke Meisch and Andover are tough, too. Although I think Hayden and Girard are the teams who will be back in the title game in 4A.

So who else is out there in the smaller classes? Wichita area or not….

by joanna

I can’t help it. I know this is a sports blog and some of you just can’t deal with topics that don’t deal directly with sports. But it’s Dec. 23 and I’m sitting here watching Christmas Vacation, about an hour after we finished watching A Christmas Story. I love those movies, and we make sure to watch them every year.

When I was growing up, we always watched Sound of Music around Christmas, and, of course, It’s a Wonderful Life.

So what do you have to watch this time of year?

by joanna

I’m rarely in the situation where I’m a fan. In work I’m an unbiased observer, there to record what happens in games, events, etc. And I rarely go to games just for fun — I mean, I’m there for work usually, do I need to go out again?

But yesterday my brother hooked up me up. He took my dad, my oldest and I to the Atlanta Falcons-Minnesota Vikings game. It’s my first regular season NFL game and my first NFL game as a fan since 2003. The first quarter I didn’t know what to do. Really.

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A reader asked if we had listed our all-state volleyball team. We don’t pick that team ourselves, unlike football or basketball. There is a team that is picked by the Kansas Volleyball Association. I thought that list had run in the paper, but I didn’t see that we had put it in the blog. So, I apologize if this is repetitive, but here is this year’s team. Congrats to those who made it.

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by joanna

I’m actually not in town tonight — I braved the winter storms to head to see family. But I obviously can’t get too far away since I’ve been checking the blog and checking scores.

Two stick out — Andover girls beating Andover Central and Heights beating Southeast.

Andover girls are for real. They have experience, they have talent, it’s a good mix. And it’s a win I didn’t expect. 

Heights beating Southeast is also one that I thought could go either way, but I definitely picked Southeast, which I had ranked No. 1 overall. Sounds like it was a good win for Heights, especially with Perry Ellis getting 22 and 22. Not bad. 

So where were you tonight? Did you see a good game? Anything surprise you? How were all those rivalry games?