Varsity Kansas - The Blog

Many games have already been postponed because of ice (or expected ice). We’ll update our list here and on Kansas.com/sports. To report a postponement, call 316-268-6251 or e-mail stats@varsitykansas.com.

Basketball

City League

Bishop Carroll at Southeast, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

East at South, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Heights at Kapaun Mount Carmel, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Northwest at North, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

West at Andover, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13

Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League

Arkansas City at Winfield, Jan. 29

Clearwater at Circle, no makeup date

El Dorado at Buhler, Dec. 13

Kingman at Andale, no makeup date

Maize at Hutchinson, no makeup date

Salina Central at Goddard, 5 and 6:30 p.m. Dec. 20

Salina South at Derby, Dec. 18

Valley Center at Newton, no makeup date

Wellington at Andover Central, girls Jan. 15, boys Jan. 22

West at Andover, 6 and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13

Central Plains League

Cheney at Belle Plaine, no makeup date

Conway Springs at Garden Plain, Jan. 7

Smoky Valley at Sterling, Dec. 20

Mid-Central Activities Association

Halstead at Hillsboro, no makeup date

Haven at Collegiate, no makeup date

Nickerson at Hoisington, Dec. 18

Other area games

Caldwell at Udall, no makeup date

Kinsley at Norwich, Dec. 17

Pratt at Larned, no makeup date

Shidler (Okla.) at Cedar Vale, no makeup date

Around the state

Topeka Hayden at Spring Hill, boys Jan. 22, girls Jan. 28

Gotta admit, I love the concept behind the conference-vs.-conference series that seem to dominate college basketball these days. It started with The Big East vs. ACC, then the Big Ten filled in for the Big East (and seemingly never bests the ACC), and now the other four BCS conferences are doing it (SEC vs. Big East, Big 12 vs. Pac-10).

It got me thinking: Wouldn’t it be great to have a City League vs. AV-CTL challenge? I haven’t worked through the details of finding space in the schedule for this extra game, though for most every school it wouldn’t be all that difficult. But think about these matchups:

Maize vs. Northwest — Imagine the smack talk across 21st Street on game day.

Derby vs. Southeast — A once-great football rivalry goes indoors.

Valley Center vs. Heights — Winner take all . . . of Park City.

Andover (or Central) vs. Kapaun Mount Carmel — We’re pretty sure this would get some backyard blood boiling.

Campus vs. South — We’d get Ron Meyer and Ricky Ross to be honorary captains.

Goddard vs. Bishop Carroll — Another west-side story waiting to happen.

Hutchinson vs. East — Two traditional basketball powers (who already meet almost yearly).

McPherson vs. North — Matchup of two of the state’s best gymnasiums.

Newton vs. West — Why? Because Mike Bonczyk coached at both places.

When I saw Logan Watkins playing baseball with Goddard this spring, he struck me as a little bit cocky. This isn’t exactly a criticism — when I played baseball, I was usually the most cocky player on the field and about the seventh or eighth best. Watkins can back up his swagger because he’s pretty awesome at baseball, as evidenced by the fact that he has signed with Wichita State.

I don’t really know if cockiness helps you as a baseball player, but I know it helps Watkins on the football field. He’s a little small to play quarterback in the rough AV-CTL, but don’t tell him that. He’s the best player I’ve seen this season not necessarily because of what he has done on the field, but because when you watch him, you can tell losing is unacceptable. He just won’t lose and he can will his team to victory, much like he did last week against Junction City.

Watkins isn’t a refined passer — he’ll never put up big numbers staying in the pocket. But he knows his limitations and he knows, more importantly, what he does well — run. He’s shifty and quick, so he can make a big gain out of what appears to be a busted play. He’s the perfect quarterback for the style of play coach Roger Robben prefers.

He’s also a good quote — a “go to” quote, and there aren’t many of those in high school sports. The last personal one I remember is Dupree  Lucas, a Southeast basketball player. I don’t know if Goddard has quite enough to beat Hutchinson on Friday. But the Lions have a leader in Watkins, and that just might be enough to get past the Salthawks.

Derby junior Joanna McFarland has committed to play basketball for Oklahoma.

Mulvane’s football team might be 7-0, but as you’ll see in a story we ran today on the Wildcats — click here – there’s obviously more to this team and more to this town than simply playing football.

This was an enjoyable story to write because it’s pretty rare to have such raw emotion bared by such tough, strong men. But it was tough, as well, primarily because of my interview with Sam Keys’ dad, Mulvane assistant Phil Keys. Phil was amazing, willing to talk about his son’s death and what the memories mean to the team and to him.

I’ve done these types of stories before, but Phil got me when he said the following after I told him that I couldn’t imagine what he was going through.

He said ”You know that feeling you get on that first day in the spring, when it’s really warm and nice and you roll the windows down and you turn the radio up and you sing at the top of your lungs — that feeling doesn’t come anymore. That feeling sneaks in and you know something’s missing. That’s just the way it is.”

If that doesn’t hit you in the heart, I don’t know what will. I can’t imagine losing a child, and I certainly don’t know what the families of those four kids who died feel. But Phil gave me an insight there that made it all too clear.

Thanks to Phil, coach Dave Fennewald, Huldon Tharp and Jordan Gosch for opening up and talking about something that isn’t easy to discuss.

OK, here’s something new. I want to know what your predictions are for football this week. Here’s five games that you need go on record as to who you predict will win.

• East vs. Southeast at South (this game is tonight) — I’m picking East — even without an injured Arthur Brown — because this is definitely a desperate team that desperately needs to win to get into the playoffs.
• Heights at Junction City – I’ll take Junction City here, even though Heights is playing extremely well right now. Heights QB Chris Boyd is already second in the CL in passing (543 yards) and he’s played in just four games.
• Garden City at Goddard – Goddard, because this team is just as desperate as East, especially because the Lions didn’t make the playoffs last year.
• McPherson at Great Bend – Sorry, Pup fans, this was tough, but I’m taking Great Bend. Why? Well, Great Bend is at home.
• Wichita Collegiate at Garden Plain – Garden Plain, no question.

All right, let me see those predictions. You can agree with me or not, you can hate on the pick or not, but you must give your prediction.

Alright, people, here’s a recap for you. Because, yes, you CANNOT wait until you see the paper in the morning. So here’s your tennis results.

Ha! just kidding. If you’re on varsitykansas.com right now, you’re here for football.

East at Derby: First of all, in response to a reader who didn’t think a Derby win over East would be an upset — this was an upset. Don’t think you can disagree with that. (27-21 OT, Derby) According to correspondent Taylor Eldridge, East had at least five chances to put this game away and failed to do it.

Penalties in overtime pushed the Aces back to the 35 and they missed a field goal try. Derby then scored on its first play in OT, a Jake Snodgrass run. According to Taylor, it was the same play Snodgrass had run 28 times previously in the game — QB keeper.

This is a game East should have won. Will the Aces still go to the playoffs? I believe it. But there are some definite problems — Arthur Brown left after the first quarter, reaggravating an ankle injury suffered in last week’s win over Heights. He told Taylor “My change of direction is fine, but as far as reaching my top speed, I couldn’t do it.” Arthur added that he’d be getting an X-ray on Monday.

Bryce Brown was also hurt on what probably should have been the game-winning scoring drive. He got hurt at the Derby 42 with 42 seconds remaining. He came back but was hobbling.

Congrats to Derby in the upset. Snodgrass was a stud, as usual, running for 174 and passing for 125.

Goddard at Hutchinson: Goddard played Hutch (a 21-7 winner) close, thanks to Logan Watkins, who, according to Duane Frazier, kept the Lions alive by scrambling on every play. But Hutchinson stopped Goddard, which had 76 offensive plays, four times inside the Salt Hawks’ 30.

Garden Plain at W. Independent: These teams scored three teams in the game’s first four minutes (71-28 GPlain). Extending this game even more, there were 19 first-half penalties, 25 overall. Garden Plain had 16.

Logan Dold keeps adding to his numbers. He had 264 rushing and scored on the second play. Garden Plain also scored twice on defense and sacked Independent quarterback David Fleming seven times. Fleming still had 250 passing yards, although he was intercepted four times.

Wellington at Mulvane: This was my game, and I was impressed. I knew Mulvane (7-0 after the 33-6 victory) had a spectacular offense with Huldon Tharp (181 rushing) and quarterback Jordan Gosch (163 passing). But the defense was darn good, holding a high-scoring Wellington team to 6 points, which came in the game’s final 3 minutes against the Wildcats’ reserves. (And yes, Mulvane, congrats on your cross country team. I keep hearing about them — Duane Frazier wrote about the team early in the season — and know they are on fire heading into the postseason).

Andover Central at Rose Hill: Andover Central (31-14 winner) is still without Jaydan Bird. How long? We don’t know. But it doesn’t look good, considering he was on the sideline in a walking boot and on crutches.

West vs. Kapaun: Kapaun (45-0 winner) intercepted West five times. Anthony Cantele nailed a 50-yard field goal. The dual sports star keeps looking better and better.

Campus at Northwest: Northwest (49-14 winner) got five touchdowns from quarterback Chris Harper, two running, three passing. He also threw for 157 yards. Not bad. TJ Shine had 163 rushing.

Emporia at Heights: Heights (35-14 winner) scored 28 straight points in the third quarter. Quarterback Chris Boyd had 178 passing, hitting Jeff Evans on a 78-yard touchdown pass and a 20-yarder. Evans also returned a punt for 55 yards. Yes, Boyd has taken the starting job from Rick Holladay.

Other notes: McPherson escapes Salina South, Carroll smacks Ark City (although we get no Carroll stats from the home school Ark City), Maize beats North (we think, not really sure. we didn’t get any stats from the home school, Maize), Medicine Lodge beats Cheney (what?! What’s happening there?), Hesston rolls over Remington, Smith Center has yet another shut out (78-0 over Lincoln), South Haven (50-28 over South Central).

This is an interesting topic that I bet I’ve answered hundreds of times, and will answer it hundreds of more in my career.

Let me first say, we don’t prefer one team over another. We don’t cheer for Team A and cheer against Team B. We don’t prefer specific athletes and hate others. Seriously.

When it comes to coverage, we do try to spread things out. For instance when I cover volleyball, I don’t want to focus on just one team. That’s boring for me and boring for the readers. I like to talk about multiple teams, so imagine my happiness at Northwest’s success in volleyball. What that did for me was give me another legitimate team to write about outside of Kapaun and Carroll.

There are some schools that will get written about more often — the successful ones. Such as East and Bishop Carroll football, Kapaun golf, Andale football, Heights girls basketball, Carroll girls basketball, Circle volleyball, Derby girls basketball, Garden Plain football. That’s just naming a few.

But we really try to hit different teams and athletes, not focusing only on football and not focusing only on the City League. Just look at our Getting to Know feature, which has featured a variety of athletes of different sports from a variety of schools. We don’t write about everyone, but we do try.

If you have a story idea, let us know. It might be something that’s possible to write about.

This week has a whole lot of stuff to watch for.

There’s golf regionals today, Heights soccer plays at Maize on Tuesday and Andover Central soccer plays Bishop Carroll on Tuesday. Derby volleyball plays host to Goddard and Hutchinson, while Maize volleyball plays host to the Salina schools. Circle and Clearwater volleyball will meet at Buhler, Heights and Kapaun at Southeast.

Southeast soccer plays at Maize on Thursday, and the City League cross country meet is Saturday. We can’t forget state tennis this weekend — 6A is at Shawnee Mission East, 5A at Topeka’s Kossover Center, 4A’s at Pratt and 3-2-1A is at Riverside Tennis Center.

Now on to football. District play begins this week, so you could be 0-6 and still have a shot at the playoffs. Ain’t Kansas great? There’s even a possibility that you could go 1-2 in your district and STILL qualify for the playoffs because two teams qualify out of each district — feel free to comment on Kansas’ playoff system.

One game that looked to be a biggie has lost a little luster — Goddard at Hutchinson. Goddard’s overtime loss to Maize last Friday took away our hopes of two 6-0 teams meeting. It also brings out the predictors who point to Hutchinson’s 78-14 walloping of Maize in Week 5.

Wellington at Mulvane: I like this game. I like the tradition of Wellington in the playoffs going up against those undefeated Wildcats. And it’s always fun to try to figure out exactly what Huldon Tharp will do. He already 1,069 rushing yards.

Andover Central at Rose Hill: This is always a good game, and Rose Hill needs another win. I just don’t know if it can come against the Jaguars.

City League: Ugh. Not much interesting here. OK, Emporia (4-2) at Heights (4-2) should be good, but then there’s West (0-6) vs. Kapaun (3-3), Carroll (5-1) at Ark City (2-4), North (1-5) at Maize (2-4), Campus (0-6) at Northwest (4-2), East (5-1) at Derby (2-4). Not exactly a high-interest night.

Want your Friday night football fix before you get your paper Saturday morning? Here you go. (Just a reminder — districts start next week!)

East at Heights: This was the game I was at, and it quickly became a blowout. But that was OK, because East took nearly six minutes off the clock on its first two drives. (This makes me happy because the game goes by fast!)

Heights made a great comeback in the second half, but East’s defense held twice inside the 10 on first-and-goal. Bryce Brown was fantastic. He had several amazing runs that kind of left you shaking your head, wondering how the heck he did that. When he scored on a 35-yarder in the second quarter, he got the handoff at full speed and raced through the line untouched.

After the game, I asked how he had wanted to respond to last week’s five lost fumbles in a loss to Kapaun. Here’s his response.

“I learned after that game that the only people I could depend on is my family, friends, teammates and coaches. Everyone else likes to see that kind of stuff…. I put the team on my back, I probably shouldn’t have done that. I’m only human, I’m not a robot, not a machine.”

On a note on Heights — I would guess that Chris Boyd has taken the quarterback job from Rick Holladay, who missed two games with a shoulder injury. Boyd was brilliant, passing for 163 yards, completing his first six passes, including a 77-yarder to Jeff Evan.

Goddard at Maize: If you tell me you saw this one coming, I’ll seriously suspect you’re lying. 1-4 vs. 5-0? But Maize did it, handing Goddard its first loss with an overtime win. And talk about gutsy — it’s just as gutsy as East going for it on fourth-and-inches at the Heights 10 — Maize goes for two in overtime for the win. Impressive.

Andover at Buhler: Alright, this would have been a great one to see, considering Andover scored two touchdowns in the final seconds and then won in overtime. Buhler had put in its reserves in the final minute and then fumbled. Aaaah! You know Buhler is kicking themselves and Andover is delighted to get by with a win.

McPherson at Valley Center: According to Eagle correspondent Jeremy Costello, Mac is definitely a 5A state title contender. See — we give the Pups love!

Mulvane at Augusta: Mulvane, we love you, too, regardless of what your fans think. The Wildcats get another win, but on an interesting note, they failed three straight two-point conversions. This is NOT me dogging Mulvane. Just an interesting point from the game.

By the way, love hearing from all the Mulvane people. Will you stick around longer than the Medicine Lodge fans from last season? I hope so. Keep reading!

South vs. West: West took a 10-0 lead in this game. Impressive. Uh, until the Pioneers gave up 34 straight points. Ugh.

Salina Central at Derby: Andrew Braxton had 348 rushing yards for Central and 53 receiving. Not a bad night.

North vs. Southeast: Trezz Tillman and Joseph Randle combined for four touchdowns in the game’s first three quarters and continually found holes for game-breaking runs.