Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

It’s obvious that I need to either talk to my co-worker Paul Suellentrop (WSU beat writer who sits right next to me — our chairs bump sometimes — but has been out quite a bit on vacation) or I need to read his blog, shockwaves, more or just read the WSU stories more that run in the paper. The reason: It looks as though Mason Felter, a Bishop Carroll grad, is going to be at WSU along with Brett Steven, as walk-ons.

Which means Brett follows Taylor and Craig to WSU, while Felter follows his dad.

I do want to point out a familiar lament for the City League - -why are there so few City League kids going to be Shockers? The top girls players from the area aren’t going - -Taylor Steven was one of the few, although Heights sent a couple, including Tenia Green and Kelsey Richardson. Kapaun’s Angela Buckner has had the best career there in my decade-plus of covering area high schools.

As for the boys, I still remember when I came to interview in 1996 and I believe it was Darin Williams who decided to head to WSU and it was huuuge news. Maurice Evans then signed as well — before moving on.

So why does WSU not draw the top players from the area? Is everyone really that anxious to get the heck out of here?

Your thoughts welcome.

By J. Long

My boy Jeff Martin and I were were having a  conversation about gamesmanship earlier today revolving around Jason McElwain. If you don’t remember McElwain, he was the autistic high schooler from New York that captured the hearts of many Americans by making it rain from behind the arc in his only basketball game appearance.

Me, being a fierce competitor, told Martin that I don’t think I would have let him hit all those shots. That at some point, I would have to send one of them into the crowd. He laughed at me, but understood where I was coming from. He said that maybe after the third one he would have to put an end to the crowd pleasing show. To me three would have been two too many.

Would it have been bad gamesmanship to block his shot?

by joanna

Another post in the “I aim to please category.” A comment came that there’s way too much love here on the blog for boys basketball and not enough for girls basketball, so here we go on the girls.

Checked out hoopgurlz.com’s rankings — Derby’s Joanna McFarland is ranked 27th, while Carroll’s Julia Marshall is ranked by position and Andover Central’s Tiffany Bias is in the top 100 for the 2010 class.

I talked with Chris Lane of the Wichita Legend, and then got an e-mail about the Wichita Bearcats from Michael Marshall.

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by joanna

There was an MAYB exposure camp at the South YMCA on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I talked with Brian Huxman from MAYB to tell me a little about how it went.

By the way, the Wichita T-Wolves won the event.

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by joanna

Bishop Miege’s Travis Releford, who was named to The Eagle’s All-State team twice, was named to the U.S. Basketball 18-u team.

Obviously an honor and it’s nice to see a Kansan get it. Releford didn’t make it to our All-State banquet this year because he couldn’t miss any more school — he was going to travel to Europe to play a little bit after our banquet. But I met him when he was a junior and he came down. He’s a very mild-mannered kid, but boy, when you see him on the court, he can fly with the best.

North Girls:
Number Name School Height Position
3 Danielle Bird Lawrence 5’ 10” Guard
5 Emma Ostermann Abilene 5’ 8” Guard
8 Katie Henry Riley County 5’ 6” Guard
10 Lauren Henry Randolph 5’ 4” Guard
13 Melissa Nelson Holton 5’ 10” Guard
14 Kimber Weiser Oakley 5’ 7” Guard
20 Callan Taylor Blue Valley North 6’ Forward
21 Cassie Lombardino Linwood 6’ 3” Center
22 Brianna Eldridge Stilwell 5’ 10” Forward
24 Katie Pratt Sacred Heart 6’ 1” Guard
32 Lissa Mazanec Colby 6’ Forward
35 Jadhken Kerr Olathe South 5’ 11” Guard

Coaches: Stana Jefferson - Andover Central
Tasha Trundle – Montezuma /South Gray
Chris Strathman - McPherson

The game will be held August 6th at Lee Arena (Topeka) 8 p.m.

I’m a basketball fiend. So please believe I’ll be there. All-Star games are always fun, because there isn’t any defense played and the players don’t do too much other than try to make some highlights to put on youtube.

Who knows maybe somebody might even do something so crucial that they have their defender turn out like this dude

KBCA All-Star Game 2008

North Roster

0 Steve Feighny Hayden 6’ 5” Forward

3 Anthony Downing Atchison 6’ Guard

4 Marquez Patterson Liberal 5’ 10” Guard

5 Dennan Morrow Larned 6’ 3” Guard

12 Patrick Schulte Nemaha Valley 6’ 2” Guard

13 Caydrick Bloomquist Emporia 6’ Guard

15 Ethan Kuhlmann Kensington 6’ 3” Forward

21 Adrian Herrera Highland Park 5’ 11” Guard

22 Jordan Broxterman Frankfort 6’ 1” Guard

23 Jackie Carmichael Manhattan 6’ 9” Forward

32 Ty Modupe’ Highland Park 6’ 7” Forward

34 Weston Wiebe Lawrence-Free State 6’ 4” Forward

Coaches: Ken Darting - Highland Park

Wayne Cichon – St. Mary’s Colgan

Ted Schuler - Hayden

South

# Name School Height Position

1 Adonis Gantt Wichita Southeast 5’ 10” Guard

3 Bobby Wesley Garden City 5’ 11” Guard

5 Eli Applegate Montezuma-South Gray 6’ 5” Forward

9 Cole Graddy Wichita Trinity 6’ 3” Guard

11 Will Brown Syracuse 6’ 5” Forward

20 Cole Fiegel Wichita Collegiate 6’ 2” Guard

21 Lance Russell Wichita South 6’ 3” Guard

23 Jordan Cyphers Wichita Southeast 6’ 5” Guard

31 Cortez Barnes Wichita Southeast 6’ 5” Forward

32 Garrius Holloman Wichita East 6’ 5” Forward

33 Aaron Frazier McPherson 6’ Guard

34 Kelton Marshall Wichita Heights 6’ 7” Center

Coaches: Carl Taylor – Wichita Southeast

Mark Applegate – Montezuma-South Gray

David Swank – Wichita Trinity Academy

by joanna

Perry Ellis, the soon-to-be freshman at Heights, is on the list for the Reebok All-American Camp at Philadelphia University. The camp, which started yesterday, has 120 athletes and he’s the only one from Kansas. College coaches are invited to watch games starting Tuesday.

Here’s the link to the RAAC roster

Here’s what the camp is all about.

Here’s a blog post that includes Ellis or check it out below. (I left it as is, keeping the W. Chita, Kansas for the humor of it — hey, we all make mistakes!)

Perry Ellis 6-8 FR 2012 W. Chita, KS
The best overall young prospect in the camp, especially when you consider just how young he is and how much he produces on the floor. He has very good size and length and is very versatile around the floor, capable of shooting and handling the basketball like that of a guard. Very skilled. You will be hearing this name much more nationally throughout his continued development as a player. Bright future.

It’s nice to see a Wichita kid included with some of the top talent in the country.

by joanna

How could I not have written about this? The Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission had its award ceremony on Friday night and the winners were Andover Central’s Bailey Gee and Southeast’s Jordan Cyphers.

I appreciate that these awards are given. I’ve voted most every year. But I always waffle on who to vote for. Should it be the most outstanding athlete who excels at a high level in more than one sport? Or should it matter if the athlete is a one-sport athlete or not?

(Feel free to state your opinions on this.) I tend to think if I’m going to vote for the athlete of the year, they’ve got to be leaps and bounds better than everyone — and I like the multi-sports athletes. Which is why, as talented as Cyphers is, I didn’t vote for him. Yet I go against this when I voted for golf stud Katy Nugent and swimming sensation Jamie Bruce. As I’m trying to dissect my own reasons for this, what I come up with is that they were so far above their competitors.

OK, so Cyphers was clearly one of the state’s best basketball players in the state, much less the area — which is why he was All-State and All-Metro. So why not vote for him? The way I felt was that there were quite a few multi-sport athletes that excelled in a variety of sports — such as Andale’s Ethan Ungles (football, basketball, track) — who deserved that honor. But on the girls side, I don’t think there were as many standout athletes that fit like Ungles did.

So clearly I’ve set myself up for quite a few of you to ream me. Feel free. But it is a decision that you have to figure out when you’re looking at athlete of the year honors. So who would yours have been?

by joanna

On a very busy day that included swim lessons, covering the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame induction and going to the ASA state softball tournament at TRYC, I squeezed in time to watch some basketball at Derby’s MAYB tournament — and go to Talliano’s for pizza (yum!). I saw teams from Campus, Conway Springs, Chaparral, Hutchinson Trinity, Wichita Trinity and Heights. I saw Derby coach Ryan Herrs, Heights coach Joe Auer and Wichita Trinity coach David Swank.

Trinity had Cort Lindley and Cole Graddy — who says he’s just playing for fun, that he really does have no intention of trying to play in college. Lindley’s brother Chance was there, too. He’s now an assistant coach for Arizona’s women’s team.

Heights was the most impressive team there. This is obviously a very young team that included Perry Ellis and Gavin Thurman — both of whom I saw for the first time.

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