Varsity Kansas - The Blog

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.

by joanna

Can you believe that it’s 7:10 p.m. on Monday and I have not blogged yet? That’s just wrong. But I have to admit that I didn’t have the energy to blog today. I’ve got some other stuff I’m working on, so I didn’t do the thing I enjoy most. Stinks, huh?

We’re down to two sports now. Bowling and Basketball. Bowling state championships are this weekend — 6A is in Wichita, 5-1A in Topeka. Basketball sub-states start tonight in 4A on down, while 5A and 6A sub-states get started on Wednesday night.

I’ll get more into the basketball sub-states later, but there are some teams that have an easy route, including the Heights girls and the Southeast boys.

I got an e-mail from someone today wanting a story done on how there is no wrestling at the three major colleges in Kansas. It is a sad thing, and I can understand why there is frustration with coaches and wrestlers who would like to either wrestle for one of those schools or go watch those programs.

All right, I’m out. I’ll try to do better later. Enjoy your sub-states if you’re playing tonight and if you’re so inclined, enjoy the K-State-Texas game. I love watching Michael Beasley.

by joanna

Hard to believe, isn’t it, that the winter sports seasons are nearly over? Winter sports always seem so long when you’re looking at them in November — practice starts in mid-November and postseason awards are finished by mid-March. That’s a loooong time.

Of course, for me, it hasn’t seemed so long, thanks to a maternity leave that took me through the mid-way point of the season! Not that I was sitting back eating bon-bons during that time away. I’m sure my lack of sleep rivaled that of most coaches.

Anyway, we’ve got wrestling this week, and I have to admit I always have mixed feelings about this time of year. See, wrestling stresses me out like no other sport. This dates back to when my brothers wrestled, when my mom would sit in the stands crocheting something or other. She’d get so into the matches that she wouldn’t even realize her yarn had fallen under the bleachers until she pulled, pulled and pulled and the yarn didn’t move.

That intensity definitely affected me, even to this day. There are times in other sports where I can feel a rush of adrenaline when a game comes down to the final seconds. But in wrestling, it happens from the beginning of every match I watch. No lie. I feel it. I get stressed. Even though I have nothing involved in the match except what I’m going to write later.

I have to admit that there were years when I dreaded this time, but that was only because I was covering 4A, 5A and 6A. That’s a lot of schools in those three classes and a lot of kids to make sure you are watching for, story lines to check out. It was a lot.

This year, well, I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to 6A at Koch Arena. A huge difference in coverage. I know the teams, I know the athletes.  I don’t know the story lines yet, but that will come. That’s the fun part.

Goddard certainly looks to be the best story again this year. The Lions did well at their regional, and I can’t imagine that wouldn’t translate to state, too. There’s a lot of kids looking to defend their titles, and Boaz Beard and Tyler Caldwell are looking to become three-time champs. Heights also has a set of kids that could win titles — possibly as many as four. Northwest could make a statement there, too. Derby is strong again, too.

I know all those coaches, too, so I’ll know just who to go to for the information — and those story lines. I also wrote about some of those athletes last year, so they won’t be wondering who the chick is.

Wrestling’s not the only postseason starting up. We’ve got bowling sub-states on Saturday.  Isn’t it amazing how this sport has grown? When the City League decided to start up bowling — thanks to the proprietors who are footing the bill — it seemed a little crazy. Who didn’t ask if bowling’s a sport? Obviously it is, and what I appreciate about it is that it draws a different type of kid, many who don’t play any other sports at their high school. How can that be wrong?

As for teams to watch, the Northwest boys came on strong at the CL meet, and how about Maize sweeping boys and girls in Divisions I and II of the AV-CTL and Augusta doing the same in Divisions III and IV?

Basketball sub-states aren’t far off, either. I’ll be tracking down sub-state pairings for 2A, 3A and 4A on Wednesday. 5A and 6A will mostly be available on Saturday. I’m curious how this basketball postseason will pan out. You can’t count on really any locks to make it to state — if you think you can, look at what happened to Southeast and East last year in sub-states. If that didn’t shock you, you’re lying. OK, I will give you one lock — the Heights girls will advance. There.

That’s my last prediction, folks. But I think I’m pretty safe here.

by joanna

•  No surprise that Bishop Carroll handled its business at the City League wrestling meet on Saturday. And did the Eagles do it handily, or what? 254.5 points to Northwest’s 157. That’s impressive. But not surprising.

•  Does Southeast deserve to be the No. 1-ranked team this week? It’s a question I would love your thoughts on, for I am waffling a bit here. Jeff does the rankings, so I’ve pointed out to him that the loss to Carroll is not a good loss. It’s not, I’m sorry. I just don’t think you can ignore the fact that Southeast, while it pummeled a strong Heights team, laid an egg at Carroll.
• Will you be at the East-Southeast game? If not, why not? Is it because it’s Valentine’s Day?
• I seemed to have stirred the pot with my comments about the officiating at the Northwest-South game, although I’ve been called out for not naming the official. You know, I have no good reason for not naming him, I just haven’t. Can’t even come up with a great reason.
• Regional wrestling is this weekend, always a fun time. Jeff and I will be heading out to two sites and correspondent Jon McGillivray will as well. But you know what? We’re still not going to miss league bowling meets. Matt Browning will be on top of those.
• Onto Your comments:
  

From Austin: I was at the game and i agree. I felt like the ref thought it was a Saturday pick-up game at osage. I will also say Good for Coach Allen for standing up for Marky. He got off his butt and let the ref know he thought the ref was wrong. I will also say that I am at most South High games and Marky Nolen is well known by all the refs. He has a rep and thats not good sometimes. His rep is that he is a passionate player who can run his mouth at times but last night he did nothing but bite his tounge and let the ref rip him. This is a horrible example of how to handle a situation.”

I agree with your assessment, although I do believe Nolen has brought some of this on himself. Regardless of that, no official should act in such an unprofessional manner.

From Vegas (regarding story ideas for wrestling): Boaz Beard from Goddard. Missed almost the entire year, and took first in his first match back in a crushing win over Tyler Koehn`(PIT) at the Chanute SEK Invitational.

Goddard is a great story because of its team, which we’ve written about in the past. I’d love to sink my teeth into a story about Beard or Tyler Caldwell, but coach doesn’t want individual stories. Too bad, they are studs.

From Brother17: the state should take the best teams. the substate systems does not work. that’s why teams with losing records in up in the finals ever year in all sports. Derby and Goddard (girls) are among the best in the state and someone will stay home. that’s a shame. the state isn’t that big and all of these schools can afford to travel. fix it and make right.

It would be nice if the top teams would always go, but it just doesn’t always work that way. This happens at times where a deserving team is left home, but there’s no easy answer. Really, schools don’t have a lot of money. Seriously. The way I look at it, though, is if you’re truly one of the best teams, you will get there because you will win.

From Opportunityknocks concerning the story on Carroll’s Brayden Burris: Joanna, you get an A+ from me for that story, AND for not including your opinion in it. I think Prince closed some doors with this deal in Wichita. And as for the email, hey guy, I know this girl and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference with her story what college it was. Her story was right on.

Wanna know why I put this on here? Because it was a compliment. Don’t see too many of those.

From teakusc regarding the East-Southeast game at Kansas Coliseum: man i wish they would have move it to saturday that would have been better. at least for the guys sake anyways. there are going to be a lot of guys sleeping on the couch talking about how good of a game that was.

Sorry guys. My husband will be home with the kids while I’m covering this game. Neither of us is bitter — we’ll celebrate on Wednesday.

Count on seeing angry comments from parents regarding Wichita area school districts canceling school today. I understand their point, but when I got the call at 5:30 this morning, it was crazy outside. The snow was heavy and you knew the morning commute would be brutal. Who knew that now, at 1:10 p.m., that it would be 70 degrees and sunny?

But there have been postponements, which is how this is a sports-related thing. Andover’s postponed its wresting, and Andover Central has postponed its wrestling with Andale and bowling, as well. Campus at Newton bowing is ppd.

The City League hasn’t decided yet.

Any more out there? Let us know!