Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

I was thinking about this because of the number of times I’ve written about Hutchinson so far. I’m not about to ignore the best team in the state, but it got me thinking about who deserves more hype.

I think the teams that get love on the blog by myself and you readers are Hutchinson, East, Andale and Garden Plain. Does Carroll need more? What about Northwest? How about Derby (although there’s a pretty strong contingent here)? Goddard? Andover Central?

Let me here it. By the way, feel free to let us all know why a team needs to be talked about more.

by joanna

I didn’t realize it when I read the story on the Hawker Beechcraft worker killed on Monday, but the man who died on Monday was the father of a former offensive lineman — Jared Hart — at Southeast.

We wrote a first day of the season story in 2006 that included an interview with Jared Hart.

It’s very sad.

by joanna

I finally got time to check out Sports Illustrated’s College Football preview issue. Man, there is a ton of info in there. Fact-checking that is no joke.

And inside I see Arthur Brown listed as the top freshman to watch in the ACC. Not bad, huh?

by joanna

I spent the afternoon out at Kapaun Mount Carmel’s practice today and it was very interesting. I spend a lot of my time joking around with coaches, but that just can’t happen at practice — especially the first day of practice. The coaches were obviously enjoying themselves, and they were as ultra-intense as you would expect from any football coach. Especially on that first day of practice. At about 4 p.m., one of the coaches yelled, “Come on, sprint there, we’ve only got an hour left to practice!”

I was surprised to no end to see Mike Gehrer out there in a Kapaun T-shirt. He’s now an assistant at Kapaun, after several years away from coaching football. (He was the former coach at Collegiate).

There were several dads and one grandpa out watching the action. One grandpa talked about how hard his grandson has been working this summer.

It was kind of crazy at one point watching the Crusaders doing jumping jacks and say, “We are K-A-P-A-U-N” as a jet flew over very low, drowning out the players.

By J. Long

We received an email from Marsha Olmsted, West Athletic Director letting us know that unfortunately the school won’t field a tennis team this season, but is working on a collabo with South that would give any girls who are interested in golf a chance to play.

She’s waiting to hear from the Kansas State High School Activities Association for approval. The Co-Op would allow athletes from West to participate as part of Souths’ team during the regular season, but represent West in the postseason.

While I don’t understand why they can play as a team during the regular season, but must split up for post season play I do hope that KSHSAA approves the request.

You never want to see a sport die. So often so much attention is paid to revenue generating sports and what they mean to a school and community that smaller sports are overlooked. I know that tennis nor golf will ever be as popular as football, but don’t tell little Staisha Miller that golf doesn’t matter. Kids who participate in the lesser-known sports should have the same opportunity’s as their peers.

Basketball, and Football aren’t the only sports that give kids something constructive to do or that help teach valuable life lessons.

I hope KSHSAA does the right thing on this. It seems like an easy decision, however you never really can tell.

by joanna

I’m out at the South Y’s Farha Center. Very nice place. I’ve never been in here before, but it’s spacious — it’s nice and cool in here — there’s a lot of courts, every game is moving along nicely. I’m liking it. I haven’t paid too much attention to the game’s — it’s fourth- and fifth-graders, and lots of people I don’t know. I’m working on a story for Tuesday, so that’s been my focus, kind of.

I’ve been distracted by a few things, though. (more…)

Here’s the tentative schedule of live high school broadcasts on KCTU, Local 5.

Friday Sept 5: Northwest at Kapaun-Mt. Carmel

Thursday, Sept. 11: North vs. West

Friday, Sept. 12: Dodge City at East

Friday, Sept. 19: Bishop Carroll at South;

Friday, Sept. 26: Bishop Carroll vs. North

Friday, Oct. 3: Northwest vs. Southeast

Friday, Oct. 10: Heights at South

Friday, Oct. 17: Derby vs. Southeast

Friday, Oct. 24: Campus at South

Friday, Oct. 31: Southeast vs. East

Any games jump out at you?

The biggest thing that jumps out to me is that they aren’t going to show Carroll at Heights, the first game of the season, Thursday September 4. This is a TENTATIVE schedule so I’m hoping that something clicks in the head of a decision maker over there and they add this game.

Not only is this the first game of the season, but it’s a marquee match-up. Both these teams should contend for a City League title and beside maybe NW vs. Kapaun I don’t see another game on the list that’s a better match-up.

But that’s just me going by what I’ve heard from others as far as who should be good this year and who won’t.

So let me know what you think of the schedule. What games should be added? What games have no business on T.V. whatsoever?

by joanna

Because of you guys, because I wanted to put this on the blog, I ran down Ricky Ross in the Wal-Mart parking lot last night.

Yep. I’m a dork. I’d never met him, but I’ve heard plenty about him. Most of it from Bob Lutz, my longtime co-worker, who has talked about him so much over the years that I figured Ricky Ross was really a god. Bob has waxed poetic about how good of a player Ricky Ross is (he’s someone you have to use both names, don’t you think?) and I wanted to meet one of the few people that have ever gotten Bob talking like that.

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by joanna

Cortland Carney has been out of the City League for a decade now, which is aging me oh-so-much. (There’s a lot of things that do that to me.) But my first two years in this job, he played basketball his junior and senior years at South. So I remember him very well (I seem to remember more about those first two years in Wichita than I remember the last two. Go figure.)

Anyway, Carney stopped by the house last night because his niece is my stepdaughter. So he chatted for awhile and I had the great idea to put him in the blog today (he reads the blog, by the way.)

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By J. Long

If you didn’t know Blake B is in reference to Blake Bell.

I got a chance to peep the kid when he worked out with Steve Cisneros, quarterback guru, and I will say I was very impressed. His mechanics are raw, but he learns quickly.

The kid exudes athleticism. His movements are very fluid, natural. And he has a great pedigree with his dad and uncle being former NFL players.

He has the arm of a pocket passer, but he’s also mobile enough to make things happen if the pocket collapses.

I wasn’t around last season, so I don’t know what kind of QB that Bishop Carroll had, but I’m assuming he had to be pretty good if Blake lined up at receiver.

That’s all I’ll say about him for now. Throwing the ball is a lot easier when there isn’t defensive player running at you. So I’ll save any other comments until after Heights.
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