Varsity Kansas - The Blog

You guys have sure embraced this blog — loving that. So I picked through some comments, as I’ve done over the past few weeks, that were written on the blog over the past few days.

Check says: How about some props to Derby for their win. I havent seen any good pub in the Eagle on them all year and it seems like they are the biggest 6-A turn around so far this year.

This one made me laugh. I wrote a column about Derby after the second week of the season, then wrote another column about the Panthers in October. We also had them on the cover of our section after they beat East in the first week of districts. Derby’s got love, all kinds of love.

XCFAN2 says:

I agree with CCFan. If you weren’t Trinity, you had nothing to look at in the “preview”. Start times, state rankings. Please, i’ve been looking at those all year. The Wichita Eagle is a joke, as are these blogs.

Um, thanks. I think. Each season there is a group of people that are especially vocal — last year it was the Cheney football fans, for those who might remember. Well, in the fall of 2007, it’s the cross country fans. Sadly, the weekly cross country notebooks, our running rankings the four times that the coaches ranked them (including in Saturday’s paper) and running a preview for Saturday’s state meets were not enough. We’re always glad to hear from you, though, and that’s no joke.

 Brian Butler says:

Big boy, Id love to meet you and for you to say any of these classless things to my face. If the Browns do leave Wichita it would be more than warranted. There are only a handful of people that have ever assisted in helping them out of kindness. And with so much negativity running rampid……A couple of you people are pure jokes and cowards. Talk about how well Bryce is doing in the classroom. And just to let you know why he threw the ball in the stands that didnt cost them any points, because they connected on a two point conversion afterwards; he planned it when he saw all the little kids in the stands before the game and thought that they would get a kick out of it. Class or not? Let you tell it he should have gotten a 4.0 instead of a 3.58 GPA. Come on Bryce your have no class a 3.58 is dissappointing from such a phenomenal player. Keep hating. Say it to my face bigboy….Then get your hands ready.

The Browns have definitely taken heat this year, and I can understand Butler’s anger. I myself can’t quite understand why there is so much crap said against the two. Regardless, I wish Butler would have ignored this. He can’t win here. It’s the Internet and there’s so many places people go in anonymity to say the hateful things they think.

The best bet is to ignore it. You can’t win by arguing on the Internet, and too many times it gets worse, i.e., calling out someone to fight.

CL Fan says:

… Players like Marky Nolen, Joseph Randle and Chris Harper have benefitted from playing against the Brown Brothers and have gotten serious looks from major colleges. I take back my comment about “carrying Wichita high school football on their backs”. Instead, they are carrying Kansas high school football on their backs.

I cut out some of the stuff CL fan says — not a big fan of cussing on a high school blog — but I have to admit I chuckled when I read that Chris Harper and Joseph Randle have benefited from the attention the Browns have gotten.

The reason for my chuckle? Harper doesn’t need anyone bringing him attention. He got that all by himself thanks to his being 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, running a 40 in 4.38 seconds and having a 40-inch vertical. Randle’s the same way. This kid is talented and he’s impossible to miss. Didn’t need the Browns.

Again, thanks for all the comments on the blog.

I know we have so many avid fans of cross country — they all come to this blog — so I wanted to let you know why we were missing a promised story in today’s paper.

It was my mistake to say the story would run — that’s a crucial error on my part. As I was told as young pup many moons ago, never say when a story will run because something could change and then you’ve upset people because they believe you’re lying. I thought I was pretty safe, though, because every year at this time, we run volleyball and cross country previews heading  into the state meets (volleyball started today, while cross country is Saturday).

Well, we ran into an unexpected space crunch and we held a feature I did — it will run next week — and we held cross country, because it doesn’t start until tomorrow. I am so sorry to come across as “lying” or “not caring” to our cross country folks, but I’ve learned my lesson. No more telling ya’ll when a story will run. But Duane Frazier did write a story, so check it out Saturday morning. Oops. I just did it again.

Here’s the schedule we’ll run Saturday

When: Today
Where: Class 6A and 5A at Rim Rock Farm, five miles northwest of Lawrence; Class 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A at Wamego Country Club.
Rim Rock times: 6A girls at 10 a.m.; 5A boys at 10:30; 6A boys at 11; 5A girls at 11:30.
Wamego times: 2A boys at 9 a.m.; 1A boys at 9:30; 2A girls at 10; 1A girls at 10:30; 4A girls at 11; 3A girls at 11:30; 4A boys at noon; 3A boys at 12:30 p.m.

Enjoy the state meets!

As I said on an earlier post, I can’t believe how the fall season has sped past. We’ve already finished two sports in girls tennis and girls golf. Volleyball and cross country finish up this weekend, and soccer is on its way out. Shoot, take a look at next week with soccer quarterfinals and the beginning of football playoffs. And don’t even remind me that basketball practice starts in about three weeks.

But here’s my attempt at wading through all the stuff to point out what shouldn’t be missed this week. If I do miss something, comment on the blog. That’s what it’s there for.

Let’s start in soccer: Regional pairings, which can be found here in breaking sports, are out. The second round games on Thursday and Friday are the most interesting, although Northwest and Maize on Tuesday looks like a good game. That winner will play at Southeast on Thursday. Which second round game is one you want to see? I’d choose Southeast vs. Northwest or Maize and a likely matchup with Trinity and Andover Central.

Onto volleyball: In Class 6A, Goddard is the area’s lone shot at winning a title. So good luck to those Lions. In 5A, Valley Center has an extremely tough draw. Not only are the Hornets (22-14) the No. 8 seed, but they are in the same pool as the state’s top two ranked teams — Bishop Miege (38-1) and St. Thomas Aquinas (35-2). Only the top two teams come out of pool play. Now, Newton (38-2) has a chance. This is a very talented, experienced team and the Railers should definitely make it to the semifinals. The only problem? They likely will face either Miege or Aquinas in the semis.

Cross country: There’s nothing like the state cross country meets — everyone pray for dry weather. Bishop Carroll is definitely a favorite on the boys side in 5A, while Mulvane is the fave in 4A.

And now for football: This week is always interesting because it’s the final week of districts, there are games on Thursday night, as well, and there are plenty of teams desperately trying to make it to the playoffs. Of course, there are some meaningless games — two teams that are 0-2 in districts (i.e. East and South). And even those games that match up two 2-0 teams — it just doesn’t have the same climax that it did before because both will advance. Sure, to win is important in seeding, but there’s certainly not as much desperation.

Thursday’s games:

East at South. Yes, this is a meaningless game. Arthur Brown may not play in this game, either, because of an ankle sprain (which kept him out of last week’s game, too.) I guess it will be interesting to see how many yards Bryce Brown can rack up for the Aces. He’s currently at 1,647. He needs 126 yards to tie his City League rushing record from last year (1,773 yards).

Andover at Andover Central. An Andover win puts the Trojans in the playoffs. Andover Central’s already in. Augusta at Rose Hill. This game is important for Augusta, which still has a chance. Andover has 3 points, while Augusta has minus-12. Augusta needs help from Andover Central and needs to win big. It won’t be easy, though.

Independent at Collegiate. Both need a win to advance. Collegiate definitely needs to play well after its debacle at Garden Plain last week.

Mulvane at Belle Plaine. Mulvane’s in and will end Belle Plaine’s chances (it needs a win to advance) because the Wildcats finish the regular season 9-0.

Here’s a look at Friday’s games:

Liberal at Carroll. Both are in. Carroll wins.

Manhattan at Heights. Heights needs a win to get in and needs Junction City to beat Emporia. Count on both happening. But if Emporia upsets Junction, it comes down to points.

Southeast at Derby. There was a time when this game meant a trip to the playoffs (before the current system when half the state’s team advance). Now both are in.

Maize at Northwest. District championship is on the line. Both are in. Yawn. But there should be some excitement — can Northwest’s defense stop Maize quarterback Garrett Gould and receiver Brett Soft? It’s an interesting matchup.

Dodge City at Goddard. Goddard must have a win here, but Hutch plays Garden City, which is also 1-1 in district. So Goddard not only gets some help from Hutch, it has all tiebreakers with Garden City.

Kapaun at Newton. District championship on the line. Nothing else.

Hays at McPherson. Mac’s in and has all the momentum after beating Great Bend last week.

Smith Center. Expect yet another shutout. Wait a second, Smith Center doesn’t even play this week. Still.

Alright, so you’ve made it this far in this loooong post, disagree with me, think I’m the smartest sportswriter ever? Let’s hear what you have to say.

It seems kind of strange to think of Wichita Heights as a Northeast Kansas team. But if you look at the regional cross country schedule, you’ll find the Falcons firmly planted in Topeka on Saturday morning. Heights is the unfortunate traveler to a Class 6A regional, which includes two Johnson County teams, two Douglas County teams and one Leavenworth County teams.

Heights is simply a victim of changing geography. More 6A schools continue to pop up in Northeast Kansas while fewer remain in the rest of the state.

 One team from the Wichita area was forced to go to the regional meet at Topeka. Heights, which is at 5301 N. Hillside, is the closest to Topeka.

The rest of the five 6A schools from the City League will compete in town.