By Joanna Chadwick

Eisenhower has named Marc Marinelli as its football coach, a decision that was approved by the Goddard school board on Monday night.

Marinelli, who coached at Hesston, takes over a program that is just a year old.

“I think most football coaches would not admit they’re control freaks,” Marinelli said. “I am. I think the fact that it’s a one-year program and I can go and do everything my way, I think it’s led me to this program. I can do everything my way.”

Eisenhower only won a single game last year, which Marinelli considers a challenge.

“I think the first thing you have to do, it’s such a numbers game,” he said. “Last year they had 75 guys. You have to hit the hallways hard. I watched them play basketball. I see a ton who play basketball, but not football.

“There’s a bunch of kids walking the hall that can help us. That’s the first thing we have to do. Sell ourselves to the kids.”

By Joanna Chadwick (Updated, 10:28 a.m. Tuesday)

Rose Hill has named assistant Ray Boese as its football coach. Boese replaces Greg  Slade, now the coach at Campus.

Boese takes over a program that won the Class 4A title in 2011 but finished 4-6 in 2012.

“We had a great group of candidates that we interviewed and I thought that several of them would have been an
excellent choice for the program,” Rose Hill athletic director Jim Linot wrote in an e-mail. ” Ray has been an assistant coach in our program for several years and I believe is one of the finest defensive coaches in the state.  I believe that he earned the job not only during the interview, but with the resume’ he has built here and he will do an excellent job of continuing the tradition that we have established at Rose Hill High School.”

**** I talked to Coach Boese on Tuesday morning to get a little more information about him and to get his thoughts on taking over at Rose Hill.

Boese, a Wichita State and Wichita South grad who is 48, is thrilled to be named the Rose Hill coach.

“I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am,” he said. “This is a life-long ambition. At times I didn’t know if it would ever come true. This is the best day I’ll ever have in this job. Every day after, instead of congratulating me, they’ll be telling me what I need to do better.

“…. I told everyone when I was 18 that this was what I was going to do. It’s an end of a journey to some extent, and the beginning of a bigger  journey.”

Boese was an assistant for eight seasons at West and then went to Rose Hill as Slade’s assistant in 1998.

I asked him what he wants to bring to the program and what he wants to continue.

“I think consistency in terms of having the next group ready,” he said. “That’s basically what happened last year. The next group wasn’t ready. I want to change things up a bit with the coaching responsibilities. If I’m the linebacker coach, I want to coach all the way from ninth through 12th grade, instead of having a freshman coach, coach all these sports.

“I want to get into a platoon coaching situation…. I think that will bring up our professionalism. Now we own one spot. We can show more pride that way as a coach — ‘this is my spot. If they don’t do well, that’s my job.’”

By Joanna Chadwick

It’s never too early for football talk, so let me get it started by talking about some of the state’s top talent.

Of course there’s Olathe South’s Braden Smith, a highly sought-after lineman.

Gardner-Edgerton back Trae Wrench has the speed and physicality … and he just gets yards (4,826 in his career).

Hiawatha lineman Peyton Newell now has 27 Division I offers, the latest from Georgia, according to his dad, Frank.

And in our area, Derby TE DeAndre Goolsby has offers from Kansas, K-State, Arkansas and should be getting more soon, according to coach Brandon Clark. DB Travis Young is also close to an offer from a Big 12 school, punter Kavan Mark is getting looks and so are Jeremy Dunham, Jose Delgado and Cole Hansen.

Collegiate QB Landon Root has been offered from Tulsa.

Other Wichita athletes that should get offers soon include Northwest RB Deron Thompson and Heights DL Aderio Ammons.

North’s Sean Bernard picked up an offer from Toledo on Feb. 20.

By Joanna Chadwick

Caleb Smith’s connection to the Valley Center football program is deep. His father, Mike coached Valley Center from 1993-2001 and was 64-22 with three playoff berths (the days before two from every district).

In the 11 years since Smith left for Garden City, Valley Center has had five coaches and won 17 games.

Caleb Smith, who has been a Derby assistant, plans to get the program back to its winning ways.

“They’ve definitely struggled,” Smith said. “You always go through ups and downs. If dad had been there they would not have struggled quite as much.

“First of all, at the high school program, there are guys walking the halls that need to be playing. I’m going to invest ta lot of time in the younger levels, like my dad did before and Coach (Brandon) Clark does here at derby, at the high school, at the middle school and 2^nd through 6^th graders.”

By Joanna Chadwick

North has hired Joe Belden, who coached at North from 2002-2005, as its football coach to replace Kelley Sayahnejad.

Belden led North to an 8-3 record in 2003.

“He really just is the guy that we felt like brought the best enthusiasm and the best plan to the plate as far as taking our kids to the next level they need to go to. He has an amazing coaching pedigree, an amazing knowledge of the game and a plan in place,” North athletic director Brian Becker said.

Belden has been North’s weights teacher since his previous tenure as coach, and his relationships with current athletes is important.

“For us, it’s a very seamless transition for both us and the kids,” Becker said. “He’s going to bring a new style and a new coaching style into the picture. But he has those relationships built with a lot of our kids.

Sayahnejad resigned following the season.

By Joanna Chadwick

North football coach Kelley Sayahnejad has resigned.

North won its final game of the 2012 season and advanced to the Class 6A playoffs.

“I have not made a decision about the future as far as going somewhere else,” Sayahnejad said. “There’s a couple reasons (for my decision). One, i don’t think the on-the-field product is equal to our talent. That’s on me. Secondly and more importantly, we’re having another little one in May, so we will have a 2-year-old and a newborn.

“It kind of felt like my time needed to be spent more at home. The head coach, that’s a big time commitment. For me for next year, it would be as an assistant, not as a head coach. If I could devote the time to a good quality program, I would have stayed at North.”

By Joanna Chadwick

Collegiate senior Markus Phox returned to Wichita late Sunday afternoon after a football recruiting visit to Princeton, tired from traveling but excited about his future.

He’s got options for college with Princeton and Davidson in the mix, along with walk-on offers from Tulsa and Kansas State.

But his basketball season, a chance to battle for a Class 4A title, is over. He broke a bone in his left foot during a game at Andale last Tuesday, ending his season.

(more…)

By Joanna Chadwick

Heights senior defensive back Jet Moreland has made an oral commitment to play football at South Dakota, which recently became Division I.

Moreland initially was concerned about the distance from Wichita to the college when he was offered by South Dakota last spring. But after taking a visit this weekend, he was impressed with the campus and the people there.

Moreland was an All-Metro selection at defensive back.

By Joanna Chadwick

Conway Springs senior Tanner Wood has been named the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year. Wood, who set a Kansas single-game rushing record of 659 yards, was also named to The Wichita Eagle/VarsityKansas.com Top 11 football team.

Wood has made an oral commitment to play at Kansas State. The running back/quarterback will likely play linebacker at Kansas State.

By Joanna Chadwick

While the 2012 Top 11 team and the All-Class teams will appear in full in Sunday’s Wichita Eagle and online at VarsityKansas.com, here is the Top 11 team. The Top 11 team had its photo shoot and banquet today, and it was so enjoyable. I do love this time of year.

There are so many talented athletes in the state of Kansas, but I do believe these were the best 11. Congratulations to all who were chosen!

Bishop Carroll’s Zach Befort

Topeka’s Will Geary

Scott City’s Drew Kite

Bishop Carroll’s Zeke Palmer

Olathe South’s Braden Smith

Lawrence Free State’s Cody Stanclift

Shawnee Mission West’s Brett Sterbach

Lawrence’s Brad Strauss

Holton’s Trent Tanking

Conway Springs’ Tanner Wood

Gardner-Edgerton’s Trae Wrench