Varsity Kansas - The Blog

By J. Long

Miami has Arthur Brown. But let’s not pencil lil’ brother down as a Hurricane just yet.

Rival’s No. 2 rated running back and ninth best football prospect in the country East’s Bryce Brown is out enjoying the luxuries of being one of the best prospects in the country. Which means that he’s being wooed by any college football program that can get him on campus.

As you read this Brown is on his way back from a college tour with the Potential Players program operated by his mentor Brian Butler. While Brown verbally committed to the Hurricanes, he insists that it’s not yet a done deal. Miami has several things going for them - one being his older brother wearing a Hurricane uniform, but he wants to check out his options and see what the others calling have to offer.

Why shouldn’t he. He’s been up front with Miami telling him that he still was going to take his five official visits and that’s all he owes them. And though he won’t say it, I believe that Miami shouldn’t be real worried.

The “superstar treatment” as I like to call it doesn’t come often. He’s made the sacrifices that takes to be at the level he is at so he deserves the right to enjoy the perks. On this recent trip he got a chance to check out Illinois, Purdue, and Missouri which he liked a lot. He plans going to St. Louis for their game with Illinois on August 30. He also has plans to visit Oregon and Clemson and perhaps Ohio State and Texas if they fit into his schedule.

So it could get pretty interesting this recruiting season. Then again it could be pretty quiet. The only person that knows is Bryce Brown and nobody should fault him for making sure he uses all the time he has to make sure he’s making the best choice.

by joanna

South coach Tony Johnson is having his final offensive line camp — it’s his fourth of the summer — this weekend.

Here’s Johnson’s e-mail sent today:

ANTHONY ALABI current starting left guard of the Kansas City Chiefs ( also NFL Network analyst summer program. Guy wants to be in the media someday! Lol) will be here Saturday for our final ASSEMBLY LINE FIVE O-Line camps at Wichita South High School Starting at 9:00 a.m.  I am looking forward to this last camp and would ask that if you and any of your players want to come or just to meet this great man and great player please do not hesitate to call me.

 Check out tonyjohnsonmotivates.com for more info on this man who obviously is more than a high school football coach.

By J. Long

September 4 (Thursday)

Carroll at Heights

September 5 (Friday)

Hutchinson at Rockhurst (Kansas City)

How crazy is this? Talk about starting the season with a bang. BC and Heights on Thursday night to jump-start City League play and then Hutchinson hits the highway to take on perennial power Rockhurst.

There might not be a better weekend of high school football.

Carroll QB Blake Bell is getting a lot of buzz for someone who hasn’t thrown the ball in a high school game. So it will be very interesting to see how he fairs in his first game against a pretty good defense. I don’t know much about Heights but they are pretty athletic on the defensive side and they have Ian Knight one of the top defensive ends in the state according to Rivals.

Hutchinson vs. Rockhurst will pit two football powers against one another. Hutchinson finished last season as the fourth-ranked team in USA Today’s Super 25 prep Football regional rankings while Rockhurst was seventh.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/football/poll/2007-regional-ranking.htm

So what do you think? Has there been two better games to start the football season?

by joanna

Yep, I’m giving you a job today. Your job is to rank each class for the upcoming season.

It doesn’t matter if you name only the No. 1 team, that’s fine. If you want to go top five, top 10, great.

I’ll get you started — Hutchinson is No. 1 in Class 5A. Whew. That’s going out on a limb and it’s all I can do today. Too much thinking, too much setting myself up for ridicule.

So it’s up to you.

by joanna

Do I need to say more? Or is that title long enough for you?

Here’s what it is: It’s an national All-Star camp in Orlando, where the players — Bryce Brown (East), Jaydan Bird (Conway Springs and Blake Bell (Carroll) — who are some of the “nation’s top prep football players” according to the news release, will spend three days in training with former NFL players and coaches. “The Football University’s All-Star Camp will focus on teaching technique and skill to the players, as well as show players how they stack up against the nation’s best just weeks before their season openers.”

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by joanna

I went out to Conway Springs this morning to spend a little time with Jaydan Bird — no surprise, I’m writing a story on the Oklahoma signee for the upcoming season. I watched the Cardinals during their conditioning. I was exhausted just watching the sprints.

Coach Lelin George and I started talking about what Bird’s recruiting.

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by joanna

Heights coach Rick Wheeler and I talked a little bit today about a future story, his upcoming trip to Canton and Ian Knight.

I then gave Knight, a defensive end, a call to talk about how the recruiting is going.

Here’s what he had to say:

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by joanna

Brandon Clark gave me an update on his Derby team that made the playoffs last year, finishing 5-5 on year after going 1-8, two years after finishing 0-9.

The Panthers finished their team camp today.

Here’s what he had to say:

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by joanna

I exchanged e-mails with coach Bill Woodward at Clearwater and he sent me some information on his team. I’m intrigued by this program because it had suffered through so much losing until last year. The Indians were 5-4, made the playoffs, then lost to Ulysses. But it was the first time Clearwater had a winning record since 1984 and its first playoff appearance since 1983.

I love seeing that happen. It reinforces my thinking that every team and program cycles through good and bad times (just some programs have longer good times, other longer bad times).

Here’s what Woodward said:

“We’ve had good numbers coming in for our summer strength and conditioning
program. We return a good core group of players off of last years team…. We are looking to build upon
last year’s success.
Senior Tyler Spencer, a 1000+ yd running back and linebacker returns as well as
a good group of returning starters. Seniors Jake DeMott, Chuck Marsh, and
Jordan Lukert provide a lot of  playing experience in the trenches. Juniors
Alex Baughman, Grant Dunnegan, and Dillon Ward are expected to have increased
roles offensively and defensively this year.
We work with six players at a time during open field times throughout the
summer and will have our school team camp the end of July.”

So there’s Clearwater. Any other teams you want to know about? What info do you have to share? 

by joanna

You know, sometimes there’s things that just don’t go into a post all by themselves. So here’s some of my musings:

• Heights football coach Rick Wheeler was invited to the NFL’s Youth Football Summit in Canton, Ohio, during the time leading up to the Hall of Fame inductions. (next week)

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