Varsity Kansas - The Blog

Is their any better football Class right now than 4A? Take a look at the remaining eight teams. They’re a combined 82-6. And it includes three unbeaten teams.

That’s what makes the champion out of this class a very worthy champ.

I’m sticking with Andale to win it all, but it’s going to be awfully tough. If the Indians get past Topka Hayden, they’ll face either Mulvane or Ulysses in semifinals. And if it’s Ulysses, this will mark the third straight year the two have met in the semifinals.

6A: I still don’t think anyone will touch Hutchinson.

5A: Blue Valley West may be the team to beat, but it will be interesting watching the western half of the playoffs. Carroll hasn’t been to the title game since 1978, and McPherson has never gone. I think one of them will be playing on Nov. 24.

3A: Garden Plain and Silver Lake have been perfect since they met in last year’s championship. Silver Lake won that one. I think Garden Plain finally wins it all this season. It’s a much tougher road to the 3A title game in the western half.

2-1A: C’mon, it’s gotta be Smith Center. The only real suspense is whether it can go an entire season with shutouts. The Redmen go to Oakley on Friday. I say Smith Center will win, but Oakley might get one end zone celebration.

8-Man I - Hanover hasn’t given up a point, but I think Macksville wins the title.

8-Man II - South Haven has had quite a run, but I think Sharon Springs will be the team to win it all.

I can’t say I’m surprised by many of these games tonight.

Hutchinson took care of Maize 41-13, but at least the Eagles didn’t give up 70-plus. Maize receiver Brett Soft set single-season records in receiving yards and receptions.

Southeast beats Emporia. It’s the Buffaloes’ first playoff win in 24 years. Not bad. Joseph Randle and Trezz Tillman go 197 and 190. Even better.

Derby gets beat by Junction City. Not much of a surprise there, but there’s no doubt that the Panthers made huge strides. Yes, they’re back. They avoided a third-straight losing season, finishing 5-5.

Kapaun got beat by Salina Central. This is a game the Crusaders should have won, but three interceptions, a fumble and giving up more than 300 rushing yards to two backs isn’t good.

Bishop Carroll takes care of Newton. Once again, not a surprise. Carroll, as Duane wrote today, has quietly proven itself to be one of the state’s top teams. And now, a trip to Great Bend, where the Eagles lost last year in the semifinals.

Goddard beat Northwest. It was a dominant performance by the Lions. Northwest had 28 offensive yards in the first half, as Goddard led 19-0. Goddard gave Hutchinson one of its best games of the year, although they wouldn’t meet until the 6A semifinals. Goddard plays host to Junction City next week. A tough matchup.

The other football — Soccer:  Heights lost in the semifinals, but Kapaun is playing for the 5A title. Of course, Kapaun faces St. Thomas Aquinas, which beat undefeated McPherson in the semifinals. Really, who’s surprised by Aquinas winning that game, even with 7 losses? Aquinas is such a strong program, I’d hate to face them at any time.

Onto my embarrassing moment  of the night — One of the things that comes with this job is we don’t cheer for any teams, we don’t show bias (although we do want the team that won the first game in a volleyball match to win the second so it doesn’t go to three games, and that team that breaks a late tie is one we like because overtimes are not our favorite things to deal with. It’s a deadline thing.)

Anyway, I do try to think ahead to what teams I’m covering and not wear either teams’ colors. Why bring that on myself by even having someone think I’m biased toward one or another. Well, tonight I committed a major sin — I wore one team’s colors.

I showed up to the Salina Central-Kapaun game wearing maroon, the Mustangs’ colors. Now, we’re not talking a similar shade. I mean the exact color. Doh! I even had a person on the Kapaun sideline ask me if I was from Salina. Double doh!

Ah well, it didn’t change how I covered the game.

It’s time again for your predictions. Wish I had some gifts to give you guys for the winners, but how about kudos to the ones with the most correct picks? Hey! It’s all I’ve got.

Tonight is Class 6A and 5A football, so here’s a handful for you to debate:

Maize at Hutchinson (If Hutchinson doesn’t win this, I’ll, well, I don’t know what I’d do.)

Junction City at Derby (I think Junction City is irked after losing to Emporia last week and having to travel to Derby. Junction wins.)

Wichita Southeast at Emporia (This is definitely a winnable game for Southeast, but I think Emporia wins.

Salina Central vs. Kapaun at WSU (Hmmm, this is tough. How about Kapaun in a squeaker over Salina Central — but only if Kapaun can stop Central’s running game and Andrew Braxton)

Newton at Carroll (Carroll, no question)

Now for the lone Saturday game in 5A and 6A  — Liberal at McPherson (McPherson wins in a walk.)

OK, I went out on a limb — which I detest doing — you need to, as well.

Pssst. This blog is the place for any questions you might have for Duane or I, or you can send e-mails to duane@varsitykansas.com or joanna@varsitykansas.com.

But here’s one from a reader who went to our Q&A Forum:

“Do you see the city winning a 6 or 5a state football title, if not ,is it due to lack of quality coaching , last years Hieghts team had talent ,this years East team had talent. ” 

I have a hard time looking at your two examples of Heights and East and saying, “The reason this team didn’t win a state title is because of a lack of quality coaching.”

The fact is, Brian Byers, East’s first-year coach, coached collegiately and East had its best record in more than a decade. Heights coach Rick Wheeler has made a longtime pitiful program into a consistent winner.

Here’s what I believe the problems are with why these two programs did not win the 6A titles the past two years — In Heights’ case, the Falcons ran into Hutchinson, a total buzzsaw. I don’t want to hear any disagreement on this because everyone who has seen this team play in the past few years knows just how good it is.

So let’s move on to East. Why blame Byers for East not going to the playoffs? It’s not as though East is a perennial power. This is a program that had so many years of, not mediocrity, but terrible football. Yet what everyone seemed to think this year was that East, with two of the nation’s top players — two, not 12, not 5, two — would win a state title? I wasn’t buying it, neither was Duane. It’s why we didn’t pick East to win the City League.

Carroll didn’t come out of the blue and win, win, win. Carroll had to build a program, Carroll had to have multiple talented players. Heights didn’t suddenly become a 6A contender, it built to that point. Both had to change the culture of losing.

I truly believe that there exists a culture of losing at schools that struggle for years on end. That has to be eradicated.

Was East a good team? Yes. Without a doubt. But it had injuries, it dealt with major scrutiny from fans, media, national media that no other Wichita team has had to deal with, at least in my 12 seasons. Byers handled that with aplomb. Did he always make right decisions? I can’t imagine that he did. Nor do I think any coach does during the course of a season.

Am I giving East excuses for not making the playoffs? You bet. The expectations put on this team by so many people were ridiculous. So East failed at achieving those expectations? Shocking.

 Now, I’m sure you have plenty to say about this — agreeing or disagreeing — would love to hear it.

Smith Center made national news when it scored 72 points in the first 8.5 minutes of the first quarter on Tuesday night against Plainville — see Duane’s story here. The Redmen made ESPN’s top plays, at No. 8, with their national record-setting quarter.

It’s truly amazing what the Redmen have done this season. I know some of you think their dominance is simply because of inferior competition, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that they are obviously so talented that their backups are carrying the load.

I have no problem believing that they’ll continue to roll through the playoffs and win the 2-1A title.

Not sure if this is really a curse, but if I were South Central (located in Coldwater), an 8-Man Division II team, I’d feel cursed by the playoff gods.

Not one of South Central’s players have played in the playoffs until this season, but to get to their first playoff game last night (Tuesday), they had to travel to Cedar Vale, which is a 350-mile round trip. Coldwater is in southwest Kansas but is the farthest west team in the east side of the bracket.

Coach Matt Smith did his best to make the trip seem not so long.

 ”We stopped in Harper, took a restroom break and then ate lunch in Wellington and then at Southwestern College… we hung out and watched practice for an hour and got off the bus. That helps when we don’t have to be for four to five hours (straight).”

Smith said his team was a little sluggish, but this is their first trip to the playoffs and they handled it.

Well, they have an even longer distance to travel on Saturday when they go to Hope, for a 430-mile round trip. It just keeps getting worse and worse for this team.

“I’m working on an itinerary right now,” Smith said. “I’m trying to figure out who I can call, what’s between here and Hope, what’s some place to stop where someone in the coaching fraternity will be kind to let us hang out for an hour, hour and a half. We’ve got a 4 p.m. game, so we’ll leave at 7:30 or 8 in the morning and stop in hutchinson or McPherson for lunch.”

It’s a crazy situation for this team to be in, but that’s life in 8-Man.

OK, I’m not sure if this is dangerous or not, just opening up this thread to fans of these two teams. (I’ve been warned that open threads on the WE Blog — our editorial page blog — tend to get nasty) But I know there’s plenty of you interested in this game, judging by the number who have commented on an earlier post.

I’m also not sure what else you guys can say about this game. It should be an outstanding game between two stellar teams. Echoing an earlier post — too bad it happens in the second week of the playoffs. But whoever wins will go far in the playoffs.

I’m thinking of wussing out and not picking a winner because both are so good, but, for argument’s sake, I’m taking Garden Plain.

Let the comments begin.

Well, the first night of playoff football is over, as are the soccer quarterfinals.

In soccer: Congrats to Heights, which beat Southeast, Kapaun which won at Liberal (which had beaten Kapaun twice earlier this season) and McPherson, which is still unbeaten.

In football: Conway Springs beat Collegiate, Buhler beat Abilene, Andale handled Goodland as Garden Plain did the same to Medicine Lodge. Smith Center demolished Plainville as expected.

With Hesston’s win over Sterling, we now for sure have Saturday’s matchup between Garden Plain and Hesston, which you readers have been commenting on for several weeks. Should I give you your own thread? I think I might.

Andover Central was upset by Wellington. This was quite a game. Andover Central was hurt by not having Spencer Glenn for the first half (he had an injured elbow), but I don’t know how much it would have helped. The Jaguars made so many crucial errors on special teams, with turnovers. They nearly made a comeback, but Wellington took advantage of several key plays.

Mulvane is still perfect after beating Rose Hill for the second time this season. Huldon Tharp was the man — again. What can’t this kid do?

I was at the Andover Central game and so was Bryce Brown, watching friend Jaydan Bird (who got the boot off but still didn’t play) and several other friends from the Jaguars. One of the funniest things I’ve seen happen this season is a young kid from Andover Central was taking cell phone pics of Bryce as he talked to a group of kids. Unbelievable.

I don’t know if you are, but I’m ready for the start of the football playoffs. The only time of year that I enjoy more is the basketball postseason in March.

Before I get into my question for you, check out Bob Lutz’s story on Smith Center here. It’s an outstanding story and it shows just how amazing the team really is — hello, it lost its top two backs early in the season!

OK, onto my question: What I want to know is — what matchup are you looking forward to most?

I would bet most would agree that one of the most intriguing possible games is Hesston vs. Garden Plain in 3A. I saw this game last year and I would bet we’ll see it again. It’s a treat for any football-loving person.

McPherson and Bishop Carroll is another that sounds good. How about Hutchinson and, well, anyone that can make a game of it?

Tell me your thoughts as we head into our first night of football playoffs.

Three nights of football this week? Does it really get any better than this? (and if you’re a futbol fan, you’ve got soccer going on, too)

I’m looking for your predictions from some of these games on Tuesday night. Tell me what you think and why. By the way, for those making overall 4A predictions, remember that Topeka Hayden is in the west this year, not the east.

Here we go:

Wellington (6-3) at Andover Central (8-1)

Rose Hill (4-5) at Mulvane (9-0)

Abilene (6-3) at Buhler (6-3)

Collegiate (5-4) at Conway Springs (7-2)

Moundridge (6-3) at Minneapolis (6-3)

And for the lovers of the other football:

Southeast (13-5) at Heights (14-3-1)

Derby (12-5-1) at Washburn Rural (17-0-1)

Kapaun (15-3) at Liberal (16-1-1)

Topeka Seaman (11-4-2) at McPherson (18-0)

W. Trinity (13-5) at Independence (14-1-1)

Andover (13-3-2) at Buhler (15-3)