Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

I just got off the phone with Goose Doughty — I would assume pretty much any sports fan in the Wichita area knows him. He was a longtime basketball coach at Heights, coaching all the studs in the late 70s. He’s currently the tennis coach at Southeast.

Doughty and I were talking about his summer tennis camp for kids. He’s doing it again this summer at McAdams park — on the 6 lighted courts named after him — and it’s free. It’s a great service to the community as a whole.

He’s always looking for sponsors and volunteers, so if you’re interested, let him know.

by joanna

This will be a busy week, but I’m ready. Especially glad to be here this morning considering I heard three ambulances and two police cars while bringing my kids to school and daycare and coming to work. Not good.

All right, I want to chat about this weekend and this week and make a comment about a two-time poster.

First the comment — Just to let you guys know that there are seven sports in the spring and we try to cover as much as we can. This is my first time since 2001 covering spring sports and I had forgotten how difficult it is to hit every sport and everyone consistently.  There are games and events that we don’t cover, not because we don’t want to, but because there are limited people and limited space and frankly there are so many events. This poster pointed out that we didn’t cover Maize-Northwest softball or baseball. Nope, you are right. We didn’t. As I stated, I wish we could be there for everything, but we can’t. Doesn’t mean we don’t like Maize. Any question on that, see my Maize-Carroll softball story and subsequent posts. How much love can I give one team?

Anyway, as for the weekend, let’s start with track. I see the Conway Springs girls team edged Cheney — by 3 points — to win the team title and the Southeast boys narrowly beat Heights by four. How about that 400 relay at the CL meet where Heights won in 42.31, Southeast finishes in 42.32. Now that would have been a race to watch. Those are the state’s top two times this year.

Audacia Moore from Heights pr’ed in the 100 and 200 at the league meet, as did the Southeast girls 400 relay. Goddard won the AV-CTL Division I league meet by 11 over Hutch, winning the 100, 300 hurdles, 3200 relay, high jump and long jump.

Also over the weekend, Maize softball swept Northwest, but they’ll likely play again — on Thursday in the regional finals. North plays Northwest and East plays Maize. Yeah, they’ll meet in the one-game final. I would imagine Goddard would play Derby in its regional final — Goddard run-ruled Derby earlier and won 1-0 in a doubleheader.

In baseball, it could be Heights vs. Goddard on Thursday and Maize vs. Northwest, too. North and Campus will likely meet on Tuesday. Soccer regionals are this week, as well, and we could see a Heights-Goddard matchup on Thursday and Maize and East on Thursday. There’s  an awfully good softball regional at Douglass on Tuesday (I’ll be checking that out — who will be in that final? Andover Central? Augusta? Rose Hill? Mulvane? Clearwater? It will be interesting) There’s also a baseball regional at El Dorado, where Andover Central (the one loss Jags) will be playing.

I guess that was a look ahead there for a few paragraphs, so let me go back to state tennis (one sport finished, six to go with state swimming this weekend).

One year after seeing Southeast’s Nate Kirk (the first Wichita area kid since 1993) win the Class 6A singles title, 6A  returned to a Kansas City-area dominated tournament. One Wichita area team (Goddard) finished in the top 10. Class 5A had little area representation, as well. Winfield finished 6th, Hutch 4th, Carroll 10th. Is the City League this weak (Carroll cruised through the CL) or are the other teams that much better? I do not have an answer for that.

In Class 4A, Chase Dippel from Smoky Valley cruised to the singles title and Hesston’s  Brett Liechty-Alex Roth beat Andover Central’s Tucker Noyes and Neal Rasmussen for the doubles title.

In Class 3-2-1A I was in heaven because I entered the day with two area kids in singles (Independent’s Ryan Norman and Conway Springs’ Mitchell Kibbe) and all four doubles teams were from the area (two from Collegiate, two from Conway Springs), which meant I would be writing about a champion. Let me tell you, in my time here I have written a lot of third-place stories, whether at state basketball or tennis or volleyball. It’s much more fun to write that state championship story — even if they lose in the title match. But there weren’t many losers at 3-2-1A from the area. Norman won for the second straight year and Kibbe finished third, for the second straight year. Collegiate went 1, 2 in doubles and Conway Springs, 3, 4. Collegiate won another title, Conway Springs finished second.

Covering 3-2-1A was excellent for a variety of reasons — I loved the emotion that Collegiate coaches Dave Hawley and Jeff Nordgren showed about how tough this season was and how satisfying the win was. I loved how Collegiate’s doubles teams were having fun out there. Hey, I’ve seen matches where teammates play each other and it can be quite contentious. That’s just not fun to watch. The most hilarious thing I saw was how quiet the Collegiate crowd was in the championship. Hawley said between sets that they needed to cheer. It was OK, don’t worry about offending anyone. Too funny.

Now this final point you probably won’t care about. But I do. Very much so. Independent ran the tournament and it was wonderful. They had a concession stand — I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that happen. And they ran the tournament quickly. Usually I’ll see tournaments start their title games around 1 or 2, which gives the kids time to eat. Pu-shaw! No need for that! They can eat later. Let’s play! And that’s what Independent did. That tournament started its finals a little after 11 a.m. For me, who wanted to write my story and be done for the day, it was wonderful. I know it’s selfish, but I guess that’s what I am. I’m sure everyone else appreciated being able to get on the road, though.

I’m finally done rambling.  Now you tell me, what struck you about this weekend? Or about the regional pairings that you saw? And what do you just have to check out this week? Man, I forgot to mention track regionals on Friday night. We’ll run a complete listing of all track regional results in Sunday’s paper. So check it out.

by joanna

I went to the City League track meet (purely as a spectator), where did you go? I want updates, people. I’m not in the office, so I don’t know what happened at the AV-CTL Division I meet or any other track meets. I don’t know who won the Maize-Northwest baseball or softball game. Tell me!

I was at the CL track meet for about two hours, watching only the prelims. I was hanging with my three boys, getting some water at the concession stand when a woman said, “So you’re not being a sportswriter, but you’re watching kids?” I know she was just looking to start a conversation. Really, I do. But I do have another job — it’s actually my main job — as a mom. So I wasn’t watching kids, I was being a mom.

Anyway, I love to watch track meets. They’re so laid back, there’s always action and the athletes are in the stands. Where else does that happen? And the coaches are laid back, too. I always tease Southeast boys coach Carl Taylor about the fact that he doesn’t smile much during basketball season — I tease because I can and it’s fun and he gets annoyed with me (hee, hee) — anyway, at track, he’s just out there chillin’, eating his burger and talking.

Saw Steve Eck out at the track meet. He was there watching East’s Jawanza Poland in the hurdles. Poland is going to Cowley. Eck and I had a conversation - the longest we’ve ever had — and I find out he’s a reader of this blog. Of course the conversation turned to whether he recruited at South or not. Frankly, I’m bored with all this recruiting talk on this blog and around. Someone, anyone, prove it to me, talk to me on the record, don’t worry about burning bridges and talk to me about it. Give me a parent or a former athlete who will talk about it, then we can have a serious discussion about it. Anyway, it was nice seeing Eck there. I’m sure that I’ll see him a lot more during basketball season.

I watched the hurdles prelims and two girls took hard falls during their races, one from Heights, one from South. What impressed me so much was that not only did they get up and finish their races, they busted their tails and finished strong and were some of the top finishers. As I told my sons, those are tough kids whose whole goal is to succeed. Impressive.

Saw Southeast’s Keith Hayes run the hurdles for the first time. Wow, the guy is just so smooth and he looks like he’s jumping over those hurdles like I would jump over a piece of paper on the ground. He and Heights sprinter Audacia Moore just blew away their competition in the prelims. They’ve got skills. I know, I’m the first to see it.

As I was leaving, I talked to Carl Taylor, who just so happens to be one of my mom’s favorite coaches. My mom is hilarious because she could be watching a 9 year old team playing and not know a single kid on the team and still cheer and clap and get upset at a bad call. But she loves Taylor. I’m a big fan, too.

Here’s one reason why — he said he doesn’t read the blog (WHAT!) but had gone on to read what was on about “why athletes don’t qualify” or whatever I titled it. He said I shouldn’t have mentioned Adonis Gantt, because then it made it personal. On one level I disagree with him because I said with all the discussion of Gantt not qualifying, it was a good time to vett the issue. But I do agree with him that it put the spotlight on Gantt, in what I consider an innocent way because this is what we do in this business — we write about what is timely and show how it is timely. On the other hand, I think it’s a good conversation regardless of whether I mention a specific player — or timeliness.

On to where I wasn’t — I see that 6A tennis semis will be dominated by the KC area. Again. Goddard does have a doubles team in, though. 5A isn’t looking good for the area, either. Only a McPherson doubles team and Hutchinson doubles team are our closest area competitors still in it. 4A has Smoky Valley’s Chase Dippel, then there’s a Hesston, and Andover Central doubles teams.

3-2-1A is a different story. Ryan Norman, Independent will play Mitchell Kibbe, Conway  Springs and Collegiate and Conway Springs face each other in both doubles semifinals. Hello.

All right, enough about where I was and what I was interested in. Where were you? What did you do?

Were you cleaning for that graduation party or did you get out on this beautiful night and see some competition? Or are you sitting here right now like me and watching the NBA (I feel pitiful)

by joanna

As we start to wrap up various sports — tennis is finished this weekend — it sure seems like the days and weeks are going by much faster.

I’ve been typing in area regional pairings for softball (Jonathan has baseball) and I was intrigued by this regional at Udall — Monday—Moundridge (15-5) vs. Oxford (12-3), time TBA. Tuesday—Semifinals: Moundridge-Oxford vs. Udall (17-1), 3 p.m.; Sterling (16-4) vs. Inman (18-2), 4:45. Championship at 6:30.

Yep, there’s not enough teams to have more than one semifinal game. Isn’t that crazy? Then I looked closer and look at those teams — 15-5, 12-3, 17-1, 16-4, 18-2. Oh. My. God. Talk about a loaded regional. I rank this one right up there with the one at Douglass, where Andover Central, Mulvane, Rose Hill and Clearwater all are at. Finals in that regional are Tuesday night.

Speaking of pairings, soccer pairings will be out on Saturday. We plan to run them on Sunday. Surprise, surprise — Maize will be a 1 seed. Shocking, I know.

And more on soccer — Goddard forward Whitney Berry is up to 38 goals on the season, with 10 assists. She’s more than a star. She’s a stud.

And even more on soccer — Anyone else surprised by the 5-0 victory that Kapaun had over Northwest last night? I’m not surprised by the win — I expected Kapaun to win — but 5-0? That’s a healthy margin.

And speaking of a healthy margin of victory — um, Northwest baseball 15, North 0. What the heck happened there? That’s a shellacking. So North clinches the City League title with a win over Heights, then gets thumped. OK, so the game was meaningless in the CL, it affects the regional pairings. Last week North was 15-1, but lost two to Goddard and now to Northwest. So North goes from a 1 seed to a 5 seed. Northwest is a potential 4 seed. Not a good situation.

And speaking of how fast this season has gone (anyone sick of my “speaking ofs” yet? I am. But I’m doing it to be annoying. Comment on that!) I think I’m done writing softball notes. Next week is regionals so we’ll have plenty of coverage of many teams to consider. I’m disappointed because I still haven’t written about Newton’s softball team or the fact that Carroll’s Stephanie Harshberger is going from  the school where her mom is the principal (talk about a tough life, there) to play at Newman where her dad is the coach.

And speaking of comments (I did up above), I’ve finally closed the Independent softball post to commenters. It was about to clse anyway, and frankly, it was getting old. Talk about rehashing and hashing and rehashing and hashing. Or something like that. Boy, talk about an innocent post turning into hatred and loyalty. Weird mix.

By the way, I loved CM Scott’s comment on Stan Pulliam’s funeral on “We’ve lost another coach” Very heartfelt.

State tennis is this weekend and I do believe that 3-2-1A will be the one to watch — although here in the Wichita area we have three sites to watch in Goddard (6A), Riverside (5A) and 3-2-1A (WSU). Don’t you just know the Kansas City folks are annoyed? These are three quality sites, though. Anyway, back to 3-2-1A, there are four teams with a shot to win it all — Claflin, Conway Springs, Collegiate and Independent, even though the Panthers only have a doubles team and a singles player, both could win titles.

by joanna

We’ve got tennis wrapping up at the end of this week, golf and swimming aren’t too far behind. Even baseball, track, soccer and softball only have a few weeks remaining.

So who’s the best team you’ve seen? Who’s the best players? Anyone have a shot at winning state titles?

I haven’t seen Maize soccer, but I’d say that team has a real shot at the 6A title. In baseball, it would seem Campus has an edge — Campus sweeps Goddard which sweeps North…

The best softball teams I’ve seen are Goddard, Carroll, Heights and Northwest. Best athlete is probably Heights sprinter Audacia Moore. By the way, saw Heights’ 4 by 1 girls relay team — with Moore and a few youngsters — beat Southeast at the Derby invite. The Buffs have some of the state’s top sprinters, so it’s a pretty good win.

In tennis, Southeast’s Nate Kirk won’t have a chance to defend his 6A singles title — he lost in doubles competition during regionals on Thursday.

OK, there’s a few of my thoughts about some of the teams and athletes, let me know who you have been impressed with.

by joanna

I’ve been remiss in my question of the day or question of the week, but here we go again.

What I want to know is do you go to spring sporting events because you are a parent, you are an athlete, you are a coach or just because you are a fan.

The reason I ask is because everything I go to in the spring is pretty much attended by parents only. Are there fans out there for sports outside of basketball and  football? I’m serious about this. I cover volleyball in the fall and pretty much the fan base is parents and then the football players who stop in to watch after practice. I’ve always wondered if they were there for the game or the pretty girls. I know that sounds bad, but it’s what I’ve wondered — and this coming from a big fan of volleyball.

Wrestling’s fan base is a bit broader, it seems, but spring sports just don’t seem to bring out too many people.

What are your thoughts?

by joanna

If you’re a high school sports fan — and if you’re on my blog you must be, or you could be my mom — which event will you attend this week?

Here’s just a couple to choose from

Monday: Augusta at Andale softball (Andale’s one of the top teams in the area)

Tuesday: North vs. Heights baseball at Westside (Heights has handled well its rebuilding, but North is the real test); Northwest softball vs. Heights at TRYC (Heights split with Carroll, which is impressive, but Northwest could be even tougher.)

Friday: Goddard at Maize baseball (if you follow baseball, this is what you’ve been waiting for), Goddard at Maize softball (two of the area’s top programs, no doubt); Maize at Heights soccer (Maize is one of the best in the area and Heights is holding its own); Heights vs. Northwest baseball at Westurban (another big game for Heights in the City League).

Saturday: Collegiate tournament of champions tennis meet (teams like Goddard, Maize, Kapaun, Carroll, Hesston, Smoky Valley, McPherson, Hutchinson and Derby — that’s a heck of a lineup); Carroll-Kapaun tennis (two of the City League’s top teams match up).

KU Relays is on Friday and Saturday, too, with a whole lot of talent from the area heading up to Lawrence.

Whew. That’s a lot in one week. There’s weeks we go through that you look at each other and think, what are we going to cover? Not this week. It’s how can we cover all these excellent games.

So where will you go? Is there another game out there that I missed? Fill me in!

Collegiate tennis coach Dave Hawley called with an interesting note about the Tournament of Champions that the Spartans hosted last month.

Check this out: The second- and third-place finishers in Class 6A girls tennis (Maize and Blue Valley West) were at the TOC, so where the first- and  third-placers in 5A (Kapaun and McPherson), and so was the 4A champion (Independence), and the champ and runner-up in 3-2-1A (W. Iindependent and Collegiate).

Not bad, huh?

For the fourth time in five years, Wichita Independent won the 3-2-1A girls tennis title. Collegiate finished second.

Independent did it with a whole lot of young talent — check this out: freshman Emily Ramseyer and sophomore Radha Nagireddy won the doubles title, while freshman Caroline Lincoln finished third in singles. Think this team will be around for awhile?

Collegiate senior Jessica Ball won her first singles title, beating the previously undefeated Aslihan Vuruskan, a foreign exchange student from Turkey who attends South Central. It was an unbelievable comeback by Ball. Check out Sunday’s story for more.

We still haven’t heard from Class 5A, where Kapaun and Gillian Hush were the favorites. I’m assuming Topeka was hit by rain, which would have delayed everything. As for Class 6A, I seriously doubt that thing went very far today — it was at Shawnee Mission East and I know Lawrence took a major hit with rain, hence the delay, twice, of the KU-Baylor football game.

Well, tennis over, and golf is almost there. Golf finishes up on Tuesday. Amazing how fast a season goes.

There’s so many meanings in that title, don’t you think? I mean, it’s the last day of the work/school week. And, hey, it’s Friday night football.

But before we get to tonight, how about South’s sophomore backup quarterback Zach Villarreal who threw for 345 yards and three touchdowns in his first start. Wow. That’s impressive. Of course, that was slightly overshadowed by Southeast’s Joseph Randle (276 rushing yards) and Trezz Tillman (164 rushing). But still.

Getting away from football, state girls tennis starts today, with Kapaun looking to three-peat at 5A, someone in the area trying to do something at 6A (KC schools continue to dominate the biggest class), and of course, Collegiate and Independent are playing today at Riverside Tennis Center in 3-2-1A.

One of tonight’s most interesting game interesting games is East at Derby. Why? Because it’s East. That’s good enough to draw a big crowd to the Panthers’ stadium.

I personally like Wellington at Mulvane. Two good teams in a tough district opener.

Alright, since I already touched on these games earlier in the week, that’s all I’ve got for now. What’s on your mind?