Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

On Saturday during our day of photos, I asked Andale’s Corey Harp if he had heard this juicy rumor — Topeka Hayden is going to win Class 4A this season. Yep, I told him that everyone had told me that, so it must be true.

He laughed, shook his head and said he’d heard the same rumors.

And according to what the coaches are sending in on their surveys to us, Hutchinson is the best team in Class 5A — and 6A. And Blue Valley West is getting love in 5A and 6A. I know, I know, they switched classes (BV West, the 5A champ, is in 6A, while Hutch, the 6A champ, is in 5A).

Hayden is getting a lot of votes in 4A, although Andale has more votes (not surprising considering we generally get more surveys back from area teams). Olathe North is also getting attention, along with Olathe East, Blue Valley, Heights, Northwest and Goddard. In 5A, it’s Carroll, Aquinas, Salina Central and Great Bend. In 3A, it’s no surprise that Garden Plain, Silver Lake and Conway Springs are the favorites, while in 2-1A, it’s Smith Center and Pittsburg Colgan. I know, shocking. In Eight-man I, it’s Jetmore and Macksville, while 8-Man II it’s Hanover, Sharon Springs and Quivira Heights.

by joanna

I spent the afternoon out at Kapaun Mount Carmel’s practice today and it was very interesting. I spend a lot of my time joking around with coaches, but that just can’t happen at practice — especially the first day of practice. The coaches were obviously enjoying themselves, and they were as ultra-intense as you would expect from any football coach. Especially on that first day of practice. At about 4 p.m., one of the coaches yelled, “Come on, sprint there, we’ve only got an hour left to practice!”

I was surprised to no end to see Mike Gehrer out there in a Kapaun T-shirt. He’s now an assistant at Kapaun, after several years away from coaching football. (He was the former coach at Collegiate).

There were several dads and one grandpa out watching the action. One grandpa talked about how hard his grandson has been working this summer.

It was kind of crazy at one point watching the Crusaders doing jumping jacks and say, “We are K-A-P-A-U-N” as a jet flew over very low, drowning out the players.

by joanna

I know there’s a hunger for football. I’ve heard the hunger pains of you readers. And now, with football practice going on, with full pads just days away, the rumbling of those pains is even louder. The football previews will start showing up in the paper on Sunday (and will continue through Sept. 4). I’ve got a first day of practice for tomorrow’s paper.

But I want to feed the beast with a little info from an area coach on an early morning practice: Rose Hill’s Greg Slade

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by joanna

I love stats. I love keeping them, whether it’s keeping score at Cubs game or keeping rebounds in a basketball game. I do not feel as connected to what’s going on in a game if I’m not keeping score. I imagine myself in the future — if my kids keep on the sports track — keeping stats during games so I’m not one of those annoyingly loud-mouthed parents.

And it doesn’t matter how you keep the stats. I can never remember if a strikeout looking is a front or backward K. I don’t care. I do a K with a circle around it for a swinging strike out. It’s my shorthand. And I love coloring in the diamond when a run scores. Because it’s pretty? No, because it’s a part of keeping stats right.

But every sport has a different key stat. In football I’m partial to the gaudy stats put up by running backs and quarterbacks, but I love the sack — and pancakes! Not such a fan of a hurry, although I know it’s important.

In volleyball, I’m all about kills and stuff blocks. Gotta love both. Such huge momentum builders. In baseball, I love the save and strikeouts. In basketball, I’m all about rebounds and steals.

So what stats do you think are key? Key because you think they’re cool or key to proving a player’s ability. Let me know.

By J. Long

It’s pretty much unanimous that Bryce Brown is the best back in the area. If you disagree with that feel free to speak you mind, however it’ll be hard to prove your point considering he’s the best back in the country per Rivals.com. {Edit: It was first said that Brown was the second or third best back in the nation. However, several websites have him as the No. 1 running back in the 2009 class}

Who’s the next best guy? There are several other backs that are looking to have great seasons this year. Joseph Randle (Southeast), DeMarcus Robinson (Northwest), and Aaron Wilson (Derby) are just a few whom I’ve actually got a chance to meet. But I know there are others. This is a run-oriented state, isn’t it?

So if you were voting for a pre-season second team back, who would it be?

by joanna

Yep, football starts Monday. It’s so weird, though, that few teams are doing the early morning two-a-days. Doesn’t that seem wrong? But with school having started most everywhere already, it’s understandable. I know a lot of City League schools are trying to do two-a-days after school. Ugh. Not a great situation. I believe one of you posted over the weekend that it might be a good idea to start practice a week earlier now because so many schools start so early. It’s not a bad idea.

Our photographer took football pictures on Saturday for a group of players to will run in our football previews — We’ll be running them starting Sunday, Aug. 24, and we’ll have about two each day up until Thursday, Sept. 4.

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by joanna

OK, this is my day off, but I’m here, at 8 p.m. Friday putting something up on the blog. What have you people done to me! I’m addicted to this thing. Sadly, I’ve been thinking about it today, but I held off until now. But now, after getting back from the pool (inside, thank you!), I just had to log on.

So here’s my question to you: With fall practice starting, what sport do you care about most? Why? Which team do you care about most? Why?

For me, I’m most interested in football because I love covering football games. I love volleyball, too, and I’m looking forward to covering some of the area teams. I never seem to see everyone as much as I want to.

I’m excited about seeing the City League’s top three football teams — Heights, Northwest and Carroll. In volleyball, I always love watching Kapaun and Carroll (first match of the season). But I love checking out Circle — that program is always well-coached — and I’m interested in watching Valley Center even more this year (this program has been solid for years, but Bryan Otte brings an new, interesting aspect to the program.)

So tell me all about yours.

by joanna

I had a few minutes today, so I thought I’d give former Olathe North coach Gene Wier a call. He’s been coaching Richland (Texas) football since 2003. When he left Olathe North, after the 2002 season, Olathe North was riding a 38-game winning streak.

In his 22 seasons in charge of the Eagles’ program, Wier compiled a 188-36 record, an .839 winning percentage. Only five coaches in state history have a better winning percentage. He had an impressive streak from 1996-2002, as well. Olathe North won titles in 1996, 97, 98, 2000, 2001, 2002. Olathe North won in 2003, as well.

The conversation was interesting, as I talked to him about differences between Texas and Kansas football.

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by joanna

It was a rather exciting morning in my house — my stepdaughter went off to middle school and my son went off to kindergarten. Unbelievable.

There were no tears shed by anyone in the Chadwick family, although I might have seen some tears in the kindergarten teacher who has 24 kids. I hope she gets paid lots of money (although I know that’s not the case). We lugged all the school supplies we had to buy, then turned around and my boy has the first day of treats that we have to buy, and then there’s some googley eyes that we have to get, too.

Did you send anyone off to school today? Did you cry tears of joy or sadness? Did you go off to school today or yesterday? Tell us all about it.

Now onto sports.

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by joanna

Not sure if you heard about the issue surrounding Mark Spitz and the fact that he’s irked that no one invited him to Beijing to see Michael Phelps, probably, break his record of 7 golds in one Olympics. I’m a little irked that there are folks ripping him for complaining. My feeling was made even worse by some CNN or something news woman ripping him, saying, come on, do record holders in other sports get invited to games when their record is about to be broken? I mean the look on her face was one of “this is the most stupid thing ever.”

Well, they usually are. Roger Maris might be dead, but his family was there during Mark McGwire’s quest to hit No. 61.

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