Bonner Springs girls deserve more support as they continue to make history

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

Note to the City of Bonner Springs and Bonner Springs High School - it's time to line-up and support the Bonner Springs Braves girls basketball team.

As I've written this season, Bonner Springs has been one of my favorite schools to cover since KCK Preps debuted. They've had some good teams this year dating back to the football season.

The girls and boys basketball teams have been great to watch and they are easily the best teams when you combined the records in both Wyandotte County and the Kaw Valley League.

When you combined the girls' record of 20-1 with the boys' 15-5 record, you come out with a 35-6 record - regardless to say, this is very good.

The girls won the Kaw Valley League this year, which was one of the best girls basketball leagues this year in the Kansas City metro area.

And locally, they're making more history.

The Bonner Springs girls team is the first Wyandotte County team since the 2000 Schlagle boys basketball team to have just one loss or less entering the postseason. Schlagle was undefeated until the very last game of the season, while the Braves lost one game by just one point.

Yet, they don't have the support of the school's students and the community of Bonner Springs as much as the boys team does.

Now, I'm not naive. In most if not all communities I cover, the boys team generally outdraws the girls team. It's a bit unfair, but it is what it is.

However, the Bonner Springs girls deserve the same amount of attention from the city that the boys are getting.

They can play both half-court basketball and up-tempo basketball. Yessenia Hernandez and Anna Deegan are exciting to watch when they're pushing the tempo, as they did in the Bonner Springs-Tonganoxie game two weeks ago.

Deegan has one of the best stat-lines in the Kaw Valley League and Hernandez might be the most improved girls player in the KVL during the course of the year. She averages over 8 points and nearly 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals a game.

The Wilson sisters average about 14 points and 10 rebounds a game combined.

Haley Hoffine averages basically 5 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists a game, another good stat-line.

Having covered this team five times this year, the Bonner girls are truly one of the better girls teams Wyandotte County has had in a very long time. They could be 22-1 by this time next week and MaxPreps has them ranked #4 in Kansas 4A, meaning they are one of the true favorites to win a state title.

So, if you have time, Bonner residents should consider coming out to Bonner Springs High School to support the Braves girls team.

They have a group full of winners and could make history this year. It's not a team Bonner Springs should get behind.

It's a team Wyandotte County should get behind if the Braves get to state.

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SUB-STATE GIRLS: Piper eliminates Basehor-Linwood, Bonner whipes out Perry-Lecompton

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

The Bonner Springs Braves and the Piper Pirates advanced through the first round of sub-state tonight.

PIPER 33, Basehor-Linwood 22- The Piper girls proved that beating a team three times may not be as hard as its hyped to be. Piper defeated Basehor for the third time this season behind Whitney Morrow's 10 points. Megan Woolley and Sydney Mansaw each added 7 points for the Pirates. Bailey Hooker scored 12 of Basehor's 22 points. After a close first half, the Pirates opened up a nice lead after outscoring Basehor 14-6 in the third quarter. The story of the game was Piper's defense, as the team did not allow 10 points in any quarter.

BONNER SPRINGS 58, Perry-Lecompton 21 - Anna Deegan's 27 points were more than enough as the Braves improved to 20-1 on the season. Bonner Springs dominated the game and were up 26-9 at the half. The Braves will continue to have home-court, as their sub-state regional will be played at Bonner Springs High School.

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Lady Sabres Claim Share of League

by David Brox, davidbrox@shukc.com

The Lady Sabres claimed a share of their 4th straight league title. Head coach Torrence Allen is not getting enough credit for what the Lady Sabres have accomplished. Having an extremely successful boys team takes a bit of attention away but lets take a look. Going back 4 season's the Laby Sabres have lost 3 league games. 33 - 3 in league is not just good but a level of dominance that has to be acknowledged.

The simple truth is that Sumner was young this year. The rest of this league will have to see Redic, Brimmer, Burgess and Franklin again next year and I expect nothing to change.

Torrence Allen is thorough in his job. Maxpreps is always up to date for his team. He does a great job with the film as I have a pile of DVD's to review for a team project I am working on for him. I can see clearly that his players are well prepared and play hard no matter what the score says. Torrence Allen is setting the bar high for his peers in the city as it makes our job here at KCK Preps that much easier.

Congrats to Carlotta Lewis, Ashleigh Byers, Sydney Mayfield and La'Queeta Manning on a successful senior season in keeping the streak alive.

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Piper boys, Sumner girls bowling teams qualify for state tournament

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

The Piper Pirates boys bowling team and the Sumner Academy girls bowling team will be heading to Wichita for the state bowling competition.

Piper and Sumner Academy advanced from this Saturday's regional held at Ranch West Bowling alley.

They are one of eight teams at the 5A - 1A level to advance to the state tournament.

Piper's entire team - consisting of Josh Hall, Blake Knetter, Chris Leak, Charlie Rinehart, Ryan Saragusa and Andrew Talkin - will compete in Wichita. They are coached by Brian Gray. Hall won the individual competition last Saturday, while Talking finished in 4th place.

Sumner Academy's team, coached by Karri Whitney, has Kaitlyn Carter, Haley Delap, Lauren Harris, Kayla Jackson, Emily Lai and Nouksapha Phomsouvanh as its members. They will all travel to the event.
Other notes about the bowling regional:

1. Charles Mayfield from Sumner Academy, Logan Defries from Turner and Cedric Phillips from Washington were three of six individual qualifiers for the state competition. They will compete for individual honors in Wichita.

2. Five different girls bowlers from KCK qualified as individuals. Jovanna Ramirez, Heather McDaniel, Betty Gillespie and Sarah Fox, all from Turner High School, qualified. The Golden Bears girls team was not eligible for team honors. Meanwhile, Piper's Heather McDaniel will compete in the individual contest. She will join Piper's boys team for the trip.

3. The Washington boys bowling team's streak of two consecutive bowling state titles is over.

4. Greg Fears and Chance Rivera, arguably two of the best bowlers in recent Wyandotte County history, were unable to qualify as individuals. Both bowled perfect games during the year.

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KCK Preps Game"s" of the Week

by David Brox, davidbrox@shukc.com

KCK Preps will try to provide as much live coverage as possible now that we are set to start the playoffs.  Out of respect to the defending champs we will be at Sumner tomorrow night to witness Sumner start their road to a 3-peat.

Being in the media I can hope for things to happen and that is the case as we expect to see a 3rd matchup of Bonner vs Basehor friday and we will be there.

I won't get too far ahead here but if there is a Sumner vs Ottawa matchup I will be there as well.

State is up in the air right now.  We may just do an audio broadcast as there is a good cost to each game at state and if we are lucky to get mulitple teams to Salina then I will plan to at least provide audio.  There are some hurdles.

Either way I am real excited.

Be sure and check us out tomorrow at about 6:45.

http://www.ustream.tv/ - channel KCK Preps - Sumner vs St. James Academy

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