Eight different Piper Pirates football players earned awards at last weekend's KCK Preps Awards Presentation. Head coach Chris Brindle and linebacker Colton Beebe took home two of the top three awards.
Despite missing nearly half the season, Mill Valley Jaguars running back Kendall Short finished with over 700 yards of total offense and 12 touchdowns.
The Piper baseball team is off to a great start. They are 4-0 after sweeping Bonner Springs yesterday 22-4 and 15-3. Piper swept Turner earlier this week 9-7 and 3-1. I have put the maxpreps channel here and will check back in to see if the stats get updated with some details to point key performances.
The stats have been posted by coach Christwell at Sumner on Maxpreps. I have figured out how to post their widgets to help share the information. I will have to figure out if these things update everytime or not so there may be some updates. If you are a coach and would like something similar posted for your team please set my email up to get updates.
Falcon was a monster on the mound and at the plate going 5 for 7 with 4 RBI's. Final pitching line was 6 innings pitched, 10 strike outs and he was credited with giving up 1 earned run. A fantastic pitching performance.
by David Brox, davidbrox@shukc.com - twitter @OdoggBrox
Cecil Christwell is the head coach at Sumner Academy. Cecil and I graduated together so I consider him a good friend of mine as well as a friend of KCK Preps. In a continuation of our baseball outlooks I would like to share the message from him on Sumner Academy.
Sumner
Academy Baseball
2011 Record: 10-11 (finished 2nd in KCKAL) Head Coach:
Cecil Christwell (1st Season) Assistant Coaches: Randy Stout, Brandon
Wayne
Top Returning Players:
SR. Sam Falcon (SS, P) SR. Neal Boyce
(OF)
Season Outlook:
Coming from a 3 win season two years ago, to 10
wins last year, the Sabres look to continue to improve as they look to compete
for the KCKAL title. Despite our roster perceiving us as a veteran group (6
seniors, 4 juniors, 2 sophomores, 3 freshman), there is much work to be done to
improve our knowledge of the game of baseball. After a 5 year hiatus, we have
also resurrected our JV baseball program. This will help us greatly in player
development.
I wrote an article a few months back about the 3 levels of thinking. If you are going anywhere on or off the field/court you not only have to have skills but you must be able to think not only for yourself but your opponent. You hear it all the time about an athlete like Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods being in their opponents head. The second you are guessing, you are beat.
We will be honoring the 10 best male basketball players next week but I would like to highlight one play and one player to illustrate this concept.
Among this group of 10 players we have size, speed, strength and raw ability. Raw ability at this level honestly can take you pretty far. You hear all the time about the speed of the game once you get to the next level. I don't believe this comment to be literal. The game itself isn't faster it is just at the next level everyone is just as fast as you are.
I believe this to be the biggest challenge for one of our local stud players Benny Parker. He has rare game speed which in my lifetime have not seen here locally. I say game speed because I have seen one of the fastest human beings on earth run at Schlagle Maurice Green. When Benny gets to Nebraska though I believe he will find some players in the Big 10 are pretty fast as well. No longer will he be able to simply put his head down and race ahead of his opponents to the rim. He will have to think.
So for review.
Level 1 is only thinking about what you are going to do. "I am better than you and I am going to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim. There is nothing you can do to stop what I am about to do." Key word here is "I".
Level 2 is thinking about what your opponent is going to do before you act. "He has gone under this pick and roll everytime. If he does it again I am going to pull right up and take a 3." You are thinking about your opponents next move and reacting to it.
Level 3 and the purpose of this article. I am a fan of BJ Watson of Bonner Springs who was named to our All KCK Preps Second Team. I have watched him play since the 8th grade and he obviously has learned a thing or two over the years. The play below is a perfect example of level 3 thinking so lets analyze it.
Bonner Springs runs a nice set. It allows for some freedom to improvise which is a big key and again if you are thinking can lead to some good opportunities.
The back drop is simple. Watson went for 29 in the game so he is killing Piper. Why? Because he was in their head.
Watson directs Steurt to the other side of the court to set up the play.
Johnathan Jackson sets up a screen which appears to be the normal offense.
The defender is not blind and sees Watson going into his cut. Watson is one of the better shooters in the city so he along with the rest of the people in the gym are looking to him setup for a 3. Watson however is thinking otherwise. Watson is thinking about what his opponent is thinking he is going to do. Read that a few times. What does my opponent think I am about to do? Only when you can answer this question will the game slow down for you at the highest levels and in life.
"He thinks I am about to take this screen and attempt a 3 pointer." We have seen the awesome coke commercial that says "AND". Well for this BJ says "BUT I am going to back door and get at the rim and finish."
So on the surface this looks simple but in my opinion it is so much more. I want to encourage any that read this website to look for and implement Level 3 thinking. Stop worrying about just what you are going to do and get in your opponents head.
