KCK Preps Trivia - 4/16/2012

by David Brox - @OdoggBrox

I am going to do some trivia about KCK sports. The first person to email me the correct answer wins a free copy of the 2012 basketball award ceremony. This is for fun but I will offer a prize.

Who was the last KCK baseball player to make it to the major leagues and what team brought him up?

Read More

Senior Scott Cowan Locks Down Sabres

by David Brox - davidbrox@shukc.com

I attended the Turner vs Sumner baseball matchup expecting to see some good pitching and I was not disappointed.  Turner defeated Sumner 3-0.

Sam Falcon had rough first inning but settled down and went the distance for the Sabres giving up 2 earned runs in the first, and another unearned run in the third.  The first hitter of the game was hit by a pitch.  Falcon almost worked around it until Eric Dougherty hit a slicing fly ball to right field.  The right fielder for Sumner did not take the best angle on the ball and Dougherty went for a triple and an RBI.  He then scored on a hit by Tyler Fishbaugh.

Sam had a strikeout in every inning of work and moves his totals to 36 to 12 walks.

The story of the day however is Senior Scott Cowan from Turner.  He as lights out with 10 (CORRECTION) strike outs.  He carried a no-hitter into the 5th innings when Sumner reached on a bunt single.  Cowan however went on for the 3 hit shut of the Sabres.  He was getting his breaking ball over for strikes and it was wicked from where I was sitting behind the plate.  A top notch performance by Cowan.

The lone bright spot for Sumner was a triple by Neal Boyce who was back in the line up today against the Bears.  He was on base twice and covered a lot of ground in center.

Nick Rodriguez was fantastic at third despite 1 error.  He had a very tough play and made a low through.  He however was a wall at third.  The team defense from Turner was top notch.  Turner will face Lansing tomorrow in a double header. 

Sumner will look to bounce back against the Washington Wildcats.

Read More

Track and Field Weekly Honor Roll - 4/16/2012

By David Brox (@OdoggBrox) and Vernon Birmingham (@KCKPrepsColorCo)

This is based on results that we have so if you have a documented finish that you want to share please reach out. 

(Some times are listed using the 0.24 difference between hand and fully automatic times (i.e., 10.5 hand = 10.74 FAT)

WOMEN

100m

Kristian Lee Piper 12:17

Verlyssa Timms Wyandotte 11.78
Givonne Miles Schlagle 12.62

200m

Kristian Lee Piper 26.62

Givonne Miles Schlagle 27.13
Azah Cummins Bishop Ward 27.34

400m

Azah Cummins Bishop Ward 01:03.3

Hannah Frederickson Sumner Academy 01:05.9Cordae McKelvy Wyandotte 01:07.8

800m

Jordan Hall Piper 02:35.5

Jasmine Wayne Piper 02:42.2

Frankie Oropeza Bishop Ward 02:42.2

1600m

Jordan Hall Piper 05:43.6

Andrea Oropeza Bishop Ward 05:55.0
Frankie Oropeza Bishop Ward 06:12:8 

3200m

Andrea Oropeza Bishop Ward 12:40.0
Quinn Walcott Basehor Linwood 12:49.4
Chelsea Beasley Piper 13:27.3

100/110m Hur

Alexis Alexander Turner 16.80

Haley White Piper 17.33

Verlyssa Timms Wyandotte 17:34
 

300m Hurdle

Verlyssa Timms Wyandotte 48.27

Alexis Alexander Turner 49.4

Haley White Piper 51.8

4x100

Piper 50.79

Basehor Linwood 52.53
Bonner Springs 53.18

4x400

Piper 04:23.2

Bishop Ward 04:27.8

Bonner Springs 04:40.4

4x800

Basehor Linwood 11:52.6
Bishop Ward 11:52.9
Harmon 12:10.7

High Jump

Sierra Smith Basehor Linwood 4-10.00

Victoria Webb Piper 4-08.00

Tahje' Ochs Piper 4-06.00

Long Jump

Tahje' Ochs Piper 16-06.00

Sierra Smith Basehor Linwood 16-00.50
Breonna Yungeberg Basehor Linwood 15-02.00

Triple Jump

Tahje' Ochs Piper 34-02.50

Dakkota Edmonds Basehor Linwood 33-02.00

McKenna Mortell Turner 32-06.75

Shot Put

Bailey Hooker Basehor Linwood 37-03.25
Kayla Sloan Sumner Academy 36-10.75Roneisha Mouten Washington 33-11.00

Discus

Victoria Smith Basehor Linwood    100-07.50
Bailey Hooker Basehor Linwood    97-04.00

Katie Trower Basehor-Linwood 90-01.00

 

Javelin

Maryssa Peterson Bonner Springs    100-02

Victoria Smith Basehor Linwood 97-09

Katie Trower Basehor Linwood 92-11

Pole Vault

Allison Heinen Basehor-Linwood 7-06.00
Madison Howard Basehor-Linwood 07-06.00
Bethany Bailey Bonner Springs 6-06.00

-----------------------

MEN

100m

DeAnte' Ambler Schlagle 10.96
Isaiah Ming Harmon    11.11
Paul Jones Piper 11.15

200m

Laray Young Schlagle 22.14

Julian Cole Piper 23.3Antonio Moore Wyandotte 23.40

400m

Laray Young Schlagle 49.9
J'veyon Browning Schlagle 53.75
Mleh Langford Bishop Ward 53.9

800m   

Brian Moiser Piper 02:05.3

Austin Schuler Bonner Springs 02:06.6

Berney May Piper 02:08.8

1600m

Brian Mosier Piper 04:42.3

Russell Brown Turner 04:45.1

Jon Oliva Basehor Linwood 04:59.1

3200m

Russell Brown Turner 10:15.0

Matt Coffman Bonner Springs 10:45.89Mootsafa Abdi Schlagle 10:58:00

100/110m Hurdles

Na'Shon Thomas Sumner Academy 15:47
Matt Ogilvie Basehor Linwood 16:40

Parker Richardson Piper 17.74

 

300m Hurdles

Na'Shon Thomas Sumner Academy 00:41.0
Roderick Mouton Sumner Academy 00:44.4

Austin Schuler Bonner Springs 44.61

4x100

Schlagle 00:43.6

Piper 00:44.4
Basehor Linwood 00:45.2

4x400

Piper 03:33.8

Bonner Springs 03:36.9

Turner 03:42.7

4x800

Bonner Springs 08:40.0
Basehor Linwood 08:54.0
Turner 09:00.0 

High Jump   

Jonah Freese Bonner Springs 5-10.00

Jeffrice Wilson Wyandotte 5-10.00

Ben Johnson Basehor-Linwood 5-08.00

Long Jump

Lane Young Basehor Linwood 21-11.75

S. Ford Turner 21-03.00
Leland Wheeler Washington    21-0.50

Triple Jump

Andre Sauls Turner 44-04.75

Jordan Jackson Bonner Springs 40-10.25Roger Wallace Harmon 39-10.25

Shot Put

Jesse Hiss Basehor Linwood 48-00.00

Ben Johnson Basehor Linwood 47-08.00James Wooten Schlagle 46-03.50

Discus

Ben Johnson Basehor Linwood 141-11.50

Jillan Anderson Wyandotte 134-02

Jesse Hiss Basehor-Linwood 132-05

Javelin

L. Bryant Washington 143-11

Jillan Anderson Wyandotte 143-02

Nathan Burns Piper 143-00

Pole Vault

Jacob Hicklin Basehor-Linwood 10-06.00

Read More

Track and Field Athletes of the Week - 4/16/2012

by David Brox, davibrox@shukc.com - Follow me on Twitter @OdoggBrox

KCK Preps Track and Field Weekly Honor Roll

4-6-12 thru 4-15-12

Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Week

Kristian Lee – Piper High School

Lee has run her way to the top of the area leader boards over the course of the last week. The Hutchinson bound sprinter won last week’s 100m dash at the Bobcat Relays with a time of 12.40. She followed that performance up Friday winning the 200m dash over local rival Dakkotta Edmonds of Basehor with a time of 26.86. She will compete this week in the KU relays with some of the top sprinters in the Midwest. She currently leads the area in both events with times of 12.17 and  26.62.

Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Week

Brian Mosier – Piper High School

Mosier completes the Piper sweep for track athletes of the week.  The senior swept the 800 and 1600m runs at Friday’s Tonganoxie Invitational in times that places him at the top of our area runners. The Emporia State signee also won both races in last week’s Bobcat Relays, helping to lead Piper to a boy’s team championship.

Read More

TOP 10: The 10 most overrated strategies in sports

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

Sports are like games of chess.

Decisions have to be made by coaches and even players on what to do and how to do it.  There are times when you have to out-think an opposing coach and players to win the game.

There are great strategies that help win games, but there are also flawed strategies that many think help games, but in reality may not.

Here are what I consider the 10 most overrated strategies in sports.

In no particular order:

1. Sacrificing Bunting - Actually, this is the number one point and the reason why I'm writing this column. To me, giving up an out for the sakes of 90 feet is unwise, except in two circumstances. First, a pitcher should probably bunt most of the time. Pitchers are bad hitters by nature. Second, putting the game-winning run at second base in extra innings is alright. Still, the idea of giving up 33 percent of your outs in an inning is flawed to me. Outs are the oil of baseball - if you run out of them, you're finished. Bunting in the early innings (again, with exception of the pitcher) is doubly insane.

2. Taking a time-out to prevent a delay of game penalty, especially in the second half - How many times has your favorite team been losing in the final minutes of a football game and you've said this to yourself. "Darn, I wish we had that timeout we wasted in the third quarter." Countless times. Again, this is like bunting. Why waste 33 percent of your team's timeouts for five little yards? There are exceptions to this - a fourth-and-goal might be a time to call a timeout. But shouldn't you take the five yards? Heck, a decent run makes up for it. If I were a football coach at any level, this would not happen. I would take the penalty 99 percent of the time. Sacrificing a timeout for five yards is dumb.

3. The extra-point and two-point conversion charts - The argument of when to go for two is common sense. There are times, however, you could argue against points outlined by the points chart. What if you score a touchdown to go up seven points and a two-point conversion extends the lead to nine points? A nine-point lead in football is a two-possession game. Yet, if you look at the typical two-point conversion chart coaches use, this idea is not on there. Also, there's an argument out there that you should go for two each time. After all, it's just two yards. The two-point conversion is not used enough unless your name is Chip Kelly and you coach the Oregon Ducks.

4. The Hail Mary - This isn't really strategy, but a quick point. Why don't football teams have more "last play of the half or game" gadget plays in the playbook? As in gadget plays, I mean plays like a hook-and-lateral, a Tennessee Titans (Nashville Miracle) like kickoff return that involved block scheme and a lateral or just a play that takes advantage of the yards given to you. A Hail Mary sometimes doesn't even reach the end zone. Why not do a 20-yard outlet that's given to you and go laterals from there? It's very unlikely to work, but you haven't seen a ton of hail mary's work over the years either.

5. The idea of taking a timeout because you're going to lose it anyway - I get the idea, of course. If you're going to lose the timeout, you might as well use it. Right? Wrong. Timeouts really should be used late in the game or if the other team is on a run. If you have the momentum, calling a timeout after you make a basket could help lose that momentum. A great example: In the Elite Eight game between Kansas and North Carolina, Roy Williams called a timeout in the final minute after the Tar Heels had eliminated a seven-point KU lead. Carolina was up two at the time, but KU would tie it after a bad offensive possession by the Tar Heels. Timeouts can kill your own momentum.

6. Closers in baseball - Years ago, a study was done that examined game situations in games over the past 73 years. One item worth noting was that teams who lead after eight innings won 95 percent of the time. This study was done without looking up any team's closer. The closing pitcher is the most overrated position in sports and if the closing pitcher is the best pitcher on the team - as it was with Joakim Soria last year and before Zack Greinke became a stud - he should not be on the bench most of the time. Sometimes during a losing streak, closers go days without being used.

7. Freezing the kicker - More often than not, it doesn't work. It can often back-fire, as giving a kicker a little bit more time to settle down means it's more likely he'll make it. Again, the idea makes sense and has worked a few times, but most of the time, it fails.

8. The intentional walk - I understand the idea of intentionally walking someone. It can be used to set up a double-play. It can be used to avoid a nasty hitter (like Barry Bonds during his prime). But at the same time, the strategy can help a team dig a hole they're in even larger. Odds are, if a team puts more runners on base, the larger the chance of the opposition scoring a run. And odds are if you use the intentional walk a lot, you will allow a larger amount of runs over the course of the season.

9. Punting or kicking the field goal on 4th-and-1 - Studies done indicate the success rate on 4th-and-1 in the NFL is over 75 percent. Going for it on fourth and one in most instances (not inside your own 20) should be considered. Converting those fourth downs can flip field position, control the battle for time of possession and can lead to more scoring opportunities.

10. Game-day coaching - Having observed football and basketball at a close level, I honestly believe that practices are more important for a coach than an actual game-day situation. Now, the coaches love to look good during the game so the media can point out how smart they are. To me though, the most significant job a coach does is in a practice. Practicing the fundamentals, practicing the pressure defense and practicing the offense in football are so crucial. Game-day coaching is important and deciding when to make an adjustment is huge. However, executing principles in all sports begins in practice. Games are won with tough competitive practices, confidence and preparation.

Read More