JUCO BEAT: First KCKCC women's soccer team loaded with area standouts

By ALAN HOSKINS

Ruben Rodriguez has kept the word community very prominent in recruiting Kansas City Kansas Community College’s first women’s soccer team.

Of the 18 members of the first Lady Blue Devil team, 17 are from Kansas and all within 25 miles of the KCKCC campus including 12 from KCK, two each from Lansing and Shawnee and one from Lawrence. All are freshmen.

“It’s a hard working group, very enthusiastic and excited about the season,” said Rodriguez, who got a late, late start in recruiting because the sport was not officially adopted until this past February. In his second year as head men’s coach, Rodriguez also was a men’s assistant three seasons.

“I was very fortunate that I knew the coach at J.C. Harmon, Carlos Olivas,” said Rodriguez. “They had a very good season, one loss in the regular season and one in the playoffs.”

After his first Harmon signee, the word spread and six more members signed on to play along with standouts from Piper, Bishop Ward, F.L. Schlagle and Wyandotte.

Rodriguez is being assisted in the women’s program by Tait Einerson, who has 17 years of coaching experience, six as an assistant at Liberty High School and the last 11 at Blue Valley West.

An assistant on both the boys and girls teams at Blue Valley West, he coached only the girls team for the last four years.

Yet to play a game, Rodriguez said playing time is wide open although three players have been selected as captains – forward Stephanie Long of Piper, midfielder Nancy Martinez of SM North and defender/midfielder Mayra Castaneda of J.C. Harmon.

“They’re very strong players with good leadership qualities and the desire to play at four-year colleges,” said Rodriguez.

Claudia Riveria, who had an outstanding season at Harmon, will start in goal for the Blue Devils while other Harmon products include defenders Danielle Alvarado, Karen Gaytan and Vanessa Walters, midfielder Blanc Bueno and forward Alyssa Trammel.      

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Metro Sports announces fall primetime lineup

With fall rapidly approaching, Time Warner Cable Metro Sports has shifted its primetime lineup to coincide with the start of the high school, college and professional football seasons.

Not surprisingly, the new Metro Sports primetime schedule is heavy on local football coverage. Mondays and Thursdays will feature “Red Zone” at 6 p.m. – a 30-minute show that dissects the latest Kansas City Chiefs news and information. Metro Sports will also broadcast “Red Zone Live” – a one-hour postgame show – immediately following all Chiefs games.

“Varsity KC” will air on Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. and will focus on Kansas City area high school football and other seasonal high school sports. Following “Varsity KC,” Metro Sports will air Big 12/Missouri football weekly coach’s shows.

On Wednesdays, “College Gametime” will occupy the 6 p.m. timeslot and will focus on Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State and other Big 12 and area college football news.

As usual, Metro Sports will be very involved with local high school football this year, with two live game broadcasts each week and many games being shown in HD.

Thursday nights will feature the “Time Warner Cable High School Showcase presented by Hy-Vee” at 7 p.m., and the “Hy-Vee High School Game of the Week” will continue to occupy its traditional time slot on Friday nights at 7 p.m.

After all of the Friday night high school football action is complete, the “Honda High School Football Roundup” will recap all the KC area scores and highlights at 10:30 p.m.

The Emmy Award-winning program “Fantasy Huddle” returns as part of Metro Sports’ 2012 fall lineup. The nationally syndicated fantasy football show will have new episodes each Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Also featured in primetime this fall is “Metro Pro Wrestling,” a local Kansas City based professional wrestling show, which will air new episodes each Saturday at 11 p.m.

The network’s flagship daily sports news and highlight show, “Metro Sports Zone,” will continue airing live at 10 p.m. every night with all the biggest sports news of the day.

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KCK Preps Interview: New Muncie Christian Eagles head coach Steve McCleary

Below is an interview with new Muncie Christian basketball head coach Steve McCleary.

Muncie Christian is a small Christian School in Kansas City, Kan. I've overlooked them coverage wise, but that will be changing in 2012-13.

Recently, the school almost closed down due to financial reasons. However, it was saved, which is a good thing for Wyandotte County because a diverse community deserves a diverse choice of education.

Below is our interview. Click "Read More" for the full interview.

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Nick Sloan: Coach, give us some background about yourself and your program.

Steve McCleary: My name is Steve McCleary. I am 23 years old and I graduated from Muncie Christian School in 2007. I attended MCS from kindergarten through my senior year. I played soccer, basketball and baseball all four years of high school here, lettering in all three sports.

In all honesty, I don't intend for this to sound prideful in anyway, but I hold the career record for saves by a goalie in soccer, career points in basketball, most points in a game in basketball and the most career home runs in baseball.

These numbers are results of MCS providing a great opportunity for each athlete to play multiple sports each year. Clearly, holding these records at MCS is a little different than holding them at Washington or Harmon. But hey, that’s still pretty cool.

MCS is in the MO-KAN Christian Conference and also the Tri-State Christian Conference. The school itself has been a part of these two conferences at least since the early 90's.

With the school being a small private school, the attendance is truly a reflection of the economy.

In the late 90's and early 00's, we ran close to 200 students ever year, with about 80 of those being in high school. The current enrollment is just above 100. With this kind of fluctuation, the level of competition goes up and down, and often. In the early 00's we had a soccer team that saw 5-6 guys go on to play college ball. The boys varsity basketball team had a starting five of 6'10, 6'8, 6'6, 6'2, and 6'0. One player went on to play at a university and two others community college.

In 2006, we played the only game against a USD 500 school to my knowledge. We played Washington in our annual Christmas Classic tournament, and lost by 5 or 6. Our goal is to get back to the level of competition with some of the USD 500 schools.

From what I've read and seen in some record books, MCS has played soccer, basketball, and volleyball since the 60's. Unfortunately, there aren't many record books that we have from back then.

NS: What inspired you to become a basketball coach?

SM: The love for the game and this school both inspired me to coach basketball here. As an alumnus, I've always had a passion to get Muncie on the same level as KC Christian, Sunrise, and Maranatha Christian Academy. Those three have solidified themselves as the top Christian schools in Kansas. With Muncie being in Wyandotte County, I definitely realize it will be tough to get to their level.

The principal when I was at Muncie was Mr. Rex Vincent. He taught me so much about life, school, basketball, golf and much more. I love the guy for everything he did here at MCS, even if he is a K-State fan.

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