Sportsink062914 1 16

A magazine focusing on all things sports in northwest Kansas

INK. July 2014

Splash of

Hurricanes club keeps swimmers kicking

summer

The Hays Daily News

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Warming up Ellis High School’s Brandon Bollig (5), Dalton Hensley (4) and Easton Smith (1) warm up before their game against Troy in the first round of the Class 2-1A state championships in May at the Great Bend Sports Complex in Great Bend.

CHAD PILSTER, Sports Ink.

What’s up?

A look inside this issue

5

In

the pool

Hays Hurricanes swim club attracts swimmers of all ages, levels.

10

Great year

Sylvan-Lucas’ Courtney Batchman sees great improvement in sophomore

12

Picture this

Images from Phillipsburg’s Class 3A boys’ track and field championship.

track and field season.

Sports Ink. contributors: Nick McQueen nmcqueen@dailynews.net Conor Nicholl cnicholl@dailynews.net Everett Royer sportsink@dailynews.net Jolie Green jgreen@dailynews.net Chad Pilster cpilster@dailynews.net Austin Colbert acolbert@dailynews.net On the cover: Hays Hurricanes swimmer Emily Brinley — photo by Austin Colbert.

Volume 4, Issue 5 Sports Ink. is published and distributed by The Hays Daily News. Copyright © 2014 Harris Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Sports Ink. is a registered trademark of The Hays Daily News, 507 Main, Hays, KS 67601 (785) 628-1081.

Who’s That?

Notable performances in northwest Kansas Kaden Rohr

The Hays Senior Legion baseball player is in his first summer with the Eagles, and through the first seven games, was in the top three for RBIs for 5-2 Hays. He was batting .308 with three doubles and six runs driven in. Rohr also was a key component for Russell/Victoria this spring, as the Russell program reached state for the first time since 2008 and finished third in Class 4A Division II. Rohr was second on the team for the Broncos with a .392 average and 17 RBIs. He had four doubles and two triples. Rohr is headed to Dodge City Community College this fall.

Stephani DeLaRosa

DeLaRosa, a junior this spring on the Goodland High School softball team, helped the Cowgirls to the Class 4A Division II state tournament, where Goodland captured its first state win.

DeLaRosa was the Cowgirls’ top pitcher. She hurled 53 innings in nine games played. She gave up just six earned runs for a 0.79 earned-run average with 41 strikeouts, and just two walks. She was one of four Goodland pitchers. The Cowgirls finished 20-5, and ended up fourth place in 4A Division II. She also batted .325 in just 14 games, normally in the bottom of the order.

Taylor Tustin

Tustin, the standout junior distance runner for Wheatland-Grinnell High School in Grainfield, took home a pair of gold medals in Class 1A at the 2014 state track and field championships in Wichita. Tustin earned gold in the 1,600-meter run in 5 minutes, 26.84 seconds, then anchored the Thunderhawks’ 3,200-meter relay team, rallying the team to a title in 10:20.06. She competed in that race with Lacey Ostmeyer, Brooke Bixenman and Kirsten Zerr. Tustin also finished third in the 3,200-meter run, setting a new school record of 12:04.70.

Jared Pfeifer

Pfeifer, an Ellis High School junior, won his second gold medal (first individual event) when he claimed the Class 2A long jump title. He jumped 20 feet, 10.75 inches on his first attempt to win it at Cessna Stadium in Wichita. He was part of a title-winning relay as a freshman in 2012.

Got an idea of someone who you think should be included in Who’s That?

Send it to sportsink@dailynews.net with Who’s that? in the subject line, or call (800) 657-6017.

Splashsummer of

Hays Hurricanes keep swimmers busy

R

achel Brinley referred to team and yet it’s an individual her daughter, Emily, as sport. So she knows when she typically shy and quiet. gets in the pool she is racing That is, until she gets into the against herself and not necswimming pool and becomes essarily anybody else in the someone completely difwater.” ferent.

Emily found this voice “This has kind of given as she has developed as Austin her a voice. A different Colbert a competitive swimmer kind of voice, but a voice with the Hays Hurricanes, to be herself and kind of learn a year-round swim club that who she is and what she wants competes under to do,” Rachel Brinley said. the U.S.A. SwimPAGE 6 “She loves being part of the ming banner.

story and photos by

Sports Ink.

July 2014

TOP: Emily Brinley, 15, practices in the FHSU pool earlier this month. ABOVE: Coach Anne Drees instructs swimmers at the FHSU pool.

Page 5

“We’ve had a real, I’ll say in the last five years, explosion. A lot more swimmers than we’ve had and we

are finally starting to see that those kids are starting to move up.”

- Dana Stanton, Hurricanes

Dayton Deines, 4, swims in the pool in her first evening with the Hays Hurricanes earlier this month.

She started in sixth grade after her best friend, fellow Hurricane swimmer Lakin Ditter, pushed her into joining.

Recreational swimming was nothing new to Emily at the time, but it took her a little while to develop any sort of skill or passion for the competitive side of the sport.

“I’m not a competitive person at all. I’d rather just swim to swim. But competition is part of it,” Emily said.

“I liked to be in the pool. I went to the pool almost every day in the summer. And it was really hard to begin with. But I just started to love it after a while.”

By the time Emily was in seventh grade she had become comfortable enough to start competing in actual swim meets for the Hurricanes. Since then she has evolved into one of the club’s better swimmers, specializing in the freestyle events and the butterfly.

Emily Brinley and Ditter recently completed their freshman year at Hays Page 6

Ana Goodlett, 14, swims with the Hays Hurricanes and is a member of the Hays High School swim team.

High School, where both were part of the Indians’ varsity swim team. What they both found out was their experience with the Hurricanes had given them an unquestioned advantage against the less-experienced swimmers on the team.

“I think now they understand that July 2014

what they do here will totally benefit them when they get into the pool as a high school swimmer,” said Rachel Brinley, who is the outgoing president of the Hays Hurricanes, having served in the role the past two years. “I think they saw their level of conditioning was higher, initially, so it was good for SPORTS INK.

the coach then to not have to concentrate on these three swimmers because they already knew how to swim.”

Emily Brinley and Ditter, along with fellow freshman Ana Goodlett, are part of the newest batch of Hurricane swimmers to make the jump to the high school level. The Indian boys also have a pair of longtime Hurricanes that have found success at that level in Morgan Mathews and Ben Rajewski, both seniors-to-be with state experience under their belt.

“We’ve had a real, I’ll say in the last five years, explosion. A lot more swimmers than we’ve had and we are finally starting to see that those kids are starting to move up,” said Dana Stanton, the Hurricanes’ coaching committee chair and former president who has been with the club for the past 10 years. “This is the first year we are really starting to see those kids like Emily Brinley, Lakin Ditter, Ana Goodlett, Ben Rajewski, Hunter Perryman — those kids are finally old enough to swim for Hays High.”

What makes the Hurricane swim club so successful — and therefore its swimmers so successful — is its rigid structure.

The club has been around since the early 1970s, and takes its membership with U.S.A. Swimming seriously. U.S.A. Swimming is the National Governing Body for the sport in the United States with approximately 400,000 members nationwide.

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Emily Brinley, 15, front, and Kyra Polifka, 14, get set to go off the blocks during a practice at the FHSU pool.

What this means to the Hurricane swimmers is top-level instruction and the chance to compete alongside some of the best swimmers in the country.

“If someone gets a fast enough time at our meet, they could qualify for the Olympic trials. The structure is very official, very regulated. Even at this very young level, every swimmer in the pool has to be a member of U.S.A. Swimming,” Stanton said.

“This is not particularly a program for someone who wants to just come and play in the water. This is a competitive swim team. That being said, we don’t force anybody or require that you go to meets; we don’t require that you go to a certain number of practices. We want to be flexible.”

Many of the Hurricane coaches are home grown, having learned to swim competitively through the club, which competes in numerous meets during the

year. The rest tend to come from Fort Hays State University, which doesn’t have a competitive swim team.

Stanton, who is in charge of the coaching staff, has rarely had trouble finding experienced swimmers at FHSU wanting to join the paid coaching staff. A handful of its current coaches have done just that, including first-year coach Hannah Page, a Pratt native and former softball player that also swam competitively during the summer.

“I love taking my experience and seeing them experience the same thing, seeing them just get better with each practice,” said Page, who has another year to go at FHSU before earning her bachelor’s in sport and exercise therapy. “Once I get even my career, I would love to be a coach on the side and just do things like that because I love coaching. I love being around kids … I love seeing PAGE 8 them get better.”

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Dana Stanton instructs a swimmer during Hurricanes practice at the FHSU pool.

According to Stanton, there are “a lot of hoops to jump through” to become a swimming coach.

A competitive swimming background is a plus, but in most cases the coaches are also required to have their CPR and first aid cards and must undergo a background check under U.S.A. Swimming rules. All coaches must also have a Water Safety Instructor certification.

Most of the Hurricane swimmers are between the ages of 4 (the minimum age) and 18, which is typically the upper cutoff outside of special circumstances, like triathletes that want to continue to train at a high level. While the coaches are paid, much of the rest of the organization is made of parent volunteers who have children swimmers.

Danton, who got involved with the Hurricanes when her youngest son started swimming, has seen firsthand the impact the club can have on the younger kids, especially those that continue on to swim competitively at the high school level. And once many of them reach that level, both Danton and Rachel Brinley have seen an increased level of devotion to the club, which helps prepare them for the high school season.

“It gives you a head start on some of the other new swimmers. You’ve already had the background in it and it helps you a lot,” Emily Brinley said of the Hurricanes’ impact on her first season in high school.

“There is a big difference in competition. In high school everybody cares a lot. In club, some people do it just to have fun.”

Ryan Zhang, 9, swims in the FHSU pool with the Hurricanes.

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Everett Royer, Sports Ink. Sylvan-Lucas’ Courtney Batchman clears the last hurdle in the Class 1A 300-meter hurdles in late May at the state track and field championships at Cessna Stadium in Wichita.

Page 10

July 2014

SPORTS INK.

“This is my favorite event, this is my bread and butter event.”

Courtney Batchman, Sylvan-Lucas sophomore

Continued improvement Sylvan-Lucas sophomore hits the weights to maximize potential WICHITA — Sylvan-Lucas High School sophomore Courtney Batchman has watched the state track meet for many years. Batchman always thought she could run or jump the same marks of the state qualifiers. After the 2013 state track meet, Batchman decided to make a change. Her dad, Ryan, is the Mustangs’ assistant football coach, head track and head weightlifting coach. The 5-foot-6 Batchman made lifting a priority — and it paid off with a great school year, especially at the Class 1A state track meet in late May. “It helped so much with volleyball and basketball, track, really, honestly everything,” she said.

Batchman estimated her clean increased by 70-75 pounds, her bench by 60 and squat by 30. Sylvan didn’t have a girls’ lifting program, so Batchman normally lifted with the guys. This summer, Sylvan-Lucas started a girls’ weight program; Batchman said, as of late May, the new program was “kind of coming along.”

“The (boys) definitely help, and they are really good supporters,” Batchman said following her final event at state track. “I have had a lot of good support even just today.

One of our senior guys graduated, and he came up to Wichita and, he Sports Ink.

is like, ‘Hey Courtney, what do you run?’ so he came and watched. A lot of support, It’s awesome.”

In volleyball, Sylvan-Lucas went from 14-20 to 19-14. Batchman was the Mustangs’ best basketball player, collected second team all-Northern Plains League honors and helped Sylvan-Lucas to a 16-7 record. The program finished 16-27 combined in basketball the previous two seasons. The basketball honor marked the first all-league award for Batchman, a two-year starter in volleyball and basketball.

In track, Batchman enjoyed a great finish. The first Sylvan-Lucas girls’ qualifier since the Sylvan Unified and Lucas-Luray combined four years ago, Batchman finished in 18th place by herself with 12 points. She took 11th in triple jump (32-9.25), fifth in the 100 hurdles (16.775) and second in the 300 hurdles (47.79).

“This is my favorite event, this is my bread and butter event,” Batchman said of the 300s. “Last year, it killed me, and I was running probably like 55s. My fastest was maybe a 52 tops, but now I like it, because I like the kick, the 100 kick at the corner. Yeah, it’s hard, but it’s really rewarding.”

As well, Batchman performed the national anthem at the opening July 2014

ceremonies of the state track meet.

Batchman sung the national anthem at sub-state basketball tournaments the last two years, and has performed at several home contests and state music.

She also carries a 4.0 GPA and is involved in community and church activities. On Memorial Day, Batchman sang the national anthem at local cemeteries.

Sylvan-Lucas has a dirt track, which keeps Batchman from hurdling at home.

“I don’t want to break my ankle on the pathway, but really the only work that I do at Sylvan is hurdle stretches and warmups,” she said.

“Basically, it’s just condition stuff.”

Batchman will travel to Lincoln, about 15 miles away, for some hurdle work, and will sometimes travel 45 minutes to an hour to use Beloit’s rubberized track surface after church on Sundays. The work paid off at state.

On Friday morning, Batchman opened the meet by singing in front of several thousand people at Wichita State University’s Cessna Stadium. On Saturday, she collected her two state medals in front of another large crowd.

“It’s an awesome opportunity,” Batchman said. “I love it here.”

-Conor Nicholl, Sports Ink. Page 11

Picture this Focused on Phillipsburg’s Class 3A

Stuart Lennemann wins the 200-meter dash, one of his four state medals from the weekend.

Lennemann reacts to his gold medal win in the 200-meter dash.

track and field championship

Grant Wickham competes in the triple jump. He was third in the triple jump and second in the long jump.

Trey Ellis crosses the finish line in Phillipsburg’s 400-meter relay.

Phillipsburg’s Hunter Kohler hands off to Nate Prewitt during the Panthers’ gold-medal winning 1,600-meter relay at Cessna Stadium in Wichita.

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Hunter Kohler hands off to anchor Trey Ellis in the gold medal-winning 400-meter relay for the Panthers.

Hoffman claimed a trio of Class 1A state championships at the 2014 Kansas State Track and Field Championships at Wichita’s Cessna Stadium.

Hoffman won the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter dashes. Hoffman won the 100 in 11.25 seconds, the 200 in 22.28 seconds, and the 400 in 49.72. In the 100 and 200 he beat Linn’s Kurt Van der Merwe, and edged Osborne’s Boone Cady in the 400.

Photos by Everett Royer, Sports Ink. swiftinc@gbta.net P.O. Box 466, Ness City, KS 67560

Office: 785.798.2300 Cell: 785-798-5341

A season of change It was October 2007, the Major League Baseball THE CLOSER season had ended, and I was covering the Arizona Fall League for MLB.com as an associate reporter.

My position lasted just through Thanksgiving, and conor while paid well, had no benefits. There was talk about bringing me, along with two others, on for a 12-month position. However, in October, I had dinner with my boss, Bill Hill, who told me that positions likely wouldn’t be opening up and to start applying for other jobs.

NICHOLL

I applied from Maine to San Diego.

The Hays Daily News was my second option, behind the Tulane beat reporter job. My dad is from Denver, and we grew up in St. Louis, so Hays was often the midway point on trips west to see family. When I was offered the job, I told friends and family back home.

My best friend from high school, Mark Reeder (a current HS assistant football and baseball coach) told me I was going to “Hell with cornfields.”

I took the job, and started the Monday after Thanksgiving, 2007. Later this month, my time at the HDN will end.

On June 3, I was one of six employees, five on the editorial side, laid off by the paper. I have had mostly peace during the process, and by the time this magazine is distributed, should land on my feet. It’s possible my wife, Jenny, daughter, Harper, and myself will stay in Ellis County, but that remains an open question. I’ve appreciated the support from fans, parents, coaches and players during this season of change.

The last six and a half years have been a great blessing, a far cry from what my friend Mark said it would be like. I met Jenny here, was married in Hays, and Harper was born at HaysMed. We met some great friends and mentors who have tremendously helped us. Although I considered leaving a couple of times, this was always where I needed to be.

My first month here was probably the roughest reporting month of my life.

Including college, I’ve been a sports reporter since I was 18; I turn 30 next Sports Ink.

February. I have no blood relatives in Kansas and moved here in a U-Haul without knowing a single person. I felt like, and it was more me than anything, that I really struggled at first.

Without any initiation on my part, then-Fort Hays State University assistant athletic director Mark Pahls and then-Thomas More Prep-Marian girls’ basketball and softball coach Alan Billinger both gave me words of encouragement and confidence in my second month. Billinger said people are “becoming a fan of Conor Nicholl.” I’ve thanked Pahls and Billinger for their kind words during the years – and others along the way, too.

My writing style, right or wrong, has always been about the narrative. I think parents and fans and even media get so caught up in legacies, statistics and the games, that we lose track of what sports is actually about. That’s people. Especially in an afternoon paper, where people have known the game result for 12-16 hours (or more) already, narrative has to carry the day.

Games are not the story. Games are the vehicle with which we tell stories about people, their personalities, their emotions, the ups and downs of a season.

Now, anyone who knows me, knows I still love statistics. I loved going beyond the statistics and looking at some advanced numbers, or looking at streaks to tell a different, hopefully better, story.

I’m always reminded of longtime Oakley football and girls’ basketball coach Randall Rath. Several years ago, July 2014

Jill Dennis, his defensive specialist, scored just a couple points in a substate championship game against Hill City. But she held Hill City star Lexi Hardiek scoreless in the fourth quarter.

Oakley pulled the upset, and went to state. Rath believes Dennis was arguably the most important person on the floor.

Stars are crucial to success, but the supplementary players can be just as important to the fabric of the team and the stories surrounding them. Later in my first year, I wrote a 400-word piece on HHS guard Elisha Schultz, who was a role-player on a four-win team.

But Schultz had put together some strong games with her hustle and defense. Then-Indian coach Bob Schmitz thanked me for the story, because it was about someone who had played well under-the-radar. Even this last winter, Fort Hays coach Tony Hobson was happy I wrote about Katelyn Edwards’ academics in a story.

As I leave here, that’s what I want people to remember. Not only about me, but about sports for their kids, grandkids and athletes in their towns.

It’s beyond great to win titles and championships. But a championship weekend is only a few days out of the season. Enjoy the small moments and the big ones, the stars and the supplementary players throughout the ups-and-downs of a year. For the last six and a half years, I was glad to be along for the ride for those moments.

Feel free to contact Conor Nicholl at cnicholl1@gmail.com or @cnichollHays on Twitter.

Page 14

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