Sportsink063016

A magazine focusing on all things sports in northwest Kansas

July 2016

INK.

Records

within reach

Hill City’s Allyssa Miller went from throwing left-handed to becoming one of the nation’s top discus throwers.

The Hays Daily News

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Escape route

Victoria’s Brady Dinkel looks for a hole to escape two East defenders during the Eight-Man Division II All-Star Football Game on June 11 at Trojan Field in Beloit.

BRANDON ZENNER, Sports Ink.

What’s up?

A look inside this issue

6

Who’s That?

Notable performances

12

from northwest Kansas

Living with Larks

More than 20 local families take in Hays

5

Miller’s time

Allyssa Miller has her sights on Kansas discus history and beyond heading into her senior year.

6

Larks baseball players each summer without financial compensation. While there might be no money in being a host family, those that have experience putting up a Lark have taken other things from the program.

Sports Ink. contributors: Brandon Zenner bzenner@dailynews.net, Vinny Benedetto vbenedetto@dailynews.net, Jolie Green jgreen@dailynews.net, Nick Schwein nschwein@dailynews.net.

On the cover: Hill City senior Allyssa Miller. Photo by Nick Schwein.

Volume 6, Issue 5 Sports Ink. is published and distributed by The Hays Daily News. Copyright © 2016 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.

Area summer storylines When temperatures reach the sweltering stages in the triple digits, it’s usually a good time to get off the sports fields and diamonds. However, there are still plenty of happenings to look forward to in northwest Kansas this summer.

1. Norton’s Jace Ruder blazing the recruiting trail While he received early Division II offers from Emporia State and Fort Hays State, Ruder’s days as a lower-level recruit quickly diminished.

As of mid-June, Ruder stood at three Division I offers with no sign of them stopping. He received an early offer from Tulsa before impressing Ohio University and Bowling Green enough to earn offers at Ohio State’s camp.

Ruder is 6 feet, 2 inches and just shy of 200 pounds. He ran a 4.45 40-yard dash at Ohio State and was one of the state’s leaders in Class 3A in discus and hurdles at the state track meet. During the 2015 season, Ruder threw for 1,407 yards and 11 touchdowns while running for an additional 384 yards.

Ruder is anticipated to attend multiple other camps this summer, including a basketball camp at Kansas.

2. TMP-Hays High join forces in Senior Legion With numbers down following the graduation of a large senior class at TMP-Marian, Ricky Hockett and Ryan Ruder teamed up with players form Hays High on this summer’s Hays Eagles, which features multiple of the Indians’ top players.

Hockett (.545) and Ruder (.444) began their summers with four strong games, helping the Eagles to a 4-2 start. The duo helped lead the Sr. Monarchs to the AA regional tournament last summer and the Kansas championship.

3. Hays Larks begin Jayhawk League slate with strong start If the Hays Larks stand atop the league standings after today, they will earn an automatic berth to Championship Week of the National Baseball Congress World Series after missing out last season.

They helped their cause by starting their league campaign 6-1 and 10-1 overall. Austin O’Brien was leading the way with a .464 average in seven games, including seven doubles and one homer. His nine RBI are second on the team.

4. Monarchs begin football workouts under new leadership The TMP-Marian football program is well underway with summer weights and conditioning under new head coach Jason Cauley.

The Alabama native comes to Hays after stops in Mississippi as an assistant and three years as an assistant and two as a head coach in Hawaii.

The Monarchs went 1-8 last season under John Montgomery, who left for an assistant job in McPherson. The Monarchs never

won more than two games in four season under Montgomery.

5. Fort Hays State commits take on KBCA All-Stars TMP’s Jared Vitztum and Hays High’s Isaiah Nunnery were the lone area products set to compete in the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association All-Star Game on June 25 in Salina.

Both players were named to the Hays Daily News All-Area First Team and will continue their basketball careers under Mark Johnson at Fort Hays State University.

Nunnery, the All-Area Boys Player of the Year, averaged 16.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4 assists and 2.6 steals per game as the point guard for the Indians. He has said he will use this summer to get stronger and work on finishing through contact.

Vitztum, a versatile 6-7 player, will use his averages of 19.6 points and 10.7 rebounds to mold himself into a stretch post player for the Tigers, leading him to bulk up and work on his shooting from the perimeter.

Brandon Zenner, Sports Ink.

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Notable performances in northwest Kansas Brady Dinkel

In the final game of his high school football career, the Victoria graduate put together a spectacular outing to lead the West squad to victory in the Eight-Man Division II All-Star game.

Dinkel rushed for a 50-yard score, made a leaping 2-yard catch over a defender for a touchdown, and hauled in two interceptions in the 42-34 victory June 11.

Dinkel finished with 48 yards rushing on three attempts, and also completed a vital fourth-down conversion.

Dinkel also helped the Russell/Victoria baseball team back to the state playoffs. He was undecided on his college plans as of June 15.

Eric Gfeller

The Wallace County standout followed a fifth-place performance at state 1A pole vault with a gutty performance to lead the Division II All-Stars to a win.

Gfeller scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including two touchdown passes. The Bethany College signee finished 13-for-21 for 239 yards passing and four touchdowns. He led all players with 94 yards rushing on 13 carries.

Dalton Stout

The Hays High School graduate led the Hays Eagles’ summer baseball program to a pair of wins over Junction City on June 12.

After plating two runs in a 12-1 win in the opener, the infielder added six more RBI in the second game, a 16-6 win.

Stout finished the second game with three hits.

He and a handful of other 2016 graduates have led the Eagles to a 4-2 start and four consecutive wins as of June 15.

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Austin O’Brien

O’Brien, a University of Oklahoma baseball player, has got off to a hot start in the early part of his Larks career.

The first baseman launched a two-run walkoff homer in his debut on June 7.

O’Brien leads the team with a .464 average and seven doubles in as many games.

He helped the Larks off to a 10-1 start through June 15.

1-855-H

YSMED H YSMED

After two seasons of dominating Class 2A discus, Hill City senior Allyssa Miller is

Ready to break through

Story by Brandon Zenner (see page 8)

Nick Schwein, Sports Ink.

I

n the toughest days — the ones where her greatest passion was taken away from her — Allyssa Miller was uneasy.

Vinny Benedetto, Sports Ink. Allyssa Miller throws in the discus prelims at the Class 2A regional track meet in Hill City on May 20.

Stepping inside of the discus ring, something she picked up from her successful father, is her favorite hobby.

Standing on the sideline is not. Even as an eighth-grader, she had to find a way into the ring.

“You could tell she was bummed,” said Bruce VanLoenen, the senior’s discus coach at Hill City. “You could just tell she was depressed about it.”

Three seasons as a Ringneck have brought nothing but success to Miller.

As a sophomore, she wiped away the competition to earn gold in the discus in Class 2A. Fast forward one year and she became a repeat champion. Oh, and she added a crown to her name in the shot put, an event she claimed she was not skilled in at the beginning of the 2016 season.

Her discus of 146 feet, 3 inches captured gold in state-record fashion. Her shot put gold came in her final throw of the event.

Even with the impressive performances, VanLoenen knows the hundreds of fans in attendance to watch the state’s best discus thrower would have seen a better show if it wasn’t for the chaos caused by weather in Wichita, forcing competition to be delayed until Saturday and Miller to compete in both events the same day.

“I think down at the state track meet — had the whole element of Friday and Saturday been normal — I think she would’ve pushed that 160 mark pretty

hard down there,” VanLoenen said. “The fans got to see her throw a nice throw down there, break a state record, but I full well think had she had prelims and finals down there and not had the shot put in front of it, we would’ve got to see some 150-plus throws down there.”

Miller ranked in the top 10 in the country into May with her season-best throw of 158-0 at the Mid-Continent League meet, finishing 15th in the country.

Nobody else in Kansas even reached 144 feet.

“It was truly amazing,” VanLoenen said.

“I think we set her a goal of 145, and then she hit that 149-7. Then we bumped it up to the 150 mark and she blew that out of the water and she throws that 158.

I said, ‘I guess you just keep messing up our goals so I guess we’ll go for 160.’ We just tried to keep that goal out there in front of her.”

She never did reach the 160 mark this season, but the journey to reaching Kansas throwing supremacy had enough hitches in the road as it was.

It was those days in the spring of eighth grade when Miller, a right-handed thrower, was told she could not pick up a discus.

“I was doing softball throws. I threw it and my elbow just kinda popped,” Miller said. “It hurt pretty bad but I still had discus and shot put, so I just put Icy Hot on it.

“I was stupid and I didn’t tell anybody for like a year ... ” It was during her seventh-grade MCL meet when she realized something was seriously wrong. But she threw and

Brandon Zenner, Sports Ink. Allyssa Miller throws in the discus at the Kansas State Track and Field Championships on May 28 at Cessna Stadium in Wichita.

played volleyball through the pain for nearly a year, eventually succumbing to her elbow to undergo ulnar nerve surgery in the March of her eighth-grade year.

“I was not happy about having to sit out,” Miller said. “I hate sitting out. I can’t stand just not doing something.”

So there she was, just as VanLoenen remembers, following junior high coach Janella Benoit around with her right arm in a sling strapped to her waist on the first day of practice, a Monday.

“She came out the first day of practice.

She kinda just walked around with Mrs. Benoit that day and you could just tell

she was bummed,” VanLoenen said.

“That second day she came back out and she kinda wanted to throw the discus around with her left hand a little bit. You could just tell she was depressed about it.”

It wasn’t until the next day when Miller came up with a rather intricate idea to return to the ring.

“I love throwing, so I told my coach that I was gonna learn how to throw left-handed and I didn’t care how long it took,” she said.

Continued on Page 9

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VanLoenen added: “Then the third day, she came back out and she said, ‘Would you teach me to throw the discus left-handed?’ I said, ‘I will on two conditions. One is that your parents say it’s OK and the second is that your doctor says it’s OK.’ ” The parents approved. When she heard VanLoenen’s response, she became jittery as she already had plans to visit the doctor in Kearney, Neb., that following day.

“She came back to practice on Friday gung-ho ready to go because the doctor couldn’t believe that she even wanted to try it,” VanLoenen said.

Miller’s wish was granted. The future two-time discus champion — with her right arm — could resume activity with her left arm granted she kept her right arm in the mechanism given to her to reduce the movement and help rehabilitation.

She was learning the fundamentals of being a left-handed thrower that day.

The pair worked countless hours on the craft. First came footwork drills “like there’s no tomorrow,” according to VanLoenen.

“It wasn’t very hard to ask her to do it because she wanted to do it.”

Once the footwork was down, next came balance while spinning, releasing in her left hand and keeping the right arm immobile to prevent further damage.

“The biggest thing was just trying to get her balance down. When she was throwing it left-handed, she had to take her right hand and keep her right arm completely strapped to her waist with no movement,” VanLoenen said. “That made it even more difficult for her to spin. She really had to overcompensate into her hips to stay on balance, to complete throws with her left hand.”

Slowly but surely the results started showing. She began throwing just shy of 70 feet, then 80 feet before taking home the junior high league crown.

“By the end of the junior high track season, we had her full spinning with her left hand and she was the junior high champion as an eighth-grader throwing it left-handed. A lot of people don’t know about that remarkable feat that she accomplished,” VanLoenen said.

Miller completed the season and recovered fully, making her ready to tackle the high school competition. The injury flared up again during volleyball season, forcing her to go under the microscope again in October of her freshman year.

She returned inside the discus ring and advanced on to state as the top seed,

Nick Schwein, Sports Ink.

though she fouled on her first three attempts and was unable to advance to the finals or record a throw. She placed 10th, just outside of medal contention, in the shot put.

After setting personal records under 120 feet, she threw as high as 139-5 as a sophomore in 2015, wiping away the competition and bringing Miller her first gold medal. She also placed fifth in the shot put that season.

But, as she said, everything came together her junior season.

“I think that this year, it finally started

clicking,” Miller said. “Last year, I had to figure out how to keep my legs bent and stay low across the ring. This year it kinda came together.

“I think it was just that I stayed low and figured out how to make it pop off my hand. It was just kinda like a baseball, kinda figured how it pops.”

And she steam-rolled through the season. She placed first in every discus and shot put competition with exception of the highly competitive Kansas Relays, which draws in competition from across the midwest. Still, her best shot put to date

of 40-0.5 and placed ninth. She took third in the discus.

She continued to breeze to state gold in the discus after pumping out a shot put title earlier in the day May 28 in Wichita.

“Really, my shot put gold is kinda the one that surprised me,” Miller said.

Unfortunately, Miller battled a right shoulder injury in the latter part of the season, forcing her to bandage the area in kinesiology

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tape up through the state championships. A postseason trip to Kearney revealed nothing of concern, though. She will return to weight lifting and throwing by July with VanLoenen.

“We just gotta get her strength back up there again, keep getting her quicker across the ring and being more aggressive attacking that discus,” VanLoenen said. “Those are the things that she could improve upon. I truly think she can go well into the ’60s next year. We just gotta get her healthy again and get her ready to go.”

She has lofty goals for her senior year and beyond, though she projects to be able to shatter any mark she wishes.

“My goals this year so far is just to get the all-time best throw in Kansas,” Miller said.

“I know I want the best in the state.”

According to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, that mark Miller must reach is 1652 and dates back to 1985.

But during her days of recovery in June,

she rescinded in front of the television to watch her likely future competition in the college track and field championships. Already being heavily recruited by Division I programs, she dreams of the work she needs to put in with national championship aspirations.

“I watch them and I’m like, ‘I just wanna be like them,’ ” Miller said. “Then I’m like, ‘Well, I better start working or I’m gonna get my butt kicked and not be there.’ It just motivates me a lot.”

With more than five years of experience with Miller and seeing the work she put in to go back-to-back, he doesn’t doubt any dream she has.

“Her work ethic and dedication will take her probably wherever she wants to get to,” VanLoenen said. “That’s just the amazing thing about being able to see her work at this and excel at it. She loves it and loves working out. I think the potential’s unlimited, probably.”

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Living with Larks Story by Vinny Benedetto

Having an unfamiliar college guy crash in a family home for a summer might sound like the plot of Judd Apatow’s next comedy movie. If the Hollywood producer ever made “The Live-in Lark,” it would be much less wild and much more rewarding than one might expect.

Deb Weatherbee would know. The retired teacher and her husband, Gary, have hosted a Hays Lark baseball player, sometimes two, for roughly 25 years.

“We have had the best kids ever,” Weatherbee said. “I have never had a bad player.”

When the Weatherbee’s children were young and impressionable, the Larks players followed the house rules set by the family.

There were no destructive parties while the family was away, and other issues were few and far between.

“Most of the kids are so respectful,” Weatherbee said. “You wouldn’t think with college kids they would be, but they are.”

The players even served as role models for the kids, Weatherbee said.

“It was a great experience for them,” she said. “They absolutely loved it.”

Weatherbee’s kids are out of the house now, but the family continues to host after a oneyear hiatus last summer when a daughter got married.

Mike Mioduszewski, an Eastern Michigan product, is staying at the Weatherbee’s home

Courtesy photos Above: Members of Kent and Shawnda Werth’s family pose with Austin Darby, who stayed with the Werths for a summer. Left: Gary and Deb Weatherbee’s granddaughters hang out with Mike Mioduszewski, who is staying with the Weatherbees this summer.

this year. Although there are no little ones living there, “Big Mike” already has made fans out of two visitors in the early stages of

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the 2016 season.

“My two little granddaughters, they’re 1 and 3,” Weatherbee said. “They thought he was the best thing ever. They were at his door wanting him to get up and play with them.”

The presence of kids is a more common sight at Kent and Shawnda Werth’s home.

The Werths have five sons, three of which still live in the home. The youngest is just 8, but the family of baseball players and fans have enjoyed the experience for the last five years.

“Baseball is probably their favorite sport,” Shawnda Werth said. “My older ones wanted to do it when they were little.”

It took some lobbying of dad to get the OK, but the Werths have had a player each year since.

“We finally talked him into doing it one year and it went well,” Werth said. “We’ve been doing it ever since.”

The experience is especially beneficial to her baseball-playing sons. Chase is a rising junior at Thomas More Prep-Marian and one of the more skilled baseball players on the Monarchs’ roster. He feels like he’s benefitted from having a number of Division I athletes staying for the summer.

“It’s really cool just talk to with them about hitting. They always tell me if I’m doing something wrong or doing something right when they come to watch,” Chase said.

Continued on Page 14

“It kinda gives me a goal of where I want to be when I’m that age.”

The Werths attended Larks games before they started hosting players but find it more enjoyable now that they’ve got a special connection with at least one of the guys.

“It’s way more fun,” Shawndra said. “The boys get to know the players.”

Simply put, without families like the Weatherbees and Werths, there would be no Larks team, according to Barb Leo. Leo is the wife of manager Frank Leo and has coordinated the host family program for roughly 10 years. The Leos hosted players in the past before Nancy Stramel, the previous coordinator, mentioned it might not be the best idea, as some might take it as a sign of favoritism.

In total, there are 23 families listed as host families on the Larks’ website. Their role is absolutely vital to keep the summer team around.

“There is no way that we would feel good or could afford to rent apartments or even put these kids up in the dorms for the summer,” Barb Leo said.

“If our community wants to keep the Larks program, we will always have a need for host families.”

Leo added she’s heard of other teams that have had to leave town because a lack of willing hosts. She searches for eight to 10

new host families each year.

This year was one of the more challenging years of her annual search, as the roster expanded to deal with a demanding schedule that has the team playing six times a week.

That demanding schedule, half of which takes place on the road, lessens the burden on these families.

“The biggest misconception is that it is a lot of work,” Weatherbee said. “They take care of themselves. They’ve lived on Ramen noodles.”

Werth wouldn’t mind if the guys were around more often.

“It’s like five or six times out of the entire season that you get to have a meal and go

out to eat with them,” Werth said. “They’re just not around very much. We would love to have them around more.”

There is enough time, though, for the players and Werth’s sons to connect. Shawndra said Jax Biggers, the family’s current Lark, had taken some of her younger sons out for donuts, while Chase, who has goals of continuing his baseball career in college, has enjoyed opportunities to hit the cages with his seasonal roommates.

“It makes it cool just to be right there,” the TMP student said. “It shows me what kind of work I have to put in day in and day out.”

Both host moms said they don’t do much else besides provide a room for the play-

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Chandler Stiawalt Ness City High School

A senior-ot-be at Ness City Ness City Hgh School, Chandler Stiawalt led the Eagles to a second place finish in Class 2A with three gold medals at the Class 2A State Track and Field Meet on May 27-28 at Wichita’s Cessna Stadium.

Stiawalt swept the jumping events, taking gold in the high jump (6 foot, 6 inches), long jump (20-9.5) and triple jump (42-10.75). He also ran the anchor leg of Ness City’s 400 relay team that finished seventh in 45.49 seconds.

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ers. They offer to add specific requests to the grocery list, but most often, the players take care of themselves. Almost all of the Larks come with their own vehicle. Those that don’t often catch rides with teammates, making sure the families are not burdened with transportation requests.

“I think people think it’s a huge commitment,” Shawndra said. “It’s really not.”

Each family has had players they continue to keep up with, some more than others. The Weatherbee’s kids have grown up and connected with former players on social media and have provided updates on the life happenings of their former players.

The Weatherbees heard from one of their former players who connected with another former resident as the two players received treatment in the training room of a minor league facility in Florida. The family has also traveled to watch former Larks play at Kansas and Wichita State.

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The Werths had plans to reunite with Austin Darby, a former baseball player at Nebraska, but he recently signed to start his professional career with the Lincoln Saltdogs, an independent team. The family also remains close with Michael Burns, who stayed with the family for the last previous seasons.

While Leo shared a comedic story of one Lark who apparently enjoyed his host family so much he decided not to leave at season’s end, both Weatherbee and Werth share experiences that fit a family friendly movie instead of one of Apatow’s R-rated flicks.

“They’ll come to some of our kid’s games, which they absolutely love,” Werth said. “I’ve never had one that I don’t get along with.”

“They just become part of the family. When we go to out to eat, they come,” Weatherbee added. “If I get a kid like Mike again, I could do this again.

Courtesy photo Not only is he an awesome Former Larks BJ Barnes (left) and Justin Headley hang out with the baseplayer he’s an awesome Tanner, Taiten and Tahnee Weatherbee after a game at Larks Park. individual.”

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