Sports Ink., Jan. 2013

A magazine focusing on all things sports in northwest Kansas

INK. January 2013

Ready to Roll

The Hays Daily News

Oakley has the talent.

Can the Plainsmen break through?

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What’s up?

A look inside this issue

6 Solid core

Despite dwindling

numbers in the school, the Oberlin wrestling squad continues a strong tradition.

8

Ready to roll

The Oakley boys’ basketball team has a talented squad. The only question is can the Plainsmen make a deep run?

14

Rorabaugh’s Railers

The longtime basketball coach is back for another stint with the Ellis boys’

Bring it

basketball team.

Nick Schwien, Sports Ink. Hoxie junior Chase Kennedy looks for an open teammate as he sets up the offense against Quinter during a game earlier this month at the 29th annual Castle Rock Classic in Quinter.

Cover illustration by Steven Hausler shausler@dailynews.net Sports Ink. contributors: Nick McQueen nmcqueen@dailynews.net Conor Nicholl cnicholl@dailynews.net Everett Royer sportsink@dailynews.net Steven Hausler shausler@dailynews.net Klint Spiller kspiller@dailynews.net Chelsy Lueth clueth@dailynews.net Nick Schwien nschwien@dailynews.net

Volume 2, Issue 11 Sports Ink. is published and distributed by The Hays Daily News. Copyright © 2012 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.

A nightmare to schedule

A

n athletic director’s life can be frustratwe’ve nearly been short games.” ing, especially in western Kansas.

The Indians already play the big schools in If you’re in charge of a large school out the west, and the small schools are reluctant here, good luck, because it’s tough to get to face Hays. Then with AVCTL obligations similar level competition to actually face filling the schedules of teams in the central you. Why would a Wichita school travel corridor of Kansas, Hays typically has to three hours to compete against you when venture far east or far south. it could travel 10 to 30 minutes to find a “Because of our location, we are some of similar-sized school? the last ones left in the room looking to see Oh, and don’t forget what else is left to pick from,” For Starters super leagues, such as the Albers said. multi-tiered, 26-team Ark It’s a problem that has Valley Chisholm Trail been rampant in other states, League, whose league but while others have taken obligations make nonsteps to address it, Kansas league games difficult to has stuck with its system that schedule. doesn’t encourage schools to branch outside It creates scheduling nightmares for Class of their geography.

6-4A schools west of U.S. Highway 281.

Nebraska has made strides in this area.

Class 6A Garden City was forced to have an Like Kansas, Nebraska has a dense eastern open slot in its football schedule in Week 2 population and rural western population, five years ago. In 2010 and ‘11, the same hap- but unlike Kansas, Nebraska changed its pened to Great Bend, and the Panthers aren’t postseason format to make it easier for westeven that far west. ern schools to fill their schedules.

Hays High Athletic Director Clint Albers In football, the Nebraska School Activities said he has come close to similar problems.

Association is in charge of assigning team’s “It’s extremely difficult to find games,” schedules, so that’s not a problem.

Albers said. “There have been years where Then in basketball, the NSAA switched to

Klint

Spiller

a seeded district tournament that isn’t based upon geography. Instead, it is based on seeding with teams earning higher seeds based on their wild-card points earned throughout the year, with the top seven seeds as tournament sites. The amount of points earned is based on the success of their opponents, so winning teams with difficult schedules are rewarded with higher seeds.

Under this format, it makes the regular season important, and teams can’t get into an “easy” district tournament.

It makes the post-season format fairer, and encourages schools in dense urban centers to escape the city. Because if they don’t, the large schools in the western half of the state can play smaller schools and out-of-state schools that count for the same wild-card points.

As a result, the Class A schools in Nebraska, the classification with the largest schools, met together and devised ways to play each other, even if it meant more traveling costs.

KSHSAA would be wise to make a similar change. After all, with small towns drying up, medium-sized schools, such as Norton, soon might even have trouble finding opponents.

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Who’s That?

Notable performances in northwest Kansas Sydney Benoit

Benoit, a senior for the Smith Center girls’ basketball team averaged 24.5 points through a 4-0 start for the Lady Red. After scoring 34 points in a season0opening win against Victoria, Benoit, one of five seniors, spurred Smith Center’s title performance in the preseason Purple & Gold Tournament at WaKeeney.

Benoit scored 22 points in a the tourney opener, then 26 in a semifinal win against host Trego Community. In the title game, a rematch with Victoria, Benoit was one of four Lady Red players in double figures, leading the way with 16 points.

Kip Keeley

After helping the La Crosse High School football team to another spectacular season, Keeley, a senior on the basketball team, got off to a hot start for the Leopards this winter. Keeley, despite a 1-3 start for the Leopards, averaged a little more than 23 points in the first four games.

On two different occasions in the first four games, Keeley notched at least 34 points.

He scored 34 in a loss to Smith Center and 35 in a win against Trego Community.

Kate Lehman

A sophomore center for the Fort Hays State University women’s basketball team, Lehman helped guide the Tigers to an 8-0 start. The Tigers started 2-0 in MIAA play and climbed to No. 11 in NCAA Division II, the highest ranking for the Tigers in their NCAA era. Lehman averaged 18.4 points through the first eight games and blocked 36 total shots. She also averaged 8.3 rebounds per night. Lehman, a native of Newton, was named MIAA Player of the Week in Week 3 of the season.

Dalton Gantz

Gantz, a 6-0 senior linebacker/fullback for the Eight-Man Division I Ness City football team this fall, was honored several times across the state for his efforts.

Gantz was named to the Hays Daily News All-Area Super 11 squad, one of three Ness City players selected and was later named the Offensive and Defensive MVP in Eight-Man Division I, District 8 by kpreps. com, an honor influenced by coaches throughout the district. Gantz finished with 1,155 rushing yards and 23 scores for the Eagles’ offense, and racked up 90 tackles, two interceptions and a sack on defense.

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.

STEVEN HAUSLER, Sports Ink Oberlin’s Dayton Dreher, rear, wrestles in the third-place match last season at the Class 3-2-1A state wrestling championships at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays.

SOLID Core Oberlin has high expectations for 2012-13

C

arrying on a solid tradition at Oberlin-Decatur Community High School has not been an easy task for the Red Devil wrestling team.

And, though, it seems to become a little more difficult each season, it’s a duty members of the squad don’t take lightly.

With numbers dwindling in rural communities and their schools each year, the task of finding enough participants to be able to contend in the team rankings has proven daunting.

“It gets tougher and tougher every year as enrollment declines,” said Oberlin’s 17th-year head coach, Joe Dreher, whose squad competed with many larger schools at the Colby Dual Page 6

Tournament earlier this month.

“Obviously, those bigger schools, you look at pictures in the program and some of them have 40 to 60 kids. It makes a heck of a difference.

“It’s tougher to fill a full team,” Dreher added.

Still, here the Red Devils are, filling all but one weight class with competitive wrestlers, despite a roster of just 18. Oberlin has been in early-season conversations about possibly contending for some state hardware in late February, when champions are crowned at the Class 3-2-1A State Wrestling Championships at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays.

Though they did lose two state placers to graduation, the Red Devils credit January 2013

their chances this season to a solid core of returning wrestlers.

“We know we have a lot of talent, and we have set our goals high,” said 152pounder Kade Brown, a senior and one of four returning state qualifiers from 2011-12. “We are definitely thinking top three as a team in the state, if not trying to win it, depending on how we wrestle.

“We want to get better each week, and see how it goes.”

If the early season was any indication, the Red Devils can certainly hold their own — even with the larger schools.

Oberlin was fourth in the Colby tournament, the only 2A school in the top six. They held their own with the likes of Pine Creek and Wray, Colo., Class SPORTS INK.

“There’s a really strong tradition in oberlin. We haven’t won a championship in quite a while …”

- channing fortin, oberlin senior

3A Scott City and Class 6A Hutchinson. The Red Devils were 4-1 in pool play and won in the placing rounds to finish fourth.

Though duals don’t mean a great deal in the scheme of things, and many coaches believe the early season is comparable to a glorified practice, it still shows what the Red Devils might be capable of.

“We lost two seniors, two state qualifiers, but we also have a lot of kids that got quite a bit of experience last year,” said 220-pounder Channing Fortin, a senior and returning state qualifier. “I think we could be taking quite a few more kids to the tourney this year.”

With six state qualifiers last winter, the Red Devils finished fifth, and did it without a placing from Brown, who was expected to compete for a medal.

Entering state with a 33-2 record, Brown broke a joint on his finger. He was on medication for a skin condition many wrestlers suffer from, impetigo, and mixed ibuprofen for pain, and the results were not good. Brown was disoriented in Day 1, and lost his

first match, then finished 2-2 for the tourney with no medal.

“Sometimes you just have to forget that stuff that’s not in your control,” Brown said. “How that ended up gave me a lot of motivation to continue to work harder this year and step it up.”

The four returning qualifiers — Brown, Fortin, two-time third-place medalist Dayton Dreher, a junior and the coach’s son, and sophomore Troy Juenemann — fuel Oberlin’s hopes of state hardware.

“Those kids, hopefully everyone feeds off them,” coach Dreher said. “The competition is mixed up a little bit with the returners.”

Juenemann wrestles at 113 with Dayton Dreher at 138, then Brown and Fortin higher up.

Dayton Dreher was third the last two seasons. The junior, up two classes, expects to be right back in the mix.

“Just have to get better on my feet and be more aggressive,” he said. “Go out and get that first takedown.”

Brown, who already has verbally comitted to golf at Creighton University, has a younger brother, Kelly, on the

squad as well.

Kelly Brown, a freshman, competes at 132. Their father was a back-to-back state champion wrestler for Oberlin in the early 1970s.

“There’s a really strong tradition at Oberlin,” said Fortin, whose uncle was a state runner-up in the 90s. “We haven’t won a championship in quite a while, but we’ve had some really close team match ups.”

The last title for the Red Devils was in 1977, the school’s 10th overall. That was two years prior to the field switching to include Class 3A. Oberlin’s last state trophy was third place in 2004, a streak these Red Devils hope to break.

But, as with every season, it all comes down to the 3-2-1A regional, arguably the toughest in the state every season.

This year, it is in Norton.

“It’s a whole new tournament once you get there,” coach Dreher said. “It doesn’t matter who you’ve beat or who has beat you — it matters what happens on those two days.

“The past doesn’t matter, it’s what happens right then.”

- Nick McQueen, Sports Ink.

Good Luck Oberlin Red Devils!

Loaded with talent, the Oakley boys look to break through

Ready to T

Roll

he Oakley High School boys’ basketball team showcased plenty of positives in a 61-50 seasonopening home victory against Leoti-Wichita County on Nov. 30. Senior 6-foot-6 forward Stesteven phen Llewellyn dunked conor nicholl hausler once, nearly dunked a second time and displayed a smooth, all-around game. Junior 6-foot-5 forward Austin Baalman finished with a double-double, and through four games, averaged 17.3 points and 13.8 rebounds.

Oakley will miss point guard Cody Gabel for the season because of a knee injury suffered in football, but 6-foot-3 junior Darius Herl moved from shooting guard to point guard and finished with a career-best 19 points.

Oakley isn’t very deep, but had solid contributions from senior Cayle Hubert, junior Eric Rucker and junior Braydon Hubert. Eight of the Plainsmen’s top nine players return from a 10-11 season.

The Plainsmen opened the year 3-1 with quality victories against Leoti, Norton and Goodland, all squads expected to be at least .500. The lone loss came against Ottawa, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, and Semi Ojeleye, a Duke University signee.

After the Leoti victory, Herl sat on the bleachers and looked up at the wall on one side of the Plainsmen’s gym. He saw multiple banners from various sports, including football, volleyball, cross country, track, girls’ basketball and wrestling. All those teams

story by

Page 8

photos by

have enjoyed success in the past and present.

Under coach Randall Rath, football is 80-19 since the start of the 2004 season and has made the playoffs every year except one in that span. Rath also has led girls’ basketball to back-toback state appearances and a state championship in 2006-07.

However, boys’ basketball has had little success in recent years.

Oakley has five state appearances, with four coming from 197682, none since.

“I want to bring some banners back to Oakley,” Herl said.

While Oakley has a blend of talent, height and experience that few area teams can match, the question remains: Can the best Plainsmen boys’ basketball team in years post a big year and reach the state tournament?

January 2013

SPORTS INK.

Oakley’s Austin Baalman (40) shoots against Wichita County’s Tailar Bremer during the Plainsmen’s season opener in Oakley.

“That’s something that we all want to happen,” Rath said. “We want everything to be successful here.”

The answer won’t come until March, but Oakley will have plenty of competition. The Plainsmen are in the difficult Plainville sub-state with Ness City, ranked No. 3 in Class 2A and coming off back-to-back state appearances, perennially tough Hill City and Ellis, a strong squad looking to end a lengthly drought from the state tournament.

Since 2007, Oakley has lost seven in a row against Hill City, three straight to Ellis and two in a row to Ness City.

Coach Steve Allison called Oakley’s ultimate goal winning a state championship — and believes his squad can make a run Sports Ink.

in 2A. “We have gotten ourselves to where we can set some higher goals,” Allison, 38-51 as Oakley’s head coach, said.

Shortly before the Oakley-Leoti boys’ game started, Rath stood near the Plainsmen girls’ locker room. Rath, a St. Francis graduate, has coached the Plainsmen girls’ basketball team for the past 21 years and also serves as athletic director and track coach.

When Rath was in high school, he played against then-Oakley boys’ basketball coach Fred Teeter.

“As a player, I have always respected him from another team in the league,” Rath said. “He PAGE 10 was a tremendous basketball coach.“

January 2013

Page 9

Stephen Llewellyn looks for a rebound against Wichita County’s Casey Day during the season opener in Oakley.

“I feel like there is a tradition at Oakley, but we need to get it back.”

- Steve Allison, Oakley boys’ coach

Teeter led the Oakley program for many years and currently serves as middle school principal. He won a Class 2A state title in 1976.

“People see success and they want to see it in your program, too,” Allison said. “I think a lot of it is that internal pressure that you put on yourselves. We are trying to build some tradition and work up a program. Mr. Teeter, he was head coach for 23-25 years, had (several) state appearances, had a state championship early in his career. I feel like there is tradition at Oakley, but we need to get it back.”

Rath was Teeter’s assistant his first year in Oakley before he inherited the girls’ team.

“I learned a lot coaching under him,” Rath said. “Fred and I, I would go into his office, I went in there a lot of times my first five or six years coaching girls and we hashed things out. He was a tremendous principal.”

At some schools, football success yields basketball success. However, for several reasons that hasn’t occurred at Oakley.

Several of the top football players in recent years, including Kelly Younkin, Aaron

Racette, Eric Albers, Ethan Jirak and Jace Campbell, have excelled in wrestling. This group, though, is slightly different.

“They play hard and the coaches, and the kids have high expectations and there is a group of kids that really likes basketball right now, and they spend some time at it and the kids, I think they have gotten a lot stronger and they are turning into really good athletes,” Rath said. “I think the kids have bought into understanding that they’ve got to get into the weight room in the offseason. That helps in all sports.”

The basketball team had many key players on a successful football team in the fall that started the year unranked, but finished 7-3 and No. 5 in the final Class 2-1A media poll.

“Football just boosted our confidence,” Herl said. “We thought we’d be good in basketball coming into the season.”

Herl played quarterback and, Baalman and Llewellyn started at ends. Sophomore Ryan Kuhn, the starting nose guard and the lone NWKL unanimous selection, is PAGE 12 a reserve in basketball.

Llewellyn, right, and Baalman defend the paint during Oakley’s season opener.

“I don’t know,” Herl said of why boys’ basketball hasn’t succeeded in recent years. “We have had good athletes come through. Maybe we didn’t come together well as a team, but I think we are coming together well this year and I think we can make a run. We are all pretty close friends, and I think we can make a run as a team if we stick together.”

Allison, a rare Rule 10 basketball coach, leads the squad. He graduated from Minneapolis, a school with a strong basketball tradition. He played a couple of years at Tabor College and came out to Oakley on a job. He worked insurance for 15 years and is now the human resource director at Logan County Hospital for the last two and a half years. Allison has always loved basketball and the Oakley school

board asked him if we would come onto staff as an assistant.

When the head coaching job opened, Allison moved up the ranks.

“The teachers stay here,” Rath said.

“All the ones that are here right now are active doing something or don’t want to coach, so we have to look outside to find somebody. We are fortunate to find somebody like Steve who

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Baalman and Llewellyn pose a matchup issue with virtually every opponent on Oakley’s schedule. Allison said the two forwards run the floor as well as any Class 2A/3A big men in northwest Kansas. Allison likes to play man-toman defense, but because of Oakley’s length believes his team is sometimes better at zone.

Last year, Baalman averaged 10.2 points and 8.2 rebounds, while Llewellyn averaged 10.2 points and 6.9 rebounds. This season, Baalman has delivered some of the state’s best numbers, while Llewellyn, still raw, is averaging 8.5 points and 6.3 rebounds.

Llewellyn has range out to the 3-point line and good touch on his 10-foot jumper, but was homeschooled early on and didn’t play basketball until his sophomore year.

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“Austin is a workhorse,â€? Allison said. “He will battle on defense. He is just an animal on the boards and will just defend any post on the boards very well. Strong kid. He has gotten more and more into our offensive game. A little better going left and right now. ‌Steven is one of the more improved players that I have had the opportunity to work with.â€?

Herl has tacked on 14.8 points and three assists per contest, while Cayle Hubert averages a team-high 3.3 assists per game. “They open a lot of shots for you on the perimeter,� Herl said.

Baalman and Llewellyn have seen significant playing time throughout their careers.

Two years ago, Oakley finished with just six wins, eight fewer victories than it had the previous season. The Plainsmen finished 1-7 in games decided by seven points or fewer. Last year, Oakley five straight contests by six points or fewer.

On Jan. 17, Oakley fell to Hoxie, 50-48, in the Northwest Kansas League tournament. Oakley led after every quarter, but Hoxie — which eventually finished third in Class 1A, Division I — outscored the Plainsmen 17-9 in the fourth quarter. Oakley had a chance to win when Llewellyn came off a screen in the middle of the lane and had about a 4-foot jumper. The ball rolled

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Oakley coach Steve Allison

out and Oakley lost. “We controlled a lot of that game,�

Allison said.

After that, Allison said the team started to believe it could win. Oakley went 7-2 in its next nine games, including five wins by seven points or fewer. It finished the season with losses by four and one to Hill City.

This winter, the 3-1 start ties the best opening four-game record under Allison — and could be a precursor for a big season and new banner in the Plainsman gym.

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Roraba

R

Page 14

January 2013

SPORTS INK.

augh’s

I Railers I

Ball coach returns courtside in Ellis T

he 16-year-old version of Chris Rorabaugh never wanted to move to Ellis.

After growing up in Highland, his father took a job as superintendent there in 1968, and Rorabaugh moved to Ellis kicking and screaming.

Funny thing is, now it seems like he can’t stay away.

Rorabaugh, a longtime Ellis resident, an Ellis High School alumnus and former Ellis coach from 19902006, returned to the helm of the Railroaders’ boys basketball team this summer after coaching two years at Plainville and two years before that at Ransom-Western Plains.

It’s Rorabaugh’s dream retirement scenario.

“I couldn’t think of anything better, really,” he said.

The Railers are poised to make a run this season. They have a senior-laden squad, and combined with Rorabaugh’s fast-paced style of play, they’ve been tough to beat early in the season.

Ellis starts five seniors. Many of whom have started or seen plenty of playing time since they were sophomores, including 6-foot-4 forward Luke Lohrmeyer and 6-foot-6 forward Thatcher Brown.

“We are really experienced in the league, so this is Sports Ink.

our best chance and (for the seniors) last chance to do something,” Brown said. “It is a good chance to do something great.”

Rorabaugh replaced Dave Wildeman, who led the Railers to a 13-9 record last season.

Rorabaugh, who coached at Plainville from 20102012, actually dispatched Ellis 63-38 last season at sub-state.

“It’s a little weird, but at the same time, it’s kind of nice to have him,” Lohrmeyer said. “Watching him coach last year, he did really well with that Plainville team.”

Plainville went 40-4 in Rorabaugh’s two years there but fell both years in sub-state.

In 2011, the Cardinals’ best player, Andrew Casey, sat on the bench with a head injury late in the game in an overtime loss to Salina-Sacred Heart, and in 2012, Casey fouled out once all season and it happened during the fourth quarter of Plainville’s 54-53 sub-state final loss to Ness City.

“I’m not making excuses, but he’s a hell PAGE 16 of a ballplayer,” Rorabaugh said. “If he’s sitting beside me, we’re not near as good.”

January 2013

Page 15

NICK SCHWIEN, Sports Ink Ellis coach Chris Rorabaugh talks to his team during a timeout of their game against Golden Plains in the first round of the Castle Rock Classic earlier this month in Quinter.

Those losses still bother the highly competitive Rorabaugh.

“You win 40 games and lose four games total,” Rorabaugh said. “We won league. We won the league tournament twice. We won the Russell tournament both years, and the only thing anybody remembers about it is that we couldn’t beat Ness City last year.”

Rorabaugh has coached for a long time.

This is his 36th year, and he’s spent all of them at small schools.

He first coached at Utica for 11 years, and then followed that by coaching at BushtonQuivira Heights and Copeland.

Rorabaugh’s had a lot of success, compiling more than 400 wins, but he’s never had much success at the state level. Rorabaugh never won state, and he made state just twice in his 16 years at Ellis, despite having 12 winning seasons there.

The disappointments wore on Rorabaugh at Ellis and culminated in his retirement from coaching in 2006.

“I wasn’t bored (of coaching),” he said. “I was totally burned out.”

“The last year I coached at Ellis, we weren’t any good,” Rorabaugh added. “We only won like six games, and it was one thing Page 16

after another. I’m going, ‘Why am I doing this?’ ... I told myself I’m done. I’m not going to coach again.”

Rorabaugh thought he would ride off into the sunset and fill his time honing his golf skills, but that didn’t last long.

He took a year off and quickly got bored with golf. He watched his son, Dustin, coach at Russell. His son asked him for advice on occasion, and Rorabaugh often found himself in the coaching office drawing up “Xs and Os” with his son.

“It got to be January, and I was like I really miss this,” Rorabaugh said. “I sat that one year out, and it about drove me nuts.”

Rorabaugh wasn’t on the bench with his son during games. Instead, he was confined to the stands, but as a fan, he said at times, he got more fired up than he did when he was a coach.

“I got a little carried away that year sitting there,” he said. “It was hard to watch. After you’ve been doing it for so many years, you need to chill, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I was ready to get back into it.”

Rorabaugh, who has worked as a starter for track and field meets for many years, was at a meet, and a parent from Western Plains January 2013

approached him about the possibility of filling a coaching vacancy there.

He applied and got the job and coached two years there, but after that, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which made him take a year off.

He said if he wouldn’t have gotten cancer, he likely would have spent his third year coaching both the Bobcats’ boys and girls squads.

It would have been the third time in his career doing that. He also did it for two years at Utica, and he said he was massively overworked.

“That’s how dumb I am,” Rorabaugh said regarding how he nearly repeated that feat at Western Plains.

Within a year, Rorabaugh was cancer-free and back in the hunt for coaching jobs.

He heard about an opening in Plainville and jumped at the opportunity to coach the Cardinals’ talented team.

“I’ve got nothing bad to say about Plainville,” Rorabaugh said. “Those kids were great. I had fun. I really did.”

Rorabaugh had two solid seasons there, but then several Ellis community members reached out to Rorabaugh about how SPORTS INK.

Ellis might have a coaching vacancy. trouble him.

A return to Ellis was difficult to pass up, “That did bother me a little bit,” he said. especially with its talented squad.

“I’m not a very good politician, I guess.”

Not only that, but Rorabaugh would But now he’s back at Ellis. travel much less. It also was his alma “The lights still come on when you walk mater; his daughter, Jessica Bollig, is the in,” Rorabaugh said. “The old gym — the assistant girls’ basketball coach there; and floor is slippery as hell, just like it used he would have the to be. It’s like I was opportunity to hardly gone, it seems coach his grandlike. Nothing’s really son, sophomore changed, but the kids guard Brandon have changed obviBollig. ously.”

“I’m going, This year’s squad is why wouldn’t I talented. The Railbe interested?” ers have eight varsity Rorabaugh said. players standing at 6 “I live right here. feet or taller.

I live six blocks However, it’s going NICK SCHWIEN, Sports Ink. to take some time to from the gym. I would rather drive Ellis senior Blake Hudson prepares to shoot get the players used to during a game at the Castle Rock Classic six blocks than 75 earlier this month in Quinter. his system, he said. miles every day.”

Rorabaugh wants Rorabaugh said he told his Plainville the Railers to play a fast-paced game, and players about the possibility of him leavlast season, they played slower and more ing shortly after the season was over, but methodically under Wildeman. if he didn’t get the job at Ellis, he was “I think kids become better basketball planning on staying at Plainville. Unforplayers if you play faster, because you’ve tunately, he wasn’t hired at Ellis until July, got to do stuff on your own and develop leaving Plainville with little time to find a stuff,” Rorabaugh said. new coach.

Brown said practices are much more Rorabaugh said some Plainville parents intense with Rorabaugh than they were were displeased with his decision to return under Wildeman. to Ellis. Though he said most understood, “We run all the time,” Brown said. “He Rorabaugh said the few parents who exjust makes sure we are in shape. There’s pressed their dissatisfaction with him did no rest time in his practices at all. We just

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keep going, going and going non-stop.”

Lohrmeyer, who has played with many of his teammates since grade school, said it’s a style of play that fits them since they played that way when they were younger.

“Back in junior high, we would always run on teams,” he said. “It’s good to be doing that again. That’s how us seniors have always played ball since fifth grade.”

In their first game of the season, their ball handling was exposed against Phillipsburg. The Panthers applied a full-court press, and the Railers’ guards melted under the pressure and surrendered their fourthquarter lead in an eventual loss.

“That was definitely a weak spot that I didn’t really see,” Rorabaugh said. “I thought I had a couple guards that could handle that stuff, but boy, they couldn’t.”

Rorabaugh said the Railers have a long way to go, but he said they are getting better.

“I tell the kids play as hard as you can, because you know you’re going to get a break,” Rorabaugh said. “I’m not going to leave you in for eight minutes. I’m not even going to leave you in for four minutes. Just play two or three minutes as hard as you can.”

With Rorabaugh added into the mix, Brown admitted the Railers’ aspirations are high.

“We obviously want to go to state,” Brown said. “We want to win it. This is our best chance to do that.”

- Klint Spiller, Sports Ink

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Just a Minute with Nick McQueen

Kristin

Huser

Audra Nowak Friend/teammate

Victoria High School junior

Anne Dinkel B-ball coach

If her athletic career (so far) were a movie, what would it be called?

It’s All or Nothing

She Got Game

If NIKE were to name a shoe after her, what would it be called?

Energizer Bunny

The Huser Bruiser

What kind of animal best describes her?

Cheetah

Q: After making state last year, what are the expectations you girls have this year?

A: Well, we did move up in the division, so it’s probably going to be more difficult. But, I honestly think we can do this. We really have nothing to lose and have started out great, and we played a really great first four games. I’m excited to see how we’re going to finish.

Q: Does making the state tournament make it easier to focus on getting there?

A: We know now what to expect. I think we were more experienced and know what to expect. We can prepare for what we need to do to get back there.

Q: How do you describe the feeling of making it and playing that first game in the Coliseum last year?

A: It was great. Just because it was so close, just being in Hays. Basically, the whole town of Victoria was up there to watch us girls. It was just an amazing feeling — and to hear your name being called over the intercom, that was just awesome.

Q: What is an advantage that Victoria has over other teams on the floor.

A: Last year we lost two main components to our team, so we have to rebuild, but a lot of the players played last year. I think we’re a bit more experienced than we were last year.

Q: Do you have any favorite athletes or teams you like to follow?

A: I really like Fort Hays. I watch them probably the most out of anything — go to as many games as I can.

Sometimes the games fall on religion night, so it’s difficult to make all of them.

Page 18

Wolverine

If she were a car, she would be a …?

Q: Is something with college basketball something you are considering in the future?

A: Oh yeah. I really would like to play in college and maybe get a scholarship, that would be great.

Q: Off the court, what kinds of things do you like to do?

A: I love to hang out with my friends and family.

My whole entire family is really close. We do a lot of things together. And, quite honestly, I play a lot of basketball. Weekends, my younger cousin and I are in the gym playing. Other than that, not too much.

Q: Who is Victoria’s biggest basketball rival?

A: We had a really tough one to start the year against Smith Center. Ellis is in there, too, probably.

Otis-Bison, too. They’ll be tough.

Lamborghini

If a song played when she waled on the court, what would it be?

“Copperhead Road”

January 2013

SPORTS INK.

“Get Ready For This”

What cartoon character is she most like?

Roadrunner

Q: So far in high school, what is your greatest athletic moment?

A: Winning the sub-state title game last year — winning it and knowing that all the hard work paid off because we got to to go state. That was our main goal we set at the beginning of the year. It felt great to know we made it and we achieved our goal.

Q: Who has been the biggest influence on your athletic career so far?

A: My whole family, and I couldn’t point out just one. My mom, my dad, my uncle, my aunt. They just have all helped me and pushed me to do better.

I have cousins that have helped me, and I’m helping cousins. We are a really close family and we like sports so that’s what we do for our free time.

Ferrari

ON

Mighty Mouse

@ THE BUZZER (A

PODCAST AT

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nick

mcqueen

klint

ACIDIZING

CEMENT

TOOL RENTAL

ALEXCIA DEUTSCHER Ellis Freshman

Deutscher was key in the Ellis girls’ basketball team’s 3-1 start and second-place finish in the preseason Castle Rock Classic in Quinter. She scored 27 points in the season opener on the road against Phillipsburg, a 56-44 win for the Railers, then had two 14-point games in the Castle Rock Classic, including the title game in a loss to Hoxie.

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conor

nicholl

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Office: 785.798.2300 1 Cell: 785-798-534

moment 19

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(High school is only 4 years of their life)

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