Sunflower Slate

We’ve got just over 48 hours left of 2008, so I thought I’d go over my state/juco top 5 stories from 2008. My column on the top story ran in today’s Eagle so I was just waiting until it came out to put this out there. Let me know if you think I left something out. It’s been a pretty fun year for state/juco sports.

Here you go:

TROY MORRELL

1. Troy Morrell/Monty Lewis

This was an easy one. Butler one its third national title and Lewis’ rise to No. 5 in the nation and the buzz he created surround Friends … only to suffer a massive letdown when the Falcons seemed to have everything in their favor headed into the playoffs … followed by the gut-wrenching realization that NW Oklahoma State had used ineligible players and would have to forfeit the game. That rollercoaster alone was something to watch. And as far as Morrell and the Grizzlies … I always love it when a City League guy (DeMonte Hill) scores the game-winning TD in the national title game. Read my column on the two coaches here.

JACK CROWDER

2. Eck, Cowley fall short

It seemed like the Cowley men’s basketball team and first-year coach Steve Eck had a team built to win the Region VI championship with Division I players all over the place, and in an unusual twist: they were unselfish and they played hard. But when leading scorer Chris Rhymes went down at Koch Arena with an ACL tear, there was blood in the water. A testament to Eck and his team was they didn’t let up or make excuses but ran into a buzzsaw of a team in Seward, soon-to-be Wichita State guard Reggie Chamberlain and soon-to-be Texas Tech power forward Darko Cohadarevic. In a testament to the strength of the Jayhawk conference as a whole, Seward placed third at the national tournament. Good stuff. And then Eck went and signed a recruiting class that included Southeast’s Adonis Gantt and East’s Garius Holloman, not mention he had Jack Crowder 3 back. Steve Eck is officially the Captain Ahab of Region VI and that title is his great white whale. So does that make Crowder Ishmael?

ARICA SHEPARD

3. Emporia State volleyball

This one took everybody by surprise. The Hornets had never won an MIAA title, never been to a Sweet 16/Regional Final, never hosted a final. That’s a lot of nevers. Coach Bing Xu’s 2008 squad changed all that. Behind the leadership of junior OH Arica Shepard and the rise of setter Ting Liu, a Beijing transplant, the Hornets finished 34-4, won the MIAA, made it to the Sweet 16 at a regional hosted by ESU and finished a school-record No. 5 in the final AVCA Division II poll. And they did it all in front of record crowds. With Liu — a first-team All-American and the MIAA MVP — and Shepard back next year … watch out.

RION RHOADES

4. Return of the Blue Dragons

It didn’t take Rion Rhoades long to get his alma mater turned around. The Hutchinson football coach came in last year, his first year, and won two games. Doesn’t sound great, does it? Unless you consider that they went winless the season before that, of course. Then this year they made a bigger step than anyone could have imagined, fighting off an early season slump and playing their way into the Region VI game and a hair’s breath away from a bowl berth … that I still think they got jobbed on. In the process of doing all that, the Blue Dragons produced three first-team All-Americans in RB La’Darrian Page, DL Eugene Kinlaw and KR/PR Gage McKinnis. Page and Kinlaw were the Jayhawk offensive and defensive MVPs and Kinlaw went on to be named the NJCAA defensive player of the year. Good work if you can get it. Butler might want to take note.

P.S. What do you think of that glamour shot of Coach Rhoades? Nice work Carp! He looks like he’s getting ready to audition for American Idol!

HALEY MARTIN

5. Friends softball makes big run

The Friends softball team cut a buzzsaw through the KCAC and Region IV this season on the way to the NAIA National Tournament in 2008, going 16-0 in league play and winning 32 straight games before going 0-4 in Decataur, Alabama at the national tourney. Nobody was more important to the Falcons then junior outfielder and Texas native Haley Martin, who led Friends in batting average (.408) and hits (49) on the way to being named the KCAC player of the year and all-Region IV. Brandi Leeker, the KCAC pitcher of the year, pitched 123.2 innings, went 14-6 with a 2.21 ERA and 112 strikeouts. Megan VinZant, also an all-Region IV performer, hit .330 and led the Falcons with 39 runs and 11 doubles. Those three return for their senior season. But somehow Ottawa still got a couple of votes for first place in the preseason poll. Strange.

Almost made it: Emporia State baseball, Sterling women’s hoops and Ashley Kraft’s big year, Pittsburg State football team makes it back into playoffs after two-year absence, Newman hires highly-regarded Garden City Community College athletic director Vic Trilli to take over as AD for the Jets, Newman becomes a full-fledged NCAA Division II school.

I’m out.

-TA