DAVID KING

Southwestern All-American David King, a 6-foot-11 center, looks like he’ll be out for the season after hurting his knee last week. I talked to first-year Southwestern coach Matt O’Brien this morning and he confirmed what I’d been hearing since the weekend.

“We haven’t had an MRI yet, but both of our training staff that looked at the knee thought he had either a torn ACL or a partially torn ACL,” O’Brien said. “It looks likely he’s done for the season.”

It’s the second year in a row the Moundbuilders have lost their leading scorer before they even got into KCAC play. Last season, another first-team all-KCAC pick, Alwyn Jordan, tore his knee up.

“We’re going to have to make due in the post by committee,” O’Brien said. Stating the obvious: Losing King, a Maize product, could be disastrous for Southwestern. Don’t forget they also lost their top returning guard, Avery Richardson, who transferred to Friends.

JIM HELMER

Southwestern cross-country coach Jim Helmer was kind enough to take some time out of his day to talk with yours truly about a bunch of different topics for our Q&A, including the appeal of Southwestern, loyalty to your school, vacations in Colorado, gardening and … going for his 30th straight KCAC men’s cross-country title. Go ahead, read it again. It’s not a misprint.

That’s 30, people. Like disco is dying. Like Terry Bradshaw is winning. Like The Empire Strikes Back came out. Like me learning how to walk and talk.

Here’s how it went down with Helmer, 59, who I’m thinking generated a massive amount of Sunflower Slate karma with this interview:

Sunflower Slate: Thanks for the time coach. I think any profession where you manage to stay in one place for over 30 years is pretty incredible, but to do it with the amount of success you’ve had is almost unheard of.

Jim Helmer: I’ve been around here for a long time. I also graduated from Southwestern, in 1971, and coached high school (ed. note: Winfield H.S. 1971-1978) for seven years before I became the coach here. So me and this place have gotten to know each other pretty well.

SS: Coaches deal with pressure in a lot of different ways; what’s the way to deal with trying to win your 30th league title in a row? It seems like a very unique situation.

JH: It really is, and we think about it a little bit … it’s out there so you can’t ignore it. It’s remarkable and it’s unusual, but you have to understand that streaks like that can’t last forever. You’ve got to just focus on the kids and the rest takes care of itself.

SS: You say focus on the kids, could you go a little deeper into that? What are the things that you emphasize for kids that come to run for you?

JH: Education. It’s the most important thing. To give the kids the opportunity to grow, to develop, to learn through their classes and activities … to watch them graduate is very gratifying, and we’ve had 100 percent of our kids graduate who’ve used all of their eligibility.

SS: What changes have you seen in the school itself, with the campus?

JH: Just the overall quality of the school. Our physical plant has improved, and we’re just getting ready to start work on the new football stadium and track … we’ve got alums that come back and marvel at the way things are now. It’s always been a good school, but the quality of freshmen we’re getting to come here is better now than it’s ever been.

SS: Do you still run quite a bit?

JH: I wouldn’t say quite a bit, and I don’t know if I’d really call it running. I think, though, someday, I’d like to get back to some sort of competitive-type running for my age.

SS: You say someday … do you ever think about retirement? Do you have a set time when you’d like to stop coaching?

JH: I think about it a little bit, but I haven’t got any set plans. A lot of guys, when they’re 30 or so, they think “Hawaii, retired by 50,” but I’m not like that. I feel like I’m doing something that I enjoy and I’m healthy so there’s not really a set plan. I will retire at some point, yes, but I don’t know when that’ll be.

SS: Winning so much must help. I’d think that it might have been a little harder without all the titles.

JH: It definitely has helped. Without (all the winning) I don’t know how long I would have lasted.

SS: I always ask people in the Q&A’s some non-sports related stuff, so I was hoping you could tell me about some of your hobbies, maybe what you do with your spare time or …

JH: I don’t have a whole lot of hobbies, but we’ve got a cabin in Westcliffe, Colorado, that we (ed. note, “we” would be Helmer and his wife, Deb) go to pretty much every summer. I really enjoy working outside so anytime I have a chance to work on my garden or to work on some project outside … I guess you could say that’s a hobby. I grew up on a farm in Lyons, so that’s kind of in my blood, being outside and working.

WESTCLIFFE, COLO.

SS: I can see why you took up running, then. Out in Lyons, it must seem like you could run forever.

JH: It’s pretty wide open.

DOUG HALL

Southwestern men’s basketball coach Doug Hall — who looks a lot like Peyton Manning in that pic — is leaving the Moundbuilders after 8 seasons. He’s making a big jump to the Division I level, where he’ll be the director of men’s basketball operations at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

So, what did Hall mean to The Jinx? Everything. His eight years were the winningest stretch in 103 years of hoops. He went 145-92 in that time, including a No. 5 national ranking in 2006 and an appearance in the NAIA national tournament. Hall became the head coach when he was just 29, so he’s got a lot of coaching ahead of him. I’m sure the Moundbuilders will miss him, and I’m sure the next coach will want to send him a thank-you note at some point, because he left a nice squad behind, including all-KCAC player David King, a 6-foot-11 center. That’s a nice luxury.

I’m out. -TA

PHIL FULMER

Just found out (by complete accident) that former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer is going to speak at Southwestern College in Winfield on Saturday night. That’s kind of a big deal. I must not be on the SC mailing list. All proceeds go to the new football stadium, which you can get a gander at below. FYI, Eagle sports columnist Bob Lutz is writing a column about Fulmer for tomorrow’s Eagle. So make sure to read that.

DAVID KING

David King is definitely in the house.

The Southwestern center and Maize product really did his thing the past two games, and he’s the KCAC player of the week for his efforts — the 6-foot-11 junior averaged 22.2 points and 6 rebounds in wins over KCAC frontrunners Sterling (75-66) and Ottawa (79-76). That’s big. King is averaging 16.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game this season. Now only if the Moundbuilders, winners of three straight, hadn’t lost all-KCAC guards Alwyn Jordan and Justin Diggles to season-ending injuries earlier this year… MAN!

Kansas Wesleyan’s Emily Luckeroth averaged 21 points and 7 rebounds in wins over Bethany and Saint Mary to grab women’s honors. She’s a big reason for the Coyotes having their best season since 1988.

And speaking of 1988, here’s the best thing about that year. Gotta love John McClain.

MIAA

IDA EDWARDS

BASKETBALL: Southwest Baptist’s Matt Rogers went and locked up MIAA player of the year status, in my book at least. He won player of the week honors for the fourth time, and third time in the last four weeks. No player has dominated the league this year as much as him. Not even close. That’s only one more than Emporia State’s Ida Edwards, who grabbed weekly kudos for the third time this season after averaging 20.5 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists for the No. 8 Hornets, who won against SBU and Mo Southern to stay in first place.

SOFTBALL: ESU’s softball team did big things last season, and went 3-1 at the CBS Insurance Softball Classic in Abilene, Texas, over the weekend. The 25th-ranked Hornets put five players on the all-tournament team, including freshman pitcher Jennifer Heery, a Goddard product. Here’s the whole team:

JENNIFER HEERY

CBS INSURANCE CLASSIC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

C — Jessica Shiery, Abilene Christian
1B — Jennifer Dace, Emporia State
2B — Linda Ketter, Emporia State
SS — Bailey Mathes, SE Oklahoma State
3B — Miranda Campbell, Emporia State
OF — Kelly Zamora, St. Mary’s
OF — Kristin Goins, SE Oklahoma State
OF — Abby Hughes, Emporia State
DH — Kelly Baker, St. Mary’s
P — Jennifer Heery, Emporia State
P — Marjorie Johnson, SE Oklahoma State
P — Jami McAdoo, SE Oklahoma State
MVP — Marjorie Johnson, SE Oklahoma State

SEE YA SOON

-TA

JAKE SNODGRASS

So here’s the thing about KCAC schools and Jucos — there is no national signing date. That means that, unlike the NCAA schools, there is no set date to announce your class. Conventional wisdom would say that around this time is when these schools sign the bulk of their classes, only because of the time frame around sending in applications for scholarships and student loans, but understand that these schools never stop recruiting. You can easily pick up a kid who falls off academically late or has some other type of hold up with a bigger school and he ends up on your campus. With that being said, I’m going to break down what I have so far on our beloved KCAC, and tell you why I think the prize of this class was Derby QB Jake Snodgrass, who is headed to McPherson. I’ll post links to the school sites when I can, but a few I’ll have to type up.

KCAC

FRIENDS

The Falcons and coach Monty Lewis went after Snodgrass hard and came up short … and I’d really like to figure out how that whole process went down. Snodgrass ended up at McPherson and I think it would have given Tim Rozzell a run for the money in the race to replace KCAC offensive player of the year Alex Melugin. According to Lewis, Jacob McKenzie (OL, Jr., 6-foot-5, 310 pounds, Hutch C.C.), Galen Haaga (TE, Jr., 6-3, 240, Hutch C.C.0 and Felix Snipes (LB, Jr., 6-1, 230, Butler C.C.) are all Juco guys who are going to make an impact and are all already on campus. Friends graduated maybe its best OL ever, so McKenzie is going to feel that pressure early. McKenzie, from Eureka, played at Central Missouri for a year. And they need a TE to replace Luke Flanagan and there’s an open LB spot with the departure of Chad Francisco, so there you go for the other two. But we won’t really know how much not getting Snodgrass hurts them until we see how Rozzell plays. So there’s that.

MCPHERSON

Props to Carol Swenson for getting me this list … now if only I knew which positions all these dudes played …

Seriously, though, I just talked to MC coach Brian Ward about this class and he’s excited, as he should be. I don’t want to get too much into what he said about Snodgrass because I’m working on something for Monday specifically about his recruitment (he reportedly got MIAA offers from Fort Hays St., Emporia St. and another DII — Chadron State — also offered) and how he ended up with the Bulldogs. Cheney’s Dustin Hague is a good addition, athletic and big (6-3, 260) so he’ll help shore up that D-line. Wide receiver Bryant Theis out of Medicine Lodge — a 2x all-stater — should help soften the blow of losing Gary Cox.

But Snodgrass is the big catch here. He’s intelligent, tough, athletic and he’s going to be running basically the same type of offense he had at Derby. I watched him torch Garden City his junior year for almost 500 yards and five TDs in the season opener, and was sold that night. There’s going to be a QB battle this fall in McPherson that will be fun to watch.

Junior College and 4-Year transfers enrolled for Spring ‘09:Jeff Frank (Tonganoxie, Kan.) Garden City CC;Derrick Johnson (Maricopa, Ariz.) Phoenix College; Aaron Lafitte (Wadell, Arz.) Wabash College (IN); Rattanack Muor (San Jose, Ca.) West Valley College (CA); Rafail Reyes (Mesa, Ariz.) Mesa (AZ) Comm. College; John Sobczuk (Scottsdale, Ariz.) Glendale (AZ) Comm. College; Loni Tolutau, Jr. (Mesa, Ariz.) Phoenix College. High School signees:Patrick Barton (Moundridge, Kan.) Moundridge HS; Tim Brozek (Cheney, Kan.) Cheney HS; Dusty Hague (Cheney, Kan.) Cheney HS; Caleb Hamilton (Madison, Kan.) Madison HS; Bryant Jackson (Enid, Okla.) Chisholm HS;Taylor Lemuz (Larned, Kan.) Rozel-Pawnee Heights HS; Mitchell Leppke (Marion, Kan.) Marion HS; Ryan O’Neill (Spearville, Kan.) Spearville HS; James Patton (Cunningham, Kan.) Cunningham HS; Taylor Roop (Moscow, Kan.) Moscow HS;Tyler Sears (Cheney, Kan.) Cheney HS; Dylan Smith (Lebo, Kan.) Lebo HS; Jacob Snodgrass (Derby, Kan.) Derby HS; James Temaat (Dodge City, Kan.) Minneola HS; Bryant Thies (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) Medicine Lodge HS; Anthony Zajac (Pocahontas, Ill.) Highland HS

SOUTHWESTERN

Last year was a debacle for the Moundbuilders — nothing less than the worst season in school history at 1-9. One key, I think, to getting things turned around, is selling the kids on the new facilities they’re building. That’s no problem. They’re going to be beautiful …. everything a small-college stadium should be. The other thing would be to recruit kids from the state of Kansas to come to school there. And that’s just not happening. Take a look at their roster last year. Take a look at this recruiting class so far — that’s 12 signings and not one kid from Kansas. What gives? Time to change things up a little. I’ve always thought this was a great place to go to school, but it’s losing that luster rapidly.

STERLING – didn’t give me anything yet

BETHEL – they didn’t give me anything yet, either

BETHANY – again, nothing.

I may make another KCAC signings post if the bottom three come through with a signing list. Otherwise, see you when I get the Jayhawk signings together.

TA

Let’s get this rolling. Not as much to deal with as in the fall … but just as important.

No players of the week to speak of — yet — in the KCAC but I’ll get into that in a minute. And the Jayhawk won’t start putting them out, apparently, until after the new year. Bummer.

JANICE BRIGHT

MIAA

Washburn’s Janice Bright is the player of the week in the MIAA after she helped the No. 2-ranked Lady Blues to a 3-0 record last week … including two wins against fellow top-10 teams and a win over NAIA No. 12 Sterling. Bright was big in all three wins, averaging 16.3 points and 5.7 rebounds, but had her signature moment on Saturday night against No. 8 Indiana (Pa.) in Washburn’s 72-62 overtime win at Topeka. Bright scored all 17 of her points after halftime, including six in overtime. The 5-foot-9 senior is currently moving up the charts for Washburn in all-time 3s made and games started. Good luck to Janice. Southwest Baptist center Matthew Rogers was the men’s player of the week, BTW.

KARA BEAL

KCAC

No players of the week here, but definitely time enough for a rankings, standings and leaders update. In the national NAIA D-II rankings, Sterling dropped one spot to No. 12 and Kansas Wesleyan broke in at No. 21. Southwestern and Friends both received votes. On the men’s side — Friends forward Romar Jones is averaging 24.2 points per game. Dude. Who are you and where did you come from? Not hardly a mention in the preseason and now this … and he’s from the ICT. And why doesn’t Friends have pics of their athletes on their site? Anyways. The two best returning women’s players in the KCAC are showing they were worth the hype thus far. Sterling’s Ashley Kraft and Southwestern’s Kara Beal are 1-2 in the conference in scoring and Kraft is averaging a league-leading 3.5 steals per game to go with her 18.8 points. Beal’s no slouch, either, filling it up to the tune of 18 ppg and dishing out 2.57 assists per.
I’m out.

-TA

I’d heard rumors of a giant kid walking around campus, and surprise, surprise, his name never came up at KCAC media day. I got to watch him practice for about 15 minutes, just warming up stuff, but … he’s 7-feet tall. And he can move well. Faber said he’s been causing havoc at practices, and I can understand why. He’s ineligible to play this year because he didn’t meet NAIA academic requirements, but the Marysville, Mich., product is on pace for next year. And it was nice to pick Faber’s brain for our interview, I’m sure he didn’t think he was going to end up answering questions about his mid-90s Carroll teams, but hey, you don’t think I ask Coach Eck about his old South squads? For all the geezers that talk about CL basketball and the golden days of the mid-to-late 1970s … the 90s weren’t bad either, fellas. I took a look at the 1995 1st team all-City squad, and they all played Division I basketball. That ain’t bad. It’s not Antoine Carr and Aubrey Sherrod, but it’s not too shabby.

I digress.

Faber’s cupboard isn’t bare, but I think this year is going to be a real test for him. He had some recruits fall through, and I don’t know that making it back to the national tournament (where they’ve made it three times in the last four years) is realistic. But he’s a good coach and I think finishing in the middle of the pack up, wiht as little experience as they have would be an accomplishment. Oh, and he also said he reads this blog, so thanks, coach. On the women’s side, I have to say that finally getting a look at Friends’ women’s team made me think they might be ok this year. I’ve said before I thought this was a make-or-break year for coach Gayla Soyez, and she has a nice recruiting class and a solid group back. They’ve got good size and speed, and some youngsters who will be in the rotation will have to go through some growing pains but I think that by the time KCAC play gets into swing they’ll be fine.

For the rest of the KCAC … I’ve already mentioned numerous times how good I think the Sterling women are going to be, and that Ashley Kraft is a player of the year candidate. If you want a hot ticket this winter head to WInfield on Jan. 10 when the Warriors take on The Jinx. The men’s game will be merely a side note in this one, trust me. I was there last year and it was off the chain.

This weekend I’ve got a couple of football games I’ll possibly hit – Friends-Bethel in North Newton on Saturday (I hope) and then Butler-GCCC in the first round of the Region VI playoffs in El Dorado on Sunday. Like I said before, if you see me I’ll definitely share my popcorn with you.

-TA