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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights bowler Henry Schattilly turned in a very solid 2023 season as as a freshman, narrowly missing a trip to the Class 5A-1A state tournament.
Henry Schattilly
But Schattilly has taken a big step forward this winter, including the individual championship in Wednesday's five-school Shawnee Heights meet at Gage Bowl.
Schattilly recorded a season best 673 series on Wednesday, edging Piper's Darron Spak by a single pin, and Schattilly has now recorded four straight 600-plus series to open the season.
"I've been doing way better than I did last year,'' Schattilly said. "I've gone from a 197 average to so far 207 out of all our meets this year. For this being just my third year of bowling, it's amazing.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
As is the case with most new business ventures, Kerry Darting didn't know what to expect when he and his father, Hall of Fame coach Ken Darting, launched the Darting Basketball Academy a decade ago.
Kerry Darting instructs young players during a Darting Basketball Academy event. DBA will mark its 10th season in 2024. [File photo/TSN]
But looking back to those beginnings, Kerry Darting, a former college player and Division I coach, couldn't get be happier with how DBA has been able to progress.
"I think it's definitely better than I hoped,'' Darting said. "The support of Topeka has been unbelievable. When I got out of college coaching I knew that I still wanted to be involved in the game and skill development was always what I loved, even as a kid. So when I decided to do it we had a bunch of the coaches I worked for wanted me to go different places, whether it be Texas or Michigan or North Carolina, but I always knew I wanted to come back to Topeka to do it.
"A lot of people thought I was crazy to do that, but coming back and doing it, just the support of the city's been unbelievable and the fact that we get to do it here with a lot of people that I know in the city where I grew up has been really fun for me.''
DBA membership enrollment for 2024 opened earlier this month and will be open until it sells out all the available slots.
"Right now you're registering to become a member and if you're a Darting Basketball member you get the 18-week skills academy and then discounted pricing on all our other events, whether its spring leagues, 3 on 3 leagues, camps and all of that,'' Darting said. "We've got shooting labs where the kids can come in and work on shooting. We have day camps so any day there's no school or a holiday we'll have day camps kids can come to, we have private workouts and we're trying to do a lot of game play stuff.
"We've concentrated so much on skills, which is obviously very important, but in the last couple of years we've put in a fall league, a spring league, a summer 3 on 3 league and we're going to work on putting together some teams at the end of July to travel around and play in some tournaments.''
Darting said the DBA staff continues to look for new things it can try to continue to make the program better.
"That is what's so fun about it,'' Darting said. "You've got to see what works, what the parents want. We always get parents asking us questions about what they think their kid needs, and really if you get one parent asking it's usually a few of them, so it's just fun to add things that we think are going to help the kids and develop their basketball skills.''
Darting is also planning on adding an international flavor to DBA this summer.
"We're planning on bringing in 20 to 25 international kids who will come and play on an international AAU team, so they'll be here in Topeka for those three weeks that the college coaches can be out recruiting,'' Darting said. "They'll train with us and practice with us during the week and then on the weekends, those three weekends in July when they can get out and play, they're going to travel around and play in some tournaments.''
Darting said that one of his most rewarding experiences, particularly at this time of year, is going to high school games and seeing athletes who have attended DBA since they were in third and fourth grade starring for their high school teams.
"That's what it's all about for me,'' Darting said. "It's really fun to watch them have success because you get to see kind of behind the scenes how much work they put into it and how much they love it.''
For more information on Darting Basketball Academy email Darting at
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Seaman rode hot shooting to runs in the second and third quarters at Topeka High en route to a 69-59 road win over the Trojans Wednesday.
Sophomore Landon Wiltz scored 19 points with five 3-pointers in Seaman's 69-59 win at Topeka High on Wednesday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Leading 13-11 after the first period, Seaman started the second quarter with a 12-0 run to extend its lead to 25-11 in less than three minutes.
The Trojans’ hope for a comeback in the third period was squelched when Seaman dropped six of its first seven shots out of the break – five of those from behind the arc by senior Holden Finley and sophomore Landon Wiltz. The Vikings stretched the lead to 59-37 to close the third period.
“Something we talked about at halftime was that we had a nice lead, and your natural instinct could be to let up,” Seaman coach Craig Cox said. “Fortunately, we didn’t, and we hit some shots there. (Topeka High) had a couple of opportunities, but we were able to knock down some shots to put ourselves in a good position.”
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Junction City's boys basketball team entered Wednesday's Centennial League makeup game knowing that Hayden was without two starters and still looking for its first win of 2024.
Hayden junior Cooper Grace (21) goes up for a shot in Wednesday's 70-45 Centennial League loss to Junction City. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden coach Trey Brown talks to his Wildcats during a timeout in Wednesday's 70-45 loss to Junction City. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
So, with that in mind, coach Nick Perez's game plan was for the Blue Jays to take it to the host Wildcats early and take control.
No. 9-ranked (Class 6A) Junction City did exactly that, going wire to wire for a 70-45 win at the Bueltel Activity Center.
"The goal was to come in and get after them right away and I thought we did that,'' Perez said. "Trey (Brown) does a good job of getting those guys to play really hard. They play hard and what we talked about all week was just matching their intensity and we did that.
"We ran some stuff and we got some shots, Jackson (Austin) got going, and then we got downhill and made some layups.''
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
TopSports.news
NORTONVILLE -- The Rossville Lady Dawgs, ranked No. 3 in Class 3A, began the Jefferson County North Invitational Tournament playing the Tigers from Atchison County Community High School. The Lady Dawgs dominated from start to finish, winning 78-16.
Rossville sophomore Rylee Dick scored a career-high 27 points in Tuesday's 78-16 win over Atchison County. [File photo/TSN]
The game was never in doubt with Rossville leading 35-3 after one quarter, 52-3 at halftime and outscoring ACCHS 26-13 in the second half.
The Lady Dawgs were led by sophomore Rylee Dick with a career-high 27 points, while freshman Nora Burdiek had 20 points and senior Emma Mitchell scored 17 points. Burdiek led Rossville with 7 rebounds, 8 steals and 4 blocked shots.
