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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
After an impressive run of success, Topeka High's football program has struggled in recent seasons, posting a 6-27 record over the past four years, including back-to-back 1-8 campaigns.
New Topeka High head football coach Jason Filbeck talks to his new team Friday morning at High. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But that didn't dissuade former Augusta coach Jason Filbeck from going after the Trojans' head coaching job.
In fact, the challenge of turning the Topeka High program back around excited the 43-year-old Filbeck, who was approved by the USD 501 school board Thursday night as High's new coach and met with the Trojan players Friday morning.
"You're never more alive than when you're challenged, right?'' Filbeck said. "If it were easy everybody would do it. I'm sure it would be really cool to come into a place that was ready-made and already winning, but there's potential here and this could become one of those places that everybody looks at as, 'Man, that's a great job.'
"I think it's already a great job, it's just about whether you've got the ability and the energy to do it. I think Topeka High can become a great place football-wise.''
Filbeck said the opportunity to guide his own program at the Class 6A level was a big selling point for him.
"I've always been a big-school guy and when you work in a small town sometimes your numbers just dry up,'' Filbeck said. "Sometimes you just don't have the number of kids you need. I know they don't have a million kids out for football here at Topeka but we're going to get them out of the hallways. We're going to get them to play.
"I view football as an avenue to reach kids and I believe in what we're selling, I believe in what we're teaching kids to become better people through the process. At a school like Topeka High I have a chance to reach 120 kids instead of 40 and obviously there's tradition here and there's potential for good stuff here. That's what excites me about the job.''
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
With regional competition looming next week, Seaman's bowling teams tuned up with a sweep of all four championships in Monday's United Kansas Conference meet at Crown Lanes in Leavenworth.
Seaman's boys bowling team won the UKC team title Monday while sweeping the top four individual places. [Seaman Athletics]
Seaman's girls bowling team won the UKC title on Monday, led by individual champion Paige Snyder (left). [Seaman Athletics]
Seaman won the boys team championship by a 3,580-3,358 margin over Piper as individual champion Alex Prescott led a sweep of the top four places while the Viking girls took the team title by 3,004-2,824 margin over Basehor-Linwood as individual champ Paige Snyder led the way.
Prescott won the boys individual title with a 722 three-game series while Riley Parkhurst was second with a 694, Dylan Hunt third with a 673 and Landon Huxman fourth with a 670 series.
Snyder shot a 643 series to win the girls individual championship by 40 pins while Cheyenne Turkin finished third with a 594 and Kayla Mize finsihed eighth for the Vikings with a 547 series.
Shawnee Heights finished third as a team in both the boys and girls divisions.
T-Bird Evan Jones finished fifth in the boys standings with a 666 series while Addison VanMetre was fourth in the girls standings with a 580 series.
Topeka West's boys and girls both placed fourth in the team race, with Dason Tidwell (662) and Alex Rutschmann (661) finishing seventh and eighth in the boys division while Megan Wood (567) took fifth and Brenna Rutschmann (533) 10th in the girls standings.
Seaman, Shawnee Heights and Topeka West will all compete in regional tournaments on Thursday, Feb. 22, in Hutchinson, vying for state berths at Wichita the following week.
UNITED KANSAS CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
TopSports.news
Facing Leavenworth for the second time this season, Seaman's boys posted a decisive 66-46 home United Kansas Conference win over Leavenworth Tuesday night, with the Vikings turning in a strong defensive performance after only defeating the Pioneers by five points in their first matchup.
Seaman sophomore KaeVon Bonner scored a game-high 23 points in Tuesday's 66-46 UKC win over Leavenworth. [File photo/TSN]
“I thought our defense was great in the first quarter,'' Seaman coach Craig Cox said. "We knew how good they were in attacking the basket and our communication and help defense was really good. We rebounded well and we had several deflections that turned into easy baskets.”
The great defense from the Vikings gave them a 21-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. Sophomore KaeVon Bonner scored 11 points and senior Justin Phillips 10 in the quarter.
By halftime, Seaman extended its lead to 35-18, with defense leading to 10 first half turnovers by the Pioneers.
The second half saw Seaman outscore Leavenworth 31-28, leading to the 20-point victory.
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
TopSports.news
Entering the final two weeks of the regular season, teams are beginning to get prepared for the second season -- the state playoffs.
Seaman senior Anna Becker scored a game-high 16 points in Tuesday's 59-22 UKC win over Leavenworth Tuesday night. [File photo/TSN]
Sophomore Maddie Gragg scored 14 points Tuesday night in Seaman's 59-22 UKC win over Leavenworth. [File photo/TSN]
That was apparent in Tuesday night’s game between the Seaman girls, ranked second in Class 5A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, and Leavenworth, with the Vikings played a very unselfish, team game in defeating the Pioneers in a home United Kansas Conference contest, 59-22.
The Lady Vikings jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the first four minutes and extended the lead to 18-6 at the end of the first quarter. Seaman shot 7-14 from the field, with sophomore Maddie Gragg hitting 4-5 shots and totaling nine points.
Seaman’s shooting improved in the second quarter with the team shooting 8-12 and holding Leavenworth to only one point -- a free throw with 3:42 remaining in the quarter - to take a commanding 36-7 lead to the halftime break.
The second half saw both teams play zone defense for the majority of the time and Seaman outscored Leavenworth 23-15, cruising to the 37-point win.
“They play basketball the way you should play and that is unselfish,'' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "Our ball movement was the best it’s been all year.”
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Highland Park's boys took down Meadowlark Conference rival Atchison for the second time this season, putting the Scots in the driver’s seat for the league title.
Junior Ja'Corey Robinson goes in for two of his 19 points in Highland Park's 63-45 win over Atchison Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Tamir Anderson scored 13 points with three 3-pointers in Highland Park's 63-45 win over Atchison Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Playing at Topeka West while the Highland Park court undergoes repairs, the Scots held off the Phoenix – one of the top-ranked teams in the 4A classification – to win 63-45. The win lifted Highland Park to 9-0 in the conference while Atchison fell back to 7-2.
“These two teams have been consistently towards the top of the league,” said coach Mike Williams. “The football matchup has been good. The basketball matchup has been good for the last couple of years. We’re searching for good matchups on our schedule.”
Both periods of the first half followed the same script. Atchison allowed the Scots to pull away to a double-digit lead, only to come roaring back. The Phoenix closed out the second period on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 30-30 at halftime.
“We kept going up 10 but then we would make a couple of mistakes,” said junior Ja'Corey Robinson. “We weren’t scared or anything. We just knew that we had to keep turning it up and stop making the little mistakes.”
The Scots’ defense locked in after the break. They held Atchison to just nine points in the third period, and six in the fourth. Senior Bryson Thrasher led the Scots with 12 points in the second half, and Highland Park outscored the visitors 33-15 after halftime.
