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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka West boys basketball coach Rick Bloomquist isn't expecting any one player to take up the scoring slack left by the graduation of Mr. Kansas Basketball Elijah Brooks and his 25 points-plus scoring average.
Senior Xavier Alexander (20) scored a career-high 31 points in Topeka West's 74-62 UKC win at Seaman Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
![Senior Malachi Berg scored 21 points as Topeka West evened its record at 1-1 with a 74-62 win at Seaman Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]](/images/2024/08/MalachiBergTW.jpg)
Senior Malachi Berg scored 21 points as Topeka West evened its record at 1-1 with a 74-62 win at Seaman Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But Charger senior Xavier Alexander did a pretty good Brooks impression Tuesday night at Seaman, scoring a career-high 31 points, including five 3-pointers, as Topeka West evened its record at 1-1 with a 74-62 United Kansas Conference win over the defending Class 5A state champion Vikings (1-1), ending Seaman's 12-game winning streak.
"I'm a lot more focused on winning than scoring,'' Alexander said. "With the guards penetrating to the basket and going inside out, they were giving it to me and I started making more shots.
"I learned from last game because I didn't get to the basket and this time I was trying to get to the basket more. If I drive to the basket then they have to guard me inside and outside.''
No. 7-ranked West, which was coming off a six-point season-opening loss at Basehor-Linwood, also got 21 points and nine rebounds from senior Malachi Berg and 10 points and seven rebounds from senior Sincere Austin while Alexander also grabbed seven boards.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman's girls basketball team made a big move in the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association's Class 5A state rankings after the Vikings' 30-point season-opening win over then-No. 3 Lansing.
Anna Becker and the Seaman girls jumped to the No. 3 spot in the KWCA's first Class 5A regular-season state rankings. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman, which jumped from No. 9 to No. 3, was one of five Shawnee County teams to receive mention in the KBCA's first regular-season rankings, released Tuesday.
Silver Lake held on to the No. 2 spot in the 3A girls rankings.
Senior Bo Aldridge (1) returns for Highland Park, which begins the 2022-2023 season third-ranked in Class. [File photo/TSN]
On the boys side, Highland Park is ranked No. 3 in 5A and Hayden No. 3 in 4A while Topeka West is ranked seventh in 5A.
KANSAS BASKETBALL COACHES ASSOCIATION STATE RANKINGS
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The National Federation of State High School Associations has announced that nine high school coaches from Kansas, including longtime Topeka West tennis coach Kurt Davids, have been named National Coaches Association Sectional Coaches of the Year for the 2021-22 school year.
Davids was named the boys tennis coach of the year for Section 5 (Midwest), which includes Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Topeka West tennis coach Kurt Davids, who was named the Kansas Coaching Association boys tennis coach of the year earlier this summer, has been named the Section 5 boys tennis coach of the year and is now eligible for the national award. [File photo/TSN]
Topeka West tennis coach Kurt Davids (right) received his Kansas Coaching Association state coach of the year award in August from the KCA's Stan Boggs. [File photo/TSN]
Davids was earlier named the Kansas state boys tennis coach of the year, making him eligible for the sectional and national coach of the year awards.
Davids, who has coached West's boys for 29 seasons, led the Chagers to a second-place finish in the Class 5A state tournament this past season while also winning a regional team championship, sharing the city team title with Washburn Rural and finishing second in the Centennial League meet.
West also won the city boys title in 2021 and Davids' teams (boys and girls combined) have posted five top-four state team finishes. He has coached Class 5A state singles and doubles champs.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Emporia State soccer standout Hannah Woolery, a Cair Paravel Latin graduate, has been named a first-team Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators, becoming the first ESU student-athlete to be voted first-team Academic All-American and first-team All-American in the same year since Lady Hornet basketball player Emily Bloss in 2001.
Emporia State senior Hannah Woolery, a Cair Paravel product, has been named a first-team Academic All-American after also receiving first-team All-America honors on the field. [Photo courtesy of Emporia State Athletics]
Woolery's ESU teammate Mackenzie Dimarco also earned Academic All-America honors as a third-team pick, marking the first time in school history that two teammates have earned All-American honors from the College Sports Communicators both in the classroom and in the field of play.
Woolery has a 3.90 grade point average in English and was named first-team All-America on the field by the D2CCA this year.
Woolery holds the Emporia State career record with 21 assists, also ranks second in shots on goal and third in both career goals and career points.
She earned first-team All-MIAA and was fourth in the MIAA in goals, third in shots on goal, fourth in points and sixth in assists.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka baseball legend Ken Berry has always considered himself a story-teller, a trait he figures was passed along by his late father.
Lifelong Topekan Ken Berry on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" in May, 1967 with Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle. [Photo Submitted]
Ken Berry's third novel, "His Last Run,'' is available now. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And the 81-year-old former American League All-Star, two-time Gold Glove winner and longtime minor league manager and coach is not done telling his stories.
Berry, who still gives individual baseball/softball lessons, recently finished his third novel, "His Last Run,'' after earlier writing seven children's books.
"I'm kind of like my dad,'' Berry said. "When I was growing up my dad was a story teller, and whether it was true or whether he just made it up or something, he could tell a good story. I probably inherited that from him.
"And in junior high I started reading books. I had never had a book in my hand before and I found a book that looked like something I might like and started reading it and I liked it so well that the next day I went back and got another one, the next day I went back and got another one and I would read almost a book a day all the way through high school.''
While Berry turned his complete focus on baseball through an 11-year playing career and his long coaching career, he never got over his love for the written word and launched his own writing career in 2011.
"You'll get into a book and you're thinking, 'OK, I know what's going to happen down the road,' '' Berry said. "I can visualize where (the author's) headed or whatever. And it's just something where I like putting scenarios together and see how I can get them to work out where maybe it keeps people guessing.''
After his string of children's books, Berry wrote his first novel, "Twin Snipers,'' followed by "Comeback'' and now "His Last Run,'' which is available now.
