By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
In more than three decades as a head basketball coach at the high school and college level, Shawnee Heights boys coach Ken Darting thought he'd seen just about everything.
But the Hall of Fame coach is quick to admit that he had no frame of reference for the frustration his T-Birds have gone through during the 2020-21 season, from team and individual COVID-19 quarantines to key injuries to multiple game postponements and cancellations and about everything else in between.
"Not even close,'' Darting said. "It's just been something every day.''
One of the biggest challenges for Ken Darting and his Shawnee Heights T-Birds this season has been to get on the basketball court. [Photo by Rick Peterson]
Coming off a team COVID quarantine and having Tuesday's home game against United Kansas Conference foe Leavenworth postponed due to inclement weather, Shawnee Heights' boys have played a city-low total of 10 games -- the traditional halfway mark for the regular season -- with just one full week of the regular season remaining before the start of postseason.
Adding to Heights' woes, senior standout Isiah Johnson went down with an ankle injury Tuesday in practice after previously missing time with COVID and a separate ankle injury earlier in the year while other players are still out due to COVID protocols.
"After Isiah went down I turned to Robbie Sanders (Heights assistant) and said, 'I don't want to sound pessimistic, but we better move to the side because if the middle of this gym falls in, maybe it will miss us,' '' Darting said. "It's been nothing but frustrating.''
Shawnee Heights has not played since a 61-53 loss to Tonganoxie on Feb. 2nd and will have been off more than two weeks when the T-Birds are scheduled to take the court Thursday against Leavenworth in a makeup from Tuesday. Heights had been scheduled to face Piper Thursday but that game was replaced by the Leavenworth game and may not be made up.
The Leavenworth contest starts a suddenty-hectic stretch for 4-6 Shawnee Heights, which is tentatively scheduled to travel to Turner on Friday, Basehor-Linwood on Saturday and De Soto next Tuesday before hosting De Soto next Thursday, Basehor-Linwood next Friday and Lansing next Saturday.
Darting said there's nobody to blame for the topsy-turvy season that is unprecedented on so many levels for teams across the nation.
"If there was somebody to blame you don't know who they are,'' Darting said. "And you don't even know what you're frustrated at because there's no many things.
"One good thing is you don't have time to mourn what happened because something else bad's happening to get your mind off what you were mourning about.''
Darting, in his third season at Heights, said one of his biggest regrets is how the year has limited his time with a team that ranks as one of the favorites of his career.
"We've got such a great group of kids,'' he said. "We're not gifted for sure. We just have a bunch of great kids, smart kids who work hard, but you've got to be able to grow and get better and work and when you're not ever practicing it's pretty hard to make big improvements.
"I'm long past that how many games you win or how many games you lose determines how much fun you have. We've got through the negative people and got down to the core group that we want and people are working hard and they're close. It's just a group of kids I love being around.''
Now the focus for Darting and his team is to get the most out of what's left in the season.
"What I say to them is we can make excuses and lay down or we just keep going to work every day and keep getting better and see where we can get,'' Darting said. "We've just got to grind now and I think they're going to. I'm excited about watching them.''
