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Pioneer scheduleDec. 8-10 Citizens

National Bank TourneyDec. 13 Topeka HaydenJan. 6 Shawnee Mission

EastJan. 7 Lincoln (NE) North

StarJan. 10 at Olathe SouthJan. 13 at Shawnee Mission

NorthJan. 17-20 Liberty

TournamentJan. 27 St. JamesJan. 31 LawrenceFeb. 3 at Olathe NorthFeb. 7 Free StateFeb. 10 Shawnee Mission

SouthFeb. 14 at Olathe NorthwestFeb. 17 at Shawnee Mission

NorthwestFeb. 21 Olathe EastFeb. 24 Shawnee Mission

West

BOLD = home game

LEAVENWORTH PIONEERS - BOYS 33

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LEAVENWORTH PIONEERS - BOYS

By Sara Mettlensara.mettlen@leavenworthtimes.com

The Leavenworth boys’ basketball team willbe shooting for a third straight trip to the 6Astate tournament this season. The Pioneers havetwo starters returning to lead the squad for the2011-12 campaign and head coach Larry Hogansaid they’ll look to those two — Grant Green-berg and Preston Padgett — to anchor the team.“Those two played really well last year,”Hogan said of Greenberg and Padgett, who bothearned Sunflower League awards last season.“Grant averaged 15 points for us and Prestonhad almost 11 (points per game). They led usin quite a few categories.” Greenberg said he and Padgett are ready totake on that role, especially since the playersmoving up to varsity are ones the pair has playedwith for years. “We basically just want to lead with the waywe play on the court,” Greenberg said. “There’sa group of about four of us seniors who’ve playedtogether since seventh grade, so we just wantto finish what we started and win.” Though the senior duo will provide experi-ence in the Pioneer backcourt, Leavenworth willalso be looking to fill several holes left by

graduation including leading-scorer Kyle Wig-gins. “Obviously someone has to step up becauseKyle Wiggins was so big for us last year,”Hogan said of the guard now playing forWashburn. Hogan said senior Xavier Young could takeon that role, with Cameron Wiggins — Kyle’syounger brother — also taking on some of thoseduties. “Everyone will have a crucial role, they justneed to fill those roles and not worrying aboutthings like who’s scoring,” Hogan said. “You couldsee pretty balanced scoring from this group.” “Everyone will step up,” Padgett echoed, “itwon’t just be about one person.” Other athletes Hogan said will be steppingup include Jerricus Funderburke, another sen-ior. “Jerricus has been battling bigger kids insideand he’s really strong,” he said. Hogan said seniors Dakota Hamelund, whosat out last year with a broken collar bone, ArynJohnson, who also didn’t play last year, and An-thony Truelove will battle for varsity time as well.Juniors Jeff George and Acori Myrie as well assophomores Wiggins and Jason Randall willcontribute to the Leavenworth effort this year.

“I’ve been shuffling guys around a lot at prac-tice, we have about eight or nine guys that arerotating in and out,” Hogan said. While the Pioneers are loaded with talentedguards, they lack much of an inside presence. “We may play five guards at times,” Hogansaid. “Our biggest challenge will be on the boards,both offensively and defensively, but we havequickness and I think we have great shooters.” The players understand that they’ll have tomake up for a lack of size with extra effort,Greenberg said. “We have to really box out because we’re pret-ty short,” Greenberg said. “Because of our size,boxing out will be the biggest key.” Leavenworth will try to make up what theylack in height, the longtime Pioneer coach said,with tenacious defense. “We’ll do a little what we did last year, try toget out and play tough man-to-man defensemost of the time,” Hogan said. “We’ll probablytry to stretch that even more because I think thisyear we have even better quickness. We’ll extendthat and then really collapse and smother theball if opponents try to go inside.” Padgett said the Pioneers definitely have theingredients to produce a winning season. “We might not out-power teams, but we’ll beat

them with quickness, defense and outsideshooting,” Padgett said. As they do every year, the Pioneers have setlofty goals for themselves. “We want to win every game we play,” Hogansaid. The road starts out tough and stays that way,with the Citizens National Bank Invitational toopen the season and a tough Sunflower Leagueschedule down the line. “We’ll open in our tournament, obviously wewant to do well there, we’d love to win the thing,”Hogan said. “We just take it one game at a timebecause in our tournament everyone is verygood. Then we have (Topeka) Hayden here theTuesday after that. We’ve got four games in sixdays and it’s going to be a bear to jump into theseason like that. We have to be ready to go.” Padgett said getting off to a good start is a keyto achieving the team’s goals. “We know we need to work goal by goal, start-ing with winning the first game,” Padgett said.“State is a long way down the road, but whenit comes that time, we want to accomplish get-ting to state again.”“It’s very important to us,” Greenberg said ofa return to the state. “We don’t want to just goback to state, we want to win it.”

Pioneers look to utilize bevy of talented guards44

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55LEAVENWORTH PIONEERS - GIRLS

By Sara Mettlensara.mettlen@leavenworthtimes.com

The Leavenworth girls' basketball team lostnearly all its varsity players from last year's squad.Just one starter, Rashayla Mathis, and two ad-ditional varsity athletes, Emily Ruble andJazmyn Floyd, are back from the previous sea-son. Head coach Jessica Fullen said she feels goodabout where the Lady Pioneers are so far this pre-season, however, because of the team's work eth-ic. “They are such a great team unit,” Fullen said.“They're already meshing and picking up plays.We always talk about how we want to focus onthe things we can control in basketball and in life,and that's your attitude and effort. With these kidsI couldn't ask for more, they have a great attitudeand great effort. It's been really good so far.”With Fullen entering her third season as theLeavenworth head coach, the girls say they allknow now what to expect of each other. Math-is said the team knows what it's supposed to do,and that means starting with a tough defensiveeffort. “We want to match what we had last year, butbe even tougher on defense this year,” Mathis said. Floyd, the team's lone senior, said that the team

will once again look to use speed to help be strongdefensively. “We have a lot of fast people, we're quick, soI think that's our biggest point (is being toughdefensively),” Floyd said.Ruble said the team, which will look to sev-eral freshmen to step into varsity roles, will leanon the returners to help those young players in-corporate into the high school level of play. “We know what to expect, so we can help thoseyounger girls adjust,” Ruble said. “We have a lotof upcoming freshmen.” With some new players this season, Fullen saidthe squad will have a different look this year be-cause of an increase in post players. “It will be a little of a reversal,” the Pioneer coachsaid. “We still have speed and quickness, but wealso have something we haven't had in a whileand that's big girls who can do some damage onthe inside. We'll change up our philosophy a lit-tle to fit what we have and we're excited to dosomething we haven't done in a while. That'ssomething that has hurt us quite a bit, facing girlsthat were way bigger than us. In the past we didour best to stop them, but now we have big girlsof our own to beat people up with.” Mathis and Floyd will both fill in guard roles,while Ruble plays inside. Fullen said freshmen

Rachel Blackburn, Tashia Jones, Daysha Thomasand Braxten Goodwin will add to the Pioneer-s' lineup, as will junior Mariah Marfield who re-turns after missing last season with a tornACL. Even with a lot of new faces, Floyd said theteam is doing well forming a unit. “We want to play as a team,” the senior said.“We all need to bond and know ... what we doon the court so we know how to play with eachother. I think our offense is solid, so if we play to-gether we shouldn't have a problem.”Fullen said a key will be helping the youngerplayers understand quickly just what it takes tocompete in the Sunflower League. “The girls will see right away what it takes andwe'll have the Christmas break if we need to makeadjustments as far as the physicality and speedof the game at this level,” Fullen said. “We're try-ing to get them to pick it up fast. I want to getto the point where we're a .500 team; I think weshould have been a .500 team last year. I thinkwe can do it this year, it'll just be about how fastthey assimilate to this level.”The coach said the girls will put their focus onfundamental areas. “We want to control the boards and limit ourturnovers,” Fullen said. “We need to value the ball

and value our possessions.” Leavenworth starts the season on Friday,Dec. 2 at Washington, then plays in the OlatheSouth Tournament the next week. The Lady Pi-oneers will then host Washington in their finalgame before Christmas break on Wednesday, Dec.14. Getting an early home game and early ex-perience against Sunflower League opponents,the girls and coach Fullen agree, will be a ben-efit for the young Leavenworth team. “Our first games are big ones,” Mathis said. Ruble said it'll be good for the girls to be athome earlier than usual. “It'll help us build confidence and get somemore crowd support,” Ruble said. To be competitive in the Sunflower League,Fullen said she and the girls all know they'll haveto be on their game every time out. “The Sunflower League is so good, top to bot-tom, every game will be important,” Fullensaid. “Day in and day out we have to play our bestto hope for a W.”Outside of conference play, Floyd said shewants to enjoy the level of success the Pioneerboys’ teams have had in the past couple years. “I want to go to state so bad,” Floyd said. “I knowthat we can get that far. It would mean a lot tobe able to get that far.”

Leavenworth girls boast mix of size and speed

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Lady Pioneersschedule

Dec. 2 at WashingtonDec. 6-9 Olathe South TourneyDec. 14 WashingtonJan. 6 Shawnee Mission

EastJan. 10 at Olathe SouthJan. 12 at Shawnee Mission

NorthJan. 17 St. JamesJan. 26-28 Free State

TournamentJan. 31 LawrenceFeb. 3 at Olathe NorthFeb. 7 Free StateFeb. 10 Shawnee Mission

SouthFeb. 14 at Olathe NorthwestFeb. 16 at Shawnee Mission

NorthwestFeb. 21 Olathe EastFeb. 24 Shawnee Mission

West

BOLD = home game

LEAVENWORTH PIONEERS - GIRLS

LANSING LIONS - BOYS

By Brent Lagerbrent.lager@leavenworthtimes.com

It was quite a season for the Lansing boys’basketball team in 2010-11.In what turned out to be one of theschool’s best years ever, the Lions cap-tured a conference title, a substate title andfinished fourth overall at the 5A state tour-nament.The squad, which accumulated a 18-6overall record and went 11-1 in the Kaw Val-ley League, also recorded Lansing’s first statetournament victory since 1950.So, the obvious question is — what’s theencore?“Every team is a new team every year withnew dynamics,” Lansing head coach RodBriggs said. “We are going to miss theguys we had last year, but we think we havea lot of talent coming back.”Gone from the Lansing lineup is a high-ly productive senior class, one that includ-ed all-county player of the year CalvinSchneider. However, several key pieces

from last year’s state tournament team re-turn, led by the Lions’ leading scorer sen-ior Izaiah Grice, a 6-foot-2 guard who av-eraged more than 12 points a game a yearago.“We have quite a few returning playerswith the obvious ones like Izaiah, Chris(Jones) and Mike (Miller) being guys we aregoing to lean on,” Briggs said. “Lucas Meinis another, plus Joe Schneider, Clay Youngand Cameron Decker.”The sheer number of contributors and var-sity-seasoned players making up Lansing’sroster presents the squad with not only anexperienced and talented starting lineup, butquality depth on the bench as well. Thatcombination has the squad understandingits roles early and unified in its long-termexpectations.“Our bench is deeper this year, so we willhave a lot of guys coming in,” senior forwardJones said. “That will be a key for us.”The rotation of high-caliber players willbe strongest in the Lions’ front court,where 6-foot-5 Jones, 6-foot-6 Miller, 6-foot-

4 Young and 6-foot-2 Decker headline agroup that will be asked to do a lot on bothends of the floor. Those four players com-bined to average 14.9 points and 11.5 re-bounds per game a year ago. “We have a lot size so we will have a pret-ty good post game,” Briggs said. “Ourstrength is that we are deep there, really weare deep across the board, but our depth isbeing tested right away with all the injurieswe have.”The injury bug certainly has bitten Lans-ing so far this preseason. Both Schneider,who is expected to see a large amount ofminutes at point guard, and Young are outfor an extend period of time. Young’s returndate isn’t until after Christmas break andSchneider is unknown at this time.Adding to those injuries as the team’s ear-ly season obstacles is a lack of a true pointguard.“Our guards are going to be somewhat in-experienced, now even more inexperiencedwith Joe hurt,” the Lions coach said. “Lucasand Izaiah will be back there, but not hav-

ing a returning point guard is a concern sowe are really going to try and find somebodyat the point to lead our team.”But even with the present hurdles, sen-ior center Miller said the team’s confi-dence is still strong and the rash of early in-juries is being viewed as a positive, not a neg-ative.“We are playing more as a team becausewe’ve had some injuries and so some of theyoung guys are stepping up now,” Miller said.“We seniors are just trying to step up andbe leaders and follow in the foot steps of theguys before us.”A few of the newcomers that have steppedup have been Khalil Bailey and EddieHunt, both of which will have early playingopportunities according to Briggs. Theircontributions will be needed, both offen-sively and defensively, if Lansing hopes torepeat what it accomplished a season ago.“Our main focus is still defense,” Youngsaid. “The offense will come, but no matterwho we got out there, our defense is whatwill win us games.”

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Lions return several players, look tobuild on success of previous season

LANSING LIONS - GIRLS

By Brent Lagerbrent.lager@leavenworthtimes.com

After losing three of its top four scorers tograduation, conventional wisdom wouldthink the Lansing girls’ basketball team is infor a rebuilding season.However, with another quality group ofseniors leading a budding group of under-classmen, the Lady Lions hold high hopes forthe upcoming year.“I’m super excited because so far we are re-ally clicking together as a team,” senior for-ward Maggie Hornick said. “If we just keepworking hard I think we can do really goodthings.”Hornick, along with fellow seniorsMichaela Taylor and Gabby Hacker, will lookto replace the lost scoring power and lead-ership from last year’s 9-12 squad.Taylor returns at the point guard spot af-ter dishing out 1.8 assists per game last sea-son while Hacker is the squad’s top scorercoming back. She poured in seven points acontest in 2011.As far as Hornick, she will need to use her

six foot frame to snatch as many rebounds aspossible, seeing as the Lady Lions’ top tworebounders from last season graduated. However, Lansing head coach Keith An-drews is quick to point out that his senior classwon’t be alone in these endevours.“Along with that trio we have Danielle (Pen-dergraft) and Morgan (Bromell) returning,”Andrews said. “We also are going to rely onsome younger kids to, so some sophomoresand freshmen will have opportunities toplay as well.”Both Bromwell, who averaged three pointsand four rebounds a game last season, andPendergraft will have more expanded rolesthis season. Their increased contributions, along withthe young depth Lansing has, will present thesquad with not only a wide arrange ofmatchup possibilities, but an athletic ad-vantage as well. It also allows the Lady Lions to continuewhat it does best, which is playing defenseand running the floor.“I think we will be a little bit more athlet-ic on defense than I originally anticipated ear-

lier in the year,” Andrews said. “I think wehave a little bit of size down low with play-ers who have played there also. That fresh-men group has some talented kids in it toothat can play some defense and move.”While the plethora of able bodies givesLansing different options both defensively andoffensively, it also remains mostly unproven.Seasoning his youthful team will be an ear-ly obstacle the Lions coach hopes to addressthroughout the season.“Outside of those three seniors and a cou-ple of juniors, we are going to be young,” theLansing coach said. “They will find outpretty quickly the difference between varsi-ty ball and freshmen or sophomore ball.”Even with that adjustment period, the LadyLions feel good about how the team is com-ing together so far. “We are definitely clicking so far as ateam and been doing a lot of work together,”Hacker said.Another key area that the team hopes tofigure out soon is the appropiate roles eachplayer will need to fill.Whether its a shooter on the offensive end,

or a lock down defender on the defensive sideof the ball, Lansing is still in the stage of defin-ing the roles of each individual player.“That’s always an interesting deal learningwhere everyone is going to be in the peckingorder,” Andrews said. “Some kids will needto be defenders and some will have to be greatrebounders, so figuring out the player’s rolesis an important key.”“No matter what though, they all need torealize that they need to play hard, give a 100percent, rebound and play defense.”And in the end, that will be Lansing’s keyto victory. The 2012 Lady Lions don’t havea true dominant player, but if they can allcome together and play as one unit, then suc-cess won’t be far behind.“The key will be to play as a team, play gooddefense and then getting out to run,” Taylorsaid.The coach agrees.“Stay solid in our first shot defense,” An-drews said. “Number two, we have to workat becoming a better rebounding team to-gether because if we can rebound, we canrun.”

Lady Lions look to recharge88

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LANSING LIONS 99

Lions scheduleDec. 2 Bishop WardDec. 6 Shawnee HeightsDec. 9 at Topeka SeamanDec. 10 at Free StateDec. 13 TurnerDec. 16 Bonner SpringsJan. 10 PiperJan. 12 at TonganoxieJan. 16-21 Tonganoxie

TournamentJan. 27 at Basehor-LinwoodJan. 31 vs. Bishop Ward (at

KCKCC)Feb. 3 Mill ValleyFeb. 7 at Bonner SpringsFeb. 10 at TurnerFeb. 14 TonganoxieFeb. 17 Basehor-LinwoodFeb. 21 at Mill ValleyFeb. 24 at Piper

BOLD = home game

Lady Lions scheduleDec. 2 Bishop WardDec. 6 Shawnee HeightsDec. 9 at Topeka SeamanDec. 10 at Free StateDec. 13 TurnerDec. 16 Bonner SpringsJan. 10 PiperJan. 12 at TonganoxieJan. 16-21 Tonganoxie

TournamentJan. 27 at Basehor-LinwoodJan. 31 vs. Bishop Ward (at

KCKCC)Feb. 3 Mill ValleyFeb. 7 at Bonner SpringsFeb. 10 at TurnerFeb. 14 TonganoxieFeb. 17 Basehor-LinwoodFeb. 21 at Mill ValleyFeb. 24 at Piper

BOLD = home game

IMMACULATA RAIDERS - GIRLS

IMMACULATA RAIDERS - BOYS

By Sara Mettlensara.mettlen@leavenworthtimes.com

The Immaculata boys' basketball teamstarted last season hot, building a 9-3record in the first 12 games of the year. TheRaiders struggled at the close of the year,however, dropping their last 10 games.That disappointing ending, the returningseniors say, is something that has motivat-ed them for this year. “That didn't do us justice,” senior CoreyLeintz said of how the Raiders finished outlast year. Leintz, a four-year starter at point guard,will help anchor a group of returning play-ers that has something to prove. “We want to have a winning season andget to the state tournament,” fellow seniorAdam Sewell said. Sewell, Leintz, Connor Schmidling, SeanMurray and Dan Boisson all return with var-sity experience. Add in senior transfer EricHaynes and junior big man Josh Boeppler

and head coach Mike Connelly said hefeels like the team has plenty of weapons. “I think our quickness and our speedshould be the best things about the team,”Connelly said. “We have the experienceand we should be able to press and run thefloor real well.”The boys agree that speed and outsideshooting will be the Immaculata squad'sbiggest advantages, but size and depth pro-vide some question marks. “I think we have seven or eight quality ath-letes who are working very hard,” Connel-ly said. “It'll be tough for other teams whenwe have five guards in there, which we willsometimes, to match up with us. On the oth-er hand, it'll be tough for us to match up withthem.” The Raiders say they know they'll need toplay to their strengths in order to be suc-cessful. “We'll be fast and try to spread things out,”Leintz said. “We'll shoot then play good defense,”

Sewell added. With mostly guards in the lineup, Connellysaid that defense will be where the Raider-s' effort will start. “We just have to play hard-nosed defenseand out work people,” Connelly said. “We'll be aggressive and just really get af-ter it,” Haynes agreed. Immaculata will play numerous talentedteams in the Delaware Valley League andConnelly said the Raiders need to put theirbest foot forward every time out to avoid thewoes the squad had at the end of last sea-son. “We can't play bad and win, we don't havethat luxury,” the Imac coach said. “We haveto play well to compete.” The Raiders start the year at home, host-ing Maranatha on Thursday, Dec. 1. After aroad game at Heritage Christian on Tues-day, Dec. 6, Immaculata will open DelawareValley League play at home on Friday, Dec.9 when they host Horton. IHS hosts eighthomes games, including four home contests

late in the year — versus Valley Falls on Jan.31, 2012; versus Maur Hill-Mount Acade-my on Feb. 3, 2012; versus Pleasant Ridgeon Feb. 14, 2012 and versus McLouth on Feb.17, 2012. With a schedule that provides a fairly evenmix of home and away games, Connelly saidthe team will just focus on each game as itcomes. “We look forward to playing every game,”Connelly said. In those games, the Raider coach said thatthe team wants to improve upon last year'sfinishes. “Obviously we want to finish in the upperhalf of the Delaware Valley League,” Connellysaid. “We made the step to finish in the mid-dle, now we need to finish it and get into thatupper half and I think we can do that.”Getting there, he said, will just be abouttaking from the past to build the future. “If we use our experience and intelligencewe should play well against everybody,”Connelly said.

Raiders strong in speed, shooting

By Sara Mettlensara.mettlen@leavenworthtimes.com

Not only will the Immaculata girls' bas-ketball team lean heavily on its three seniors— Liz Todd, Brittany Simek and Mary KateMetivier — for on the court production in the2011-12 season, those girls will also provideleadership for an otherwise very young LadyRaider squad.Outside of the senior trio, the Immacula-ta team is made up of mostly freshmen. “I think we'll really rely on our seniors andthen we'll have the freshmen kind of build-ing for the years to come,” Simek said.Head coach Terry Jordan said he knowsthat the seniors are up to the challenge. “My three seniors are the key,” Jordan said.“I think our strength is the seniors comingback. I think in Liz and Brittany we have twoof the best players in the state that can getit done on both sides of the court. Mary Kateis the most unselfish player I've had in a longtime and she'll do an outstanding job for us.” A year ago, Simek led the team in scoring

with an average of 13.2 points per game. Toddwas just behind, averaging 10.8 points percontest. Todd also had 4.3 assists, 4.5 stealsand 5.1 rebounds per game while Simek had6.8 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game. With Simek and Todd on the wings andMetivier in the paint, the Lady Raiders alsohave junior transfer Lainey Bell at the pointand freshmen to fill in at various positions.Though the Imac team and coach say they'repleased with the personnel they have, num-bers are pretty low for the squad. Withsmall rosters the past couple seasons, how-ever, the Raiders say it won't pose a problem. “It's not that much different, especially be-cause we are used to it,” Metivier said.“We've always had a small team, so just get-ting in shape is the biggest thing.” Jordan said helping the younger players un-derstand that they'll be playing a lot of min-utes in various positions is also importantwith a smaller team. “We've discussed that, about knowingmultiple spots, because we don't know howsome of these games are going to be called

as far as foul trouble or injuries we may dealwith during the year,” Jordan said.He added that the work the girls put in thissummer will help ease the transition tohigh school competition. “We have solid backups who luckily playedwith us this summer in a 20-game situation,”the second-year Immaculata coach said.“Our continuity will be good, but defense willhave to push us, we have to press and get upand down. Defense will fuel everything wedo. We'll have to play 92 feet just because ofour size. Once we get into half court we'll playpredominantly man-to-man.”Jordan said the Lady Raiders will stickwith the familiar offense they ran last sea-son, and with his seniors leading the way he’sconfident that his team will put up plenty ofpoints. “Offensively we'll be OK,” he said. A lack of height may make defensivematchups tough in some games, Jordansaid.“Defensively it might be tough for us tomatch up. I think our big issue will be if we

get out-manned with a team that has sever-al legitimate post players,” he said. There are some inside threats in theDelaware Valley League, meaning that theRaiders will have some challenges along theway. Among the toughest matchups will beOskaloosa, Jefferson County North andACCHS, and the Imac girls will face two ofthose opponents on the road. IHS hostsACCHS on Jan. 3, 2012, but travels to Os-kaloosa on Jan. 10, 2012 and plays at JCN onFeb. 10, 2012. The girls say they feel confident about theseason, and they have big goals for themselves. “I want to get 15-plus wins,” Simek said. “State,” Todd added. “On March 10 we wantto get that trophy.”Jordan said he thinks state is a realisticmark for the squad. “We want to improve on last year's 14-8season and get back to the substate final butsee if we can transfer that four-point loss intoa win,” Jordan said. “We want to get betterafter each game and see where that landsus.”

Immaculata girls to lean on seniors1100

IMMACULATA RAIDERSRaiders schedule

Dec. 1 MaranathaDec. 6 at Heritage ChristianDec. 9 HortonDec. 13 St. Mary’s (Mo.)Dec. 16 at Doniphan WestJan. 3 ACCHSJan. 6 at RiversideJan. 10 at OskaloosaJan. 13 at Jackson HeightsJan. 17-21 Riverside

TournamentJan. 27 at Pleasant RidgeJan. 31 Valley FallsFeb. 3 Maur Hill-Mount

AcademyFeb. 7 at TroyFeb. 10 at Jefferson Co. NorthFeb. 13 at Jackson HeightsFeb. 14 Pleasant RidgeFeb. 17 McLouthFeb. 21 at Kansas City

ChristianBOLD = home game

Lady Raidersschedule

Dec. 1 MaranathaDec. 6 at Heritage ChristianDec. 9 HortonDec. 13 St. Mary’s (Mo.)Dec. 16 at Doniphan WestJan. 3 ACCHSJan. 6 at RiversideJan. 10 at OskaloosaJan. 13 at Jackson HeightsJan. 17-21 Riverside

TournamentJan. 27 at Pleasant RidgeJan. 31 Valley FallsFeb. 3 Maur Hill-Mount

AcademyFeb. 7 at TroyFeb. 10 at Jefferson Co. NorthFeb. 13 at Jackson HeightsFeb. 14 Pleasant RidgeFeb. 17 McLouthFeb. 21 at Kansas City

ChristianBOLD = home game

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PLEASANT RIDGE RAMS - BOYS

By Brent Lagerbrent.lager@leavenworthtimes.com

For the first time in eight years, a newcoach will be strutting the sidelines for thePleasant Ridge boys’ basketball team thisseason.After former head coach Pat Battlemoved on to Junction City this past sum-mer, longtime Leavenworth assistant SeanMurphy was tabbed to take over the Ridgeprogram. And with him comes a wave ofchanges.“It’s been a big change but not a bad one,”senior guard Dalton Warden said. “So farit’s been good and though we are still get-ting used to coach and his systems, it’s com-ing along nicely.”While the differences are numerous, aconcentration on half court sets both de-fensively and offensively tops the list, cer-tain qualities will remain the same for theRams.Namely, though the squad will slowdown its full-court, run and gun ways, it willstill rely on its abundance of athleticism andquickness to steer its game plans.

“Our athleticism is by far our strength,”the first-time head coach Murphy said. “Wehave really good athletes and so we are go-ing to use that to our advantage as much aspossible. At the same time, we must con-trol the game’s tempo and learn to playthrough our new systems.”To accomplish that, Pleasant Ridge willlean on a host of returning lettermen fromlast year’s 7-14 team, such as Warden plusthree-year starters guard Brandon Heimand forward Connor Culbertson. Both Heim, who averaged five points andfour assists a game last year, and Culbert-son, who is the team’s top returning scor-er and rebounder, received Delaware Val-ley League honors last season.Those two plus Warden’s increased con-tributions, which were four points a con-test in 2011, will be ever more vital to theteam’s success considering the squad’s on-going learning process.“We are going to pressure some fullcourt but really, it will be how we defend andscore in the half court,” Heim said. “The key,as always, will be hard work and defense.”Joining the before mentioned senior

trio on the floor will be fellow senior for-wards Cody Heim, Caleb Morandy and TylerSelf as well as senior guard Cody Theis.With their leadership and game experi-ence, the entire group has been on varsityfor two years now, Murphy has a nice nu-cleus to lean on in this transitional season.“We don’t have a true post player that cantake up space and be a back-to-the-basketthreat,” the new PR coach said. “However,a committee of seniors with Culbertson,Heim, Morandy and Self will crash theboards and contribute on the defensive end.”As far as the newcomers that will fill outthe rest of the Ridge roster, junior NickReckers and sophomore Blaine Monroe willtry to earn some playing time in the backcourt. In the front court, juniors Adam Patter-son and Tim Roberts plus sophomore SeanSpurlock will push for minutes as well.That depth, in addition to the seasonedstarting lineup, will face several early testsaccording to Murphy, but perhaps thebiggest obstacle will come from within.“Learning new systems is hard and we arenot running the same stuff as past years so

we have a long ways to go,” Murphy said. “Todo that, we need to be patient and get bet-ter every night.”While the natural adjustment periodwill be the groups’ biggest hurdle to con-quer, Pleasant Ridge has done well early ac-cording to both coach and players. That improvement will quickly be test-ed as the group has a tough non-conferenceschedule to start that includes Atchison andRoyal Valley, not to mention the deepDelaware Valley League conference sched-ule that follows.“The Delaware Valley is as good as it getsfor small basketball in the state of Kansas,”the head coach said. “We just hope to com-pete and get better every game as we pre-pare for March Madness.”If the Rams can continue to improve, thesquad has no reason not to believe it can’treturn to prominence in the DVL.“Our fans can expect to see us playsound fundamental team basketball nightin and night out,” Murphy said. “To do that,we just need to keep working and right now,we are taking baby steps in the right di-rection.”

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PLEASANT RIDGE RAMS - GIRLS

By Brent Lagerbrent.lager@leavenworthtimes.com

In the 2010-11 season, Pleasant Ridgehead coach Mike Koontz started a long-termprocess of rebuilding the girls’ basketballprogram.While the season’s overall record, 4-16,didn’t show great progress, the coach be-lieved his team was taking steps in the rightdirection. He pointed to the fact that theLady Rams won three of its last six gamesto close out the year.Jump forward to the upcoming 2012season, where the process is still moving for-ward.“It started last year and it’s continuing intothis year so we just have to keep working andkeep trusting the process,” Koontz said. “Ihave seen a lot of growth over the summerwhere we worked pretty hard and so I’mlooking forward to seeing that comethrough.”The Lady Rams head into this year witha different feeling than last. The systems arethe same, the coach is the same and so theadjustment curve for the relatively young

and new team is much shorter.The effects of this continuity is already be-coming obvious to the head Ridge honcho.“Our strength is that collectively, we area team,” Koontz said. “We are not necessarilygreat in one area, but overall being a teamand working together as one we are verystrong at doing. I tell them daily that we arenot going to beat people individually, but wehave to do it as a team.”His team is a young squad that consistsof one senior, three juniors, three sopho-mores and two freshmen. In fact, two un-derclassmen may even crack the startinglineup, joining returning starters BethDoty, a junior point guard, and JordanAdams, a junior forward. Along with them, junior forward AshtenLangley looks to have a strong hold on astarting job as well.“Beth is a good basketball player who israw and still learning how to run ourteam,” the Ridge coach said. “With Jordanat five foot ten and Ashten at five foot eleven,our inside game is probably a strength es-pecially because they both like to playphysical.”

As far as for the rest of the lineup, or evena role off the bench for that matter, minutesare still very much up in the air. Making a strong push for some of thoseopportunities has been freshmen HollyEwert, who has impressed her coach withher willingness and understanding of thegame.“She does everything I ask and more,”Koontz said. “She just works her butt off toget better every practice and that is what weneed.”The extra effort will go a long away withKoontz, who feels that while his team lacksgreat athleticism and skill, the group provesitself more than capable defensively tomake up for it.“We work hard defensively,” he said. “Weare going to go out and play hard nose man-to-man defense and while we may switch tozone here or there, we are mainly just go-ing to get into people.”“We might play a little more full court mancompared to half court, but that will be sowe can get pressure and cause someturnovers.”While Ridge’s defense and size have

proven to be a major asset, the squad is stillin search for a guiding force on the offen-sive end.Last season, the Lady Rams struggled toconvert open shots and simply lacked a go-to scorer according to their coach.This year, as young players continue to de-velop, Koontz hopes that somebody will beable to take that next step and knock downsome shots.“We have to find somebody who is goingto put the basketball into the hole,” Koontzsaid. “I have some hopes for a few this year,but we will see. It could be a freshmen whotakes that role, we just are going to have towait and see.”If the Lady Rams can find a way to scoreconsistently, the aspirations of winningconsistently are not far off. According to theRidge coach, it’s all part of the process.“It’s going to be fun watching us grow, yetfrustrating at the same time,” he said. “Iknow some of the abilities we have, I’m justwaiting for those to come out consistently.”“If we can find someone who can make anoutside shot regularly, I think we have achance of being pretty good.”

Building process continues for Lady Rams1144

PLEASANT RIDGE RAMS 1155

Rams scheduleDec. 2 WellsvilleDec. 6 at AtchisonDec. 13 Kansas City

ChristianDec. 16 at RiversideJan. 3 West PlatteJan. 6 Jackson HeightsJan. 10 at McLouthJan. 13 Maur Hill-Mount

AcademyJan. 19-21 Royal Valley

TourneyJan. 27 ImmaculataJan. 31 TroyFeb. 3 at Jefferson Co. NorthFeb. 7 HortonFeb. 10 at OskaloosaFeb. 14 at ImmaculataFeb. 17 at ACCHSFeb. 21 Valley FallsFeb. 24 Doniphan West

BOLD = home game

Lady Rams scheduleDec. 2 WellsvilleDec. 6 at AtchisonDec. 13 Kansas City

ChristianDec. 16 at RiversideJan. 3 West PlatteJan. 6 Jackson HeightsJan. 10 at McLouthJan. 13 Maur Hill-Mount

AcademyJan. 19-21 Royal Valley

TourneyJan. 27 ImmaculataJan. 31 TroyFeb. 3 at Jefferson Co. NorthFeb. 7 HortonFeb. 10 at OskaloosaFeb. 14 at ImmaculataFeb. 17 at ACCHSFeb. 21 Valley FallsFeb. 24 Doniphan West

BOLD = home game

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