PHS swimmers aim for 12th straight title

To say the Park Hill South Men’s Swim and Dive team is dominant might not be enough to describe the team’s success over recent years. Last year marked the 11th consecutive time the Panthers captured the conference championship. To top it all off, they tied the best finish in school history by placing fourth at state.

Head coach Steven De La Piedra seems confident his team will start where they left off last year with returning seniors Austin Cade, Grant Libra, and Kyle Gourley. All swam in the three relays that placed in the top eight at state last year. This earned them All State honors. Additionally, Cade placed 7th in the 100 meter butterfly and Libra finished 15th in the 100 meter backstroke. Sophomore Daniel Day qualified in the 500 meter freestyle and 200 meter individual medley. Kristian Harman also qualified in the 500 meter freestyle at state.

Look for all of them to be at the state level this season as well. Also watch out for freshman Liam Huffman to join them.

De La Piedra gives credit to his swimmers, “I’m lucky to have a group of boys that are disciplined enough to work out during the offseason and want to achieve higher goals than previous years.”

The team’s goals this season are without a doubt, to win another conference title and place in the top four at state once again.

Park Hill South golf team in transition

A 2nd place conference finish led to a district performance that qualified three of Park Hill South’s golfers for the state tournament last fall. Those three senior golfers along with several other key varsity players have since graduated, leaving head coach Larry Torgerson with a whole new group of girls to coach this season.

“This is a transition for us," Torgerson said. "We’ve got a lot of inexperience so we’re looking to reload."

The sole varsity letter winner returning from last season’s group will be senior Sarah Shelton. Joining her will be seniors who mostly played at the junior varsity level last year including Jansten McBride, Kelly Jefferies, and Hillary Schmitz.

Eighteen players came out for the team this season, which Torgerson said was good because sometimes girls will decide to pursue a different sport after being involved in one for a year.

“It’s mostly a cyclical thing when it comes to the number of players who come out for the team,” said Torgerson of the additions and losses of players from season to season.

Even with a new group of varsity golfers, the Panthers are still looking to compete for the conference title.

“St. Joe Central will be strong, but I think we’ll be competing by the end of the year to have a chance to finish close to first or second,” said Torgerson about the Suburban Big-Six Conference outlook.

Possibly the best way to understand Torgerson’s approach to his team is the way he looks at the sport overall.

“Golf’s a lifetime sport and that’s what we’re here to emphasis," he said.

Returning starters to pace PHS soccer team

Despite having an 11-10 record last season, the Park Hill South Panthers advanced through the district tournament before losing in the championship game. With a majority of those same players returning this season as seniors, South will be looking for more consistency this year.

“We’re looking to be more consistent because we had some games that just weren’t very level, either because we had the lead and lost it or got behind then played great, but were already losing,” head coach Joe Toigo said.

The Panthers will feature fifteen seniors and about three juniors on varsity this year. Leading the offensive attack will be senior forward Joe Sbarro, who set a school record for goals scored last season, midfielder Jacob Fischer, and midfielder Mirsad Halili. Defensively, South will feature seniors Ryan Harris and Cody Mortenson, along with junior Tyson McGuire.

“We’ve got a lot of players that saw significant minutes last year,” Toigo said.

With South returning the school’s record-holding goal scorer in Sbarro, it would be easy to say the Panthers will be strong on the offensive side, but they believe they have some good players overall to the point where both sides can be strengths.

“They’re just really good soccer players. So hopefully when we have the ball we’ll be good at attacking and when we don’t then we’ll be good at defending too,” said Toigo.

Follow the Panthers this year as they build on last year’s district run which includes match-ups against Park Hill and Oak Park, both conference and district contenders.

PHS runners ready to go

Over the past couple years Park Hill South Boys Cross Country has been on a roll. Not only were they 2007 and 2008 Big Six Conference Champs, but they also went on to qualify for sectionals after their district performances in both 2007 and 2008. Last year they finished 7th as a team at sectionals.

They’ll be returning five lettermen from last season’s team including senior James Bowlin, senior Dean Frazier, senior Sam Peak, senior Brandon Wieser, and junior Austen Ortiz. Senior Tyler Arthur and sophomore Tim Albright are also expected to contribute to the mix this year.

Coach Brad Banning sees this season as a test of character. Even with five lettermen returning, it could have been close to nine. Two kids moved way, one changed his sport to soccer, and another wasn’t eligible because of grades.

“Extra effort is the key to success," Banning said. "Those runners who did the work over the summer will have success"

Once again the Panthers are looking to repeat previous years’ success by competing for the conference title and another top four district finish in order to qualify for sectionals as a team.

The Park Hill South Girls Cross Country team finised 2nd last year at the conference meet and went onto place 4th at districts which qualified them as a team for sectionals. They also finished 8th in the Kansas City All Metro meet.

Three varsity runners return this season for the Panthers including two-time sectional qualifier Lauren Black along with sectional qualifiers Miranda Norfleet and Amy Wilsey. Head Coach Pamela Lerch will look for them to be strong again. Evan Willsey, Keirstie Bischoof, and Abby Werner will be looked at to make an impact on the team. Also looking good so far are newcomers DeeDee O’Toole, Lizzy Jurries, Hannah Walsh, Mackenzie Capps, Kerry Mass and Anna Schaeffer.

There won’t be a shortage of competition within the team. South has 52 girls out this year for cross country.

“Our key to success is to continually motivate and challenge one another. We have a very large team so there is never a runner who finds herself unchallenged,” Lerch said.

Park Hill South volleyball looks strong again

A stellar 29-3 season last year for the Park Hill South volleyball team resulted in a conference and district title before concluding against Blue Springs in the state sectionals. After graduating three seniors, the Panthers are looking to reload again with another talented group.

“We have some good kids back and they’re excited to have another great year,” head coach Debbie Fay said.

She has high expectations from each group of seniors she coaches which include consistency and hard work.

“What works for us is that our expectations are always similar," Fay said. "They feel the pressure and do the best they can to succeed."

Middle hitter Lauren Brentlinger, outside hitter Courtney Churchman, and setter Laura Eller all bring back strong varsity experience as seniors for South along with Lindsey Pusateri who will also add to the mix and contribute this year. Brentlinger has already committed to attending Pittsburgh State University next year to play volleyball.

Junior middle hitter Bridget Paulk, sophomore outside hitter Codi Smith, and outside hitter/libero sophomore Lauren Blair will also see significant playing time.

“Our conference is a great conference," Fay said. "There’s a lot of talent from everyone we play, which makes everyone better. As for districts, it’s tough and is always a battle.”

Look for the Panthers to strongly compete for a conference and district championship again this season hoping to have another opportunity to advance to the state playoffs.

Park Hill South softball team ready to 'make noise'

Park Hill South softball coach Josh Walker’s team is ready to take their game to another level this season. After a 13-14 season last year provided the program a good step forward from previous years, the Panthers are coming into this season with some high expectations.

“We’re very senior heavy with a lot of experience coming back." Walker said. A lot of our seniors have been starting since they were freshmen."

With such an experienced team returning, Walker is looking for the whole team to step up especially some seniors that have already been active thus far in practice including shortstop Paige Cockriel, outfielder Bailey Peterson, outfielder Jen Burnette, and 3rd basemen Alyssa Weatherly. Other players who will play an important role will be pitcher Jessica McCoy, 1st basemen Brandi Weymuth, outfielder Valerie Pollan, catcher Maci Fisher, 2nd basemen Emily McLain, and outfielder Jenna Disselhoff.

Key matchups for the Panthers include the traditionally successful Oak Park, back-to-back conference champions Winnetonka, and a senior-heavy Park Hill team. All will be tests for Park Hill South’s softball team, but Walker is confident his team can make some significant strides forward.

“We’re looking to make some noise this year," he said.

Panthers hope to build on last season's strong finish

Going into his 8th season as head coach at Park Hill South, Ron Litchfield knows the importance of starting the season on a good note and to go into district play with momentum. Last year’s team started the season 1-5, but finished the season strong with a record of 3-1. This showed signs that a young and inexperienced team was getting comfortable playing at the varsity level.

“We had a lot of underclassmen playing varsity last year,” said senior Chapman Williams, a returning starter on the offensive line.

“We’re looking to be consistent from game to game and get a commitment to the program at a higher level,” added senior Ben Latteman.

South will start the season off against Fort Osage, a state quarter-finalist last year. In addition, the Panthers will be tested early on with Lee’s Summit and Winnetonka. Along the way they will also play Platte County on October 9th and Park Hill the following week on October 16th in a district match-up.

“The first game is kind of your catapult because you’ve worked so hard and you want to see it pay off,” said Litchfield.

Park Hill South’s emphasis on speed can be seen in their spread out offense and 33 stack defense which allows smaller, more athletic teams to better compete with larger, more powerful teams.

This year’s team will be anchored by an experienced offensive and defensive line including senior Jake Finn, senior Aaron Williams, junior Sam Eickhoff, and junior Myles Krieger. Taking the snaps will be senior quarterback Chris Hamilton. He’ll be handing off to a committee of running backs and sharing the ball among wide receivers Kevan Reardon and Austin Green. Defensively look for linebackers Carlas Mosby and Ben Latteman along with defensive backs Lucas Gardner and Jaron Mickles to make an impact.

“We started about six sophomores last year and the majority of the time this year we’ll have about seven juniors on offense. The defensive side of the ball is a little more senior-heavy with five juniors and six seniors, most of which are up-front,” said Litchfield about his young team.

Building on last year’s development, the Panthers will be more experienced and mature this season. With a speed based team approach, look for them to come back strong this year to surprise some teams and be a threat within the conference and district.

Park Hill tennis squad looks to continue success

To say Tim Kalis’ team has been successful over recent years would be an understatement.

Over the past four years the Trojans have gone 48-14 in duals overall, 23-1 in conference play. Last year’s 3rd place team finish was the highest in the district’s history – boys or girls. If you add in the conference and district championship along with four team tournament titles, you’ll figure out pretty quickly that this program isn’t used to losing. With five of their top six players returning from last year’s team, you can expect more of the same this year.

Merritt Whitley, Kate Skorija, Allison Skorija, Suzanne Barth, and Noelle Stratman will all be coming back to play an important part in whether the success their team experienced last year can be repeated. Whitley and Barth are the defending Class 2 Doubles State Champions. Kate Skorija medaled at last year’s state tournament by placing sixth in singles. So far their coach has noticed a completely different level of energy in practice.

“The girls have definitely come back with a mission," said Kalis. They have always worked hard, but this is one year you can definitely see all 40+ girls with a common goal."

Others hoping to make an impact will be Katy Plummer, Ashlei Bos, Bailey Petrillo, Maureen Donahue, Anna Karasiewicz, and Alisha Bos.

Kalis says he continues to tell the girls they must take pride in what they are doing and do what is right. Not only in tennis, but in life.

“One of our team themes this year is ‘win every day’,” said Kalis.

With a strong group returning for the Trojans this year, don’t be surprised if the theme of winning every day becomes closer to a reality.

Park Hill golf team returns several top players

The atmosphere of a girls high school golf practice is different than any other. With rolling hills, green grass, and not a sound in the air, afternoons at Tiffany Greens Golf Course will provide a pleasant setting over the next couple years for what coach Tari Garner hopes are some great opportunities for her team.

After finishing third in the Suburban Conference Red Division last season, one spot behind rival Park Hill South, and finishing in the top-half of all three of the tournaments they played, Garner looks at the upcoming year with excitement and sees the potential to gain the top spot.

“The conference is a little more open this year,” said the fifth year coach.

With a handful of last year’s top golfers returning as juniors and sophomores, this young group will have some time to fine-tune their game. They include all-conference team members junior Stephanie Atkinson (second team), Junior Erica Crainshaw (honorable mention), Junior Sam Brunker(honorable mention), and sophomore Anna Kloeppel (honorable mention). Also returning will be all-conference first team, all-district first team, and state qualifier Paige Loelkes.

Match wins towards the beginning of last season against Oak Park, Winnetonka, and North Kansas City, all district foes, were important in setting a good tone for the rest of the schedule. Their fifth place finish in districts was Park Hill’s best performance since 2005.

“Our district is probably one of the toughest around with Liberty, Kearney, and Park Hill South having good programs,” Garner said.

As their goals are set high, Park Hill has a chance this season to qualify more than one golfer for the state tournament for the first team in recent memory.

Park Hill soccer team ready to kick it into high gear

At 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 10 the Park Hill Men’s Soccer team kicked off their season at Park Hill District Stadium by continuing a tradition started last year, appropriately named Midnight Madness. As the name unexpectedly entailed, the evening brought about weather almost straight from the book, "Frankenstein", with scattered rain and thunderstorms in the area. It accomplished its goal of giving players, parents, and families an eventful start to the season.

“The whole idea is that we’re really excited," third year head coach Dustin Sollars said. "The state says we can practice on August 10th, so we’re going to be there at 12:01 a.m. and jump right out there."

After having one of the better seasons in recent memory last year by winning a hand-full of tournaments, being conference runners-up, and compiling a 16-7 record, the Trojans are looking to field another strong and competitive team again this season. Sollars talked about the important steps his program has taken and how they are looking to take another step up this year.

“The kids are starting to see success and that we can really start winning," Sollars said. "They’re working harder to be a part of it."

Park Hill will be led by returning starters seniors Chris Cline, Casey Johnson, and Austin Melott, who was named to the All-Conference, All-District teams. With a senior class of six, the Trojans will rely heavily on returning a varsity experienced junior class including Ricardo Garcia and Joel Gordon along with All-State Honorable Mention Ray Lee, All-District Quenton Noble, and All-Conference/All-District David Zdvorak, last year’s leading scorer. Fernando Garcia and Parker Melott will return as sophomores after contributing last year as freshmen.

“Our strength is likely to be up top, more attack heavy," Sollars said. "Our leading goal scorers are returning, but overall I think we will have a fairly balanced team.”

Park Hill spikers ready to prove last year was exception

Last year’s 16-17 record wasn’t good enough for Jannell Deville’s Park Hill Volleyball team. For a program that usually sees more success, a disappointing season allowed for some deep reflection coming into this year.

“There has been a lot that has come up ever since March when we started having meetings and through the summer,” Deville said.

Seven players return this season with varsity experience, six of which are seniors. Seniors Kelsey Borgardts, Alex Leggett, Sam Nowakowski, Kathleen Hardy, Heather Schieber, Shelby Smith, and junior Allysa Moran are back to build on last season’s performance. All will be making contributions this year in the starting line-up with the addition of sophomore libero Halley Knudson.

Their coach has put the pressure on the seniors to make the difference between a successful season or not. Focus has been aimed at team unity as a whole and not individual achievement.

“It’s going to be how they lead the team this season, how they play with a sense of urgency, and how they work hard to get the best out of each other,” said Deville about her seniors.

She talked about how they have worked with their players to not only perform athletically, but to be mentally tough as well to keep their attitudes and goals in check.

“We aren’t a tall team so this type of attitude will help create success,” Deville said.

With rival Park Hill South considered an early favorite in the conference, Park Hill feels they can compete this year and that it really comes down to who can get the job done night to night. With many of the conference match-ups being competitive and resulting in splits between teams last year, the Trojans see an opportunity this year to fulfill some of their main goals including a 20-plus win season, which will give the team an opportunity to meet one of their other goals, which is to put Park Hill back on the competitive volleyball map.

Park Hill softball team aims to improve on sub-par last season

Going into his fourth year with the Park Hill Softball team and second year as head coach, Stuart Sullinger is happy this year’s team will be able to experience some consistency within the coaching staff that previous teams haven’t. After becoming the fourth head coach in the previous four seasons last year, Sullinger and his staff are back, looking to improve on last year’s performance.

Last year’s 8-16 record wasn’t what Sullinger expected going into his first season.

“It was disappointing based on where we thought we would be. There aren’t any excuses, but we suffered some injuries to some key starters,” Sullinger said.

Looking to this season, the Trojans will be returning a strong lineup, having only graduated one senior. Leading the Trojans will be a strong senior class of seven seeing significant playing time, including captain Amanda Ell, ace pitcher Kati Snodgrass, Kayla Reynolds, iron-woman Kelsey Samenus who played every inning last season, and infielder Kylie Ball who hit several home runs before being injured last year.

Good softball teams tend to be strong up the middle, making Sullinger excited to see his ace pitcher, Snodgrass, and returning starter, catcher Michele Rupard, returning this year. He pointed out the importance of their chemistry stemming from playing summer leagues on the same team along with several other Trojans softball players. Rupard led the team in almost every category last year before getting injured.

“Michele is a very intuitive player so she can kind do some of those coach-on-the-field type of things like settle a pitcher down or lighten the mood,” Sullinger said.

Underclassmen that will be contributing this season include juniors Meghan Nelson and all-conference 1st basemen Malia Wright, sophomore all-conference shortstop Bethany Sullinger and possibly some new faces in terms of incoming freshmen.

Look for the Trojans to make a push for the conference and district titles as well with a couple tough match-ups with Oak Park and Park Hill South.

Trojans should be ready to improve on last year

Last season’s 7-4 mark for the Park Hill Trojan football team included a tie for the conference title and a playoff berth after winning the district championship before concluding with a loss to Fort Osage in the State Quarterfinals. Going into this season, Park Hill will be led by a senior class of 26.

“This group probably gets along better than any senior class we’ve had, and that’s really saying something,” head coach Greg Reynolds said.

They’ll be looking to earn another opportunity to play in the state playoffs and build on previous experiences.

“Getting to the next level of the playoffs,” said two-way starter Bryan Dale about his team’s goal this season.

With a powerful running game in mind, the offensive line will be led by seniors Dale, Mark Rollison, and Justin Dickerson. Splitting time at fullback, and at times acting as lead blocker for starting halfback Josh Eatman, will be seniors John Eblen and Sean Gorman. Junior and state champion long-jumper Trace Norfleet will also get carries as a complement to Eatman.

“Trace is a great athlete and he’ll be a big part of what we’ll do," said Reynolds "We’re going to try to have both him and Josh in the backfield together sometimes.”

The Trojans believe the defense will be the strength of their team. They’ll return experience in the secondary and will count on the linebacker corps, including two-way players John Eblen and Daniel Jessen, to be the anchor of the defense.

Punter Steven Clark will provide a special teams advantage by sending balls deep into opponents’ territory. Clark, a senior, has been getting a lot of attention from schools in top college football conferences including the Big Ten and SEC, for his kicking abilities.

“I’ve been told he could be one of the top five in the nation,” Reynolds said.

Park Hill will face strong tests early with last year’s 6A state runner-up, Blue Springs South, and Liberty. Park Hill represents Platte County’s only ranked team in the Metro Sports’ Super 25 pre-season poll, coming in at No. 20.

Countdown Is On For Gridiron Hopefuls

High school football players and coaches from all over Platte County have been waiting all summer for last week, when preseason camps were held. The camps served as an unofficial start to the season and the first real chance to gauge where teams are in regards to progress. Teams around the state can officially begin practice on Aug. 10, but all have been working since the beginning of the year and in some cases since the end of last season.

“Since about two weeks after the season was over in November,” said Park Hill South head coach Ron Litchfield, who is entering his eighth season with the Panthers.

Weightlifting and conditioning is almost a year-round activity for local programs. Over the summer, players and coaches attended team camps at college universities, held mini-camps and participated in 7-on-7 leagues, and there has already been a great deal of work done when it comes to technique and scheme. For many teams, camp serves as a tune-up for what will happen the first week of practice.

“You always work on fundamentals, but we also want to get most of our offense in,” Platte County head coach Bill Utz said.

Following are brief reports from area high school football camps.

PARK HILL & PARK HILL SOUTH

Observers of each camp will notice a big difference in the two teams’ offensive schemes. Park Hill will focus on a game plan which will feature a physical run attack and will go after teams with more of a power football approach, while Park Hill South’s main emphasis is speed mixed in with a healthy dose of both running and passing.

Park Hill head coach Greg Reynolds is starting his 10th season leading the Trojan football program and has generally maintained the same philosophy in regards to offensive scheme.

“We’ve been the same type of team where we try to be more physical, but now we’re more abnormal because teams are starting to use the more open and spread offensive sets,” he said.

Both teams focused on a wide range of areas throughout the last week, particularly stressing technique and fundamentals they have been working on for some time. Litchfield sees camp as a big review of what many of the players have already learned.

“There won’t be anything new this week,” he said. “We like to give our players the big picture of our schemes all at once, and then when practice starts, break those into smaller details.”

Last year, the Missouri State High School Activities Association expanded the playoff brackets in each class by adding an additional game. State championship games continue to be played on Thanksgiving weekend in St. Louis , but there is now one week less of practice available to teams between their first week of practice and the first game of the season. This takes time and focus away from some areas of the game.

“I’m usually not a big believer that you can practice past two and a half hours and have success, but we have to now,” Reynolds said.

Before school starts Aug. 17, the two teams will have very different practice schedules. Park Hill will only have one day where there will be two practices taking place and they will both be on the first morning. Three-hour practices will be held in the afternoon the rest of the first week for the Trojans. Park Hill South will use the late afternoons and evenings for their practices with conditioning and two-a-day practices taking place a majority of the first week.

PLATTE COUNTY

Utz, in his second year as head coach, said he is a bit more comfortable as the season approaches than he was last year. In 2008, Utz not only took over for a football coach who won 191 games and three state titles in 20 years, but also presided over a program that moved from Class 3 to Class 4 and changed conferences.

“By the very nature of this being the second year, I think we’re all a little more comfortable and know what to expect,” Utz said.

Platte County had approximately 80 players on the field for last week’s camp, though only 15 are seniors.

“Last year, we had 25 seniors, so that’s quite a loss of experience,” he said.

Utz said having such a young team — many of the juniors on the squad have no or little varsity experience — means the Pirates’ coaching staff is doing a lot of teaching.

“We are working on a lot of fundamentals and just getting better each day,” he said.

One of the big decisions facing Utz is naming a starting quarterback. Last season, seniors Jeff Cline and Matt Howard-Darling split time at the position before Utz made Howard-Darling the permanent starter. This year, Utz said Platte County may field its first-ever freshman starting quarterback — Howard-Darling’s brother, Jordan, who is 6-feet, two-inches tall and weighs 215 pounds.

“It’s between him and sophomore Krea Kelso,” Utz said.

Kelso is new to the program, having moved into the district over the summer.

Now, with the preseason camp behind them, Utz and his staff are gearing up for Aug. 10.

“It’s been a good camp — we are where we need to be,” Utz said.

Previews of North and West Platte Football can be found in the print edition ot The Platte County Citizen.

Jerry Keuhn, Lee Stubbs, and Matt Pepper all contributed to this story.