Park Hill Boys clinch first Conference title since 2002, look to districts for more

Pending an unexpected slump that has yet to come for the Park Hill Boys Basketball team this season, next week they will complete their regular season at the top of the standings as Conference Champs for the first time since 2002. Last week, they defeated their closest rival in the standings, Truman, to remain undefeated and stay two games ahead of the Patriots in the Big Six Conference standings. After being down nine at halftime, the Trojans played what could have been their most complete half of basketball of the season in pulling out the 70-63 victory at Park Hill High School to improve to 16-5, 7-0.

“They played a two-three zone and that got us standing around a lot,” head coach David Garrison said. “We weren’t hitting any shots.”

“We came out in the second half and it was the best we’ve played in a long time with the amount of intensity and focus to get a hard fought win,” Garrison said.

The Trojans see the conference title as accomplishing just one of the goals they set out to achieve at the beginning of the season.

“You approach it like you’ve now accomplished one goal,” Garrison said of the conference title. “It’s not our main goal, it’s just one step. Hopefully it gives you confidence when you go for your next goal, which is to be competitive and try to win that district title.”

Garrison, in his third season as head coach, talked about the progress the program has made since he started and how he’s approached the continued improvement.

“I think every group we’ve had has taken steps. You want to be successful every season, but you want to be successful for the school and the community. The first year we won nine games, 14 games the second, and now we’ve won our 16th. That’s our mindset, we’re happy with where we’re at, but we’re not satisfied,” Garrison said.

The Trojans will play William Chrisman on Tuesday as a part of Senior Night festivities and finish off the regular season at Winnetonka on Feb. 19th before district play begins the following week. Park Hill is on course to be slotted as the number two seed behind Liberty.