Lady Trojans look to surprise

After having two seasons averaging around a .500 record, Park Hill Girls Soccer Coach Manny Catano hopes this season will be one they can turn into a solid winning year. They’ll have some familiar faces returning for them this year, but many of the Lady Trojans will be new to the varsity level.

“We have some players that got some time last year, but we’re very young this year,” Catano said of his team’s makeup. “I don’t think we’re going to be super deep, but the first eleven will be pretty strong.”

Returning starters include senior Emma Gossett who was last year’s conference defensive MVP. Joining her will be midfielders Heather Schieber and Melani Rodriguez along with defenders Rayci Lee and Holly Maier.

Junior Michele Rupard will be in front of the net for Park Hill as she brings her athleticism and aggressiveness to the soccer field for the first team.

Marisa Manzy, Shelby Blanchard, Catherine Netwall, Dani Wilber, and freshman Sydney Hultz will also see a significant amount of playing time this year.

After tying for second in the conference last year behind Park Hill South, Catano says they are probably favored to repeat again, but the Trojans wouldn’t mind taking a shot at the title themselves.

With 55 girls coming out for the program this year compared to last season’s 42, Park Hill has used their numbers so far to focus on the heavy stuff including conditioning and fundamentals.

“We haven’t worked a whole lot on any patterns,” Catano said of their progress. “We haven’t focused on any schemes we’re going to play.”

He’d rather his team take a more composed approach to the game and focus on taking advantage of those important chances they get presented with in each game.

“We want to be able to possess and compose a possession, don’t want to hurry and then blow the cover off the ball,” Catano said. “That’s really going to be the struggle with any group by not panicking and enjoying the ball, just play.”

Park Hill will kick off the season at the Lee’s Summit Tournament featuring some of the area’s top teams. Some other tough challenges this season will be district foe Liberty and Lee’s Summit North.

“We have some new faces and a couple of players who are a bit special,” Catano said. “It’s going to be an interesting season.”

After falling just short, Girls Track hopes to hurdle competition

Eight points isn’t a lot, but for the Park Hill Girls Track team last year those eight points meant the difference between a conference championship and finishing second behind their rival, Park Hill South. There’s no doubt they’ve come back this year with goal number one clearly laid out.

“We have a strong team, we’d like to be conference champs this year,” coach Tari Garner said.

After tuning up for the preseason with a program that focuses on running form and technique, the girls have been fortunate to be outside as much as they have with the weather as bad as it has been.

“We’ve been outside a lot for this early in the season and that’s been a definite advantage,” Garner said.

Returning are several strong components from last year’s team including sophomore Kyleesha Weston who was a state competitor in sprints and just missed qualifying in the discus event. Senior Jordan Cox will once again be competing in the shotput. She also was a state qualifier last year. Juniors Angie Reagan and Helena Hudson will compete in the distance events after just missing a trip to state last year.

“We’d like to get at least one relay to qualify for state this year,” Garner said. “Just missed it on a couple last year.”

Garner believes an important part of the success of this year’s team relies on the coaching staff and their strong ability to communicate well with each other and the athletes.

“We have all of our coaches back from last year with no turnover and they’re great with communicating with each other,” Garner said. “They work with each other really well and we’ve worked to create that kind of atmosphere.”

With so many athletes participating in multiple events, many times it’s about using practice time effectively and then making sure they are at the right events in a meet that can have multiple events happening at once.

“Our hope is you’ll see leaders from Park Hill in each event and that’s our goal to make sure the kids get to the right event so they can be successful,” Garner said. “That leads to the team being successful across the board."

Boys Track will compete with mix of talented athletes

Park Hill’s Boys Track team will soon be off to the races as they focus on building upon their 2nd place conference finish last year. Although they return several talented athletes from last year’s team, not all necessarily seniors, they’ll look to both young and old in their pursuit of taking the top spot at conference this year.

“We are still a pretty young team, although we have some seniors that will also contribute,” Gourley said about the makeup of his group.

State champion long jumper Trace Norfleet will defend his title as a junior, but won’t be able to compete until mid-season as he fights a bulging disk injury. Nick Smith also returns as a junior in the shot put. He was a state qualifier and finished 8th in last year’s championship. In addition to Norfleet and Smith, the Trojans will look to some other key areas of their team for support. Junior Luke Bossert has looked sharp so far in the pole vault. Senior Jack Pearl will take the lead in the discus. James Leach and Ricardo Garcis will be strong distance runners for the Trojans while you can expect to see some speed from De’Rion Rambo in sprints. Gourley was particularly excited about his 4x100 relay team which advanced to sectionals last year.

With track focused so much on individual performances, you might find it unusual for both the teams to take an overall team approach to the season.

“Believe it or not, we’re very team oriented,” Gourley said. “We really focus on conference as the biggest meet of the season, with the concept that we rely on individuals to get that team score.”

The team concept has promoted competition, and therefore leadership, within each individual event.

“For instance, Ricardo is a distance guy so they kind of look up to him, De’Rion is a sprints guy so they look up to him,” Gourley said. “You have leaders by events and you really have to perform well by event in order to be a leader.”

Gourley emphasized the importance of getting ready and hopes his team can build momentum as the year goes on.

“It’s a three part season: getting ready to get ready, getting ready, and then the championship part when conference starts,” Gourley said.

As far as when a coach can tell whether his team is towards the top of the competition, Gourley left the book open on this year’s team by saying, “You get about three big meets under your belt and you can tell if you have a shot or not.”

Park Hill Tennis brings back dominant team

The Park Hill Boys Tennis team has fairly consistence goals from year to year. Last year’s team accomplished those goals convincingly by going undefeated in conference, went on to win the conference tournament, and then the district tournament before sending two players to state. One thing you won’t hear too often though is that their top goal is related to academics.

“Our top goal is to have the highest team GPA at Park Hill High School,” 12th year head coach Ryan Kalis said. “That’s a huge goal for these guys, every year we strive for it.”

With that in mind, it should be another exciting year for the Trojans as they return all six of their top players and hope to build on what could be deemed as a program with high expectations. Since Kalis’ first season in 1999, the Trojans have gone an impressive 119-48 and haven’t had more than four dual losses in a season since 2001.

Seniors Sam Barth and Mike Merchant will lead the way as they look to repeat their first and second place district finishes and state qualifying performances last year, this time with a state title ultimately on their minds. Both will be playing tennis in college next year. While Merchant has committed to Truman State University, Barth is currently undecided.

Brian Hillix returns for his fourth year as a varsity player along with Brian Willis, Austin Caldwell, and Michael Jones. Kalis talked about how all of his returning players have raised the level of their game since last year and he’s excited about how sharp they’ve started out this spring.

The Trojans won’t have time to relax once the season starts as they’ll be facing stiff competition from beginning to end including meetings against state champion Rockhurst, Liberty, Blue Springs South, and rival Park Hill South along with tournaments around the metro.

“We try to schedule the top teams to know where we’re at,” Kalis said of the schedule. “We’ve come away with wins against them in recent years, but it’s always close and I have a great respect for their programs.”
A simple theme of working each day to get better is what they focus on.

“110% effort = 110% success has been a theme through the years and just putting in the time, energy, and effort,” Kalis said. “You get out of it what you put into it.”

With an approach like that on the court as well as in the classroom, you can expect this Trojan Tennis team to collect more recognition this season.

Trojan Golf sports fresh faces

The Park Hill Boys Golf team will only return limited experience from last year’s team that finished 5th at districts and featured a state tournament qualifier. Coach Zach Dorrell has a young team, but is excited about the potential upside that inexperience breads.

“Inexperience is going to be biggest problem beyond the top three players,” Dorrell said. “The good thing is they’re all pretty good kids and they like to practice.”

Those top three players include senior Victor Solderholm, a foreign exchange student from Sweden, who will likely hold the top spot for the Trojans followed by Austin Dorward and Ayden Tittone, both of which split time between varsity and junior varsity competitions last year. Junior Travis Perry will hold the fourth spot while the final varsity spot has yet to be determined.

With only a few weeks under their belt in terms of practice, Dorrell says he tries to emphasize to his players the responsibility they have to improve in the offseason.

“I have them for such a short amount of time, if they’re really going to improve they need to start before the season,” Dorrell said. “I try to get the kids to buy into the idea of improving during the summer and signing up for junior tournaments."

The one area the Trojans do know they can improve on throughout the season is their approach to a game that relies so highly on mental toughness.

“Trying to get them to play within their capabilities, sometimes they try to play way above what they’re able to do. Understanding what is realistic instead of what they hope or want to shoot. A lot of kids think they can shoot it far, but they need to focus on getting to 85 before 80 or for some kids breaking that 100 mark,” Dorrell said.

Their work will be cut out for them in terms of conference and district play. Park Hill South returns a strong team while Truman brings back four of their five starters from last year, not to mention the district tournament being held at their home course, Drumm Farm.

Being untested hasn’t changed the accomplishments the Trojans have set their eyes on though.

“Our goals are always the same: do well in our own tournament, win our home matches, win conference and send an individual to state or go as a team,” Dorrell said.

Loaded with seniors, Trojans looking for big season

With eleven seniors returning from a 13-10 team last year, the Park Hill baseball team won’t need too much time to warm up this spring as they bring back a healthy amount of experience. This senior class not only has experience from last season, but many of them have been playing varsity since their sophomore year including Alex Otto at second base and Daniel Jessen at third who will be returning as third-year starters in what is shaping up to be a strong infield. Junior Adam Vanderpool is showing strong potential at first base while Austin Kepler will head up the catching duties with Jake Sobbe also seeing some time behind the plate. Other seniors likely to contribute include outfielders Nick Hughes, James Vega, and Alex Kennedy along with infielders Chris Burr, Clay Smith, Lyle Fryear and J.D. Weyer who batted .370 last season.

The only question coach Greg Reynolds hopes to answer early this season is who will be able to produce on the pitching mound for the Trojans. Solid pitching outings could take the Trojans to a higher level with the defensive experience they hope to have supporting them. One of the areas Reynolds has focused on early leading up to the first games is his team’s mental approach.

“We try to focus on the mindset you have to have every time you’re at the plate, making a pitch, or what you’re going to do when a ball gets hit to you,” Reynolds said. “One of the things that is frustrating is you can’t just flip a switch and make it happen, it takes time.”

Having been able to work with many of his players for several years, Reynolds sees it as an advantage because they know what to expect: a simple, but consistent message of being better than last year.

“That’s the good thing about being a varsity kid for three years is you’ve heard it from me for three years,” Reynolds said. “It’s not like I’m telling them something that isn’t being said to any other high school player in the state.”

In a conference and district that in some years can feature some of the state’s top competition, the Trojans will look to challenge local teams like Liberty, Oak Park, and Kearney for the top spot this year. Relying on his seasoned seniors, Reynolds thinks they have the chance to be a really good team if they maintain the right mindset.

“If they go out there and say we’ve been playing for three years and everything is going to be great, then it might not work out that way,” Reynolds said. “If they can get on a roll and really start believing in what they’re doing, then they could go a long way.”

Spring presents a variety of challenges, weather only one

Each high school sports season seems to have its own particular attitude and feeling that comes with it. Fall sports bring the excitement of a new school year with cool autumn afternoons and homecoming on the horizon while winter sports bring the competition indoors away from the cold and ice along with transitioning into the second half of the year. Heading into this spring’s athletic schedule, warm weather and an approaching summer is just one of the things on the minds of local student athletes, administrators, and fans as they head outdoors again.

After one of the hardest winters to hit the Midwest in quite some time, as if on que, the first week of March brought us long-awaited clear skies and sunshine with temperatures in the 50’s just in time for spring sports to get under way. But with the ground soaked from the winter’s continuous snow, it could be awhile until playing surfaces return to their ideal condition. Weather is just one factor that makes the spring unique for athletic directors and coaches.

“This year in particular it’s going to be awful because we don’t know when we’re going to dry out,” Park Hill Athletic Director Bill Sobbe said of the playing surfaces. “We’re probably not going to play our first couple games.”

Even before the first rounds of games come around, coaches have to make roster decisions, possibly before even stepping outdoors, which can be a difficult task when practices are held indoors or on non-playing surfaces. While the weather may delay the start of some teams’ seasons, Sobbe says they’ll make up almost every game at the varsity levels.

Although spring brings a number of things to look forward to for students and athletes, it can also bring potential headaches in the form of distractions for players and teams.

“It’s a different atmosphere because you’re coming to the end of a period. When you have the end of school, the end of seniors’ year, there’s all the excitement about finishing up,” Park Hill Athletic Director Bill Sobbe said.

Graduation and the events surrounding it, Prom, and standardized testing are just a few of the activities thrown in on top of the unpredictable weather that can throw out of sync some of the routines coaches strive to keep consistent.

“All of those things change the way kids look at spring sports,” Sobbe said. “The kids that are spring athletes they have to be able to focus through all those distractions. If they’re a true spring athlete and they want to pursue it in college, they’ve got the added pressure.”

This causes coaches to be creative and mindful when arranging practice schedules and the emphasis they place on each area of the game. Some may vary the length of practices and amount of time balanced between fundamentals and strategy or game situations in order to maintain focus.

“I think the way you go about practice is a key component of keeping them on task,” Sobbe said. “You try to keep them fresh in what they’re doing for games.”

A spring sports season can be particularly difficult for seniors going into their final weeks of high school. Their ability to stay committed throughout the season can sometimes be the difference maker for a team in a conference or district title race.

“The hardest thing to do with seniors is to get them to stay focused on the main goal, to stay together and win,” Sobbe said. “You hope you don’t have distractions in conference and districts, those couple games can swing things a different way.”

There were positive signs last week as teams hoped to at least limit one distraction in the weather, as conditions improved enough to practice outside. Although the baseball team was limited to the outfield grass and the soccer team utilized the turf football field while sharing with the track and field team, it’s better than inside.

As Sobbe noted, “You have to get out when you can because we might be the best team in the gym, but it doesn’t matter if we’re not while on grass.”