Trojans face tough stretch ahead

Park Hill football fans were treated to quite a show last Friday as the Trojans defeated North Kansas City 48-6 during Homecoming week. It was likely the last game the Trojans (4-2) will come in as such a high favorite, before they enter a stretch of games that feature the likes of top ranked teams Lee’s Summit West and Staley over the next two weeks. Park Hill will travel to the more immediate threat, Lee’s Summit West (5-1), this Friday to face a team coming off a 42-0 thumping of Truman last week. Lee’s Summit West appears to be the toughest game standing between the Trojans and a conference championship. Both teams are currently 3-0 in league play.

“Even though we don’t put as much pressure on ourselves for conference, if we win this game we’ve at least set ourselves up for a tie,” Coach Greg Reynolds said. “We need to show ourselves we can go out and play with some of the best.”

Park Hill running back Trace Norfleet produced one of his top career performances with 195 yards rushing on 18 carries resulting in four touchdowns, one of which was receiving, last Friday against North Kansas City. Norfleet started the Trojans off with touchdowns in Park Hill’s first two possessions to put them up 14-0. The first a 21 yard scamper to the end zone with the second coming on a smoothly carried out 10 yard screen pass from Nate Wilson. Fullback Jordan Wang tagged on a two yard touchdown run before Norfleet’s 40 yard dash to the end zone put Park Hill up 28-0 at the half.
Naturally inclined to run to the outside, Norfleet has worked on seeing holes available to the inside of the field over recent weeks, which has allowed him to become more of an overall threat.

“The coaches thought I started to dance too much, and not getting up field,” Norfleet said. “I like to get on the outside, but today it showed that the hole can be anywhere and it paid off tonight.”

“We’ve told him we think there are some holes inside if he just makes a cut to get downhill,” Reynolds said.
While you won’t see Norfleet as outspoken as some of his senior teammates, he’s embraced the role of leading a younger team by example as a two-year starter.

“I think leading by example is just as important as being a big talker,” Norfleet said. “I’ve learned the heart and passion of the game. We’ve got a young team and I want to live up to their expectations.”

Norfleet would tag on another touchdown of 16 yards before being taken out of the game with a 35-0 lead. An interception by Gage Wright in the third quarter set Luke Bossert up for a 22-yard touchdown reception. The Hornets did manage to score in the fourth quarter before Park Hill’s Troy Bennett dealt the last blow with his late touchdown to make the final score 49-6.

PH Swim looks for conference repeat

There comes a point in every season, no matter what the results have been, where athletes get tired. They’ve been going through the same practice routine for months not including the months of preparation leading up to the season, but the end isn’t quite in sight. It has nothing to do with a lack of passion, drive, or physical ability. It has to do with mental fatigue and the urge to reach the point in the season where the rewards of their labor can pay off.

The Park Hill boys swim and dive team is at that point now, but they only need to look to last year’s conference swim meet to remember how it can all pay off. For over a decade Park Hill had trailed Park Hill South, who had won conference titles year after year. This changed last year when Park Hill beat their rival by a single point to win their own conference championship.

“Last year at the conference meet we found out how important each person on the team is,” head coach Karl Haley said. “If one person didn’t do what they did, then it wouldn’t have happened.”

Redistricting has separated the two schools into different conferences, but the measuring stick is still in place for the Trojans even though they were able to break through last season.

“The perpetual monkey is off our back, but we’ll still see them throughout the season,” Haley said. “They’re a good team and we know if we can compete with them, we’ll be a good team too.”

This year, Park Hill has Lee’s Summit West as an obstacle to a second straight conference title. The Trojans beat the Titans in their opening meet this season by just ten points. In building up to that point, one of their more competitive meets of the year takes place next weekend in the Kansas City Classic which brings together Columbia, Springfield, and Kansas City’s top teams.

“The biggest thing for us right now is everyone is real tired, but they just have to keep swimming fast,” Haley said. “It’s a mental sport, we do all this hardcore training to build up to the last two weeks of the year and a lot of kids want to see the pay off immediately.”

The Trojans return a number of lettermen and state qualifiers from last year. Diver Toby Parker has already qualified for the state meet after significantly improving from last year.

“You could really see he wanted to do better, so he put the effort in the off season, joined a club team,” Haley said. “He has a chance (to win), but will definitely score some points.”

Ben Svoboda, Chris Greger, Matt Johnson, Matt Wagner, Sam Blacksher, and Vince Tutorino have already qualified for events in the state meet in November.

The theme is much the same for other athletes looking to clinch a spot as a state qualifier, but the overall meter of success midway through the season is where they were last year at this time.

“As a coach you always expect more, but we’re past where we were a year ago so that’s what we’re looking for,” Haley said.

Fall Roundup: September 26 - October 2

Park Hill Softball
Park Hill softball has seen a busy stretch of games over the final two weeks of the season as they've gone 3-3 to improve to 10-13 on the year before heading into district play. During that time, Park Hill lost a close 1-0 game against conference member Lee's Summit West. They then traveled to Columbia for the Hickman Kewpie Classic where they defeated the host school 5-3 with some clutch hitting from Bethany Sullinger, Samantha Snodgrass, and Paige Downs along with Mackenzie Porter retired nine of the last ten batters. Falling in the next game 11-2 to Blue Springs South, the Trojans came back to beat Blair Oaks in extra innings 3-2 before falling in their final Classic game to St. Dominick's 12-4. Late last week, Park Hill thumped North Kansas City 20-4 as the bats came alive and Porter added her ninth win of the season. Park Hill starts district play this week as the four seeded playing Staley, a rematch of last year's district championship game. If the Trojans win they'll go on to play top seeded Kearney in the semi final round.

Park Hill Soccer
Park Hill defeated Lee's Summit West with penalty kicks last week 1-1. Matt Russell scored the only goal in regulation. After no scoring took place in overtime, the Trojans won 4-3 in the penalty kick round. Traveling to St. Joe Central, the Trojans came home with a 3-1 win with two goals from Cole Walker and another from David Zdvorak. They'll participate in the Park Hill South Panther Classic all this week before facing Ruskin and Rockhurst next week. The game against Rockhurst will be a rematch of the upset Park Hill pulled when they beat soccer powerhouse Rockhurst on their home field. Park Hill is now 11-2-1 on the season.
Park Hill Volleyball
Park Hill Volleyball pulled out two conference wins last week as they went 2-1. After starting off the week with a tough loss at Blue Springs (25-14, 25-10), the Trojans handedly beat Rusking 25-16, 25-16 and St. Joe Central 25-21, 25-13 to improve to 12-10-1. Jenny Riddle and Ashlea Williams had 7 kills a piece against Ruskin while Alyssa Moran's 10 kills and Halley Knudson's 8 digs led Park Hill past St. Joe Central. This week they'll play Lee's Summit West and Truman.

Park Hill Girls Golf
The Park Hill Girl’s Golf Team placed third out of 11 teams in the district tournament with a team score of 396. Four of their five golfers advanced to the sectional competition to be held this week. Anna Kloeppel placed third overall with an 86. Kloeppel was All-District First Team. The other sectional qualifiers were Stephanie Atkinson, Samantha Brunker, and Bailey Warlen.

Park Hill Girls Cross Country
The Trojan cross country team continues to make strides as they placed ninth out of 26 teams at the KC Metro Classic at Ray-Pec last weekend. Kim Rau placed eleventh individually with a time of 19:29 in the 5k race. Brook Bischof (36th), Maggie Lanham (56th), Joanna Grauberger (67th) and Maddie Bischoff (97th) finished off the Park Hill team. Over 180 runners participated in the race.