Park Hill nine off to strong start

Strong pitching keeps a minor losing streak from stretching into a major one.

Case in point: Park Hill’s 4-0 start to the season was snapped last week with a 9-8 extra inning loss to Lee’s Summit West. The Trojans dropped a second in a row to Blue Springs the following day 4-1 before ending the week with two wins against Ruskin 12-3 and Truman 3-0.

Park Hill’s 6-2 start to the season has largely been credited to a strong pitching staff, which has been able to maximize their strikeouts while limiting their walks. With strong pitching, the Trojans believe they’ll be able to muster enough defense behind it to be a competitor when the district tournament rolls around in May.

“Our pitching has been real well. We’ve got four guys, three of which we needed to come through for us as starters. All of them are a little different,” Coach Greg Reynolds said. “We’ve got a plan of attack for our staff, so we’re going to stick with that. If you have three really good starters, you’ve got a good chance in districts.

Marcus Cross, Dalton Moats, Logan Sloniker, and Nick Jones have seen a lot of innings for the Trojans along with several other reliable pitchers from time to time. While the Trojan pitchers are tallying up good numbers in terms of strikeouts, the Park Hill offense has been limiting their strikeouts and hopes to put it all together for a strong one-two punch moving forward.

“We haven’t gotten all three of our guys hot at the same time with our three, four, and five hitters yet,” Reynolds said of Zach Thompson, Zach Anderson, and Nick Jones, who serve as the heart of Park Hill’s lineup.

One of the keys they believe has led to their early season success has been the quality weather so far this spring which allowed them to use the field more than they normally would in March.

“The biggest thing is we got to get onto the field in the preseason and actually see some live pitching and go through situations,” Reynolds said. “It makes everyone feel good; it brings a more positive thought process. We’ve had a chance to see what we had early.”

Having played a number of district opponents already and seeing positive results, the Trojans hope their game develops even further and gives them a shot at a desirable one or two seed in the district tournament.

“I don’t think we’ve playing anyone you could say is a bad team this year, but probably not anyone you could call a great team either,” Reynolds said. “We’re probably competing for one of the top seeds right now, but everyone is real close, so there are a lot of games to be played still.”

Park Hill plays North Kansas City and Smithville this week before beginning the Northland Tournament next week.

Hidden strength: Deep bench has helped PH South soccer team deal with injuries

Injuries are often a four-letter word to most coaches that can change the momentum of a promising season. But for Park Hill South, who came into the season with a strong and talented group of returning seniors, the handful of injuries they’ve suffered in the early season has allowed them to discover the extent to which their depth lies. That depth is something Coach Joe Toigo and his Panthers will undoubtedly be able to use towards their advantage as they head into the heart of their conference schedule.

“We’re a little beat up right now with a few injuries. Other kids are stepping up though, and getting some playing time,” Toigo said. “Our depth is helping us out. Our younger kids are getting more minutes than we thought and they’re getting better.

One example of this comes by way of senior Haley Shelton, a star defender for the Panthers, who suffered an injury earlier in the season before coming back to the lineup last week. In her absence, Toigo noticed the development of a strong playing chemistry between Ashton Anderson and Alysa Guzman in the back field. Not wanting to disturb that balance, Toigo asked Shelton to play up front as an attacker, something she had not done previously in her high school career. The results have been positive.

“We’ve always had her (Shelton) in the back to help us out, but we didn’t want to mess with the chemistry those other two had developed, so we asked Haley to be an attacker,” Toigo said. “Turns out she is a player that can attack, but we’d never asked her to. Ashton and Alysa have nailed down the center back positions. Now we’re using more of Haley’s talents in other places.”

Attacking is exactly what the Panthers have been doing most of the season as they’ve put together a 5-1 start outscoring opponents 34-9 including two shutouts last week against Raytown South (2-0) and Winnetonka (10-0). Their lone loss came in the opening week of the season to Olathe East 8-4.

“Scored four goals and lost, that doesn’t happen very much. We’ve given up eight goals all season, those were it,” Toigo said.

While the Panthers did finally give up another goal to Fort Osage to end last week, it wasn’t enough to overcome Park Hill South as they rolled 4-1. Courtney Claassen (10), Abbey Johnson (4), Katie Riojas (5), and Shay Jackson (5) have led the offense in goals this year against teams mostly focused on overloading their defense in hopes of keeping the Panthers at bay.

“Most teams we play will probably keep six to seven players back and they don’t come up, they stay back.” Toigo said. “We’ll see that most of the season.”

The Panthers were playing undefeated Raytown as The Citizen went to print Tuesday night, but a win would put Park Hill South ahead in the conference and give them momentum moving forward.

“If we take care of business this week, we’re in the driver’s seat for conference,” Toigo said.

They play at William Chrisman Friday night.

Spring Roundup: April 2-7

Park Hill South Girls Track

…has a new school record holder in the two-mile run as Lizzy Jurries clocked in a time of 12:15 as part of an across the board effort that led the Panthers to a third place overall finish at the Kearney Invitational last week. Tori Kerr took home first place in the discus while Morgan Keesee placed third in both the discus and shot put. Other third place finishes included Blake Reser in the triple and long jumps, Hannah Carlson in the 300 hurdles, Audrey Rothers in the 110 hurdles and the 4x200 relay performance from Jordan Hammond, Reser, Hannah Brown, and Sydney Minnis.

The Panthers will next see action when they host the Park Hill South Invitational on April 20th

Park Hill Boys Track

…broke out last week at the Jerry Crews Relays accumulating 127 points and second place finish out of eight teams. A number of athletes contributed throughout the field. Joe Walton racked up first place finishes in both the 800 and 1600 along with a third place finish in the 3200. Devon Belew in the 400 and Cain Winebrenner in the 1600 also racked up points for Park Hill with their third and fourth place respective finishes.

In the relays, Park Hill came up with three straight second place finishes in the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x400 relays. Lavonte Hickman, Corey Welch, Mike Williams, Kenyatte Harris, Jon Saucedo, John Harris, Anthony Arens, Dondrell Hardiman, Riley Fahrenholz, and Belew all participated in one or more of those races.

Also seeing significant success last week was Steven Clopine who finished third in the high jump and second in the pole vault along with Dondrell Hardiman (second in 300 hurdles) and Neal Sampson (second in the long jump).

Park Hill will next see action in the Gary Parker Invitational this Friday at Blue Springs.

Park Hill Girls Track

….saw significant improvement from their first meet of the season when they finished fifth out of eight teams with 67 team points last week at the Jerry Crews Relays at Staley. Highlighting the meet for the Trojans was sophomore Kim Rau who finished third in the 1600 and fourth in the 3200. She was also part of the 4x800 relay team including Katie Ebbrecht, Joanna Grauberger, and Brooke Bischof, which took third place. Also with good performances were Eleanor Parrot who placed third in the pole vault, Bailey Cation who just barely missed out on a second place finish in the high jump before taking fourth, and the 4x100 relay team of Quanisha Smith, Anesia Jamerson, Onjhana Davis, and Madison Ideker who took third place.

They will next compete Friday in the Gary Parker Invitational at Blue Springs High School.

Park Hill Boys Golf

Did not fare well in the hosting of their home tournament, the Darren Floyd Invitational, last week as the Trojans placed 11^th out of nearly 18 teams. Grant Brown led the Trojans with a 90 on the day as Park Hill accumulated a team score of 377.

They’re scheduled to play Park Hill South Wednesday afternoon at The National before going to the Liberty Invitational at Shoal Creek Thursday.

Park Hill South Boys Golf

…was in action on several fronts last Thursday as one squad participated in the Park Hill Darren Floyd Invitational while the other hosted Pembroke Hill and Truman at home. Matt Gandy led the Panthers with a 90 in the Floyd Invitational as the Panthers took tenth place. Nick Sobba’s 38 on nine holes earned him a medal as Park Hill South defeated Pembroke Hill (167) and Truman (179) with a team score of 158. They host Park Hill next week before taking part in the Liberty Invitational.

Park Hill South Boys Tennis

… made easy work of William Chrisman last week as they dominated the Bears in a 9-0 victory. Zack Royle defeated Nick Hurt 10-0 in top singles play while Royle teamed up with Jim Geary in doubles to beat Hurt and Shane Wilson 10-2.

The Panthers are scheduled to play North Kansas City and Fort Osage this week.

Park Hill South Baseball

…had several tough losses last week as they fell to Belton 10-0 in five innings before losing to Raytown South 4-1 and Liberty 9-3 later in the week. Max Laney accounting for the Panthers only run and just one of the team’s two hits against the Cardinals while Ty Elley hit a two-run home run against Liberty. Park Hill South is now 2-7 on the season and will play Winnetonk and Raytown this week.

Park Hill Girls Soccer

… won two impressive games last week against North Kansas City (6-0) and Ruskin (14-0). Park Hill improved to 3-5 on the year with the two victories. One thing coach Manny Catano hopes the Trojans can capitalize on more in the coming weeks is converting on scoring opportunities.

“We’re creating a lot of chances, we’re just not finishing them,” Catano said.

Regina Bolin, who scored three goals against North Kansas City, has been a pleasant surprise as one of their top goal scorers for Park Hill this season.

“Reggie is probably doing better than we expected coming into the season,” Catano said. “She was projected a starter, but not up front, she’s one of those players that can play a number of positions.”

They’ll next see action in the Smithville Tournament over the weekend.