Do It All

Junior Jessica Lee of Park Hill South and senior Zach Anderson of Park Hill may not know each other, but they find themselves in an ever shrinking class of athletes known for, among other things, their flexibility, talent, and passion: the three-sport athlete. Once a more common title for kids playing for nothing more than love of the game, three-sport athletes are becoming a rare breed among teenagers who are increasingly deciding to specialize and excel in one sport. In fact, it’s become so rare that three-sport participants at Park Hill South receive an award each year to symbolize their unique status.

Many athletes are currently wrapping up a first or second sport this spring to conclude the school year, but athletes like Lee and Anderson are concluding a nine month marathon of practices and games, a path which requires concentration and a huge amount of dedication.

“At times, there are struggles because you want to focus on one thing, but you can’t and have to be thinking about all three at all times,” said Anderson, who played varsity football, basketball, and now baseball for the Trojans.

Young children often dabble and even come to enjoy playing a number of different sports in their early years. As their skills become more developed and their competitive mindset grows stronger, the desire to become better takes priority. More time, more practice, and more specialized training is required. With this added emphasis, it is thought that commitment to other sports needs to be sacrificed, which many times lead to an athlete withdrawing from those sports all together. It’s a difficult choice, one that tends to be influenced by club coaches, parents, and even teammates with their eyes on the future.

“The idea of getting an athletic scholarship to college seems to be the number one goal for everybody,” Reynolds said. “With that in mind, there are more people tugging at athletes at a younger age. It sometimes happens before they even get here (to high school). It could be from an AAU coach, a tournament team baseball coach. It could be a bunch of different people telling you to specialize.”

“I know my coaches have talked to me before about wanting me to specialize in their sport, so it’s hard to tell them I’m still invested in all of them,” said Lee, who plays varsity softball, basketball, and soccer at Park Hill South. “With school, it’s also a big balance.”

Three-sport athletes not only face pressure from coaches to specialize, they also face the challenge of meeting the needs of each sport in order to continue to play at a high level. This especially applies to the summer months when athletes condition the most and make some of their greatest improvements. It continues throughout the school year where only days separate the transition from the end of one season to the beginning of another.

“It’s tough to keep up with the skills everyone else is keeping that do specialize,” Lee said. “In the summer, I have summer leagues where each day of the week is dedicated to a different sport.”

“I just take it day by day like anyone else. It’s all three sports in one day. Football in the morning, basketball in the afternoons, and baseball at night. Just staying in touch with all three every day,” Anderson said. “I’ll come out of basketball practice and maybe go hit baseballs for a little bit or after football go shoot some hoops. You just have to keep it all together.”

Reynolds, who coaches football and baseball, says the decrease in three-sport athletes also comes from the high demands each sport requires of its players. Each sport has their own offseason workouts to keep up with other competing programs in the area.

“As a two-sport coach, I understand that pretty well. At the same time, we’re asking a lot of kids,” Reynolds said. “Baseball is a very difficult sport to be a three-sport athlete in because you have to be playing in the summer if that’s your top sport. But summertime is really important for other sports like football, basketball, and wrestling too though.”

A strong proponent of having athletes participate in multiple sports, Reynolds understands the hardships of meeting each sports’ high demands and believes it comes down to an understanding between coaches and players to make it work for everyone.

“I think good coaches and good programs work with each other to understand three-sport athletes are going to be doing other things sometimes, but at the same time you’re getting pushed so many different ways,” Reynolds said. “Anymore you have to be able to give (as a player and coach) and understand that.”

Lee, who only added her third sport last spring when she took on the goalkeeping duties at Park Hill South, sees her three-sport experience as a positive and proudly deflects anyone trying to influence her otherwise.

“I tell them I’m in high school and I want to try everything. I’m not going to specialize yet. If it happens that I play in college, then so be it, but high school is a time to do what you can,” Lee said. “It’s hard, but you make three times the friends and experience. Plus, sports build so much character you don’t even realize sometimes.”

While Lee has not ruled out any future possibilities with another year of high school left, Anderson will graduate this month and continue his athletic career in college having the opportunity to play baseball and possibly even football, maintaining his multi-sport status at the next level.

“My philosophy is you can get a scholarship in anything or play whatever sport you want to play. It may not be a full-ride, but you can play at the next level,” Reynolds said. “I’ve never had a coach come in to recruit a kid and tell me they need to not have played any other sport. They actually want to see guys that have done more than one thing.”

Proof positive that the commitment, energy, and flexibility of three-sport athletes can overcome the temptation of specialization and put them on a path towards college athletics just the same as any.

Spring Roundup: Apr. 30 - May 7

Park Hill Baseball
…comes into the final week of their regular season with a 15-6 record after three wins last week. Logan Sloniker’s homerun along with two hit, one RBI performances from Dalton Moats, Zach Anderson, and Jake Jones led Park Hill to a 4-3 win over Kearney in extra innings. Zach Tompson and Anderson led the Trojans to a 12-7 victory over Platte County with two hits a piece accounting for seven RBI’s, sending a senior class of 11 out on top. Park Hill ended the week with a 3-1 victory over North Kansas City Friday.

The three wins secured a two seed for the Trojans in the district field, who will take on St. Joe Central this Saturday in the first round of district play. Park Hill will play at 2:30 p.m. A win would set up a showdown later that day against Staley or Liberty North at 4:30 p.m. for a right to play in the district title game Wednesday, May 16th.

Coach Greg Reynolds is confident in his pitching staff heading into postseason play, but believes a reinvigorated offense could give the Trojans an added advantage.

“Looking from seeds 2-6, anyone can beat anyone. It comes down to pitching,” Reynolds said. “We’re hitting the ball more on a line more than we have been, but if we only eke out a couple runs, we’re going to be putting pressure on our pitching staff.

Park Hill South Girls Track
…repeated as conference champions in the Suburban White Conference meet. Compiling 155.5 team points, the Panthers surpassed the second place team, William Chrisman, by an impressive 56.5 points. First place finishes for Park Hill South included Audrey Rothers in the 110 hurdles, Erica Guzman in the 1600 meter run, and the 4x800 relay team of Erin Stump, Lizzy Jurries, De De De O’Toole, and Madeline Homoly. Besting the school record she set earlier in the season, Morgan Keesee placed second in the shot put. Also, coming in with second place finishes were Rothers in the 300 hurdles and high jump, Homoly in the 800 meter run, Blake Reser in the triple jump, and Kelsey Sadler and Taylor Fortuna who tied for second in the pole vault.

Park Hill South Boys Track
…took fifth in their conference meet with 54 team points. Leading performances came in the form of second place finishes from Joe Spencer in the pole vault and Cody Kildow in the discus. Kildow also took fourth in the shot put while Alex Augspurg placed third in the high jump.

Park Hill South Girls Soccer
…Park Hill South got back on the winning track last week with three wins against Winnetonka (9-0), Park Hill (4-1), and Oak Park (4-0). They come into this week 14-3-2 as they prepare for a first round district matchup still to be determined early next week.

Park Hill Girls Soccer
…is prepping for district play this week with one final game against St. Joe Central on Thursday before starting district play against Oak Park on Saturday. Park Hill is coming off a week where they defeated Ruskin 10-0 before falling to Park Hill South 4-1 to end the week. The Trojans, now at 10-13 on the year, have been hovering around the .500 mark for most of the season, but Coach Manny Catano says now is the time for his team to be playing their best.

“It’s really about stressing our work ethic and amping it up for our last two games before district play,” Catano said. “It’s important to work harder than we have all year, anything can happen in the playoffs.”

With a young group of players, he says it’s difficult for his team to see how focus and hard work can sneak
up on more talented teams at this time of year.

“Talent can only get you so far, but if you don’t work at it you leave yourself open to vulnerabilities,” Catano said.

If Park Hill wins Saturday, then earn a matchup with the top-seeded Liberty Blue Jays on Monday, May 14th.

Park Hill South Boys Tennis
…lost a close 5-4 competition to Oak Park to begin last week before blowing out Belton 9-0 on senior night. They received the two seed in Class 2, District 15 and were competing against Winnetonka in the first round of district team play at Park Hill South as The Citizen went to press Tuesday night hoping to play for the title Wednesday afternoon. Individual play takes place over the weekend for an opportunity to advance to sectionals next week.

Park Hill Boys Tennis
…took second as a team at the Brandon McPherson Doubles Tournament last week. Park Hill had two third place doubles teams. They were Mike Jones/Louis Reinmiller and Chris To/Noah Higgins-Dunn. The Trojans clinched a one seed in the Class 2, District 16 bracket this week and were in semi-final play as The Citizen went to press Tuesday night.

Park Hill Boys track
…took second in their conference meet last week, falling just nine points short of Lee’s Summit West for the conference title. Top performances for Park Hill included first place finishes from Cain Winebrenner in the 800 meter run, Steven Clopine in the high jump, and the 4x800 relay team of Riley Fahrenholz, Kyle Pudenz, Nate Huffer, and Joey Walton.

Park Hill Girls Track
…placed third last week in the conference meet with 73 team points. The Trojans took first place in the 4x800 relay with Katie Ebbrecht, Joanna Grauberger, Chelsey Lewis, and Brooke Bischof. Runners-up included Stephanie Lane in the discus along with Taylor Cofield and Bailey Cation who tied for second place in the triple jump. Kim Rau placed fourth in the 1600 meter race.

Park Hill South Baseball
…will be heading into district place as the five seed to take on North Kansas City in the first round of district play this Saturday at 11 a.m. They come into this week after going 2-1 last week with a 1-0 over that same North Kansas City team 1-0 behind a solid pitching performance from Luke Covault. Covault threw a complete game, three-hitter. Joel Burkhart knocked in the Panthers’ only run in the bottom of the sixth inning. It sets up a postseason matchup that features two comparable teams.

“It will be a very tough game. Both teams are pretty even. But they have a very good pitching staff and a couple of good hitters,” Coach Josh Walker said.

Later on in the week, Park Hill South stomped William Chrisman 12-3 with offensive production coming from Cody Shopper’s home run and Eddie Sola’s two hits. Corey Land recorded the victory with eight strikeouts in five innings. Falling 10-8 Friday afternoon, the Panthers were disappointed in the four errors and six walks they gave up. Mounting a rally in the seventh, Park Hill South scored five runs and had the winning run on first base before the last out was recorded.

“We fought back well but we were digging ourselves out of a big hole with the walks and errors,” Walker said of the loss.

Park Hill South Boys Golf
…Park Hill South will have a familiar duo representing it in the Class 4 state golf tournament this weekend after qualifying in last week’s sectional round in Independence. Both Matt Barry and Nick Schleisman will return as the Panthers’ two repeat state qualifiers.

Barry, who finished tied for 11th place with a sectional score of +5, and Schleisman, who tied for 16th place with a score of +8, are looking to improve on their state performances from last year that left them towards the bottom of the field (Barry 77th, Schleismn 100th).

“They both had gone through the pressure of the State Tournament last year,” Coach Larry Torgerson said. “This year both are aware of what happened last year and should know how to handle the pressure at their second state experience.”

Despite qualifying five golfers to appear in the sectional round, as a team, Park Hill South took fifth place with a score of 322. Austin Dorrell, who came up just short of qualifying last year for the state tournament, barely missed the cut once again with a score of +9.

Park Hill Boys Golf
…Park Hill’s two sectional qualifiers ended their season last week as Adam Meisch and Colby Buehler did not make the cut to advance to state. Meisch came in 44th place with a score of +22 while Buehler ends his senior season with a 50th place finish and score of +9.