Park Hill South girls continue on winning path

Park Hill South girls basketball has blazed trails through the competition so far this season with an impressive 18-3 record. With few blemishes on their record, the Panthers came into last week’s matchup with undefeated Truman tied for a share of the conference leader board. It was a chance to gain what would likely ensure a share of the conference title, pending a second matchup February 21^st in the last regularly scheduled game of the season.

Over-sized by the Patriots, Park Hill South game planned to try to use their guard play and quickness to pick the pace of the game up. It worked well through one half of play with the Panthers taking a six point lead into the second quarter and a single point lead going into halftime, but Truman would bounce back in full force in the second half. It was enough to propel them to a 57-44 win over Park Hill South. Madeline Homoly led the Panthers in scoring with 14 points.

“They’re lineup is huge and we’ll look forward to the 21^st for the rematch,” Park Hill South coach Jenny Orlowski, “We learned a lot and we’ll see what happens.”

Hoping for a regain their winning ways, the Panthers bounced back with tenacity against Park Hill as they jumped on the Trojans early with a strong defensive effort which helped them build a 12-4 lead after the first quarter.

“We knew we needed to have a good defensive night and we did for the most part,” Orlowski said.

They would build a 42-23 lead going into the final quarter before expanding their advantage to a 56-28 final score. Homoly and Anna Courtney lead in scoring with 11 points apiece. Samantha Roy added 10 points of her own. Orlowski was glad they regained their winning way and was hoping her Panthers could bounce back at a time of the year where momentum is everything.

“Just regaining momentum and enthusiasm,” Orlowski said. “When you get to this point in the season it’s hard to regain that sometimes.”

While the Lady Panthers see success on the court, they’re also seeing success in the classroom. All five starters for Park Hill South last week, which include Homoly, Courtney, Roy, Courtney Claassen, and Jessica Lee have a cumulative grade point average of 4.0

“They’re pretty smart players most of the time and that translates over to the court,” Orlowski said. “They have great basketball IQ.”

Park Hill South (18-3) hosts St. Joe Central on Thursday night before facing Ruskin and Truman to close out their regular season next week. Park Hill falls to 3-17 and finishes their schedule out against Lee’s Summit West and St. Joe Central on February 21^st.

Park Hill South pulls away from Park Hill for 14th win

The Park Hill and Park Hill South girls basketball teams came into Monday night’s game having two different kinds of seasons. Park Hill with their 2-11 record has a roster sporting a young group of inexperienced varsity players while Park Hill South’s 13-1 record represented a talented squad coming off an Oak Park Tournament title last week.

For one quarter though, they were almost equals. The Trojans hit some early shots and came out with a burst of aggressive energy where they swarmed the Panthers defensively to gain a 9-3 advantage early in the game. Park Hill South would refocus and battle back at the end of the first quarter as Erica Timmerman banked-in a three point basket at the buzzer to give the Panthers their first lead of the game 11-10.

The Panthers wouldn’t look back as they would steadily increase their lead the rest of the way leading 27-15 at halftime before cruising to a final score of 62-34. South’s Madeline Homoly led all scorers with 19 points.

“I thought our energy level was good, we came out aggressive, then the wind kind of came out of our sails,” Park Hill coach Aaron Neeser said. “We executed, played hard, did the little things, then we just got tired. 20 turnovers kind of does that to you.”

Park Hill will prep for the North Kansas City Tournament next week with a conference game against Ruskin on Thursdasy.

“We’re getting better, little by little,” Neeser said. “The young pups as I call them, are taking steps towards getting them to where they need to be.”

With the victory, Park Hill South improved their record to 14-1 on the season and is looking forward to conference play where they will battle an undefeated Truman team twice in coming weeks. Coach Jenni Orlowski says taking the season one game at a time has really helped keep their focus away from their record.

“I think when we were 12-1, it kind of hit me at that point,” Orlowski said. “Until then, we’ve kind of had our nose to the grindstone. I haven’t been 14-1 as a coach, so this is a first. We’re starting to get some press, we’re ranked 10^th in the state. I have a great group of kids that work hard and take things game to game.”

It hasn’t been without its challenges though as the Panthers lost guard Mackenzie Stout for the season earlier in the year, which has left them with the feeling they have been shorthanded.

“We’ve had some challenges, when we lose Mackenzie,” Orlowski said. “We kind of feel like an underdog since we’re short one that we planned on having.”

Even with a potent offense, the Panthers have relied on their defense for strength and as their record improves it will be valuable in closer games down the stretch of their season.

“Defense has produced offense for us. We’ve probably got the quickest guards out of all the teams we’ve played so far,” Orlowski said. “For every win you have, there’s more on the line. You don’t want to lose, but as you get more wins there is more pressure that comes with that.”

Park Hill South plays Lee’s Summit West before competing in the North Kansas City Tournament next week.

Winter Preview: Park Hill Girls Basketball

There are only a few contributors left from last year’s 16-11 team that made an appearance in the district title game. Losing seven of their top players to graduation or transfer, the Lady Trojans come into this season with only three players with varying levels of varsity experience. For the most part, Coach Aaron Neeser says his team is young and inexperienced, meaning each game will be an opportunity to learn and improve.

Sophomore Katie Reichert’s three points per game represent the only scoring Park Hill will return. Reichert along with senior Davon Thomas and junior Regina Bolin are the players who have played at the varsity level before. Neeser says while Thomas and fellow seniors Jaeden Cordes and Darion Peterson have done a good job of leading the team so far in practice, they will be just like the rest of the team in looking to overcome their lack of experience.

“They’ve been working hard. They do everything we ask them to do, there’s just not a lot of experience,” Neeser said. “Until we get more experience under our belt, we’re going to have a hard time being competitive.”

Speed is one thing the Trojans hope they can use this season to attack teams on defense with, especially since most of the lineup is made up of guards.

“We don’t have very much height, but we do have some speed so we’re going to try to use that to the best of our ability,” Neeser said. “We’re going to try trapping a little and spread it out, so we can maybe get a few easy layups.”

Park Hill will have a whole host of players in different roles as the season goes on including sophomores Murphy Crowl, Kaylyn Magee, and Jaleiyah Gibbs. As their coach said, we won’t know much about this year’s Lady Trojan squad until their first couple games.

“Until you turn on the lights, you can’t ever be sure what you have or what their potential might be,” Neeser said.

Park Hill starts the season off with some key early season matchups with North Kansas City (Dec. 6^th), Platte County (Dec. 10^th), and Kearney (Dec. 13^th).

Park Hill girls fade against tough Staley squad

Coming into the fourth quarter of their district semifinal against St. Joe Central, the Park Hill Lady Trojans found themselves down 11 points. Mounting an impressive come from behind effort anchored by Kyleesha Weston, who had 20 points on the night, Park Hill edged the Indians 37-36 to advance to last Friday’s district title game against Staley.

The energy and momentum from the previous night’s effort must have carried into the first quarter as Park Hill held Staley, one of the city’s top teams, scoreless for the first five and a half minutes of the game, building a modest 7-0 lead. That’s when Staley turned on the burners though, as they finished the quarter on a 9-0 run, taking the lead, one they would not give up.

 “We got off to a really good start. Probably had a little bit of the home crowd behind us,” Park Hill Coach Aaron Neeser said. “Had some bad possessions at the end of the first quarter and beginning of the 2^nd quarter, they (Staley) settled in and couldn’t ever really get them out of their rhythm.”

Park Hill would continue to battle, but would be unable to overcome Staley, who was able to hit some big shots in the second half to smother any comeback efforts and go onto a 52-37 victory.

“We got beat on the boards and gave up too many second chance opportunities,” Neeser said. “They’re a really good team.”

Park Hill ends their season with a 16-11 record, a successful improvement for an outgoing senior class and foundation builder for Neeser, who concludes his second season at the head of the program.

Park Hill girls upset Park Hill South in NKC opener

The Park Hill Lady Trojans pulled off a mild upset of rival Park Hill South to kick off the North Kansas City tournament Monday afternoon by a score of 63-46. While Park Hill was aided by their leading scorer Kyleesha Weston, the difference maker could have been Bethany Sullinger's 24 points, 18 of which came from three-point range.

"We played really well, limited their offensive rebounds and made shots," Park Hill Coach Aaron Neeser said. "Beth shot the ball with a lot of confidence."

Park Hill South was led in scoring with ten points a piece from Anna Courtney and Morgan Keesee. Park Hill improves to 10-8 on the season while Park Hill South falls to 12-7.

Park Hill girls welcome return of senior leader

When senior guard Kyleesha Weston suffered a concussion towards the end of December, the Park Hill Lady Trojans lost their leading scorer and top defender. In a three game stretch leading up to Monday night’s game against St. Joe Central, Weston was forced to watch the team she considered her own go 1-2 including a 51-22 thumping from Truman in a conference game last week.

Stepping up for Park Hill to fill the void was senior guard Bethany Sullinger who led the team in scoring with 11 points per game during the three game stretch including a 17 point game against Liberty North in a 47-38 victory. K.K. Rettinger also stepped up contributing an average of eight points a game.

While Coach Aaron Neeser says Weston’s absence did not change the overall team philosophy and how they approach the game, he realizes the difficulties they encounter without her on the court because of her ability to not only score, but draw multiple defenders and find open teammates who can.

“I don’t think our philosophy changed,” Neeser said. “She just opens the floor up for us. She’s a player that makes everyone around us better. We just had to work a little harder to score.”

Probably most frustrated about the concussion was Weston herself, who couldn’t wait to get back on the floor Monday night with her teammates.

“When you sit there at practice on the sidelines, you want everything for your team, but you want most to get back into the game,” Weston said.

She came back in a big way, leading both teams in scoring with 22 points. Despite being down throughout the game and never holding a lead, the Trojans gave St. Joe Central a run for their money battling back from nine points down to narrow the lead to two with just seconds remaining. Unable to convert a put-back on a missed free throw left Park Hill on the short end of a 58-56 loss.

Even with the loss Park Hill is ready to move forward with the second half of their season and focus on the two things that have troubled them throughout the season.

“It wasn’t only good for me (to return), but good for my teammates because I’m able to get them open,” Weston said. “I’d say fouling and getting in there to get rebounds. If we rebound, we win games like this. If we do that we show who the better team is.”

Now at 4-6 on the season and 0-2 in conference, the Lady Trojans travel to Lee's Summit West Thursday before participating in the Basehor-Linwood Tournament next week.

Lady Panthers pull out close win over Trojans

Pre-Christmas high school basketball isn’t always pretty as teams try to find their early season identities, but streaks of potential greatness can be seen at intervals for what their best might look like come February. This was the case Monday night when the Park Hill South Lady Panthers took on the Park Hill Lady Trojans.

South jumped out to an 11-2 lead early in the first quarter before the Trojans narrowed the lead to 13-10 going into the second. Park Hill narrowed the margin further to 23-22 going into halftime. A key matchup was Park Hill’s Dominique Broadus challenge to South’s freshman center Madeline Homoly. Homoly held her own with 14 points. Both played a big role pulling in rebounds in a rough game under the basket.

“Dominique is good at posting up down low and turning towards the basket while Madeline is a little quicker and can step out of the post,” South coach Jenny Orlowski.

Park Hill would jump ahead in the third as Kyleesha Weston’s scoring put the Trojans ahead for the first time. Up 30-26 with three minutes to play in the third quarter, Weston was called for her fourth foul and showed a slightly emotional disapproval resulting in a technical and her fifth foul, ending her evening. She finished with 13 points. With their top scorer out, guard Bethany Sullinger filled Weston’s void with several key baskets. Sullinger led all scorers with 16 points. Park Hill led 36-28 going into the fourth quarter.

“She was stepping up for a teammate,” Park Hill coach Aaron Neeser said of Sullinger.

Both teams wavered in their free throw shooting down the stretch, but it was a pair of baskets caused by full-court pressure that turned the game in the Panthers’ favor. On the back of aggressive defense and well-balanced offense, South took the lead with three minutes to play in the game, never relinquishing it. A one basket game until the end, Park Hill’s three-point attempts fell short in the closing seconds giving Park Hill South a 52-49 victory. Samantha Roy also scored 14 points.

Both coaches admitted room for improvement and mirrored each others’ concerns.

“I’m glad we’re at 5-4, but we have a lot of things to work on during break,” Orlowski said.

“They (South) played well; I’m not going to take that away from them. We missed free throws, didn’t execute, and lost our composure. We’ve got a lot to work on,” Neeser said.

Park Hill girls will lean on strong group of seniors

By most accounts, Aaron Neeser’s first year as head coach of the Park Hill girls basketball program was going to be rough. With a young team though, he was able to make more progress in the 2010-11 than expected and led the Lady Trojans to an 11-16 season. Not what he or his players would describe as successful, but one they could use as motivation coming into this 2011-12 campaign to build towards winning basketball.

“A lot of people put the over-under at single-digits last year, but we hit 11 wins. Was it acceptable for me? No, but it was an improvement. So are the expectations high this year? Absolutely,” Neeser said. “There is a lot of enthusiasm.”

With the return of several key parts to last year’s team, Park Hill will be returning a cohesive group of six seniors including leading point scorer and future Colorado Buffalo Kyleesha Weston, guards Shelby Blanchard and Beth Sullinger, and forwards KK Rettinger, Sarah Sumpter, and Amanda Lawrence. In the mix with this groups of seniors will be returning starter and 6’ 0” center Dominique Broadus along with Davon Thomas and Regina Bolin.

“I would say our strength is chemistry and people knowing their roles,” Neeser said.

Park Hill hopes their experienced group will come with a more aggressive nature resulting in a faster playing pace and more scoring opportunities.

“We’re going to try to push the ball because we have some depth and try to get a lot of shots up. We’re going to press when we can in our man defense, but we’ve also got a couple wrinkles we can use,” Neeser said.

Overall, Neeser and the Lady Trojans are looking forward to the season ahead and will look to two key early season matchups against North Kansas City and Park Hill South to gauge how far they’ve come since last season and in the opening weeks of practice.

“I’m excited to see all the work we put in the offseason, but we know we’re not a finished product and will improve throughout the year,” Neeser said.

Trojan heading West(on)

The Park Hill Lady Trojans basketball team hasn’t even stepped on the floor for a regular season game in the 2011-2012 season yet, but one of their senior leaders and starting point guard Kyleesha Weston has already made one of the biggest moves of her senior year. Last week, Weston signed a letter of intent to play basketball next year at the University of Colorado where she’ll take her athleticism and love of defense to Boulder to battle against PAC-12 schools for the Buffaloes.

“Kyleesha’s love for the game and dedication to her sport has put her in a position to play at the next level,” Park Hill head coach Aaron Neeser said. “Colorado sees a young lady that is athletic and highly skilled with the ball.”

Being a division one basketball recruit described as ‘playing bigger than her listed height’ and being ‘the ultimate team player’, it may be hard to believe Weston has only been playing the game since eighth grade, but once she took to the game there was no looking back. She soon joined a club team, the MoKan Eclipse, to improve her skills and face tougher competition. As her mother Lisa says, Kyleesha wasn’t always one of the better players on the team.

“Kyleesha was behind most all the other players since they had all been playing basketball for years, but this didn’t stop her. She kept at it,” Lisa Weston said. “Practicing long hours, not being able to hang out with friends, missing out on proms and school functions, she was willing to do it all, in order to reach her goal.”

It was an offseason tournament in the fall before her junior season, which led her to meeting Colorado head women’s coach Linda Lappe, who had some solid advice to offer the young point guard.

“Colorado came into the picture my junior year. They told me they thought I was a great player, but that I should probably work on my dribbling. So I would go home and dribble for two hours a day,” Kyleesha said.

The words sparked motivation which produced for Park Hill last season as Weston put together an impressive resume of stats including game averages of 15.4 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals making her one of the top prospective recruits in the country.

“By June when AAU was in full force Coach Lappe came out to watch me and said she was impressed. That’s when our relationship really started to come along,” Kyleesha said. “It really just came down to having such good chemistry with the coaches and really the whole staff.”

What attracted Weston to Colorado to start with? While many who grow up watching Big 12 schools on television someday dream of playing for those same schools and despite interest from Kansas State and Missouri, Weston wanted to branch out to something different.

“Being in the different division with the PAC-12 and playing the different schools,” Weston said. “I watch basketball and the Big 12 all the time, so it was a chance to get out there and do something different.”

Getting ready to start her senior year at Park Hill, Weston says she is fortunate to have gotten her offer as early as did and have the chance to accept it before the season started.

“I wanted the decision to be less stressful during the season for me and my teammates because I didn’t want to be missing practices or games, and I just wanted to get it out of the way. I talked to my mom, dad, and coaches and they said if you’re ready to make that commitment then go for it,” Weston said.

With her decision behind her, she’ll have the chance to look forward to the future ahead while also spending time focusing on having a quality senior season with her teammates who she’s very close to

“We want to go out and play the best we can. We want to stay close as a family because we’re really tight as a team. This year we’re going to be strong and fast, just need to keep improving on that in practice. I think that would be great for this season,” Weston said.

Lady Trojans advance to semi's

It wasn’t a pretty first round district game for the Park Hill and Park Hill South girls basketball teams, but few of the recent games played between these two rivals have been. On Monday, both were hoping to advance to a second round matchup Tuesday evening with first seed Staley.

Park Hill South kept up with the Trojans throughout the first half leaving Park Hill with a 17-14 halftime advantage. Despite, not seeing a normally strong shooting performance, the Panthers had some luck in their half-court game. On the other hand, Park Hill’s full-court pressure created problems for South which allowed the Trojans to find success on the baseline against the Panthers’ zone defense.

“Our outside scoring was sketchy at best. But overall, we shot real well from the free throw line,” Park Hill South coach Jenny Orlowski said.

Park Hill instituted a 1-3-1 defense on the Panthers to start the second half looking to slow their outside shooting causing a little disruption of South’s offense. While at times, they were able to drive through the defense, their shots simply weren’t falling.

“We thought it might help us out a little bit and maybe give them some fits. It worked at times,” Park Hill coach Aaron Neeser said of the 1-3-1 defense. “We just wanted to slow down their outside shooting and keep some girls out of foul trouble.”

Throughout the third and fourth quarter, the Panther offense continued to struggle allowing Park Hill to increase their lead to as much as 12 with fewer than six minutes to play. Some timely converted free throws kept Park Hill South in the game, allowing them to attempt a comeback. A technical foul on Orlowski with 4:30 to play in the fourth quarter seemed to spark play eventually bringing the Panthers to within five points, Park Hill leading 34-29. The comeback was cut short though, as Park Hill’s Kyleesha Weston hit several key free throws in the final minute to widen the margin for a 40-31 final in the Trojans’ favor. Weston and Bethany Sullinger led Park Hill with 11 and 10 points respectively while Stephanie Griffith led South in scoring with nine points.

Park Hill South’s season ends with a 9-15 record while Park Hill advanced to Tuesday night’s semifinal game against Staley. As of deadline, the game had yet to be decided, but Park Hill knew they would be in for a battle quite different than the one they went through Monday night.

“Staley is very fast, very good, and we’re going to try to limit their possessions. We want to make it a half-court basketball game,” Neeser said. “It’s more about our kids and I think if we have the belief, go out and execute, we’ll have a chance.”

Winter Weekly Recap: Feb. 7 - Feb. 12

Park Hill Boys Basketball
The Park Hill boys basketball team came into last week in the driver's seat of their suburban conference title hopes, but three games later they come into this week out of contention and on a three game lossing streak. A close loss on the road against St. Joe Central 60-58 was followed by a home loss against Ruskin 70-59. It was their hope that they could close out the week on Senior Night with a win against Lee's Summit West. Park Hill came out slow as they fell behind 14-4 going into the second quarter. A contentious crowd and high emotions led the Trojans to a series of turnovers and fouls in the second and third quarter falling down by as much as 23 points. While the Trojans were able to cut the lead in the fourth quarter, the Titan clock management on offense eventually created some easy baskets against a frustrated defense to extend the lead to a final score of 67-46. Top scorers Chris Nsenki and De'Aris Flint were held to just 12 points a piece on the night. Park Hill is now 14-9 and will conclude the season at Belton Friday night before the district tournament begins next week at Oak Park.

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
After a victory against Raytown earlier in the week, the Park Hill South boys were hoping to make it a sweep of the district when they went against Raytown South last Friday night. It wasn't meant to be as the Cardinals gradually expanded their lead throughout the game to eventually win 68-57. Adam Schemenauer scored 19 while Christian Hildebrandt added 15 points. The Panthers are now 13-8 on the season with a regular season finale scheduled Friday night at home against Winnetonka for Senior Night.

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
A 57-48 win over Belton earlier in the week didn't create any momentum for the Lady Panthers against Kearney later in the week. While South only trailed 13-8 at the start of the second quarter. They were shutout in the second quarter and held to a single point in the third before matching the Bulldogs' 15 points in the fourth quarter of what ended up being a 48-24 loss. Brandi Weymuth led in scoring with six points. South is now 8-13 and will conclude the regular season at Raytown before heading into the district tournament next week.

Park Hill Girls Basketball
The Park Hill girls had a tough week last week after two losses to Oak Park and St. Joe Central. A close 37-31 loss where Kyleesha Weston led with nine points must have motivated the Lady Trojans to come out strong against St. Joe Central. Park Hill got in front of the Indians early as they took a four point lead into halftime against a talened Central team before a 180 degree turn in the second half left the Trojans again on the wrong side of a 45-31 score. Park Hill went scoreless in the third quarter. Weston led with 11 points. The Trojans are now 8-13 and will play Ruskin on Thursday for Senior Night.
"Senior night will be fun and a very rewarding experience for the kids," first year coach Aaron Neeser said. "They have bought into me and what I am trying to do with the program from day one. I appreciate their leadership and energy that they have brought to this team. I wish them well in the future."

Park Hill/Park Hill South Swim & Dive
State swim meet this weekend at the St. Peters Rec Complex in St. Peters, Missouri.

Winter Weekly Recap: Jan. 31 - Feb. 5

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
After weather caused the North Kansas City tournament to be moved back several days, the Lady Panthers of Park Hill South experienced a rough series of games last week as they went 0-3 in three consecutive days. A 59-43 loss to St. Joe Central in the opening round led to a rivalry matchup with Park Hill on Friday afternoon. The close matchups over the last two years between the two teams held true again as the game heading into overtime before Park Hill edged out a 53-50 win. Stephanie Griffith put in 12 points for the Panthers. Hoping to bounce back on Saturday, the Panthers lost another close one. This time to Oak Park 26-24. Park Hill South is now 7-12 with a home game against Kearney Thursday evening.

Park Hill Girls Basketball
Park Hill went 2-1 in their appearance in the North Kansas City Tournament. After falling in the opening game against the host team, Park Hill edged out an overtime victory against Park Hill South 53-50 as Michele Rupard had a career game with 22 points along with Kyleesha Weston's 20. Playing in the consolation game, Park Hill outscored St. Pius 56-39 to earn fifth place with Weston scoring 22 points and Dominique Broadus accounting for 17. The Lady Trojans are now 8-9 with a home game against St. Joe Central Thursday night.

Park Hill Wrestling
Park Hill placed fourth out of eight teams over the weekend at the Oak Grove Tournament after scoring 92.5 team points. John Erneste (103), Michael Olsen (112), Derek Rens (135), and Travis Marcum (285) all placed second. Conner Shene placed fourth in the 140 pound division. The Trojans now head into the district tournament this weekend at Lee's Summit High School. After winning their conference, assistant coach Joe Gonier says they have high expectations out of their wrestlers and team.

"We feel pretty good going into districts next week," Gonier said. "Our kids are wrestling well right now and we expect that to continue."

Park Hill Swimming
Breaking Lee's Summit West's streak of conference title streaks proved to be difficult for Park Hill last weekend as they finished second with 510 team points compared to the Titans 577. Park Hill junior Brynn Guardado repeated and held her conference title in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle. The state swim meet is next weekend, February 18-19th in St. Peters, MO.

Winter Weekly Recap: Jan. 24-29

Park Hill Girls Basketball
The Lady Trojans fell in a close game against North Kansas City late last week as they lost 46-44. Kyleesha Weston had a stellar performance as she scored almost half of the Trojans' points with 20 along with freshman Dominique Broadus's 10 points. With a 6-8 record, they are competing in the North Kansas City Tournament this week.

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
The Park Hill South Lady Panthers went through a week of give and take last week as they suffered a heavy 56-36 loss to Raytown earlier in the week, but came back in a big way by beating Ruskin 56-16. Stephanie Griffith led South in their loss to Raytown with 15 points while Tori Kerr scored 10 points in their victory over Ruskin. At 7-9, they are playing in the North Kansas City Tournament this week.

Park Hill/Park Hill South Boys Basketball
Leading up to last Friday's rivalry game, Park Hill South won an impressive 47-32 victory over Oak Park. The Park Hill boys weren't as lucky, as they fell just short of beating Liberty 48-47 after giving up a lead late in the game.

Park Hill South Wrestling
The lower weight classes of the Park Hill South wrestling team outlasted the heavier classes of the Lee's Summit West Titans last week as South took a hard fought 40-36 victory. With pins from Alex Fortuna (112), Bret Rounkles (119), Jimmy Carpenter (125), and Alex Weatherly (130), Nick Gillespie's pin in the 171 weight class carried the Panthers over the edge in a dual where Lee's Summit West's otherwise heavier wrestlers were racking up points for the Titans. They will compete in the Lee's Summit North Invite this weekend.

Head coach Dan Dunkin says this year the injuries have created even more opportunities for different athletes to wrestle on the varsity level including freshman George Barth and junior Nick Gillespie who have been able to step into varsity roles as needed. Usually at the JV-level, Cody Hodges picked up four varsity victories last weekend at the Liberty Invitational on his way to a sixth place finish. Fortuna placed third (103), Weatherly second (130), Chase Gray third (171), DJ Dewit fifth (145), and Bret Rounkles fifth (119).

Winter Weekly Recap: Jan. 17-21

Park Hill/Park Hill South Wrestling
Park Hill South dominated their mid-week dual against William Chrisman as they pulled out the team victory 54-15 with wins coming in the form of pins from Alex Fortuna (112), Jimmy Carpenter (125), George Barth (130), Chase Gray (171), and Sam Eickhoff (215).

The always competitive Winnetonka Tournament was held this past weekend. Park Hill and Park Hill South finished behind first place medal winner Blue Springs and their 320 team points. Park Hill finished second with 260.5 points while Park Hill South finished sixth with 201.5 points. Park Hill's Michael Olsen (112), Bricker Dixon (125), Preston Crouse (145), and Nolan Smith (285) won their respective weight divisions. Park Hill South's Jimmy Carpenter finished second in the 119 weight division.

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
The Lady Panthers went 1-1 last week in the North Kansas City tournament with a loss to Oak Park and a victory against Belton. They came out slow in both the first and fourth quarters to Oak Park in a 46-27 loss. Samantha Roy lead the Panthers with five points. Against Belton, the Panthers led throughout and held the Pirates scoreless in the second quarter (18-0) and added another 14 points to their advantage in the third quarter (22-8) before going on to win 59-18. Tori Kerr led the Panthers with 14 points along with Haley Shelton's 13 and Courtney Claassen's 11. Now at 6-7, they play against Raytown South on Thursday.

Park Hill Girls Basketball
The Lady Trojans defeated the home town host Basehor-Linwood on day to advance to the tournament semi-final after a close 35-32 victory. Tied going into the fourth quarter, Park Hill led by Kyleesha Weston's all-tournament performance of 16 points edged the Bobcats by three to advance on to play Ottawa. Despite a 16-4 deficit against Platte County, Park Hill spent the entirety of the game battling back before falling 55-47. Weston led with 14 points in the loss. Another close game didn't turn in the Trojans favor as Ottawa stayed just in front of Park Hill throughout the game to slide to a 43-37 victory. Weston led once again with 23 points. At 6-8, they play North Kansas City Thursday night.

Winter Weekly Recap: Jan. 10-15

Park Hill Boys Basketball
The day off of school due to snow affected Lee's Summit West more last Tuesday as they hosted Park Hill in a suburban conference battle. Park Hill trailed by a score of 28-20 before mounting a 21-5 third quarter leading them to a key 62-49 victory. Connor Farmer has emerged as a scoring presence for the Trojans as he posted 17 points along with Chris Nsenki's 17. De'Aris Flint added 12. To close the week, Park Hill had a chance to knock off a talented Truman team, but were unable to gain any momentum as the Patriots outscored the Trojans in each quarter for a 60-5 win. At 11-4, Park Hill will be in a conference battle with Truman and Lee's Summit West down the stretch as their second meetings could make a difference in who claims the title. Park Hill will compete in the Basehor-Linwood Tournament this week followed by what is sure to be a great matchup at Liberty on Tuesday and rival Park Hill South on Friday.

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
After two tough losses the prior week, the Park Hill South Panthers came back strong last week as they scratched out a nail-biting victory against conference opponent Raytown South 50-49. Christian Hildebrandt scored 16 along with Adam Schemenauer's 13. Outmatched in almost every aspect, the Belton Pirates received a tough task in traveling to South last Friday night. Although, close in the beginning the Panthers held Belton to just 19 points the entire game. Hildebrandt scored 24 points in an impressive performance that outscored the entire Pirate roster. The Panthers are now 10-5 and are playing in the North Kansas City tournament this week before facing off against Oak Park Tuesday and Park Hill next Friday night.

Park Hill Girls Basketball
The Lady Trojans only game last week as a rough one as they suffered a defeat at home against Lee's Summit West 63-38. Facing a tough Titan team, the Trojans fell to a 36-13 halftime deficit after West outscored the Trojans 23-7 in the second quarter. Park Hill's top average scorers, Kyleesha Weston and Helena Hudson, weren't able to break double digits with nine and eight points, respectively. The Trojans were able to turnout a better second half, going toe to toe with Titans in the third and fourth quarters, b the damage was done. Park Hill is participating in the Basehor-Linwood Tournament this week. They are now 5-6.

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
The Park Hill South Girls lost a close one last Thursday night against Fort Osage 34-30. Taking a 12-11 halftime lead, the Panthers extended their lead to six going into the final quarter, but Fort Osage's 14 points compared to South's four in the fourth quarter hurt the Panthers most. Stephanie Griffith led South with seven points along with Courtney Shelton and Mallory Ross's five points.

Park Hill Wrestling
After some frustrating dual losses early in the season, the Park Hill wrestling team bounced back in a huge way last weekend as they brought home the Capital City Wrestling Title from Jefferson City. Competing in a field of 11 teams from across the state, Park Hill racked up 238.5 team points and won four of the five championship matches they wrestled in. First place medals were awarded to Michael Olsen (112), Bricker Dixon (125), Russel Coleman (130), and Preston Crouse (145). John Erneste lost a hard fought dual in overtime at 103 for a second place finish. They compete in the Winnetonka Tournament this weekend.

Winter Weekly Recap: Jan. 3-8

Park Hill Boys Basketball
The Park Hill boys added two victories to their total last week to improve to 9-3. The two Suburban Middle Six victories against North Kansas City and St. Joe Central make the Trojans 3-0 as they head into an important three week stretch featuring a heavy conference schedule and the Basehor Linwood Tournament. En route to an 85-73 victory early in the week against North Kansas City, the two teams went into the fourth quarter tied at 66 before earning the final margin in a 19-7 final period for the Trojans. Chris Nsenki scored 31 along with Anthony Walter's 17, De'Aris Flint's 13, and Connor Farmer's 10 points. Park Hill was firing on all cyclinders Friday night against St. Joe Central as Coach David Garrison said it was one of the best performances his team has turned out all year as they defeated the Indians 77-60. The Trojans got out to a 36-22 halftime score before eventually extending it to as much as 22 in the third. Nsenki led in scoring again with 21 points along with Walter's 19 and Flint's 18. Park Hill benefitted from a tough defense that defended the paint fairly aggressively.

"It was really two things, our perimeter defense did real well at keeping the ball out of the paint, but then when it did get to the point we were working our tail off defending it," Garrison said.

With the loss of senior Brady Kreitzer for the season, Garrison says there are two players that he'll look to fill the void with Connor Farmer and Tre Durham.

"Between those two guys, just depending on the kind of matchups looks like, they'll be the guys that need to step in and play," Garrison said. "He's (Farmer) gonna sit on the block for us, he's going to rebound and score at the basket while Tre's a ball handle and will play the point for us, which takes pressure off Anthony (Walters), so he can score for us more."

With anywhere from 7-9 players that could start for the Trojans, depth has not been a problem. Garrison tries to use his players in situations that allow them to be most effective.

"It's a chess match, sometimes we try combinations that don't work, but other times its great. One thing we know with the people we have here, they're going to battle and not take any plays off," he said.

Park Hill Girls Basketball
After a 40-12 win over Liberty North earlier in the week, the Lady Trojans hoped to gain their first conference win against Truman last Friday night. A 23-11 halftime deficit put the Trojans behind in the first half, but they closed the margin in the third to narrow the lead to just 32-25. After playing a man defense in the first half, the second half was when Truman threw a zone at Park Hill. Although reacting to the defense and running their sets fairly under control, they weren't able to penetrate the basket enough to score as much as they would have liked.

"We didn't have the confidence to step up and make a shot," coach Aaron Neeser said. "We gave up the same number of buckets, they just got to the line more."

An intense fourth quarter cut the lead to as close as four, but the Patriots pulled away for a 42-30 victory. The Trojans are now 5-5 with a game against Lee's Summit West Thursday evening.

"I think what I'm most satisfied about is that they really care about each other. Usually when you have a new coach, you have a transition period where you struggle a little bit, but they're really buying into what we're doing. I like how hard we compete, we just have to get better at the little things," Neeser said.

Park Hill South Girls Basketball
The Lady Panthers improved to 4-6 on the season with a win on Thursday night against Belton 56-44. South outscored Belton in three of the four quarters before widening the margin with an 18-10 final quarter. They'll travel to Fort Osage on Friday night.

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
The Park Hill South Panthers hit a rough patch this week with two tough opponents in the likes of Liberty and Raytown who both dealt them close losses. The Wednesday night effort at Liberty left the Panthers with a 65-60 defeat. Traveling to Raytown on Friday evening, the Panthers found themselves with a 10-point fourth quarter deficit, but battled back before falling 66-63. Christian Hildebrandt led in scoring with 20 points along with Adam Schemenauer's 19. South is now 8-5 with a home game against Belton to conclude the week on Friday night.

Park Hill and Park Hill South Swim/Dive
Park Hill South ran away with their own invitational this past weekend at the Park Hill Aquatic Center as they racked up 298 points in the 15 team field of competition. Park Hill finished fifth with 105 points.

Top performers for the Panthers were first place finishes from the 200 yard medley relay team of Lyndsay Ryan, Rachael Norfleet, Mary Cate Reinert, and Mariah Bryant, Bryant in the 50 yard free, Hannah Bortnick in the one meter dive, the 200 yard free relay team of Shannon Brouk, Olivia McLain, Miranda Henderson, and Bryant. South will attend the Center Invitational over the weekend.

Top performances from Park Hill came from Brynn Guardado with first place in the 200 yard free and third in the 100 yard free, and Eleanor Parrott with third in the one meter dive. Park Hill has a meet at Raytown Wednesday evening and another next week at St. Joe Central.

Lady Trojans and Panthers take another one to the wire

Last year the Park Hill and Park Hill South girls battled each other in two close regular season games with the road team winning each time. This year both teams were hoping to go into the holiday break with a victory as one team would be able to say they completed the first third of the season at a .500 winning percentage or better with Park Hill coming into the game with a 2-3 record and South at 4-4.

Playing at Park Hill, the teams played neck and neck nearly the entire game. The Trojans held merely a 16-15 lead over the Panthers at the half, but South would go on a five point run to start the half before Park Hill’s Kyleesha Weston turned a fast break into a lay-up to tie the game at 24 in the third quarter. Timely baseline scoring from Helena Hudson helped Park Hill maintain a narrow lead into the fourth quarter before South regained momentum when Tori Kerr converted a lay-up with 5:30 to tie it at 32. South took the lead when a well executed give-and-go from Haley Shelton to Samantha Roy put the Panthers up 38-37 with just under three minutes to play. Shelton and Roy along with Stephanie Griffith have been strong for the Panthers up to this point.

“Samantha’s stepped into a starting role as a freshman point guard and played under composure. Stephanie Griffith is always kind of our go-to person along with Haley Shelton. They work really well together,” Park Hill South Jenny Orlowski said.

Park Hill retook the lead and could have sealed the victory with some crucial free throws, but was unable to cushion their 43-42 lead.

“We usually shoot pretty well, just tonight we didn’t and that’s ok,” Park Hill coach Aaron Neeser said of the free throw shooting.

After a missed free throw, South called timeout with ten seconds to play. Shelton inbounded the ball and immediately streaked to the hoop before receiving it back. The play was executed with precision and while the look was there, the bounce was not, leaving the Panthers on the wrong side of a 43-42 loss to Park Hill.

Understandably, Neeser was relieved about getting out of Monday’s game with a victory.

“We’re just really happy to walk out of here with a win,” Neeser said. “Defense and not giving up those easy buckets is something we need to work more on.”

Asked whether the close game was the rivalry or similarity between the teams, South’s Orlowski said it was a little of both, but the loss withstanding, she is proud of her team’s progress.

“This year we’re both pretty close talent wise (to Park Hill), but style of play is a little different,” Orlowski said. “I told them in the locker room before the game that when we were in this game last year we were 0-8, so I’m very proud of them.”

Preview: Park Hill girls basketball looks to find its groove with new coach

First year Park Hill girls basketball coach Aaron Neeser has spent much of the first few weeks of practice doing what most first year coaches would do. Instilling a basic philophy, observing what kind of talent he’ll have to work with, and emphasizing several key points. What Neeser knows he has are two returning starters in Kyleesha Weston and Helena Hudson along with significant minutes from Shelby Blanchard and Michele Rupard. This is from a 16-11 team that at times seemed to play better than their record would suggest. Combined with a number of athletic players with little varsity experience, the Trojans are hoping to turn their new system into a machine consisting of many moving parts.

“We’re trying to preach defense and rebounding first. Being relentless and going after every ball. Having the attitude where every possession is important,” Neeser said of the style he hopes to instill. “Rebounding, I want us to be the best rebounding team in the conference.”

Looking to potentially play up to 12-13 players a game this season, the Lady Trojans’s inexperience at the varsity level will have plenty of chances to be ironed out with a steady rotation of players. Kelly Cook, Leslie Coons, Sarah Sumpter, Beth Sullinger, Micalla Rettinger, Amanda Lawrence, Marche Belcher, and Dominque Broadus all hope to contribute to a new style of game play that emphasies speed and quickness.

“We have a lot of athletes, so we’re trying to play an up tempo, trapping type of basketball,” Neeser said. “We’re going to try to play fast pace and we’ll see how it goes.”

Even if the Trojans struggle with the new upbeat strategy, there’s one thing their wants it to teach them and that is taking care of the ball is one of the most important things.

“That’s one thing we’re trying to instill each and every day is being aggressive and being passionate about possessing the basketball,” Neeser said. “We will need to rebound and play extremely well on the defensive end to be successful.”

Park Hill begins play in a new and highly competitive conference this season featuring strong teams like North Kansas City, Truman, Lee’s Summit West, and St. Joe Central. The tough matchups haven’t stifled their expectations though as their coach began to name who he expected the most out of, but stopped short of the entire team.

“I could go down the list, we have high expectations for all of them,” Neeser said.

Lady Trojans, seniors finish with winning season

The Park Hill Lady Trojans approached last week’s district tournament as if it were a new season, a fresh start, and in the process hoped to find some of the flare displayed at the beginning of the season, which included a 5-0 start and Fort Osage Tournament championship. They were able to find that stride in the opening round with a victory against Park Hill South, but couldn’t capitalize against host school, St. Joe Central, in the semifinals as they fell to the Indians to conclude the Trojans’ first winning season in the last several years.

Playing against rival Park Hill South for the third time in three weeks, the No. 3 seeded Trojans jumped on the No. 6 seeded Panthers early and never looked back expanding a 27-19 halftime lead to a final of 57-35. The victory gave the Trojans the season series 2-1 behind Katy Plummer’s 14 points and Kyleesha Weston’s 12 points.

The Trojans knew they would have their hands full against St. Joe Central in the semifinals, but there were encouraging signs in the opening quarter as Spenser Rhodus sank a three-pointer putting Park Hill up 7-5 going into the second. Central, known to be able to put a high level of points on the board, came alive as they hit some key threes and took a 20-13 lead into halftime.

Going up against a high powered offense, the Trojans knew they had to be physical in order to keep the Indians away from the basket even if that meant committing a high level of fouls.

“We needed to muddy up the game a little bit, but it was physical both ways,” Rockers said.

Although held to just 41 points, it was enough for the Indians to advance to the championship game as they defeated the Trojans 41-29. In an area Park Hill had focused on throughout the year, the Trojans weren’t able to muster enough offense to compliment their defense as many of the quality shots they took just didn’t fall.

“We wanted to make sure we came out and competed and I think we really did that,” Rockers said of his team’s effort. “We just couldn’t buy a basket.”

A frustrating night wasn’t the way the Lady Trojans had hoped to finish their season, but Rockers talked about how proud he was of what his seniors had accomplished including a winning season, their first as a group, at 16-11.

“I congratulated them on a great year. That group of seniors did just awesome. Thrown into the fire as sophomores, they’ve gotten better each year and it’s shown. A big thank you to them for what they’ve done,” Rockers said.

Lady Trojans look to Districts, rematch with South

The Park Hill and Park Hill South girls’ basketball teams have already met twice this season resulting in two hard fought games with victories being split between the two. This past weekend they received news they’ll be meeting a third time, but it’ll be more than a regular season game as it will be in the first round of the Class Five, District 16 tournament on February 23rd for an opportunity to go on to play the host school, St. Joe Central, in the second round. Park Hill received the third seed with a record of 14-9 while Park Hill South received the sixth seed with a record of 3-16.

Park Hill was likely one win shy of receiving a beneficial two seed and first round bye, but the nod was given to St. Joe Central (13-7) probably due to the fact that the Lady Indians beat the Trojans 51-41 two weeks ago in a head to head match-up which gave them a stronger resume. Liberty received the first seed and will likely play in the championship game to be held February 27th pending a letdown between the winner of the Winnetonka/Oak Park game.

Park Hill will come into the game against the Lady Panthers favored, but it has yet to be seen how much of an effect the loss of senior Laura Bennett will have on the Trojans scoring. Coach Brian Rockers has leaned on his seniors all season and they’ll be looked towards again as they head into the district tournament. Senior Katy Plummer will be an important key in the post as a leading rebounder and point scorer while it will be important for sophomore Kyleesha Weston and senior Emma Gossett to stay out of foul trouble and be aggressive as the leaders of the Trojan offense.

The Trojans have one more regular season game against William Chrisman on Thursday this week. It’ll be Senior Night at Park Hill for a group which has had a majority of its playing time at the varsity level over the last three years. Last week they defeated Grandview by a score of 48-34 with strong performances from Plummer with 11 and Michele Rupard with ten points. Weston and freshman Sydney Hultz added seven a piece.