The Star’s top high school stories of 2008-09

Source: The Star

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Joe Ledford | The Kansas City Star

Nathan Scheelhaase and Rockhurst rolled over Blue Springs South in front of a national TV audience.

Keith Myers | The Kansas City Star

Taber Spani put up big enough numbers at Metro Academy to land an offer from Tennessee.

R.J. ORIEZ | SPECIAL TO THE STAR

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Jumpin’ James White captured the attention of hundreds every time he pulled off his sweats, revealed his baby blue Grandview High uniform and approached the towering bar set at the Missouri Class 4 state high jump championships. The coaches stopped walking behind the chain link fence, and the fans who packed the stands in the Dwight T. Reed Stadium in Jefferson City turned their attention to the corner end zone. Athletes — the best in the state who themselves were competing for gold medals — joined in with the rhythmic clapping to cheer on White.

Everyone wanted to watch history unfold.

That’s the kind of buzz White created after he soared to new heights on April 21. During an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday meet, White, a junior, cleared 7 feet, 5 3/4 inches in the high jump, breaking a 25-year national high school record. This came four days after White set a Kansas Relays mark (7-3 1/4 ) and established himself as the nation’s current best jumper. But on that April day, White landed in a new stratosphere.

“After I clear a height, I’m not intimidated by that height anymore,” White said. “After I attack the bar, I’m confident in myself.”

Grandview coach Andy Leech described the jump as watching someone get shot out of a cannon. It was a spectacle that so many more wanted to witness on May 30 at the state track championships. Although White did not beat his best mark, he did not disappoint by clearing 7-2 for the championship: a remarkable finish to one season and the start for even higher expectations.

Since its announcement last June, the news of the nationally televised Rockhurst-Blue Springs South game dominated the opening weeks of the high school football season.

Already, the matchup between two of the metro area’s best teams — Rockhurst won the Missouri Class 6 state championship in 2008; Blue Springs South owned the title in ’07 — had the makings of greatness. But throw in the fact that the boys got to play on ESPN, and the biggest game in town easily turned into a circus.

ESPN has a history of showcasing high school sports but had never dropped into our area for a prep football game. But with the network always on the lookout for compelling storylines, the production trucks pulled up to the capacity crowd at Larry Stewart Memorial Stadium for a game that should be remembered more for the experience than the action.

“You try to think of it as a regular game,” Blue Springs South senior defensive end Derrion Thomas said. “But it’s not. It’s ESPN. This is definitely a story to tell the grandkids.”

There were five interceptions, three flubbed punts and a lopsided Rockhurst final score of 42-14. So much for ratings gold. However, as Thomas said, it will be a story to tell.

When Metro Academy guard Taber Spani announced Nov. 12 that she would attend Tennessee, it not only brought an end to a whirlwind recruiting process, it also made a little bit of history.

Under legendary coach Pat Summitt, Tennessee has become a perennial powerhouse in women’s basketball and is, perhaps, the most high-profile program that any girl from the Kansas City area will play for in years.

There have been some good players from here of late, including Olathe East’s Danielle McCray (Kansas), Hickman Mills’ Tyra White (Texas A&M) and most recently, Central’s Trenee’ Thornton (Missouri) and Platte County’s Morgan Johnson (Iowa).

But if you take a look at Spani’s resume, you’ll see why Summitt had to have her. The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 32.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.8 blocks and 2.6 steals per game for the Mavericks this season and has led them to first-, second- and two third-place finishes at the National Christian Homeschool Basketball Tournament over her career.

Spani, who won the DiRenna Award in 2008 as the best girls basketball player in the Kansas City area, received more than her share of postseason honors. She was selected the 2009 Kansas Gatorade Girls Player of the Year and a Parade Magazine second-team All-American, and she was selected to play in the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game.

And in May, it was announced that Spani is one of 14 finalists to make the USA’s 19-and-under junior national team. If she makes the 12-member team, she will get to play in the 2009 FIBA World Championship July 23-Aug. 2 in Bangkok.

Some things in the Kansas state high school sports scene never seem to change.

The St. Thomas Aquinas boys soccer team, for instance, won its fourth consecutive Kansas 5A championship and sixth overall in the fall. The Saints were 6A champs in 2003 and 2004.

Hutchinson seems to win a lot of state football titles lately.

But sometimes a new force rises and sows the seeds of a burgeoning dynasty, usually knocking off a perennial power along the way. This spring saw two state winners — the St. James Academy girls soccer team and Olathe East’s girls track and field team — topple traditional powers en route to securing back-to-back state crowns.

For St. James, which graduated its first class of seniors this spring, a second straight Kansas 5A-1A championship meant a second win against Aquinas this season. The Saints had won state from 2005 through 2007 but were bounced in the semifinals last year, when St. James won its first crown.

This spring, St. James not only beat Aquinas during the regular season, the Thunder also knocked off the Saints in the state title game.

The Olathe East girls, meanwhile, had a little something extra to prove this spring.

Leavenworth dominated Kansas 6A girls track from 2005 to 2007 before tying with Olathe East for a fourth straight championship last year. Eager to prove it was no fluke and win a crown outright, the Hawks got special performances from senior Ashley Reid, who won a third consecutive high jump title, and junior Breeana Coleman, who won three individual gold medals in sprint events, on the way to a dominating victory.

Olathe East totaled 95 team points and beat the Pioneers by a whopping 36-point margin.

Olathe East’s boys also snapped Shawnee Mission East’s run of four straight boys swimming and diving titles.

The most recognizable high school athletic programs are those that sustain their success from year to year and become standards in their sport.

Those are the kind of programs Shawnee Mission Northwest cross country coach Van Rose and Bishop Ward baseball coach Dennis Hurla have built.

But, as Hurla says, “Streaks all come to an end.”

It just so happened that both of those teams saw their remarkable runs end this school year. In the fall, the SM Northwest boys placed second at the Kansas 6A cross country meet — ending a streak of 14 consecutive state titles. Last month, Bishop Ward settled for a fourth-place state finish after winning the previous six Kansas 4A championships.

“I knew that the streak could not go on forever,” Hurla said. “Realistically, you know it’s going to end sooner or later. But you’re not completely ready for the moment when it does happen. I thought we handled it well. … I was very proud of this year’s team.”

- 2009-06-13 21:02:01