Tiger boys picked to win SEK title - FSHS girls voted third in poll

PITTSBURG -- Fort Scott High School's boys basketball team was picked to win the Southeast Kansas League championship in a coaches' poll at a media conference here Monday afternoon. Fort Scott's girls were tabbed for third place although they did receive a first-place vote.

Similar to a pre-season football conference here the past several seasons, this was the first time such a conference has been held for basketball. Columbus head girls' coach Ryan Becker made a suggestion about having a basketball conference after coming up here in August as a member of Columbus' football staff. Labette County boys' head coach Brad Smith has also been an advocate of holding a basketball media day. This conference was sponsored by KSEK-AM radio and the Pittsburg Tourism Committee.

Fort Scott was as close to an unanimous choice as there could be since a coach couldn't vote for his own team. Tiger head coach Jeff DeLaTorre gave his vote to Coffeyville, which was tabbed for second place.

Fort Scott has four returning starters, seniors Zach Smith, Zach Quick, Kevin Gray and Chris Banks. They have four seniors and four juniors who played on the varsity last season.

DeLaTorre, in previous seasons, started the first week or so of practice short handed because the football team would go deep into the playoffs.

"We get the opportunity to start practice (Monday) with our whole squad," DeLaTorre noted. "This is my seventh year at Fort Scott and it will be the first (time) at the first practice that I've had the whole team there. I'm not sure I'm going to know what to do with all these guys in practice today."

The Tigers received the other eight first-place votes and scored 72 points. Coffeyville, a co-champion along with Labette County last season, had 60 points. Chanute was picked to place third and LCHS was slotted into fourth.

"We know we have to go out and work hard every day and continue to get better," DeLaTorre said, "because of the quality of the league and the coaches in the league. We know we have to be ready to play on any given night."

Coffeyville head coach Dan Wall, after a serious moment to tell everyone about a girls' basketball team manager who lost her life in a car accident over the weekend, spoke not quite so seriously about his team, which lost four starters and six of the top seven players in the rotation.

"I don't really know how we can be second in anything," Wall said. "We practiced at midnight and again at 6 a.m. this morning and I don't see any hope at all."

That line brought laughter from everyone in the room, who clearly know better.

"So before you lay your little heads down to sleep, please say a little prayer that we can just be competitive," Wall continued to sandbag. "Because, seriously, I'm really, really concerned. We don't have anybody that can dribble, anybody that can shoot. This is a serious time and I'm sure that Brad Smith is licking his chops and Jeff and all you guys. This is a time to get ol' Wall and give it to him.

"You (coaches) are in a great profession and I hope you realize that. Coach (Ben) Ponce (the new boys' coach at Iola), you'll see what's great about this league is that the coaches are so honest and forthright."

Chanute, although voted third, also lost most of its top players. Eight of the top nine in the Blue Comets' rotation graduated. Labette County has lost four starters.

Pittsburg, picked fifth, has four returning players who started at least part time last season. Parsons, chosen sixth, hopes to build on what it sees as a strong sophomore class. Ponce expects as many as seven seniors to play for his Iola squad.

Independence was chosen eighth while Columbus was tabbed ninth despite returning four starters.

Labette County is the league's defending girls' champion but Iola won the Class 4A State championship last year while LCHS finished third. The Grizzlies were picked to repeat as league champions, also receiving the eight first-place votes and maximum 72 points.

Columbus was chosen second with 55 points. Fort Scott and Parsons each received 53 points but the people in charge of the conference gave the Tigers third place since LCHS head coach Kristi Snider gave them her first-place vote.

Iola, which won't have any returning starters, was picked to finish fifth.

The Tigers, under second-year head coach Jeff Armstrong, lost only one starter although that was Krista Goltra, who could have become Fort Scott's all-time leader in several categories had it not been for a knee injury that caused her to miss several games.

Among the returning players seniors Lauren Allen and Jayci McKenney, juniors Joce Allen and Afton Gray and sophomore Kori Page Rienbolt, all of whom started at least part of the time due to injuries -- Rienbolt also suffered a knee injury but wasn't able to return.

"We've got a lot of experience coming back," Armstrong says. "The girls are really excited. We have three seniors, six juniors and nine sophomores. We're looking for some of the sophomores to step up into maybe even starting roles.

"I think we have 17 players that, at any point, could be productive. That's really exciting. That makes practices go, hopefully, a lot smoother."

Snider's LCHS squad has two full-time and one part-time starter returning. Her team's strength is in the post this year with 6' 4" junior Kendra Frazier. Last year, guard play was the Grizzlies' strong point.

"She's had several colleges looking at her," Snider says. "Maybe a couple of Big 12 schools. There's not very many girls who are six-foot-four. She is very athletic and she will be a person to reckon with. She's added some dimensions to her game. She played about 40 games this summer with us and in some AAU games. She got to work and continue to improve."

Parsons returns four starters including senior Bridgette Kendricks, who's been a starter since her freshman season. Independence was tabbed for sixth place. The Bulldogs have five seniors out but head coach Dale Reynolds expects to also use three sophomores extensively.

Chanute has a new head coach in Megan Reed, who was once a Blue Comet herself. Coffeyville's coach, Terry Downing, was not present to speak due to the death of the team manager. Pittsburg has a first-year coach, Tom Hubbard, who expects to use a lot of young players. Also, former FSHS player and head volleyball coach Bridgett Keating is an assistant for the Purple Dragons this season.

NOTES -- Fort Scott's schedule for the Willard Tournament is out. The Tiger boys' and girls' teams will play Shiloh Christian on November 30, Willard the next day and wrap up Saturday against Greenwood, Ark....