Tigers tabbed for second in polls

PITTSBURG -- Both of Fort Scott High's basketball teams were picked to finish in second place in polls of Southeast Kansas League coaches released here at the ESPN 1340 SEK Basketball Media Conference at Watco Industries here Monday.

Fort Scott's boys, the 2007 Class 4A State runners-up, got four first-place votes as head coaches couldn't vote for their own teams. The Purple Dragons also received the other four first-place votes while Coffeyville got one. But when the point totals were added, Pittsburg had 67 points, Fort Scott 65 and Coffeyville 63.

Labette County was picked to finish fourth followed by Independence and Chanute, then Columbus and Iola in a tie for seventh, and Parsons rounding out the vote.

"We're honored to be picked first," Pittsburg head coach Kiley Roelfs said. "We're going to find out a lot about each other early on."

The last part of that statement was a reference to the double round-robin schedule that the SEK will play this season, doing so for the first time since 1981-82. This means that the league schools will play a 16-game schedule throughout the season instead of the eight-game league slate that started at the end of January.

"The parity in the league will be exceptional," Labette County head coach Brad Smith said. "If you don't come ready to play, you'll get beat."

The Tigers, under eighth-year head coach Jeff DeLaTorre won the SEK last season, going through the eight-game schedule without a loss. They advanced to the Class 4A finals before losing to Thomas More Prep of Hays.

"We lost four starters," DeLaTorre said. "We're happy to be picked where we're at, but we also know we have a challenge.

"We're going to be a bit taller than in the past but we have to replace some guards."

Tiger girls' received the first-place vote of Labette County head coach Kristi Snider as coaches couldn't vote for their own teams. But the defending champion Grizzlies received the other eight top votes and scored 72 points in balloting. Fort Scott finished with 63 points followed by Iola with 50.

"No. 1 was really easy to fill out," Parsons head coach Rob Barcus said. "But the league is more balanced, top to bottom, than it's ever been."

Chanute was picked to finish third in the girls' poll followed by Independence, Parsons, Columbus, Coffeyville and Pittsburg.

Columbus and Fort Scott tied for second at 6-2 last year but the Titans graduated most of their players and head coach Ryan Becker said there aren't a lot of girls out right now.

Snider has at least one less distraction to worry about as 6' 4" senior Kendra Frazier signed with the University of Missouri Wednesday, meaning that the recruiting process won't interfere with her preparedness for the season.

"It's fine," Snider said of being picked first. "But it doesn't mean a while lot. We've lost four starters but we do have four or five girls who played a considerable amount of (varsity) time. We also have a couple of kids who are coming back off knee injuries."

Labette County's girls won the SEK last year with a 7-1 mark. But they were upset by Columbus in the Sub-State finals and the Titans went on to lose in the first round of the Class 4A State Tournament.

Fort Scott's girls managed to finish in a tie for second in the SEK last season despite an overall losing record of 8-13. Armstrong also didn't put a lot of stock into the vote.

"It's a blessing to be voted number two," Armstrong said. "But we could be down in ninth, too.

"We lost two or three really good girls. We do have a lot of experience on the varsity level. We have eight or nine girls who played at the varsity level. The girls understand their roles. Our options are limited; we're not very tall. But we'll have 10 or 12 guards out there wreaking havoc."

Iola's Becky Carlson, whose Fillies won Class 4A in 2006 but struggled to a 10-11 mark last year after losing the top eight players from that team, saw her team picked to bounce back and into third place.

"We've lost four starters," Carlson said. "We have a couple of good seniors coming up. Our program has some good, young players. We have some seniors and it's their turn and they're going to come up."

Fort Scott's teams begin their seasons first as they travel to the three-day Willard Tournament, which gets underway Nov. 29. The rest of the league begins play the following night.

NOTES -- Steve Lardy, who's been the play-by-play radio voice of Parsons athletics for the past 24 years, noted that there have been eight state champions from the SEK and nine runners-up since he moved there in 1983….

The only new head coach in the league is Matt Brumley, who takes over Independence's boys….

The media conference for the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League was held right after the SEK's. Girard was picked to win both the boys' and girls' titles while Pittsburg Colgan was the choice for second place in each. Third in the polls were Galena's boys and Frontenac's girls….

Boys

1. Pittsburg

2. Fort Scott

3. Coffeyville

4. Labette County

5. Independence

6. Chanute

7. Columbus

tie. Iola

9. Parsons

Girls

1. Labette County

2. Fort Scott

3. Iola

4. Chanute

5. Independence

6. Parsons

7. Columbus

8. Coffeyville

9. Pittsburg