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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Rossville High School induct its inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame class during halftime of Friday's 7 p.m. Homecoming game against Cair Paravel Latin.
Rossville will induct four former Bulldawg stars into first Hall of Fame class -- 1980 graduate Ben Simecka, 1996 grad Jen Perine, 2008 grad Duane Zlatnik and 2014 grad Tagen Lambotte.
Simecka was a two-time All-State lineman for the Bulldawg football team and a prep All-American as a senior in 1979.
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
One of the most highly decorated alumni of a Topeka school is now taking a place among the state’s all-time athletic greats.
Mark Turgeon, a 1983 graduate of Hayden High School, recognizes the significance of being named to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, which will hold its induction ceremony this Sunday in Topeka.
Former Hayden and Kansas great and longtime college coach Mark Turgeon is a member of the 2024 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame induction class. [Maryland Athletics]
He said he is excited to meet the other 11 inductees and to support the mission of the hall of fame.
“I got to know some of the people who worked with the hall of fame when I was (head basketball coach) at Wichita State, and I know how hard they worked,” Turgeon said. “I appreciate what they do to keep it up and running at a high level. It’s really important that we have it, and it’s really exciting to be a part of something bigger than yourself.”
Turgeon enters the hall of fame with a résumé that is equal parts player and coach, with entries from Kansas and other parts of the country.
He was part of a legendary Hayden basketball team that reeled off a 25-0 record en route to a Class 4A state championship. He was a floor general for highly successful teams at the University of Kansas, including the 1986 squad that advanced to the Final Four.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn men's basketball coach Brett Ballard is expecting big things out of his 2024-2025 Ichabods, an opinion apparently shared by Ballard's fellow MIAA coaches.
The Ichabods were picked on Tuesday as the team to beat in the upcoming conference season in the MIAA Coaches Poll after returning the bulk of their team from last year's 19-11 squad.
Senior Andrew Orr returns to lead the Washburn University men's basketball team after earning second-team All-MIAA recognition a year ago. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn junior guard Sam Ungashick earned All-MIAA honorable mention last season in his first season with the Ichabods. [File photo/TSN]
And although Ballard knows that polls mean nothing once the ball goes up for the start of the season, he appreciates the honor.
"I think you'd rather be at the top than the bottom, for sure,'' said Ballard, who is 137-75 in seven seasons at WU. "But I do think there's positives to it. I think it means you have good players back, I think it means you've had recent success, so I think those are positives, and on the flipside, it doesn't mean a whole lot this time of year and you have to handle that the right way.''
Ballard feels like his veteran team, which return 85 percent of its scoring and 75.5 percent of its rebounds, is up to the challenge.
"These guys have an appreciation for how hard it is to win in this league and you've got a bigger target on your back now and it just means your compete and your focus and your preparation have to be that much better,'' Ballard said. "How we handle that will determine a lot of the success that we have this year.''
"We have a sense of urgency with this group, which you want to see. It's early, but they've come in hungry and have had good energetic practices.''
The Ichabods return four players who started at least half of last season's 30 games and eight players return who saw action last year for the WU team that reached the MIAA Tournament semifinals.
Senior Andrew Orr was a second-team All-MIAA pick after averaging 13.3 points and 5.6 rebounds last season while junior Sam Ungashick received honorable mention selection after averaging 12.2 points and 3.8 rebounds.
Other returning starters include junior Brady Christiansen (7.9 points, 6.6 rebounds) and senior Michael Keegan (7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds).
Former Washburn Rural standout Jack Bachelor started 11 games and averaged 11.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game as a freshman.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural volleyball coach Kevin Bordewick reached another landmark milestone in last Saturday's Centennial League tournament, using a perfect 5-0 record on the day to raise his career victory total to 1,076 while moving past former Lansing coach Julie Slater (1071 wins) for the No. 2 spot on Kansas' all-time victory list.
Washburn Rural volleyball coach Kevin Bordewick has moved into the No. 2 spot for all-time volleyball wins in Kansas with 1,076. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But there were no celebrations or even a mention of the accomplishment to his Junior Blues, who won their fourth straight Centennial League championship.
"I think it's really cool,'' Rural senior Kate Hinck said. "I didn't know that at all, but that's really awesome. I feel like he doesn't like to brag about himself, but he's such a great coach and just to get to play for such an amazing program is really good.''
By Saturday night, Bordewick, who is in his 30th season with the Junior Blues. was already thinking about what his team could have done better in the Centennial tournament and about getting Rural ready for its next match.
"Our next big game is our next game and our next big tournament is our next tournament,'' said Bordewick, who is 1,076-275 in his career and 1,029-235 at Rural, including an 18-2 record this fall. "We don't play any (matches) this week but we've got plenty of chances this week to correct a lot of things, even though we won all five matches.
"But we dropped a set to Manhattan I don't think should have happened, I thought there were other sets that were too close that shouldn't have been close and for me with this group I think it's more of a mental toughness thing that I think we're slowly understanding. Their sense of urgency needs to speed up since we're kind of gearing towards the postseason here in a couple of weeks.''
Bordewick has led the Junior Blues to eight Class 6A state championships, with the most recent title coming in 2022, and 25 state tournament appearances, but it's the ones that got away that he said are the hardest to forget.
"I still think in '05 we had a chance to get that one and I think in 2010 we had a chance to get that one and we let it slip in the semis,'' Bordewick said. "Those are the ones that you should have had that stick with you. And that team (in 2021) that was undefeated going into championship Saturday, I felt so good about them and we had a team meeting, we had a little film review and everybody felt good and we liked our chances and then we let it slip.
"It's the ones that get away that will eat at you, eat at me anyway. But when you lose, you have to learn from it and go on. And that's one thing these guys have always been good at. You can pick apart things, we can understand things, we try to isolate things and hopefully it transfers to a game the next time.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After dropping its first three five-set decisions of the 2024 season for its lone defeats of the year, Washburn University volleyball got over that hump with a come-from-behind five-set victory over rival Emporia State Tuesday night in Lee Arena.
Washburn celebrates a service ace from junior Corinna McMullen (12) in Tuesday's five-set win over Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But while veteran Washburn coach Chris Herron was happy to get the 23-25, 25-18, 22-25, 25-20 and 15-13 win over the Hornets, WU's third straight MIAA victory, he was also quick to remind his 12-3 team (3-2 in the conference) that there's still work to be done.
"Here's the deal. They (the Hornets) out-hit us, they out-blocked us, they out-dug us,'' Herron said. "The only thing we did better than them was serving the ball. We had 11 aces, they have five, and I think that may be the difference in the match. Everything was close, but they out-did us in all of those categories and we still won the game. Now I've been on the flipside of that before, too.''
Herron said the key now is to continue to making strides as the Ichabods move forward.
"We've got to be better than that,'' Herron said. "I just told them, I was disappointed with us after sets one, two and three. We were just kind of there, we were just kind of showing up, just kind of coasting. Then four and five we played with the energy that we need to play with, so it's good to win.''
