The Year's Best at EHS
Open Mike
By Michael Ashford
Originally published 02:08 p.m., May 29, 2008
Updated 02:08 p.m., May 29, 2008
Another high school sports season has come and gone.
Another year filled with fantastic athletes and memories from start to finish, which means it’s time to name the best of the best.
These things are never easy to decide, but they sure are a lot of fun.
So here they are, the “Bests” from the Emporia High sports season that was.
Best Game
No game carried as much drama or defined a season as much as the Emporia High football team’s improbable 34-33 upset victory over Junction City in the final game of District play.
To say the odds were stacked against the Spartans wouldn’t do it justice.
Junction City was undefeated at 10-0 and was the third-ranked team in the state. Emporia, on the other hand, had put together a nice season up to that point, but had fallen into a hole after a loss to Wichita Heights in the first game of District play.
And worse yet, the Spartans trailed Junction City, 33-15, in the third quarter.
So when the Spartans walked — danced, really — off the field as victors at the end of the game, it was stunning to say the least.
In one of the most impressive displays of will and determination I have witnessed in high school football, Emporia High scored 19 unanswered points in the last quarter and a half to take the one-point victory.
The Spartans scored three touchdowns after Junction City went up by 18 points — two by running back Edd Noonan and one on a blocked punt by Mark Kolmer that Harrison Stone returned for a score.
What stood out the most was the play of Noonan.
The bowling ball of a running back rushing a whopping 43 times for 206 yards and two TDs while playing every snap on defense at linebacker and on special teams.
In the sports world, we call guys like Noonan “studs.”
Noonan and the rest of the Spartans played their best game of the season with their backs against the wall, and they earned a trip to the Class 6A State playoffs because of it.
It’s a victory that signified yet another step in the right direction for the Spartans under coach Bill Lowe.
Honorable mention: EHS girls basketball vs. Kapaun Mt. Carmel in Sub-State, EHS boys basketball vs. McPherson in the 5A State Tournament.
Best Moment
Tears are normal after big wins or devastating losses.
However, nothing could have prepared me for the tears I encountered after the Emporia High girls basketball team’s 53-52 overtime victory over Kapaun Mt. Carmel in the Sub-State championship game.
The game was outstanding in it’s own right. Both teams simply refused to let go of their State Tournament dreams.
But Emporia High’s Lexi Hileman ended up providing the winning lift for EHS.
Though she struggled at the free-throw line all game long — she went just 4-of-12 at the charity stripe — Hileman was huge when it mattered most. She hit the free throw that sent the game into overtime, and she hit the game-winning free throw in the extra period to put the Lady Spartans into the 5A State Tournament.
After the game, Hileman’s eyes were filled with tears, and the reason was not simply that the Lady Spartans had won such an emotionally charged game.
Just days earlier, Hileman’s uncle had passed away, and she had played both games of Sub-State with an obviously heavy heart.
Add in the emotion of a State Tournament-clinching victory, and it became too much for her to hold back the tears.
As Hileman explained to me the reason for her crying, it was a genuinely heartfelt moment from one of Emporia High’s most likable athletes.
I felt both sorrow and joy for Hileman. I was sad she had lost a family member, but I was happy that she could play as well as she did when her team needed her to despite the circumstances.
It was a moment that will stick with me for a long time because Hileman had been so strong in the face of heartache.
Honorable mention: Coach Bill Lowe telling the EHS football team in the locker room after beating Junction City that the Spartans had earned a trip to State, Michaela Reynolds capping her comeback from injury and illness with a State cross country title, Josh Rodriguez making it to his first State title match in wrestling as a senior after a seven-period victory in the State semifinals.
Coach of the Year
In the past school year, Mark Stanbrough has guided one team to a State Championship and helped coach another. He has mentored three State champions who won a combined five individual State titles, and he even picked up a Kansas state Coach of the Year honor in the fall.
No other coach at Emporia High can come close to those figures, and as such, no other coach deserves my Coach of the Year nod more than Stanbrough.
It began in the fall when Stanbrough guided the EHS boys cross country team to the 5A State Championship. The Spartans went the entire season having never lost to a team from the state of Kansas.
He also helped Michaela Reynolds come back from an injury- and illness-filled junior season to win the individual State title in cross country.
Stanbrough was honored as the Class 5A cross country Coach of the Year for the Spartans’ successes on the course.
Then, in the spring, Stanbrough — an assistant with the EHS track and field team — helped coach two of the athletes who had the biggest hand in helping the EHS boys win their first ever 5A State Championship.
As the distance and high jump coach, Stanbrough was behind the scenes as Brandon Childs won the high jump and Jacob Davies took the 800- and 1,600-meter titles.
Thanks in large part to Stanbrough’s guidance and instruction, Emporia High has a lot more hardware in the trophy case after this past school year.
Honorable mention: Bill Nienstedt, girls basketball; Bill Lowe, football; Steve Pearson, boys soccer.
Female Athlete
of the Year
The 2007-08 school year saw a return to the State Tournament for both the Emporia High volleyball and girls basketball teams, and the one constant behind both teams’ resurgence was senior Sadie Webb.
Through the highs and the lows of both the volleyball and basketball seasons, Webb never stopped fighting to get her team where she thought it should be all along.
She mentioned to me before the volleyball season that she wouldn’t settle for anything less than a trip to the State Tournament, a place EHS hadn’t been since 1997.
Mission accomplished.
Before the basketball season, Webb told me she thought the Lady Spartans might make a run at the State title.
Wouldn’t you know it, that came true as well.
Behind her reserved demeanor off the court was a tenacious fighter on it, and Webb’s ability to bring her team along for the ride makes her my choice for Female Athlete of the Year.
Honorable mention: Michaela Reynolds, Jessica Decker.
Male Athlete of the Year
Last year, Jacob Davies was a good runner.
This year, he became one of the best runners in school history.
Before this year, no Emporia High male athlete could say he’d been a part of two State Championship teams. But thanks in large part to Davies, the members of the EHS boys cross country and track and field squads can now claim that honor.
First, Davies completed his transformation from a sprinter into a top-flight distance runner by leading the Spartan cross country team all season long, which included a second-place individual finish at State.
Then, he won a pair of individual State titles, placed third in another event and had a hand in the Championship-clinching 4x400 relay team’s sixth-place finish at the State track and field meet to help account for 28 of Emporia’s 70 points.
No other athlete at Emporia High was as dominant in his element as Davies was this past year, and for that, he leaves as my choice for Male Athlete of the Year.
Honorable mention: Mark Kolmer, Brandon Childs, Caydrick Bloomquist, Edd Noonan.
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Posted by hartford (anonymous) on May 30, 2008 at 1:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
And let's not forget all the other sports not mentioned above.
I am sure you are all aware that it takes a team to play a game. All the players should be mentioned. I am not trying to take anything away from the above students mentioned either! I am proud of all of them.
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