Sunflower League loaded as always

The 2010 season should provide another year with strong competition for championships in the three leagues — the Sunflower League, the Kaw Valley League, and the Delaware Valley League — that have teams in Leavenworth County.
Olathe North, Shawnee Mission West, and Lawrence Free State separated themselves from the pack in the Sunflower League last season, as they each won their district while only three other teams in the league — Olathe East, Olathe Northwest, and Shawnee Mission East — even placed second at districts to make the 6A playoffs. State-champion ONHS loses 19 seniors from last year, but they return track-star running back Adonis Saunders while SMWHS loses 26 seniors, including quarterback DJ Balasz. The Vikings do, however, return their two leading rushers in William Livingston and Cordi Pascal, setting up a big matchup with the Eagles in week one.
It won’t be much easier for either team down the road. The Vikings play Free State in week three, a tough matchup despite 22 seniors departing from last year’s Firebird team. ONHS will have to survive the Firebirds during district play, as they match up in week eight.

Smaller KVL might pack bigger punch
The KVL is contracting from 10 teams to eight with a pair of the smaller schools — Perry-Lecompton and Santa Fe Trail — leaving for the Big 7 to replace Effingham and Maur Hill-Mount. With nearly every school in the league playing each other now, and considering what each team has coming back, the consensus among KVL coaches seems to be that two of the larger schools — Lansing and Mill Valley — will join Basehor-Linwood and Turner in the top half of the league.
BLHS played each of those other teams last year anyway, though, and head coach Steve Hopkins thinks his team has a chance to repeat as KVL champs.
“We think we can compete with them,” Hopkins said. “Last year I think a lot of schools had a really good senior group. ... Fortunately we feel like everybody graduated a really good core of seniors, and we feel like we have maybe the best core back with (this year’s) juniors.”
BLHS will have to play THS and MVHS back-to-back in weeks five and six, but Lansing may have the toughest row to hoe with MVHS, THS, and BLHS right in a row to start the season. MVHS and THS, meanwhile, square off in week nine in what could be for both the district and KVL title.
“Only going off of film that I’ve seen, (THS has) just got a huge number of athletes...” Tonganoxie head coach Mark Elston said. “So if I were going to bet today, I’d say Turner’s probably in the lead and that everybody’s chasing them.”

DVL to divide into two divisions
The DVL is going through some major changes as well, with the addition of Effingham and Maur Hill-Mount necessitating two divisions. Each division will have a separate championship, and games against teams in the opposite division will not count as league games. The North will have seven teams: Doniphan West, Horton, Troy, Wathena, Jackson Heights, Effingham, and Maur-Hill Mount. The South will have six teams (Kansas City Christian does not sponsor football): Pleasant Ridge, Immaculata, McLouth, Oskaloosa, Valley Falls, and Jefferson County North.
PR head coach Chris Powers said that his team winning the South title will likely come down to games against Oskaloosa and Valley Falls in weeks two and three, respectively. He also said he expects Effingham to win the North, so if PR wins the South, their week-six matchup would be like an unofficial overall title game.
“It’s not really an official (DVL) game,” Powers said, “but if everything goes right for us in the South and we come out of the South undefeated, I’d say Effingham would come out of the North undefeated, so that could be a little title game.”