The Garden City Telegram
NEW E-Edition!
Subscription
Required
Add Your Comment | Read (0) Comments
Fort Hays State's coliseum is a landmark for high school sports
Published 3/15/2010 in Sports
It was 10:40 p.m. on Friday night and most of the fans, players, coaches and other officials had cleared out of the Gross Memorial Coliseum on the Fort Hays State University campus.
Left were the workers who had to do the breakdown of press row along with all the other duties associated with making the Coliseum ready for its next event.
Built in 1973, Gross Coliseum has a capacity of 6,814 for basketball and can seat around 10,000 for concerts.
It has become a fixture on the schedule for Kansas State High School Activities Association state competitions — 1A basketball since 1974, 3-2-1A state wrestling and 2-1A state volleyball.
1
Laurie Sisk/Telegram South Gray's Garrison Hendricks dishes off to a teammate during their Class 1A title game on Friday night in Hays.
2
Laurie Sisk/Telegram Members of the South Gray girls basketball team celebrate their Class 1A championship on Friday night at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays.
3
Laurie Sisk/Telegram The South Gray bench watches the action in the final moments of the Class 1A girls championship game Friday at Gross Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Fort Hays State University in Hays.
Next year, of course, Gross will host the 1A boys and girls state Division I basketball tournament, while Division II moves east to historic White Auditorium in Emporia. Time will tell whether the decision by the small class schools to divide is a good one. The ratio of schools in the classifications have been altered — Class 1A will now have 51 schools in Division I and 50 in Division II. Class 6A and 5A will remain with 32 schools each while 4A, 3A and 2A will remain at 64 schools each.
u As I finished my work Friday night, I was talking with one of the workers — a student at FHSU who said this coming week the Coliseum would be hosting the Kansas Special Olympics event with hundreds of competitors and several thousand fans. Once again, one of the state's best athletic facilities makes it possible for groups to conduct its major sporting events and the FHSU people should be congratulated for their cooperation.
u Randy Gonzales, my counterpart with the Hays Daily News, is writing a column today for his newspaper and we've both decided to name our own All-Tournament team since the KSHSAA no longer recognizes those individuals.
On the boys side, Chase Clancy and Ricky Friesen from South Gray after finishing second to Hanover. The champion Wildcats have three on my team — Charles Alexander, Connor Hynek and Taylor Nicholson. Quinter's Scott Ochs and Matt Bird were another duo who played well for the team that came in undefeated and top-seeded. Kyle Haverkamp and Logan Haug were key performers for Baileyville-B&B in their third-place finish.
The last spot on the team was reserved for the player who only played one game, but his name is etched into Kansas basketball history — Burrton's Alex Santiago who scored 53 points last Tuesday in a first-round loss. His mark is the highest individual game scoring record for boys at the state tournament for all classes.
It seems the girls are always more difficult to select, but I'd take South Gray's Mikayla Skidmore (junior guard) and Kayla Thomas (senior forward) to head up my 10-player all-star list. Skidmore was brilliant, scoring 56 points in the three games to pace the Lady Rebels to their second state title in three seasons. Thomas, too, was a key component, averaging 14 points and 9 rebounds. Runner-up Argonia has two selections — Ashton Stansburgy and Allison Brewster, both juniors. Both averaged nearly 16 points and 8 rebounds in their three contests. Third-place finisher St. John is represented by senior guard Brooke Burgan and sophomore center Teresa Wade. Keep an eye out for Wade, she will be a terrific player. Fourth place finisher St. Paul, which came into the tourney unbeaten, has junior Morgan Westhoff and senior center Allison O'Brien. Westhoff, a crafty ball-handler and shooter, has the nickname of "Automatic" from her school's cheering section and they're not too far off in their assessment of her shooting skills.
The last two on the team also come from teams that were one-and-outs. Chelsea Keating of Frankfort had a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) in its opening loss while freshman Jenna Ferris of Lincoln, a 5-foot-6 guard, scored 28 points in her lone appearance at Gross Coliseum.
Sports Editor Brett Marshall can be contacted at bmarshall @gctelegram.com
Found 0 comment(s)!