3A Wrestling Rankings, Dec. 8

Dawgs Lose In 2 OT

CHAPMAN 65, ROSSVILLE 63  2OT

Rossville  7 18 12 13 6 7 -- 63

Chapman 14 6 14 16 6 9 -- 65

Rossville -scoring:

Schumacher      9 (3)   10-12   31 

Horak               4 (3)     0-3     11
Morris               3 (2)     0-2       8
Mason              2 (1)     2-5       7
Hammes          1          4-6       6
Totals             19 (9)   16-30     63

Mission Valley Wrestling

RHS Girls Win At Chapman

     The RHS girls basketball team won their first game of the Fighting Irish Classic at Chapman on Tue night with a 69-48 trouncing of the host team.  The Lady Dawgs are now 2-0 and looking forward to their next game in the tournament on Friday night against Sacred Heart.       Sacred Heart lost to El Dorado 45-41 on Tuesday night.

Rossville  18 19 19 13 — 69
Chapman 16   8 12 14 — 48

Rossville scoring:
Hill                  11            0-0       22
Nitsch               4 (1)        6-6      15
Day                  4             0-0        8
Conley              2             4-6        8
Steckel             2 (1)        2-4        7
Porter               2             1-2        5
Shinn               1              0-2        2
Shinn               1              0-0        2.
Totals             27 (2)       13-20      69.

Scholars Bowl Results

        On Saturday December 5th, the RHS scholar's bowl team participated in the Quest "Super Saturday" competition at Washburn University.   The RHS team  had a good day and managed to be in the top 16 schools of all classes and qualified for the televised version of Quest. (Quest is the new version of High Q) 
        The Dawgs  will attend a taping in late January and compete in a tournament style event. The event will air on Channel 11 KTWU at a later date.
         Participants in the event are: 

Mitchell Porter Jr.

Fred Schuler Jr.

Emily Woodcock Jr.

Ashley Rietcheck Jr.

Alternates: Sam Thederahn Jr., and Ryan Ehrlich Jr.

Sponsor:  Jason Broaddus

Have an Old Baseball Photo?

    Mark Honer is  still in production for the Town Teams: Bigger than Baseball documentary which is scheduledto be premiered next spring  just before opening day.

    Mark is  looking for any photos of Rossville town teams  (or even surrounding teams)  from the years 1885-1930.     If you have a photo,  please contact Mark at markh@dhtvdigital.com or Frank Ruff at Frank.Ruff@juno.com.

KU Should Offer Horak

From the Capital-Journal:

After an historically bad 0-12 season, Kansas football coach David Beaty has apparently hit the recruiting trail pretty hard, securing several key additions in the past week or so — including Isi Holani, a three-star, 315-pound juco defensive lineman from Riverside College in California who orally committed Monday, and Stephan Robinson, a 5-foot-11 athlete from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M who committed Sunday night.

However, the Jayhawks could do themselves a big favor and take a stroll down the road to Rossville, where one of the most dominant high school football players in state history currently resides.

I'm talking, of course, about Tucker Horak, who posted eye-popping numbers at Rossville with 12,834 total yards (good for No. 6 in the nation for career total offense) and 186 touchdowns over the course of his career with the Bulldawgs. His 79.2 percent completion rate this season helped propel the Dawgs to a Class 3A state title as he became the first player in state history to rush and throw for 2,000 yards in a single season.

Horak, who admittedly has received some attention from Kansas and Kansas State as a potential walk-on candidate, has been heavily pursued by Wyoming, according to an article by The Topeka Capital-Journal's Brent Maycock.

“I loved everything about (Wyoming), except the altitude,” Horak said in the article. “I love their facilities, their field was nice and their coaches were super-easy to work with. I really liked it there. ... Overall, I think I was pretty happy with how I competed and performed at their camp.”

I'm happy for the kid, and getting a chance to play early on at Wyoming would be a great opportunity for Horak. However, the lowly Jayhawks could use all the help they could get, and pulling in a kid like Horak would put them a lot closer to the ultimate goal of winning the in-state recruiting battle against Kansas State.

Sure, he's only 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds. But keep in mind that's only an inch shorter and about 20 pounds lighter than Todd Reesing's listed dimensions (chances are good he wasn't as tall as advertised), and he was the Jayhawks' greatest quarterback of all time. Not that every short player is a Reesing-calibre athlete, but after seeing Horak put up huge numbers all season, I have to believe if anyone has that sort of potential, it's him. If a kid can complete 79 percent of his passes in a season at high school while passing for more than 2,000 yards, I have to think he'd be able to perform better than some of KU's current quarterbacks.

That being said, there's no guarantee Horak would even want to sign with the Jayhawks if they did offer him a scholarship. Kansas football is anything but an easy sell.

However, the Jayhawks could do far worse than at least offering a scholarship to this kid. Like the DJ Khaled song, played so often by the pep band at Allen Fieldhouse, all he does is win. At the very least, he could be a great special teams player for the Jayhawks or offer depth at a different position like running back or defensive back. Winning starts with talent, and Horak has plenty to go around.

State Champions Apparel

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP apparel can be purchased online through DECEMBER 13th: http://www.reliantapparel.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=90_107_176

Horak Leads All-State Team

By brent.maycock@cjonline.com

At 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, Rossville’s Tucker Horak doesn’t create even the slightest blip on football recruiting websites, his dimensions far from ideal for those in the market for a Division I quarterback.

So you won’t find his name listed among Kansas’ top prospects on Rivals.com or any other service. Same goes for fellow quarterback Brady Rust of Derby, who boasts the same exact measurements. Or Lawrence tailback JD Woods, who checks in at 5-7, 175.

Even hulking linemen Kaelin Key (6-0, 265) of Miege and Noah Johnson (6-2, 275) of Carroll don’t quite fit the specifications college recruiters desire when scouring the nation for talent.

But what the yardstick doesn’t measure are the qualities that have made all five standouts members of The Topeka Capital-Journal’s 2015 All-State Top 11.

“It is what it is, but sometimes you need to look past the yardstick, the scales and even the stopwatch,” said Lawrence coach Dirk Wedd, who’s seen both sides of the recruiting focus with the Lions also boasting a Top 11 pick in lineman Amani Bledsoe — the No. 1 prospect in Kansas.

“You just need to see who wins, who wills their team to win and who’s a player. Sometimes on Saturday afternoon, that would win a game or two for you.”

One only needs to look at the final Saturday afternoon of the football season to find out just how true that statement can ring, at least in the case of Horak and Rust.

In the Class 3A state title game, Rossville trailed Wichita Collegiate 19-7 entering the fourth quarter — its bid for a second straight state title in serious danger. But in the span of less than a minute, Horak ran for a touchdown and then returned a fumble 65 yards for the game-winning score as the Bulldawgs pulled out a 20-19 victory.

The herculean effort capped a season unlike any other in Kansas history as Horak became the first player in state history to rush and throw for more than 2,000 yards in the same season. His final numbers were simply staggering: 2,859 yards and 47 touchdowns rushing and 2,070 yards and 30 touchdowns passing.

“It’s a cliche, but you can’t measure heart,” Rossville coach Derick Hammes said. “In general, that’s a good description of this group and it’s an excellent description of Tucker because he was just incredible for us. I’ve never coached anybody that had the ability like he could to make a play for his team. He was something special.”

If not for Horak’s monster season, Rust very well may have been the buzz capturing an entire state. After Derby lost standout tailback Garrett Xanders for the season, Rust put the Panther offense on his back and led them to the 6A state title, rushing for 309 yards in the championship game on an ice-covered field.

His season was no less spectacular with 2,118 yards and 24 touchdowns rushing and 1,728 yards and 33 touchdowns passing.

“When it comes to a great high school quarterback, I think his stats just speak for themselves,” Derby coach Brandon Clark said. “To get recruited these days, you need to be 6-3, 6-4. But he’ll be a great quarterback for some system. Every once in awhile, some of those quarterbacks get a chance and really show that size doesn’t matter, and hopefully these guys get a chance.”

Huge senior seasons and careers haven’t led recruiters to beat down the doors of fellow Top 11 picks Christian Jegen of Mill Valley, Dawson Downing and Key of Miege, Woods or Jace McDown of Columbus, even though they come closer to passing the “eye test” with their physiques.

Jegen (6-2, 200) accumulated more than 2,000 combined rushing and receiving yards from his receiver position for the 5A state champions, while Downing (6-0, 215) and Key led Miege to its second straight 4A title with Downing rushing for 1,904 yards and 42 touchdowns and Key making 31 tackles for loss.

McDown (6-0, 215) merely led Kansas in rushing until the final week of the season, amassing 2,667 yards and 38 touchdowns while also racking up 125 tackles. Woods (5-7, 175) merely broke Lawrence’s single-season and career rushing records, finishing with 1,928 yards and 38 touchdowns as a senior.

The Top 11 does have its share of Division I star power as well, beginning with Bledsoe (6-5, 272) who ranks as the No. 6 defensive end prospect in the nation and has more than 30 Division I offers.

Olathe North’s Isaiah Simmons (6-4, 210) is a three-star prospect who stood out on both sides of the ball for the Eagles, making 92 tackles from his free safety spot while also adding 994 yards and 16 touchdowns receiving. Free State’s Bryce Torneden (5-10, 175) has committed to FCS multi-time national champion North Dakota State and had 84 tackles and more than 2,450 yards of total offense.

The coach of the year is Mill Valley’s Joel Applebee, who led the Jaguars to their first state title with a 35-14 win over Carroll in the 5A championship game to cap a 12-1 season.

Capital Journal All State Team

Amani Bledsoe, Lawrence OT-DT 6-5 272 Sr.
Dawson Downing, Miege RB 6-0 210 Sr.
Tucker Horak, Rossville QB-DB 5-10 180 Sr.

Christian Jegen, Mill Valley WR-FS 6-2 200 Sr.

Noah Johnson, Carroll OT 6-2 275 Sr.

Kaelin Key, Miege DT 6-0 265 Sr.

Jace McDown, Columbus RB-LB 6-0 215 Sr.

Brady Rust, Derby QB 5-10 180 Sr.

Isaiah Simmons, Olathe North FS-WR 6-4 210 Sr

Bryce Torneden, Free State QB-DB 5-10 175 Sr.

JD Woods, Lawrence RB 57 175 Sr.

Coach of the year — Joel Applebee, Mill Valley

CHRIS NEAL/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL-The Topeka Capital-Journal's 2015 All-State Top 11, front row from left: Dawson Downing, Miege; J.D. Woods, Lawrence High; Tucker Horak, Rossville; Brady Rust, Derby; Jace McDown, Columbus; Bryce Torneden, Lawrence Free State. Back row from left: Noah Johnson, Carroll; Kaelin Key, Miege; Coach Joel Applebee, Mill Valley; Christian Jegen, Mill Valley; Isaiah Simmons, Olathe North; Amani Bledsoe, Lawrence High.

Wamego Boys Win 66-45

WAMEGO 66, ROSSVILLE 45

Rossville 12 10 10 13   =   45

Wamego 19 16 14 17   =   66

Rossville scoring:

Schumacher     9         0-0  18
Roduner           3          1-3   7
Dyche               2 (2)     0-0   6
Hammes           2          0-0   4
Mason               2          0-0   4
Anderson          1 (1)     0-2   3
Horak                1          0-2   2
Morris                0          1-2   1
Totals              20 (3)     2-9 45.

RHS Girls Win In OT

ROSSVILLE 53, WAMEGO 48 (OT)

Rossville 10 10 13  8 12   =   53

Wamego   6 13 12 10  7   =   48

Rossville  scoring:

Hill                 9 (2)    4-6   24
Nitsch            6 (5)    4-8   21
Day               1          2-2     4
Conley           1         2-4     4
Totals           17 (7) 12-20  53.

2015 Homecoming Video

    Here is an excellent video of the 2015 Homecoming Ceremonies at the football field before the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-ifp4tNwcs

Czechland Polka Band At Hall

    Here is video of the The Czechland Polka Band at the Bohemian Hall, Rossville, KS 10-17-15.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIzEYIhzoNs

Willard Bridge Might Get Aid

From the Capital-Journal:

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins says legislation approved Thursday by the House possibly would provide aid for replacement of the Willard Bridge and other projects in Kansas.

The legislation also would need to pass the Senate, which adopted its own highway program earlier this year.

Shawnee County commissioners last month approved a $24.7 million budget to replace the bridge with some uncertainty about where funding will come from.

Jenkins, a Topeka Republican, said the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 would provide “necessary certainty” for planning while “our economy continues to struggle.”

If the House bill were to survive Senate scrutiny, the measure “sets aside funds specifically targeted to help improve local and rural infrastructure,” Jenkins said. “These funds potentially could aid the construction efforts across Kansas, like the Willard Bridge.”