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Seaman girls basketball not viewing this season as rebuilding year
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
In Class 5A, you’ve grown accustomed to the Seaman Lady Vikings basketball program being at the top for the last several seasons.
Senior Maddie Gragg is a three-time All-Shawnee County Top 10 selection for Seaman. [File photo/TSN]
The Vikings went 23-2 and won the state championship in 2024 and posted a 24-1 record and finished as the state runnerup last season. Seaman also made the state tournament in 2023, losing in the first round.
Coach Matt Tinsley enters his ninth year at Seaman and 20th overall as a coach. Tinsley put it simply that this season is just as important as the last couple of years.
“We still have Vikes on our jersey,” Tinsley said. “My expectations are not going to change. I understand why some coaches say it’s a rebuilding year. I don’t take it that way because I feel that if you have to say you’re rebuilding, you’re saying that you’ve been knocked down. I think our tradition and culture speaks for itself and I’m never going to use a rebuilding year because you’re just giving yourself an excuse.
“If you wear our jersey, you’re going to play with pride and play the right way. That’s what I’m excited about is seeing the growth in this team. We have some girls that are hungry and they feel like they have something to prove and I love those challenges as a coach too.”
The likes of Anna Becker, Taylin and Jaida Stallbaumer, Ava Esser, the list goes on of great talent to come from the Viking program. How does Tinsley try to fill those shoes to continue that dominance of great players?
“We got to get these kids to understand what their role is going to be on this team and how they can contribute,” he said. “Every kid out here is going to have a chance to show what they can do to help the team. Every day is an evaluation. My college coach always said that every day is a chance to earn your playing time to excel in your role.
"Whereas last year we could give it to Anna, ‘Hey go make a play’, this year, they’re going to have to rely on each other to make sure that we’re getting shots that we want to shoot, understanding our alignment and assignments and understanding time and score.''
Senior Maddie Gragg, whose only lost five games in her high school career, and junior Cara Beaton said they have to lead by example, encourage and push the pace to show the younger players how it’s done to develop good habits.
“We want to keep that legacy going and I think the standards are the same as last year if not higher and you can tell with the practices we’re still practicing the same just with different players,” said Gragg, a three-time All-Shawnee County Top 10 pick.
“Keep the same intensity as last year, just better attitudes and encouragement,” Beaton said.
Tinsley said he knows with the personnel he has there will be some tweaks made throughout the season and he knows that takes time and he will be patient with the girls on that. He said if they bring the effort and attitude every day to practice and games, they’ll be just fine.
In addition to Gragg, who averaged 13.3 points with 39 3-pointers, Beaton is another player Tinsley has high hopes for running the point guard position after being on the state championship and runnerup teams. Sophomore Lydia Dreher was another name Tinsley mentioned as a solid post player for the Vikes.
“We would like to see some separation in practice, but right now there's a lot of girls that I think can play but we won’t know until game night on how they’re going to respond,'' Tinsley said. "Definitely, our junior class is going to have to take that next step.''
Tinsley said the Vikings' approach this season will be different compared to last year where they had five players that could score 10 points or more a game. He said he will tell the team what they can do versus what they can’t do because that will build their confidence.
“We’re going to be a team that nobody is going to want to play come the end of the season. I feel really good about this team and we’re going to surprise some people,” Tinsley said.
Seaman boys basketball excited for senior group to lead team to further heights
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Seaman boys basketball remembers its Class 5A sub-state loss to Valley Center at home last season and the Vikings don’t want that to happen again this year.
Seaman senior KaeVon Bonner is a returning two-time All-Shawnee County Top 10 pick. [File photo/TSN]
“I’m already envisioning that scenario and trying to coach towards that when we get into late February, early March that we’re making the right decisions and not just trying something and hoping it turns out in our favor,'' Seaman coach Craig Cox said. "I really enjoyed last season, but I did not enjoy the way we finished.''
Cox will be in year 15 at the helm of the Vikings' program and wants to see how this senior group will respond when the lights are turned on, especially watching their growth the last couple of years.
The Vikings went 13-8 in 2024-2025 and 9-12 in 2023-2024 after winning the state championship in 2022-2023 with an 18-7 record.
“We’ve got really good team chemistry, they like each other, they support each other, they’re there for each other and that makes our job a lot easier,'' Cox said. "I don’t have to worry about a lot of distractions because they’re good students and come from good families.
“We want an environment where they (players) want to be there and they’re not dreading practice, they’re not scared about what’s going to happen, how much we’re going to have to run. We want to have a good time and try to improve and limit our mistakes and help us be successful on game night.”
Cox mentioned that the Vikings have the potential to be a high scoring team this season, but last year they were easy to score on and they have to tighten that aspect up to have more chances.
“The mistake I made as a coach is thinking we need to help them on offense so that we kind of set aside our defensive drills and when I look back to our really good defensive teams in the past, it’s because we put the time in,'' Cox said.
"Unfortunately, this year with tryouts and our first game on Dec. 2, we don’t have time to do a lot, so we’re going to throw it at them and hopefully as we get to Christmas break and all of those practices and then in mid-season tournament time, we can continually be better defensively.''
Cox said Landon Wiltz, Griffin Zuniga, Matthew McConnaughey and Cameron Brian are players whoe will contribute this season along with senior KaeVon Bonner, who has been a key factor for the Vikings since his freshman year.
Washburn Rural boys basketball hoping continuity, comfort can push them to good results
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
The hammer and chain you might see that Washburn Rural boys basketball posts on X after every game, that’s not going away this year.
Senior Simon Rowley earned All-Shawnee County Top 10 honors for Washburn Rural last season. [File photo/TSN]
Junior Blues coach Alex Hutchins said that started when he started coaching in 2018 and it became an idea when Hutchins started watching baseball games and believes it came from former MLB player Carlos Beltran.
Regardless of a win or loss, the players choose who gets the hammer and/or chain based on doing it the right way according to Hutchins.
The hammer goes to the player who does things right offensively and the chain is for defense.
“It holds us accountable to our core values and being tough and going out there to perform every night. It just makes you have that dawg mentality when you’re out there. You want to compete for the chain and the hammer,” senior standout Simon Rowley said.
Hutchins will be in his fourth year with the Junior Blues and this senior class has been with him the whole time, with the exception of Rowley, who transferred in last season.
Last year's team finished at 18-5 and advanced to the state tournament before falling in the first round to Wichita Heights. That was Rural's first trip to the big dance since 2019 where they were the state runnerups.
“We’ve felt like we’ve hit the ground running more this year than probably any other year and part of that is the decisions as a coaching staff to stick with some things that have worked, but part of it is a deep roster of kids who have been with us through a lot,” he said.
Rowley and John Hoytal return as starters from last year's group, while Draden Chooncharoen, Brooks Ballard and Kieffer O’Connor, who’s won the JV MVP the last two years, are names to look out for, too.
