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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seven Shawnee County standouts have been selected to play in the 2025 Kansas Volleyball Association All-Star Match, which will be played on June 7, 2025 at Washburn Rural (5 p.m. start).
Class 5A runnerup Seaman will be represented in the KVA Match by Campbell Chabot, Ava Esser, Maegan Mills and Kinley Wilhelm.
Cambell Chabot, Seaman
Ava Esser, Seaman
Maegan Mills, Seaman
Kinley Wilhelm, Seaman
Washburn Rural, which advanced to the 6A state tournament, will be represented by Layla Collins and Kate Hinck while Silver Lake will be represented by Ella Bolan.
Layla Collins, Washburn Rural
Kate Hinck, Washburn Rural
Ella Bolan, Silver Lake
Bolan, Chabot, Collins, Esser and Hinck will play for the Blue team while Mills and Wilhelm will play for the Red.
The players selected were nominated by their high school coaches (who must be KVA members) and then recommended by committee members to fill the squads.
KVA ALL-STAR ALL-STAR MATCH
June 7 at Washburn Rural, 5 p.m.
BLUE
Kate Hinck, Washburn Rural; Chloe Traffas, Attica; Dalaina Schutte, Halstead; Campbell Chabot, Seaman; Jordyn Washington, Andover Central; Ayla Klingenberg, Rock Creek; Kennedy Behnke, Ellinwood; Layla Collins, Washburn Rural; Ava Esser, Seaman; Ella Bolan, Silver Lake; Emily Bainter, Hoxie; Prayer Roebuck, Neodesha.
Coaches -- Diana Schutte, Halstead (head); Randy Rockhold, Ingalls (assistant); Austin Isham, Blue Valley Southwest (assistant).
RED
Kinley Wilhelm, Seaman; Bella Holcomb, Andover Central; Hallie Holthaus, Nemaha Central; Bria Dawson, Olathe North; Sophia Thompson, Beloit; Harlee Randall, Flint Hills; Katja Blanchat, Smoky Valley; Maegan Mills, Seaman; Addison Budke, Beloit; Cali Honeyman, Nemaha Central; Samantha Klotz, Royal Valley; Saige Hadley, Lebo.
Coaches -- Brooke Harper, Eudora (head); Jessica Horstick, Blue Valley West (assistant); Susan Steinfort, Valley Heights (assistant).
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University softball is back home Friday to host No. 5-ranked Central Oklahoma in a 4 p.m. doubleheader.
Following the twinbill with the Bronchos, the Ichabods will wrap up the regular season against Emporia State on April 26, with WU celebrating Senior Day.
Senior first baseman Jaden LaBarge leads Washburn softball with seven home runs and a .533 slugging percentage. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods (29-18 overall, 11-9 MIAA) split a pair of doubleheaders last weekend at Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri.
Washburn has already assured itself of an eighth straight winning season and senior first baseman Jaden LaBarge said the goal now is for the Ichabods to do everything they can to put themselves in position to make an extended postseason run.
"As long as our defense stays really focused and hitters can just keep swinging the bat and not swing at pitches outside of their zones I think that we have a really great chance of making it farther than we are expected to,'' LaBarge said.
LaBarge leads the Ichabods with seven home runs and a .533 slugging percentage.
The Bronchos are 40-7 and 17-3, splitting a road MIAA doubleheader with Central Missouri on Thursday.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Robbie Sanders, who starred at Topeka High as a player and spent 13 seasons on the Trojans' coaching staff, had long dreamed about getting the opportunity to guide his own program at his alma mater.
That dream came true Thursday night when the USD 501 school board approved the 1996 High grad as the Trojans' new boys basketball coach.
"It's been a long time coming, but better late than never,'' Sanders told TopSports.news. "It just feels so good to be home. It's like everything has come full circle.''
Robbie Sanders (right) was approved as Topeka High's new boys basketball coach Thursday night after coaching the past six seasons on Ken Darting's staff at Shawnee Heights. [File photo/TSN]
The 47-year-old Sanders earned All-City and All-Class 6A recognition for Bill Bagshaw at Topeka High and played collegiately at Independence Community College and Coe College before embarking on a 19-year coaching career.
After coaching under Mike Henson and Pat Denney at Topeka High, Sanders has been a member of Ken Darting's Shawnee Heights' staff the past six seasons, including back-to-back berths in the Class 5A state tournament the past two seasons.
"I got the opportunity to play at Shawnee Heights (for Topeka High) one time and I got the opportunity to go back there and coach,'' Sanders said. "I've obviously coached at Topeka High before and to be able to step back into this role, it seems surreal. It's really special and I'm just honored and excited.''
Sanders had expressed interest in the Topeka High coaching vacancy twice earlier in his career, but said that everything has worked out for the best.
"The first time, to be totally honest, I had some more growing to do so I understood why they felt they needed to go in a different direction,'' Sanders said. "And the last time it just didn't work out for a lot of different reasons. One of the reasons was my son Jaren was just going into college and he was playing football.
"It just was a huge transition and a lot of responsibility to want to be there for him, but to try to take on all these new roles and everything, so the timing just wasn't right. Thank God that another chance came about and we were ablte to make it happen this time.''
Sanders said that he has learned a lot from coaching under Henson, Denney and Darting as he embarks on his first head coaching job.
"Obviously, coach Henson was my introduction to coaching and the biggest thing that stuck with me from coach Henson was just the everyday skill development,'' Sanders said. "He wanted 25 to 35 minutes every day of individual skill development, working on dribbling, passing and shooting, and that's something that I plan to implement here at the High now.
"Coach Denney is a mentor to me. He's somebody that I'm still really close with and I can run any idea across him and he's just an unbelievable resource, and coach Darting, he just changed the way I looked at everything. He made me understand that winning is attainable if we go about it the right way. If we build it brick by brick, if we start on the defensive end, if we hold these kids accountable, if we set high standards, anything is achievable.
"I've learned so much from all these guys and I would say that my philosophy and style is a combination of everything that I learned from everybody.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University baseball will play its final road series of the season this week at No. 19 Pittsburg State, beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, with the Ichabods looking to end what has been an up and down campaign with a late-season hot streak.
Washburn senior standout Jett Buck is in the midst of an outstanding season for the 21-21 Ichabods. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Washburn fell to 21-21 overall and 14-15 in the MIAA after losing 10-8 to No. 20 Fort Hays State in 10 innings on Tuesday.
"It's hard because it seems like the whole team can't play good at once,'' WU senior standout Jett Buck said. "It seems like one part of the game is off at a time.''
Washburn is 6-2 in games against NCBWA nationally ranked opponents this season.
"I think it's showed that when we have everything clicking at the same time we're really hard to beat, but it's just consistency and everyone playing like we should,'' Buck said.
The Ichabods posted a third straight 30-win season in 2024, going 32-21 overall and 21-12 in the MIAA.
Pittsburg State improved to 31-7 overall and 19-7 inside the MIAA after defeating Missouri S&T 17-12 on the road Tuesday evening, winning its program-record 13th game in a row.
Washburn is scoring 8.67 runs per game while opponents are averaging 7.79 runs a start.
At the plate the Ichabods are hitting .307 with 74 home runs, 96 doubles and drawing195 walks while striking out 291 times.
The WU pitching staff has a 7.05 ERA with 293 strikeouts across 365.1 innings. The Ichabods have allowed 397 hits and issued 259 walks.
Buck leads the team with 15 games of recording multiple RBI and he has two games with five or more driven in.
Buck is hitting .360 while starting in all 42 games. He has a team-high 17 home runs on the year with 58 RBI, also tops on the team. He ranks second in the MIAA and seventh nationally in home runs. Buck is also second in the conference in RBI, hits and total bases while ranking fourth in slugging percentage. He has multiple hits in each of the last five games.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's girls soccer team scored the final two goals Wednesday night at Hummer Sports Park to take control in a 3-1 Centennial League win over Topeka High.
Washburn Rural senior Kate Hinck scored two goals in Wednesday's 3-1 Centennial League soccer win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural senior Destiny Higgs (24) scored a goal in Wednesday's 3-1 Centennial League soccer win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The Junior Blues, who improved to 7-1-0 overall and 3-0-0 in the league, got a pair of goals from senior Kate Hinck while senior Destiny Higgs also scored for Washburn Rural.
Senior Delaney Hill and junior Allie Schroeder were credited with assists for Rural.
Rural led 1-0 at halftime after a goal 30:35 into the half, but the Trojans (3-3-1, 0-1-0) knotted the game at 1-1 on a goal from junior Natalie Barnes 8:05 into the second half.
The Junior Blues snapped the tie 4:43 later and added their final goal 2:52 later.
Topeka High will play a Centennial League game at Manhattan next Tuesday while Washburn Rural will host a non-league contest against Olathe West next Thursday.
WASHBURN RURAL 3, TOPEKA HIGH 1
Washburn Rural (7-1-0, 3-0-0) 1 2 -- 3
Topeka High (3-3-1, 0-1-0) 0 1 -- 1
Washburn Rural -- Goals: Kate Hinck 2, Destiny Higgs. Assists: Delaney Hill, Allie Schroeder.
Topeka High -- Goal: Natalie Barnes.
