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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.
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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
The Washburn Rural softball team was anxious to get some time on the field after playing just one doubleheader in the last 13 days. They found their groove at the plate at Hayden, scoring two Centennial League wins Tuesday at Hayden.
Sophomore Oliva Koch blasts a home run in Washburn Rural's 13-5 second-game softball win over Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Sophomore Oliva Koch (1) is mobbed by her teammates after hitting a home run in Washburn Rural's 13-5 second-game softball win over Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
“Our schedule has been pretty inconsistent,” Washburn Rural coach Joy Marie Galliart said. “We’ve only been able to play once a week for the four weeks of the season, so it’s hard when you only see live pitching and are in game situations only once a week. You try to simulate it as best you can in practice, but there’s really no replacing a game. We talk about that we have to control what we can control.”
The Junior Blues got solid pitching and produced some big rallies in the sweep of the Wildcats.
Washburn Rural junior Reagan Chapman slides into home plate Tuesday as Hayden senior Keira Carswell applies the tag. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Reagan Chapman threw the first four innings of the opener and bashed a home run in an 11-5 victory. The junior homered again in the second game.
Pitcher Olivia Koch went the distance in the second game and belted a homer of her own in a 13-5 victory.
“I think the day went really good,” Koch said. “Our energy was up for a lot of the game. We did have some little mistakes, but we picked each other up as a team. I think today can help get us on the right track.”
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After graduating just one senior off last year's varsity team and sporting a 50-player roster, veteran Topeka High boys tennis coach Duane Pomeroy expected his Trojans to field a deep and competitive team this spring.
Topeka High junior Tres Lassiter went 3-0 in No. 1 singles Tuesday as the Trojans went 3-0 as a team to win the Topeka West tennis quadrangular at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And the outlook got a lot brighter with the addition of junior No. 1 singles player Tres Lassiter, who went a perfect 3-0 on Tuesday as Topeka High went 3-0 as a team to win the Topeka West quadrangular at Kossover Tennis Center.
Lassiter is a home school student who is playing for High this season as a result of the Kansas State High School Activities Association rule that permits home-schoolers to play for the high school team in their attendance district.
"He called me and said, 'You might remember me from working at the (Kossover) clubhouse,' '' Pomeroy said. "He asked, 'Do you have room on your varsity for another player?' Then I was hearing from other people how good he was and I definitely had room for somebody of that caliber.''
Lassiter is now 5-1 on the season after taking an 8-4 win over Shawnee Heights' Brock Corley, an 8-3 win over Topeka West's Will Hitch and an 8-1 victory over Basehor-Linwood's Gannon Suarez on Tuesday.
"It's a new experience for him,''Pomeroy said. "He plays in the summer in USTA tournaments but he was nervous his first time out because, as he said, he's never played for a school.
"He's just a super nice kid. He's better than anybody else on the team, but he cares about all other kids, including the rookies.''
Topeka High's Christian Sink (left) and Alex Raymond went 3-0 in No. 1 doubles Tuesday as the Trojans went 3-0 as a team to win the Topeka West tennis quadrangular at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
The Trojans also got a 3-0 day from No. 2 singles player Victor Arriaga and the No. 1 doubles team of Alex Raymond and Christian Sink.
Topeka High took a 4-0 win over Shawnee Heights and 3-1 wins over Topeka West and Basehor-Linwood while Heights went 2-1, with the T-Birds' lone loss coming against High.
West's Ayden Gore and Butch Graham went 3-0 on the day in No. 2 doubles.
TOPEKA WEST TENNIS QUADRANGULAR
