by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — 2012 can be characterized as a unique year of circumstances. It wasn’t necessarily a year defined of great athletic team achievement in Sumner County, although there was plenty of it.

But it was more about uniqueness – stories that probably won’t be repeated. Here we are counting down the top five Sumner County sports stories in 2012. This story presents the top sports stories from No. 5 to No. 2. We will present the sports story of the year on Dec. 31.

We will be counting the top 10 news stories starting on Jan. 1. We will countdown 10 to 6 on New Years Day evening. No. 2-5 will be on the morning of Jan. 2 and the No. 1 Sumner Newscow story of the year will be featured on the evening of Jan. 2. 

Top Sumner County sports stories, No. 5 to 2 are as follows…

5. Conway Springs clinches two state championships in tennis.

When you are in the position as Sumner Newscow is of covering a plethora of sports teams throughout the county, sometimes it becomes a blur of accomplishments.

Conway Springs girls, along with the boys, win state crown.

But perhaps one of the most overlooked achievements across the state of Kansas might have occurred right under our noses.

Conway Springs, long known for its football prowess, had a stunning year in high school tennis. Conway Springs head coach Chris Baller would coach both of his boys and girls teams to Class 3-2-1A state titles in 2012.

Last spring, the Conway Springs boys won state with 34 points, knocking out Sterling, which had 30.5. Doubles partners Anthony Trifiletti and Grant Bellar finished fourth in doubles for the Cardinals.

Not to be outdone, in the fall the Conway Springs girls brought home a state trophy as well in Hutchinson. The Lady Cards would score 38 team points outdistancing the next competitor by 11 team points. Chelsea Ebenkamp and Stacy Sones were doubles team winners with a 7-5, 6-2 state victory over a dual team from Claflin.

4. Wilmoth becomes a replacement NFL referee. 

Mike Wilmoth on TV.

If everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, Mike Wilmoth of Wellington definitely used his allocated portion in 2012.

Wilmoth became an NFL replacement referee during a labor dispute in August and September. And for seven weeks —four preseason and three regular season weeks — Wilmoth became part of “the” national sports story. Sports media pundits and fans everywhere had a collective cow over the state of officiating in the NFL (as if any of them could really tell).

Wilmoth took it in stride, one time telling his son Brandon that “it’s football,” when asked how things were going. Wilmoth, who has been officiating football for over three decades in high school, small college and arena football — never acted like the NFL was much different… except for the pay and the big-time events. Wilmoth was an official for Peyton Manning’s regular season debut in Denver, and he officiated a game in front of the zealous cheesehead fans in Green Bay on a Thursday night.

Wilmoth was part of a “prime time” officiating team.

But his NFL officiating gig came to a quick halt, when a last second controversy in Seattle which he wasn’t apart of, became so epidemic that the officiating labor dispute ended two days later.

But his time in the spotlight was not. He became a media darling thereafter. Wilmoth was interviewed by nearly every TV and newspaper outlet in the area. He even had a lengthy interview with NPR Radio that ran nationally for nearly an hour.

Now Wilmoth is back to a normal routine of teaching high school history at USD 353, and officiating various levels of local football. For Wilmoth, the mad mother at a junior varsity South Haven football game is probably just the same as that drunken irate NFL Cheesehead.

3. WHS football program goes through another coaching turnover. 

The WHS football program didn’t really go through a transitional period in 2012. It was more like a tornado. WHS went 17 years with tremendous stability with Linn Hibbs at the helm and a group of assistants. Then Hibbs resigned in late 2011. Wellington cast its eyes to an up-and-coming assistant at rival Andale and hired Dylan Schmidt as his replacement.

Schmidt appeared to be a good replacement. He, with the help of the Crusader Club, rebuilt the weight room, and was instrumental in getting a new press box and improved aluminum seat backing at Sellers Park.

But Schmidt abruptly resigned in late May and returned as an assistant to his alma mater in Andale. As a result, Wellington was once again scrambling for a football coach.

Wellington eventually landed Tyler Ryan, a head coach from Wichita Trinity. He implemented a new flex bone offense.

The results haven’t been great in Ryan’s first year. The team struggled to a 2-7 record. This marked the first time in the 93 year history of Wellington football that the Crusaders has suffered three losing seasons in a row. Wellington, which currently holds the longest consecutive playoff qualifying streak, has now missed the playoffs two years in a row.

But to be fair, the current group of seniors have had three head coaches in their three years of high school. Also, there are just three assistant coaches left from the Hibbs regime.

It’s hard to believe, Wellington is just 11 years removed from being two-time state champions.

2. WHS girls basketball team goes to state. 

Basketball in Wellington has not exactly stirred the fear of opponents over the years. The school had not had a state basketball tournament berth since the boys did it in 1957. That was during the Eisenhower Administration.

But that changed in 2012 when the Wellington High School girls basketball team broke the streak and qualified for the Class 4A state tournament in Salina.

It was a fun year. The Crusaders spent most of the season in the top 10. They accumulated a 16-game winning streak, and became only the second WHS basketball team to have a 20-win season.

And during the first week of March in front of a sea of red at Clearwater gymnasium, Wellington would beat Mulvane 43-30 to capture the crown. It hadn’t been a great sub-state week for the Crusaders. Wellington would beat Rose Hill 51-38 in the semifinals in a grinder of a game when the Dukes were down by eight points at the half and trailed by one as late as 3:53 to play. Wellington would rattle off the final 14 points to win.

After a hard-fought win against Mulvane, Wellington would go to state to play Ottawa in the first round, losing 71-56, in front of a huge Wellington contingency. WHS senior Dani Anderson scored 33 points in the game.

Perhaps, the season wasn’t unexpected. Three of the seniors had been starting since their freshman year. Anderson, Ashlyn Whaley and Erianne Adams were an integral part of Kevin Hackerott’s offense since he started coaching at the high school level in 2008. The Crusader program had four good season, each one better than the previous one. 2012 was a culmination of a successful four-year stint.