(Story in progress) By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — For two weeks we’ve been in a high school sports slumber (at least competitively). That’s about to end next week. Here’s a look ahead and some interesting Sumner County history involving the Kansas Shrine Bowl.

1 — The Wellington girls basketball team

The Crusaders will return to the hardwood this Tuesday when they host Rose Hill. Wellington then travels to Clearwater, before hosting El Dorado and Winfield. They then travel to the Colby Orange/Black Classic Bracket, Jan. 23-25. Wellington head girls coach Eric Adams sent out the Colby bracket this morning.

Analysis: The No. 1 4A-ranked Crusaders should have little trouble over the next two weeks. But they will have their hands full during that mid-season basketball tournament in Colby.

Wellington, Hays, and Colby are currently 6-0. Goodland is 5-1, and Olathe East is 3-3. Wellington will open against Concordia, which is 1-4. The Crusaders are likely to win that first game. That would put them in the semifinals against either Goodland or Hays. That could be their toughest test yet. Goodland, a 3A state champion from 2023, only lost this season to tournament host Colby 46-22. Hays is sitting on top of the Class 5A West at 6-0, beating teams like Newton, Liberal, Junction City, and Manhattan. Its closest game so far is a 56-48 win to Manhattan before the Christmas break.

The Wellington basketball team was hanging out and bonding in Colby last season. 

Look out for Colby, sitting at 6-0 and beating everybody by double digits. That could be the team Wellington will play if it can get to the championship game.

The Lady Dukes have answered the call so far this year, getting wins against Cheney in the Cardinal preseason championship and at Andale, a place Wellington has traditionally struggled. Wellington has won by double digits but did struggle at some points in both games. The Cheney game has most certainly been Wellington’s toughest test. That was the game in which junior Kylan Gregory suffered another knee injury. Her future status is still unknown.

When that injury occurred, Wellington was up by a mere seven points and hadn’t scored in three minutes. After the Gregory injury, Wellington worked its way out of its funk and would go on to win by 15.

Cheney is no slouch, but it lost to Wichita Trinity 38-25 in the very next game. In turn, Trinity lost to Topeka Hayden 55-24 earlier in the season. Topeka Hayden, which is 5-0 and destroying everyone, is a team Wellington may have to compete against if it makes it to the Class 4A state tournament. Topeka Hayden has already won two girls’ team state championships in other sports this academic year and placed third in basketball in 3A in 2024. Bishop Miege is not the only private school Wellington should be worried about.

2 — The Wellington boys basketball team 

The Wellington boys are sitting at 2-4. On the positive side, it could easily be 4-2, losing a couple of games on last-second shots. It will host Rose Hill on Tuesday, which has been an unimpressive 1-4. The Dukes then travel next Friday at Clearwater at 0-5 and hosts El Dorado at 2-3 and Winfield at 2-3. 

Analysis: Wellington plays four opponents with a collective 5-15 record. It has a solid shot of getting to the annual midseason Chaparral Roadrunner Classic on Jan. 22-25 with a winning record. 

The Crusaders were all over the map in December. Nothing illustrates this more than the last week of basketball going into Christmas break. Wellington had an outstanding effort against undefeated Collegiate. The Dukes fell behind 20-4 before making a huge comeback and nearly stealing one down the stretch in a raucous Collegiate gymnasium. If Wellington can look like that team the rest of the way, it will be a formidable basketball team. However, three nights later, it laid a turd at Andale to end 2024. Repeat that performance, and we will be in for a long season. 

Here are the midseason stats for Wellington: WHS boys mid season stats 24-25

Here are the midseason stats of Wellington’s opponents: Wellington opponents midseason stats 24-25

Looking at the stats, Wellington has some things to clean up, but there are no glaring weaknesses (except that darn free-throw shooting). Wellington is currently getting out-rebounded – but is winning the battle of turnovers and steals. The field goal shooting is 44.4 percent, which is average for high school boys’ basketball. Its opponents are shooting 45.1 percent. Wellington is losing the rebounding battle against its opponents but has a better turnover ratio. So it is a mixed bag. That’s not bad, considering that Pratt, Collegiate, and Andale have a combined 11-4 record. 

3 — Outer Sumner boys basketball

Sumner County records:
Conway Springs 2-3.
Belle Plaine 1-5.
South Haven 3-3.
Oxford 5-1.
Caldwell 1-4.
Argonia 0-4.

Analysis: Oxford has the best record of the Outer Sumner basketball teams, losing its only game of the season in the opening contest of the Caldwell Border Queen Classic to Central Burden. The SCBL should be a fun one with Oxford, Central, Cedar Vale-Dexter and Flinthills all with records at 4-2 or better. The SCBL starts league play on Jan. 14. The tournament continues from Jan. 20 to Jan. 25.

Conway Springs has gotten off to a rough start, partially due to football injuries. It also had to battle Medicine Lodge and Halstead right out of the gate. Medicine Lodge is 4-2, and Halstead is 3-2, beating the likes of Rose Hill and Marion.

4 — Outer Sumner girls basketball 

Sumner County records:
Conway Springs 4-2.
Belle Plaine 3-3.
South Haven 6-0.
Oxford 2-4.
Caldwell 1-5.
Argonia 4-2.

Analysis: South Haven, as usual, is rolling and could very well be on its way to a South Central Border League title. Argonia is sitting at 4-2 with the second best record in the league.

Conway Springs girls are off to a good start but they are about to embark on the always tough Central Plains League. Belle Plaine is much improved this season after going 3-3.

5 — Kansas Shrine Bowl history

Switching sports, someone sent us a link to all the past Kansas Shrine Bowl all-star players.

Two players have been selected for the 2024 Shrine Bowl in Dodge City: Brody Weir of Wellington and Cooper Koster of Conway Springs. See story here.

Here is a list of all the Sumner County players.

Wellington (24):
1975 – Gregg Lemaster
1975 – Bob Stallbaumer
1977 – Larry LeMaster
1977 – John Odell
1978 – Curtis Davison
1978 – David McComb
1979 – Dean Wayman
1980 – David Bowman
1980 – Jeff Sneed
1982 – Linn Hibbs
1983 – Damon Jones
1992 – Chad Fuller
1993 – Lance Russell
1994 – David Heath
1996 – Jacob Zeka
1997 – Jason Burnett
2001 – Eric Wiedower
2002 – Justin Wagoner
2002 – Taylor Zeka
2003 – Tim Lira
2019 – DeAndre Washington
2021 – Kenny Fehrman
2023 – Malachi Rogers
2024 – Derrick Lowe.

Conway Springs (19):
1999 – Eric Pauly
2000 – Kyle Barkley
2002 – Taylor Hoover
2002 – Craig Pauly
2003 – Josh Barbo
2003 – Nathan Pauly
2005 – Darrin Seiwert
2005 – Matt Wykes
2006 – Devin Tarrant
2008 – Chris Gerber
2009 – Trevor Tarrant
2011 – Mason Puly
2012 – Matt Seiwert
2014 – Ethan Roth
2015 – Logan Creek
2019 – Daniel Becker
2020 – Dawson Martin
2023 – Zane Zoglmann
2024 – Braydon Kunz.

Belle Plaine (6)
1977 – Greg St. Clair
1978 – Mike Sweany
1988 – Jody Killian
1992 – Chris Warren
1999 – John Mellilio
2008 – Kevin Jerrick.

Caldwell (2):
1987 – David Bevan
1988 – Danny Dvorak

Analysis: Wellington is still in the lead with 24, while Conway Springs has 19. Belle Plaine had six, and Caldwell had two. Oxford, Argonia, and South Haven have yet to get in a selection. It’s interesting that Belle Plaine had five players at the turn of the century, while Conway Springs had its first one when Eric Pauly became the first. Since then, the Conway Springs dynasty has placed 18 of them in the big summer all-star game.

As for Wellington, there was a 16-year drought from 2003 to 2019 when DeAndre Washington was selected. Since that point, Wellington has had four named players in the big game.

Nevertheless, the fact that only 51 players from this traditionally rich football county have played in the Shrine Bowl proves how selective this honor really is.