It’s the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, it’s election day, and while there’s nothing really earth shattering on the election front, unless you’re into politics in the north east, I thought I’d just give a few random thoughts on the local sports scene for the past week or so.
PANTHERS FALL TO WILDCATS IN DISTRICT
This game played out exactly like I though it would. I was saying all along in the week leading up to the game that the team that made plays would win. Now that’s not some kind of genius insight, it’s just fact. The Cats and Panthers are pretty evenly matched teams, and may well play each other again down the road in the playoffs.
But what that game all boiled down to is five or six plays by the Wildcats, something like three fourth down conversions, two 37 yard pass plays and a 57 yard touchdown run. Other than those plays, the Wildcats were pretty pedestrian against the Panthers. Blame it on the weather, or give credit to the Panther defense or a combination of both. But what it tells me is both Paola and Louisburg are pretty good teams.
The Panthers, on the other hand can look to plays they didn’t make, which ultimately cost them the game. How many times did the center/quarterback exchange fall to the turf? How many times did a penalty stop a promising drive? Finally, why did the Panthers suddenly turn into a passing team in the second half, when anyone who’s followed Paola football for the year, with more than just a passing interest, knows the Panthers can’t throw and catch on a dry field, let alone one that a soggy, muddy, messy, stinky, quagmire like the Louisburg field was.
You only have to look as far as the Panthers first drive of the game to see how the “shoot yourself in the foot” syndrome cost the Panthers the game. The Wildcats got the ball and were stuffed by Paola. The Panther took control and marched the ball down the field and faced a third and short at the 21 yard line. Three yards later the Panthers appeared to have a first down at the 18, but a holding penalty pushed the ball back to the 31, drive over. Finally in the third quarter, the Panthers, still trailing just 14-0, recovered a Wildcat fumble at the LHS 22 yard line, four plays and three net yard later, the Panthers turned the ball back to the Wildcats. Two trips inside the Louisburg 20, two wasted opportunities.
In games like these, you have to make plays, unfortunately for the Panthers, they were not able to make the plays. For their effort, the Wildcats get to host Anderson County from the Pioneer League, anyone remember what the Cats did to the last two Pioneer League teams they faced? The Panthers travel to Chanute for a much tougher test, but they’re all tough from here on out.
PANTHER VOLLEYBALL AT STATE
The Paola Panthers Volleyball team turned into sort of a Cinderella story late in the season. Defying the odds, the Panthers won the Frontier League Tournament and the Sub State Tournament on consecutive weekends to earn their second trip to state in the last three years. Well the fairy tale trip to the ball turned into the “Nightmare in Salina” as the Panthers were rolled out of pool play by top seeded Abilene, Kansas City super-team, St. James Academy, and Girard.
The Panthers couldn’t have scripted a better start to the tournament, jumping all over Abilene and leading 14-4. I even commented that for a #1 seed, Abilene looked pretty average. But like all good teams, Abilene settled down, and not only came back to make the first game close, they came all the way back and won the game. That was the beginning of the end for the Panthers, and although the girls battled hard, they were unable to recover, and were bounced from the tournament in three matches.
To the Panthers credit, they never gave up, they continued to dig, and serve and kill like it was the first game of the season. They were a credit to themselves and to the school.
Coach Michelle Abshire talks of the Panther Volleyball Tradition, well, it’s alive and well, and living on in the actions of the 2009 Paola Panther Volleyball team.
PANTHER SOCCER AND XC COMPETE AT STATE
The Panther Soccer team advanced to their first ever regional final before losing 2-0 to Independence on Friday. The Panther Soccer team has been fun to watch this year, although they lack a pure scorer, someone who can finish every time they get into the scoring zone. For that reason, many golden opportunities to put points on the board have gone by the wayside. Still the Panthers battled and fought and represented themselves and the school well in every game they played.
The Panther Boys Cross Country team ran well at the state championship in Wamego on Saturday. The Panthers finished eighth overall, but were only five points out of sixth place. As coach Lesley Wilson said, every place matters, ever second matter, ever person you pass at this level matters.
The Panther return six of seven runners who competed at state, so the future of Panther Cross Country is sound.
“FLASH” HARRINGTON PASSES AWAY
I was saddened to hear of the passing of longtime Paola sports reporting icon Bob Harrington over the weekend at the age of 83. “Flash” as we Panther athletes of the early 1970s called him was an ever present fixture at Panther sporting events for what seems like forever.
I got to know Bob as a young boy, when my dad worked with him at the Miami County Publishing Company. Bob was not only a good sports reporter, but a talented Linotype operator in the old newspaper shop. He and my dad sat for hours setting type for the paper when it was printed the old fashioned way, with hot lead type.
I know we gave him a hard time every time he came and took our picture for football, basketball, or whatever sport season we were in, and in later years when he came to take our alumni reunion pictures, but we always respected him, and he always made sure we were covered in the paper.
I’m going to miss “Flash”, he was truly one of a kind.
