Regional champion David Catt finished ninth with a score of 80. Sophomore Jackson Foth and senior Ryan McCarthy tied for twenty-third, scoring 84.

Olathe Northwest, Blue Valley North and Shawnee Mission East took third, second, and first place in the tournament at Alvamar Golf and Country Club.

“It was frustrating [to see SME win], because we’ve beat them multiple times this year, but they deserve it,” Catt said. “They’re a great team.”

Even though Catt thinks SME was the right team to win, his reason for Northwest’s lower scores was more than just not playing well.

“Going in, I definitely thought we had a chance to win,” senior David Catt said. “But, I also knew it was a one-day tournament so anything could happen.”
Kansas is known for conducting a one-day tournament for state golf, whereas Missouri’s state golf tournament is two-day ordeal, and for other states, three to four.
“Very few states have one day,” Catt said. “Any legitimate golf tournament is played over at least three to four days.”

Not only does Catt feel strongly about the flaw of having a one-day state tournament, but Foth also agrees, describing it as a “fluke.”

“The way [KSHSSA] conducts a golf tournament is very disappointing,” Catt said. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to have a multiple-day state championship.”

The seconds ticked away. As SM North quarterback Kyle Goodburn was wrapped up by NW defensive end Justin Walston, he threw the ball up in a desperation play. Junior linebacker Tyler Gilliam picked it off and ran it back until he was tackled. The game was over.

This was the last game for the seniors, including linebacker/running back John Hauk. For Hauk, it was bittersweet. Bitter because it was his last game, and sweet because it was a win and everyone did well. Hauk had rushed for 222 yards, had two touchdowns and had seven tackles.

“I didn’t want [the season] to end like that,” Hauk said, of the disappointing loss to SM East.

Hauk had to play running back all year because senior Trey Jacobson was injured. Last year, Hauk usually played linebacker and his offensive position was fullback, so he wasn’t used to carrying the workload for the offense.
“It was a lot different [than tailback],” Hauk said. “It was a lot of fun though.”

Hauk plans to attend Fort Scott University to play football. He plans to continue as a linebacker at the next level.

A.J. Spencer’s triple-double

The gymnasium was tense. As Northwest fans waited in anticipation for their basketball team to run back onto the court, junior forward A.J. Spencer took some last-minute lay-ups before game time. This was Spencer’s third year on varsity basketball, and he was hoping for another successful year.

To start the season off on the right foot, the Cougars needed to get past rival SM North. They did just that with the help of a triple-double from Spencer.

“It was the first game of the year, and I had the jitters,” Spencer said. “It was a good way to start off the year.”

Spencer had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists en route to a 75-48 victory against the rival Indians.

“I didn’t know I had [a triple-double] until I checked the box score. It felt good,” Spencer said.

The victory helped the team start the season strong on their way to a 13-7 record.

The varsity boys’ soccer season started off with a bang when the Cougars defeated the BV North Mustangs 5-4. After a few more wins, the team lost a heart-breaking double overtime game to Rockhurst. Two more consecutive losses followed, giving the Cougars a 5-6 record and a bleak outlook on the rest of the season.

“You know, that was kind of gut-check time right there,” coach Todd Boren said at the end of the season. “That was going to be the time that the season was either going to completely implode, or we were going to try to screw our heads back on and get after it.”

The boys rebounded impressively, winning eight of their last nine games, including upsets over number one seeds Olathe East in regionals and Olathe South in the state quarterfinals. In the semifinal game, the exciting run ended with a loss to the eventual state champions, Washburn Rural.

The Cougars rebounded from the loss and defeated Dodge City the next day, 2-0, to earn the third-place trophy.

“I didn’t really expect to do as well as we did this year,” senior Jon Kankam said. “I thought maybe we’d make it to state, but I definitely didn’t think that we would end up making it to the final four.”

Ross Whitmore places second at wrestling state

The top wrestlers in Kansas traveled to Wichita’s Intrust Bank Arena for the state tournament on Feb. 26 and 27. The Cougars placed 21st in the state competition, but the real story was how well their top-ranked wrestler junior Ross Whitmore performed. Whitmore placed second at the state competition, with a 3-1 record. For the entire season, he posted a 41-3 record.

“I actually had a good feeling that I was going to make the finals. I was ranked in the top two the entire year, and I trained hard all season for it,” Whitmore said.

Whitmore had one of the best individual performances of any Cougar athlete this season.

“When it was all over, I felt good.” Whitmore said. “Last year I placed sixth, so I was able to jump up four spots.”

With one more season ahead of him, Whitmore has the chance to improve next year.

Adam Giacalone pitches two perfect games

Senior pitcher Adam Giacalone threw the first perfect game in Shawnee NW history on April 20, 2010. In seven innings, the Cougar hurler struck out 14 of the minimum 21 batters faced to lead Northwest to a 5-0 victory against Olathe East.

Only 77 pitches (61 of them being strikes) were needed for Giacalone to do something no one in the school’s history had ever done.

“I was working the zone pretty well, and when they made contact with the ball, my defense was always there to back me up,” Giacalone said following the first game.

Just two weeks later, on May 3, Giacalone threw another perfect game, leading the Cougars to a 10-0 victory against Leavenworth.

“It was a really awesome feeling knowing I had done something no one else had ever done,” Giacalone said. “But I’m still focused on one main goal: winning a state championship.”

In the middle of Feb., the gym was filled to the brim with fans hoping to see a victory on senior night. Led by senior Nino Williams, the Leavenworth Pioneers were nearing the end of their season, and one of their last obstacles was the Cougars. With one of the biggest crowds of the year, the main auditorium boomed as the game began.

The game was predicted to be an even match-up. The Pioneers were considered the better team on paper, but the Cougars had the crowd and momentum of senior night. Out of the gate, Northwest began a relentless attack on the basket. The Cougars shut down every offensive weapon Leavenworth threw at them, going into the locker room leading by double digits.

As the second half progressed, Williams began to get into foul trouble and grew more frustrated with each tick of the clock. When junior A.J. Spencer threw down a rim-rattling dunk over a Leavenworth defender, the game was all but over. The Cougars won with a score of 59-42, and the fans left pleased on senior night

Boys’ soccer against Olathe South in the state quarterfinals

Going into the state quarterfinals, the Cougars knew they were in for a battle against Olathe South.

“They beat us twice earlier in the year. I mean, we knew they were pretty good, but we were on a roll. We had really pulled together as a team,” senior Sam McCrillis said.

The Falcons were the only team that had defeated the Cougars twice already in the season. The first loss came during the Olathe East Invitational, and the second came late in part the regular season. The Falcons were also the reigning state champions.

The game was played at ODAC but seemed like a home game for the Cougars. The NW faithful came out in huge numbers to show support.

“It was a tough game. I think the most exciting part of the actual game was the final whistle. Everybody went crazy, and we had a ton of fans there to help,” senior Jon Kankam said.

The Cougar defense held strong at the end of the game against numerous Falcon attacks. But, after all the mayhem, the Cougars came out on top, winning 2-1.

Senior Adam Giacalone walks onto the pitching mound, touching the tip of his cap. He is focused on the catcher’s fingers, waiting to see what pitch he will call next. He winds up for the pitch. The crowd is on the edge of their seats. He throws the ball. A split second later, it is in the catchers glove.

Giacalone made NW history by pitching the first perfect baseball game on April 20 against Olathe East. In a perfect game, no opposing player reaches first base. Throwing just 77 pitches (61 of them being strikes), Giacalone struck 14 of the 21 batters out during the game. The defense worried about the rest.

At the end of the game, the crowd went wild. They were amazed by what had just happened.

“At the end of the game I stayed calm as everyone around me was going crazy, but during the game I didn’t really think about anything that was going on,” Giacalone said.

Giacalone pitched yet another perfect game on May 3 against Leavenworth.

By pitching two perfect games, he has done something that not only no one in the district has ever done, but no one in major league baseball has ever thrown more than one perfect game.

Giacalone started pitching when he was nine years old and had been taking pitching lessons until his first year of high school.

To prepare before every game, Giacalone and his teammates stretch, play catch, loosen up in the bull pen (the warm up area for pitchers) and run around the field.

“After we warm up, Greenhaw and I run to the center field fence and pray,” Giacalone said.

Giacalone’s favorite pitch is his fastball, which he can throw up to 89 mph.

In the future, Giacalone wants to play baseball. But if he is unable to continue his career in sports, he wants to go into business.

Teammate junior Derec Olson, had many good things to say about Giacalone.

“Adam is not only a good player, he is a great person. He takes a lot of pressure from the defense and the pitching staff,” Olson said. “He is really humble and down to earth.”

-Emily Utech

Clay Coffman

Ten hours. That is approximately how long it takes Alex Rodriguez to make more money than the average American male makes annually. That means that while we were at school today, A-Rod probably made as much money as your parents will make in the next 6 months.

That’s ridiculous.

Rodriguez was awarded a 10 year, $275 million contract by the New York Yankees in 2008. His is one of four Yankee players’ contracts that inhabit the top five on the list of largest athlete salaries. For 2010 the Yankees’ payroll is estimated to be at about $206 million, or almost triple the Royals’ payroll of $70.5 million. Isn’t that strange?

If you asked any business major or Wall Street workhorse what they would define sports as, they would probably give you an answer with two key words- revenue and entertainment. The sports “industry” brings in billions upon billions of dollars annually, thanks to television broadcasts, sponsorships, ticket sales and your kind donations. And that is exactly what the “love of the game” has become; an industry, complete with its own frauds and Enronesque scandals.

I watched a documentary on the life of Ricky Williams recently. It showed his dominance at the University of Texas, which led to a Heisman Trophy. It showed his mediocrity with the New Orleans Saints, his extravagance with the Miami Dolphins- then it showed him throw it all away when he retired after only five years in the NFL.

The media tried to portray him in a negative light, saying that he quit just so that he could go smoke pot and be lazy. But in reality he was just trying to find himself and his love of the game, both of which had been lost in the corporate sponsorships and shoe deals.

And now Ricky is back playing in the NFL, and doing pretty well, too. Maybe if more professional athletes took a hiatus similar to his, everyone would hustle back to play defense after a basket, and no one would ever “take a play off”. They might not take their Bentleys for granted and maybe they would play like they were on the elementary school playground again, like they actually wanted to play.

It’s not the athletes’ fault that we mere mortal fans have made them into god-like figures. We are just as much to blame. Everywhere you look there is an athlete. They have become an essential part of our economy and our lifestyle. There are people who wake up every day to sports radio talk shows, then they call into said radio show on their way to work to voice their opinion on said topic. Then at work, while they listen to more sports radio quietly, they secretly check their trusty iPhone MLB Almost Too Much Access apps, as they solemnly attempt to get something done. These are the people who come to work with the swine flu so that they can save their sick days for spring training trips to Florida, and they wear the same wrinkled George Brett tie to work on every game day.

Instead of a logo on your cereal box, or a utopian cartoon of every stereotypical middle-class child and his family, you get an ostentatiously large Mark McGwire cutout, striking the ever-famous “I just hit a home run, what up?” pose, bat to the sky and roided out legs askew (1990’s may you rest in peace).

I’m trying to say that we have taken it too far. It’s okay to be a fan of something, but when fan becomes closer to fanatic, that’s where we need to step back and get ourselves together. Parents need to stop timing their kids’ 40’s and making them go to two different practices five nights a week. Instead, they should start making them read, write and learn how to properly speak and communicate. It gets old listening to athletes say things like, ”I think we played real good and we just got to work harder, then if we do that we could be the most best team in the league” (if you don’t find that funny, maybe you need to stay awake during English class as well).

It’s time that we realized that sports are fun, and they are good for kids to build competitiveness and skills they will use later in life. But when sports become more about a material goal than self-enjoyment, they aren’t sports anymore. They’re just jobs.

It was a moment that every seven year old has reenacted in their back yard millions of times; something that only happens once or twice every decade. But for Adam Giacalone, it was just another day at the park.

“I was working the zone pretty well and when they made contact with the ball my defense was always there to back me up,” Giacalone said.

On April 20, 2010, senior pitcher Adam Giacalone threw the first perfect game in Shawnee Mission Northwest history.

In 7 innings, the Cougar hurler struck out 14 of the minimum 21 batters faced to lead Nortwest to a 5-0 victory over Olathe East.

Key plays included a hard hit groundball in the leftside of the indfield where sophomore Chase Rader made a backhanded grab and threw the runner out in a bang-bang at first. Senior Chris Mankser also chased down a hard hit fly ball to help Giacalone preserve his perfect game.

“Throwing a no hitter is one thing, but a perfect game is almost unheard of in high school baseball,” senior Chris Mankser said. “This really shows how much we trust one another on and off the field and how close we’ve come together over the past few months.”

After a slow start, timely hits by Cody Ball, Nick Feighner, Jake Thompson, and Chase Rader provided Giacalone and the Cougars with the run support needed to capture their fourth win in Sunflower League play.

The Cougars are now 7-2 on the season and face the Eagles of Olathe North tonight at 3 and 2.

“I definitely want to compete at the post-collegiate level, you know, like Worlds (World Championships). If the Olympics are an option, then I would definitely want to try-out.”

At a competition April 9, Brand winds up to throw the discus.

There are very few high school athletes in the entire country who utter the words “compete” and “Olympics” in the same sentence. One of those few athletes happens to be a NW student.

Erica Brand, a three-sport varsity athlete, was a state champion last year in the discus and placed second in the shot put. She was named to the 2007 and 2009 All-metro track and field teams and was a state finalist in 2007 and 2008.

Brand’s award recognition does not stop at the state or regional levels. She is also a two-time AAU Junior Olympic champion in the discus, and she has placed second and first at the USATF Junior Olympics in the discus. Last year she travelled to Bressanone, Italy to represent the USA at the IAAF World Youth Championships, where she placed 14th.

Brand said her passion for the sport started the summer before sixth grade.

“I actually started throwing because one of my neighbor’s parents were former throwers, so when they wanted to get their daughter started into throwing, they just kind of invited me along,” Brand said.

The neighbor turned out to be SM South thrower Alix Richards, who is the same age as Brand, and took a close second to Brand at the Kansas State Championships last spring.

Yet, surprisingly, Brand has managed to keep a reasonably low profile, most likely because she possesses a sense of quiet humility that great athletes seldom have.

Brand admires her toss at a practice.

“She holds all of the NW records in the discus and shot-put, and she is likely to break the Kansas state record this year in the discus. But you wouldn’t know it if you talked to her,” senior thrower Kent Hollingsworth said of Brand.

“Erica is a quiet leader. She leads with her actions, not with her words,” said NW throwing coach Jessica Barger.

Few high-school athletes that have signed letters of intent to Division 1 level schools such as Duke, where Brand is headed next fall, can discuss their own successes in such a low-key manner.

“I am very excited to go to Duke and compete for them. It was kind of weird, the recruiting process I had with them [Duke], though. They had contacted me a long time ago, but then their coach left and he took all of his recruiting stuff. So that left the new coach kind of in the dark as far as recruiting goes. I didn’t hear back from him again until last year,” Brand said.

The new Duke coach, B.J. Linnenbrink, is from Lee’s Summit, which may have helped him establish a connection to the KC metro area. Before his successful two-year stint throwing at Florida State, Linnenbrink dominated at the junior college level, earning two NJCAA All-America honors at Johnson County Community College.

“Erica has long levers and a great height advantage on most other throwers in the country. That, coupled with her athletic ability, will make her a fantastic thrower at the collegiate level,” Linnenbrink said.

“Erica has the ability to come in as freshman and make an immediate impact in the ACC in the discus and shot put and be an NCAA national qualifier in the discus. She will also learn how to throw the 20lb indoor weight and the hammer.”

Brand has similar intentions.

“I would like to make it to the NCAA Championships, maybe not freshman year, but I think I definitely have a chance of making it to the championships,” Brand said.

At the SM South relays, the first real meet for the Cougar varsity athletes, Brand threw 149 feet and 7.5 inches in the discus, winning both discus and shot put. Her first throw currently puts her at no. 4 nationally for the discus, according to Kansasrunners.com. She out-threw the second place competitor, her old friend Richards, by nearly twenty feet, and she out-threw the farthest boy’s throw of 148 feet. Last year, she won the Kansas State championship with a throw of 151 feet, so her first meet success should be a good indicator that she can repeat as state champion.

“I think I can win state this year. I won it last year, so I should have a pretty good shot at the championship again,” Brand said.

Throwing is but one of Brand’s athletic interests. She was a two-year letterman on the volleyball team and a three-year letter earner for the girls’ basketball team. She was also named to the 2009 Sunflower League Honorable Mention team for basketball.

But Brand is more than an athlete though. She carries her competitive nature with her wherever she goes, whether it be the classroom or the court. On any given day, she wakes up with weights first hour. Then during third hour, she can be found sitting at the piano singing with the acappella choir. And then she goes to one of her four AP classes. And then she goes to practice for three hours.

“One of Erica’s best qualities is that she is so coachable. Erica is a perfectionist, in school, volleyball and track and field. When I give her constructive criticism, she takes it and works her butt off to fix it,” Barger said.

As an athlete, she has proven that she can more than hold her own, whether it be at a high school meet or a world championship. As a student, and as a leader, she has pushed herself to succeed. And if her career stays on the same trajectory it is on now, it would be smart to have cable in 2016. There could be a Cougar at the Olympic Games.

Brady Klein

We may soon be living in a world where the University of North Carolina is selected into the NCAA Basketball Tournament finishing 16-16 in the regular season and 5-11 in their conference. During the week preceding this season’s Final Four, NCAA executives unveiled a proposed plan to increase the size of the tournament field.

If the new expansion is passed, 96 teams similar to the under-achieving Tarheels would have a surprisingly good chance of making it to the tourney, despite their disappointing seasons.

The new plan idea released by Greg Shaheen, senior Vice President of NCAA Basketball and Business Strategies, states that the tournament will include 68, 72, or 96 teams instead of the traditional 65. The top eight seeds from each bracket will receive a first-round bye. The committee wants to avoid forcing the student-athletes to miss extra school, so they are adding three games a week instead of two. This system will only be for the teams who do not receive byes. Everyone else who plays after the first round will play the regular 64-seed schedule.

March Madness is the best postseason in all of sports because it involves a bunch of great teams going out and showing the country what they’re made of. In college basketball there are 347 teams in Division 1. To make the tournament, a team needs to be in the top 18th percentile in the country. If there is an expansion, that will be increased by nearly 10%. This isn’t an outstanding increase, but it does re-draw the line of the true best teams in the league. In short, it will be less of an elite core of teams because teams with 17-15 records might get in.

By the end of this season’s tournament, CBS had earned $37 million in advertising. It’s a relatively small profit, but it increased by nearly 20 percent from last year. And it was a profit nonetheless. They made money so why change anything? Why does the tournament need to expand? It’s obviously to make more cash, but it isn’t necessary or fair. Is the NCAA really so greedy that they just want more and more money while the players, coaches and fans suffer? If anything, the players should even be paid. It would never happen, but without these hardworking young kids, CBS would have made nothing at all.
The fact of the matter is that everyone in the television world is just after money, so they are willing to exploit athletes for their own pleasure.

The teams playing in the first round will be completely drained of their energy if they advance onto the next round. They will have almost a zero percent chance of going far, which will make the first round just like the NIT but with no trophy. Once these feeble teams hit the fresh juggernauts in the later rounds, they’ll get destroyed, unless they have a close relationship with God himself. And even then a victory is unlikely.

So far a decision has not been made either way; a vote will likely happen within the next couple of months. If passed, the plan may not go into effect next season. In fact, it could be up to five years or more for the plan to go into action. Even though I am completely against this idea, I have little hope that it will not be passed.

It really doesn’t seem fair. The majority of all the fans want the tournament to stay the same. Some of the athletes have even made their statements about why it should stay the same. In fact, around our area, many people have given personal reasons on why nothing should be changed. I could not agree more. This tournament seems perfect, so why mess it up. It is like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa; it really makes no sense. Although it all comes down to who the committee will listen to: the fans or their own wallets.

Tues. April 20, at Lawrence
Free State 6 p.m.

Fri. April 23, vs. St. James
Academy at SMAC, 7 p.m.

Tues. April 27 at Washburn
Rural 6:15 p.m.

Thurs. April 29, at SM East,
at SMAC 7 p.m.

Girls’ Swimming and Diving:

Tues. April 20, at SM North, 4 p.m.

Fri. April 23, at SM East
Prelims, 4:30 p.m.

Sat. April 24 at SM East
Prelims, 10 a.m.

Tues. April 27 at SM West, 4 p.m.

Baseball:

Tues. April 20, at Olathe East,
at CBAC, 5:30 p.m.

Thurs. April 22, vs. Olathe
North, at 3&2, 4:30 p.m.

Sat. April 24, at BV
Northwest, at DAC-Switzer,
11 a.m.

Tues. April 27, vs. SM East, at
3&2, 7 p.m.

Softball:

Tues. April 20, vs. Lawrence
at SMSD Softball Complex,
4:15 p.m.

Tues. April 20, vs. Lawrence
Free State at SMSD Softball
Complex, 6:15 p.m.

Thurs. April 22, vs. SM North
at SMSD Softball Complex,
4:15 p.m.

Thurs. April 22, vs. SM North
at SMSD Softball Complex,
6:15 p.m.

Track and Field:

Sat. April 17, Kansas Relays, 8 a.m.

Fri. April 23, Olathe South
Quad, at ODAC, 3:30 p.m.

Fri. April 30, Topeka Seaman
Invitational, 3 p.m.

Fri. May 7, SM North Relays,3 p.m.

Boys’ Tennis:

Mon. April 19, vs. SM South, 3:30 p.m.

Tues. April 20 vs. Barstow,4 p.m.

Wed. April 21, at SM East, 3:30 p.m.

Boys’ Golf:

Mon. April 19, at Falcon Ridge, 3 p.m.

Thurs. April 22, at Shawnee Country Club, 1 p.m.

Tues. April 27, at Heritage Park, 3 p.m.

Wed. April 28, SMNW Ryder Cup, at Tomahawk Hills, 1p.m.