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Out of the office
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: December 28, 2017

Garden City on VC's radar

We've just started the high school basketball season, but I'm already thinking about the 2018 football campaign.

I recently got a look at the schedule for the Valley Center High School football team.

As far as traveling is concerned, Hornet fans were spoiled this fall. Next year, the team has to travel to Maize, Garden City, Andover Central and Ark City.

The schedule looks like this: at Maize, at Garden City, home with Maize South, at Andover Central, home with Andover, home with Goddard, at Ark City and home with Eisenhower.

The farthest road game in 2017 was at Campus in Haysville, which was only about 20 miles. Garden City is a 216-mile trip.

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I can't find any record of Valley Center High School ever playing Garden City in football.

Even so, the two towns have strong football connections.

Don Hague, former VCHS head football coach, resigned in 1979 to become head football coach at Garden City High School.

In 1993, Mike Smith left Garden City, where he was assistant football coach, to become head football coach at VCHS.

Smith went back to Garden City in 2002 to become head coach of the football team, and his son, Caleb Smith, who was head coach at VCHS from 2013 through 2017, graduated from Garden City High School.

There have been a handful of VCHS graduates play football at Garden City Community College. Scott Young, Seth Houk and Gleason come to mind. The latest was 2015 VCHS graduate Alec Wetig.

The rest of the 2018 schedule is familiar territory.

Valley Center has a long history with Maize. Since 1990, Valley Center is 21-20 against the Eagles. The latest game was during last year's playoffs, where Valley Center won 27-13. It's interesting, a three-point win against Maize in 2004 was followed by Valley Center's longest losing streak (20 games), which was eventually snapped with a 20-19 win over Wichita West in 2006.

The Hornets have a much shorter and more lopsided history with Maize South. Valley lost to the Mavericks all four times the teams have played since 2012.

The same is true for Andover Central, except it's five losses since 2010.

Andover and Valley Center also have a long history. Since 1990, Valley Center is 7-8 against the Trojans, including two losses this season. It's interesting, too, that the teams didn't play each other for eight seasons — from 2002 to 2009.

Goddard and Valley have the longest rivalry of any team on the Hornets' 2018 schedule. Just since 1990, the teams have played 22 times. The Lions have the edge with 15 wins, including this year's 57-7 contest.

At the same time, Ark City and Valley Center may have the most interesting rivalry since 1990. Valley has won six of the 14 times the two teams have met. Of those 14 games, five were decided by a single point, one went to overtime and one lasted two days. Most recently, Valley Center has owned the Bulldogs, winning 29-7 and 35-7 the past two seasons.

Eisenhower and Valley Center have a short history, going back to 2012 when Eisenhower started football. It's been a back-and-forth affair. The Hornets won in 2012, Eisenhower in 2013, Valley in 2014. You get the picture. This season, Valley lost 42-14.

So, that's what we've got to look forward to in 2018.

†††

I've narrowed my Christmas wish list down to a couple of items. The first is a ladder. Yawn, right?

Not just any ladder. I want one of those Little Giants that are versatile and bend in several directions. They're very useful. I borrowed one from a friend a while back and I loved it.

They're kind of expensive, so I don't know if I'll get one or not.

If not, I hope I get tickets to at least one session of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in Wichita in March. We'll see.

I remember going to the tournament the last time it was in Wichita — 1994 at the Kansas Coliseum. I saw Michigan beat Pepperdine and Texas beat Western Kentucky. I remember Michigan. It wasn't quite the Fab Five by 1994. It was more like the Fab Four, plus some other guys. Chris Webber was already gone, but Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King were still playing.

That was fun to watch.

We'll see what ends up under the tree. Can you fit a Little Giant under a Christmas tree?

Chris Strunk is publisher of The Ark Valley News. Reach him at 755-0821 or news@arkvalleynews.com, or find him on Facebook.




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