Samples of Dan Galbraith's sports writing:
GRAND REUNION: MARCH MADNESS NEVER GOT ANY MADDER
By Dan Galbraith
Originally appeared in The Holton Recorder March 29, 2001
"March Madness" never got any madder than this.
Long before that term was ever dubbed, a Jackson County team pulled off one of the biggest feats in the history of high school basketball.
This was a real-life fairy tale of "Hoosiers" magnitude.
"It was a shock to everybody, and that's why they discontinued the tournament after that," team member Kirby (Hossfeld) Wittenbach recalled. "I think the state felt it took something away from the bigger schools."
"We were a 1A ball club and had nothing to lose. I'm sure everybody out there thought we would lose," said Jackson Heights coach Ken Thomas, noting a scouting report on the class 5A champion he had received the day before the Cobras' huge semifinal upset. "I remember somebody telling me they hoped we'd be able to get the ball to mid-court against Buhler. That was the feeling they had in scouting them."
Marking the 25-year anniversary of its Grand State championship, members of the Jackson Heights High School girls basketball team returned Saturday night.
The informal reunion gave players a chance to rekindle friendships and revisit the memories of a magical season that ended with the tiny school stunning thousands by beating giant-school powerhouse Buhler on its way to infamy.
For only two years, the Grand State Tournament brought together the girls state basketball champions from all six classes in Kansas for one final hurrah. But after Heights upended Buhler 39-36 in the 1976 Grand State semifinals, then edged Hill City 45-42 in the title game on March 20, 1976, state officials discontinued the tournament.
"I'm sure most of our kids didn't consider it an upset - after all, we hadn't lost a game all year - and I'm not sure how much of an upset it was, really," Thomas said. "As for why they discontinued the tournament, let's just say it was an 'administrative decision.'"
Madness ... literally
"March Madness" doesn't even begin to describe the anger and frustration coaches and players from larger schools felt after a rural school like Jackson Heights aced them.
"One negative thing about it was that the week before, there were six winners and six schools happy. But at the end of Grand State, you only had one," said Buhler coach Jim Baker - who, like Thomas, is still the girls basketball coach at his school. "Jackson Heights had a good ball club - there wasn't any doubt about it - but I still blame myself for that (loss). I made a mistake. After we beat Hutchinson in the first round, I should have loaded the kids up, brought them home and had them sleep in their own beds. As it was, they had trouble getting down off that high and getting up for the next game."
Although Baker remains gracious in defeat, the ire from many of the opposing coaches, players and fans clouded the Cobras' victory celebration and 26-0 final record.
"They discontinued the tournament, and I think that speaks for itself," said Kim (Cochren) Lewis, a senior guard in 1976 who led the team in scoring (14.3 ppg). "Great things come in small packages. We won it, and people from larger schools had a problem with that."
"I have a feeling that's why they didn't do it again. Small towns weren't supposed to do that," player Connie (Minner) Barnhart said.
Neat story to tell
It is only today that the 1976 players can truly revel in the Grand State championship glory and fully comprehend the impact of their accomplishment.
"My daughter saw the Grand State trophy, and for two weeks after that, it was like, 'Mom, I want to be a basketball player like you!'" said 1976 player Sheri (Oxandale) Dibbern. "Then, I said, 'No, be better than me!'"
The sparkle of the trophy, which features a plaque with all the team member names and is topped with a giant gold basketball, also inspires Connie (Brown) Barnhart's 13-year-old daughter, Kirby (only coincidentally having the same name as the Cobra's junior guard from 1976). Kirby recently helped her seventh-grade team to a league championship and 13-0 record.
"It's kind of a neat story to tell your kids. I was just a sophomore sub that year, but it was very exciting. At the time, we didn't really realize what we had accomplished," Sherri (Hasenkamp) Bugner said. "But it is something now, when I really think about it. My daughter says it's hard for her to imagine her old mom was part of this championship team."
"Of course, my kids have heard about the Grand State championship more times than they'd like," said (Cochren) Lewis, whose 55.5 percent field-goal accuracy for a single season tops all-time Cobra records. "Those were great times. We had a lot to be proud of. It was an awesome feeling."
Thomas gets credit
The 1976 players argue, however, that they couldn't have won it all without a huge contribution from Thomas, who was in his first year as a head coach at the north Jackson County school.
Thomas, who went on to win his first 48 games over two seasons, quickly developed into a master game strategist and ran his girls through a grueling practice regimen. Preaching defense and clock management - both of which became vital as the team won nine games by five points or less in 1976 - Thomas succeeded immediately and is now closing in on 500 wins.
During a third-quarter run by Buhler, Thomas shifted his girls into a brilliant delay game most coaches never would have considered so early in a contest. The Cobras wound up beating Buhler despite the fact that their leading scorer in the game, (Cochren) Lewis, finished with only nine points.
"I can remember Coach Thomas was so ecstatic to win Grand State, and we did it for him because he was such a great coach," (Hossfeld) Wittenbach said. "He didn't put any pressure on us to pull off Grand State. He just wanted us to have fun. That was the right philosophy to take."
Thomas also engineered a 32-29 midseason win over Mount Saint Scholastica Academy with (Cochren) Lewis out of the lineup, then, two games later, inspired the troops to rally from a 32-28, fourth-period deficit to beat Highland 42-40. Earlier, Heights won its fifth game of the season, over Midway-Denton, by a 38-34 margin in overtime.
"Coach Thomas was definitely the key to our success. He could be determined - very determined. He was pretty inspirational," (Minner) Barnhart said.
Thomas, however, gives his players all the credit.
"We had all the things you needed: a tall girl on the inside, a good point guard and good quickness. It was just a good group of girls who worked hard and worked well together," he said.
The Jackson Heights Grand State champion team, inducted into the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1988, definitely had it all ... except an opportunity to defend its Grand State title.
SORENSEN BRINGS WINNING PERSONALITY, TRADITION TO TEAM
By Dan Galbraith
Originally appeared in The Holton Recorder Nov. 21, 2001
It's difficult to put a finger on the most important element new Royal Valley head girls basketball coach Gary Sorensen will bring to his program.
Is it winning tradition? Sorensen provides plenty of that after establishing consistent success as longtime Jackson Heights boys coach. The 1990-91 Class 2A Coach of the Year enjoyed a 22-3 season, five state tournament appearances and 11 straight 14-plus win seasons while loading up heavy on Delaware Valley League titles.
Is it his ability to reach kids? Nobody could doubt Sorensen's patented ability to connect with the younger generation - he has been doing that every day, guiding and advising Royal Valley students as school counselor.
Is it his colorful personality? Sorensen has plenty of that, too, entertaining students, school staff and media with his sense of humor and off-the-cuff remarks.
"Oh, man! I tell you what - it's hard to put Gary into words. But when you see the reaction he gets from kids, you know what he's all about," Royal Valley principal Jim Holloman said. "It's all about the kids, and he knows this so well because he creates such a wonderful rapport with the kids. He can cry with them, he can laugh with them ... he makes them feel comfortable when they're around him, whether he's counseling them, coaching them or just socializing with them in the hall. And we need that. He makes everybody around him feel good."
It's hard not to like Sorensen, a guy who always seems to wear a smile and light up a room.
And it's hard for Sorensen not to like the situation he's stepping into at Royal Valley. The Panther girls appear primed to make a run at Big Seven League powers Nemaha Valley and Sabetha with a talented lineup highlighted by juniors Josie Pahmahmie and Nicole Burdiek.
Even after rolling up a 212-106 record at Heights (he won 201 of his first 277 games there), placing third at state two times and fourth once and winning or tying for DVL titles in eight of 14 seasons (including five straight), Sorensen vows he still gets a rush from coaching ... and says he is still learning while he is teaching.
"I'm excited about this job. Do I have the same enthusiasm I had at age 30? Yeah. You just tone it in different directions, I think. I mean, I'm not running drills with the kids now. Experience is such an invaluable tool!" Sorensen said.
"He's such a sincere, genuine guy, and we're glad we stole him from Effingham," Holloman said. "He always finds positive things in a situation."
Sorensen, who takes over for Carla Sudbeck (she got married and moved), even admits he enjoyed his winless year at Effingham, where he coached boys varsity basketball following a 5-15 final season at Heights.
"I wouldn't trade that year at Effingham for anything because of the relationships I had with those kids. It's true I went 0-21 in 1999-2000, but if you put that in the newspaper, put an asterisk next to it, with a note saying, 'Due to brain surgery,'" Sorensen joked. "After that year, I thought, 'There goes the KU job I was trying for!'"
Though not serious about the lobotomy, Sorensen, in a sense, did somewhat reshape his thinking about basketball success during the Effingham experience.
"Do we want to qualify for the state tournament and win the league this year? You're dadgum right we want to. But if we don't, that doesn't mean we failed," Sorensen said. "Some don't understand that, but that's the way it is."
Holloman empathizes with the new coach, who just turned 50.
"Gary and I have something in common because I went 0-15 my final year as a freshman basketball coach, then they added wrestling," said Holloman, who went on to become the head wrestling coach at RVHS. "It's kind of funny because we jokingly trade barbs about our oh-fer seasons."
Rest assured, though, Sorensen won't have any trouble with the transition from coaching boys to coaching girls. He has sought tips from two of his northeast Kansas girls coaching idols, Orville Dodson and Ken Thomas.
"Orville went from coaching boys to middle school girls, and he told me the only difference is you just can't go in the locker room any time you want," Sorensen said. "On the court, it's the same thing with boys and girls. It's coaching basketball and coaching kids. I'm a real believer in that."
GRAND REUNION: MARCH MADNESS NEVER GOT ANY MADDER
By Dan Galbraith
Originally appeared in The Holton Recorder March 29, 2001
"March Madness" never got any madder than this.
Long before that term was ever dubbed, a Jackson County team pulled off one of the biggest feats in the history of high school basketball.
This was a real-life fairy tale of "Hoosiers" magnitude.
"It was a shock to everybody, and that's why they discontinued the tournament after that," team member Kirby (Hossfeld) Wittenbach recalled. "I think the state felt it took something away from the bigger schools."
"We were a 1A ball club and had nothing to lose. I'm sure everybody out there thought we would lose," said Jackson Heights coach Ken Thomas, noting a scouting report on the class 5A champion he had received the day before the Cobras' huge semifinal upset. "I remember somebody telling me they hoped we'd be able to get the ball to mid-court against Buhler. That was the feeling they had in scouting them."
Marking the 25-year anniversary of its Grand State championship, members of the Jackson Heights High School girls basketball team returned Saturday night.
The informal reunion gave players a chance to rekindle friendships and revisit the memories of a magical season that ended with the tiny school stunning thousands by beating giant-school powerhouse Buhler on its way to infamy.
For only two years, the Grand State Tournament brought together the girls state basketball champions from all six classes in Kansas for one final hurrah. But after Heights upended Buhler 39-36 in the 1976 Grand State semifinals, then edged Hill City 45-42 in the title game on March 20, 1976, state officials discontinued the tournament.
"I'm sure most of our kids didn't consider it an upset - after all, we hadn't lost a game all year - and I'm not sure how much of an upset it was, really," Thomas said. "As for why they discontinued the tournament, let's just say it was an 'administrative decision.'"
Madness ... literally
"March Madness" doesn't even begin to describe the anger and frustration coaches and players from larger schools felt after a rural school like Jackson Heights aced them.
"One negative thing about it was that the week before, there were six winners and six schools happy. But at the end of Grand State, you only had one," said Buhler coach Jim Baker - who, like Thomas, is still the girls basketball coach at his school. "Jackson Heights had a good ball club - there wasn't any doubt about it - but I still blame myself for that (loss). I made a mistake. After we beat Hutchinson in the first round, I should have loaded the kids up, brought them home and had them sleep in their own beds. As it was, they had trouble getting down off that high and getting up for the next game."
Although Baker remains gracious in defeat, the ire from many of the opposing coaches, players and fans clouded the Cobras' victory celebration and 26-0 final record.
"They discontinued the tournament, and I think that speaks for itself," said Kim (Cochren) Lewis, a senior guard in 1976 who led the team in scoring (14.3 ppg). "Great things come in small packages. We won it, and people from larger schools had a problem with that."
"I have a feeling that's why they didn't do it again. Small towns weren't supposed to do that," player Connie (Minner) Barnhart said.
Neat story to tell
It is only today that the 1976 players can truly revel in the Grand State championship glory and fully comprehend the impact of their accomplishment.
"My daughter saw the Grand State trophy, and for two weeks after that, it was like, 'Mom, I want to be a basketball player like you!'" said 1976 player Sheri (Oxandale) Dibbern. "Then, I said, 'No, be better than me!'"
The sparkle of the trophy, which features a plaque with all the team member names and is topped with a giant gold basketball, also inspires Connie (Brown) Barnhart's 13-year-old daughter, Kirby (only coincidentally having the same name as the Cobra's junior guard from 1976). Kirby recently helped her seventh-grade team to a league championship and 13-0 record.
"It's kind of a neat story to tell your kids. I was just a sophomore sub that year, but it was very exciting. At the time, we didn't really realize what we had accomplished," Sherri (Hasenkamp) Bugner said. "But it is something now, when I really think about it. My daughter says it's hard for her to imagine her old mom was part of this championship team."
"Of course, my kids have heard about the Grand State championship more times than they'd like," said (Cochren) Lewis, whose 55.5 percent field-goal accuracy for a single season tops all-time Cobra records. "Those were great times. We had a lot to be proud of. It was an awesome feeling."
Thomas gets credit
The 1976 players argue, however, that they couldn't have won it all without a huge contribution from Thomas, who was in his first year as a head coach at the north Jackson County school.
Thomas, who went on to win his first 48 games over two seasons, quickly developed into a master game strategist and ran his girls through a grueling practice regimen. Preaching defense and clock management - both of which became vital as the team won nine games by five points or less in 1976 - Thomas succeeded immediately and is now closing in on 500 wins.
During a third-quarter run by Buhler, Thomas shifted his girls into a brilliant delay game most coaches never would have considered so early in a contest. The Cobras wound up beating Buhler despite the fact that their leading scorer in the game, (Cochren) Lewis, finished with only nine points.
"I can remember Coach Thomas was so ecstatic to win Grand State, and we did it for him because he was such a great coach," (Hossfeld) Wittenbach said. "He didn't put any pressure on us to pull off Grand State. He just wanted us to have fun. That was the right philosophy to take."
Thomas also engineered a 32-29 midseason win over Mount Saint Scholastica Academy with (Cochren) Lewis out of the lineup, then, two games later, inspired the troops to rally from a 32-28, fourth-period deficit to beat Highland 42-40. Earlier, Heights won its fifth game of the season, over Midway-Denton, by a 38-34 margin in overtime.
"Coach Thomas was definitely the key to our success. He could be determined - very determined. He was pretty inspirational," (Minner) Barnhart said.
Thomas, however, gives his players all the credit.
"We had all the things you needed: a tall girl on the inside, a good point guard and good quickness. It was just a good group of girls who worked hard and worked well together," he said.
The Jackson Heights Grand State champion team, inducted into the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1988, definitely had it all ... except an opportunity to defend its Grand State title.
SORENSEN BRINGS WINNING PERSONALITY, TRADITION TO TEAM
By Dan Galbraith
Originally appeared in The Holton Recorder Nov. 21, 2001
It's difficult to put a finger on the most important element new Royal Valley head girls basketball coach Gary Sorensen will bring to his program.
Is it winning tradition? Sorensen provides plenty of that after establishing consistent success as longtime Jackson Heights boys coach. The 1990-91 Class 2A Coach of the Year enjoyed a 22-3 season, five state tournament appearances and 11 straight 14-plus win seasons while loading up heavy on Delaware Valley League titles.
Is it his ability to reach kids? Nobody could doubt Sorensen's patented ability to connect with the younger generation - he has been doing that every day, guiding and advising Royal Valley students as school counselor.
Is it his colorful personality? Sorensen has plenty of that, too, entertaining students, school staff and media with his sense of humor and off-the-cuff remarks.
"Oh, man! I tell you what - it's hard to put Gary into words. But when you see the reaction he gets from kids, you know what he's all about," Royal Valley principal Jim Holloman said. "It's all about the kids, and he knows this so well because he creates such a wonderful rapport with the kids. He can cry with them, he can laugh with them ... he makes them feel comfortable when they're around him, whether he's counseling them, coaching them or just socializing with them in the hall. And we need that. He makes everybody around him feel good."
It's hard not to like Sorensen, a guy who always seems to wear a smile and light up a room.
And it's hard for Sorensen not to like the situation he's stepping into at Royal Valley. The Panther girls appear primed to make a run at Big Seven League powers Nemaha Valley and Sabetha with a talented lineup highlighted by juniors Josie Pahmahmie and Nicole Burdiek.
Even after rolling up a 212-106 record at Heights (he won 201 of his first 277 games there), placing third at state two times and fourth once and winning or tying for DVL titles in eight of 14 seasons (including five straight), Sorensen vows he still gets a rush from coaching ... and says he is still learning while he is teaching.
"I'm excited about this job. Do I have the same enthusiasm I had at age 30? Yeah. You just tone it in different directions, I think. I mean, I'm not running drills with the kids now. Experience is such an invaluable tool!" Sorensen said.
"He's such a sincere, genuine guy, and we're glad we stole him from Effingham," Holloman said. "He always finds positive things in a situation."
Sorensen, who takes over for Carla Sudbeck (she got married and moved), even admits he enjoyed his winless year at Effingham, where he coached boys varsity basketball following a 5-15 final season at Heights.
"I wouldn't trade that year at Effingham for anything because of the relationships I had with those kids. It's true I went 0-21 in 1999-2000, but if you put that in the newspaper, put an asterisk next to it, with a note saying, 'Due to brain surgery,'" Sorensen joked. "After that year, I thought, 'There goes the KU job I was trying for!'"
Though not serious about the lobotomy, Sorensen, in a sense, did somewhat reshape his thinking about basketball success during the Effingham experience.
"Do we want to qualify for the state tournament and win the league this year? You're dadgum right we want to. But if we don't, that doesn't mean we failed," Sorensen said. "Some don't understand that, but that's the way it is."
Holloman empathizes with the new coach, who just turned 50.
"Gary and I have something in common because I went 0-15 my final year as a freshman basketball coach, then they added wrestling," said Holloman, who went on to become the head wrestling coach at RVHS. "It's kind of funny because we jokingly trade barbs about our oh-fer seasons."
Rest assured, though, Sorensen won't have any trouble with the transition from coaching boys to coaching girls. He has sought tips from two of his northeast Kansas girls coaching idols, Orville Dodson and Ken Thomas.
"Orville went from coaching boys to middle school girls, and he told me the only difference is you just can't go in the locker room any time you want," Sorensen said. "On the court, it's the same thing with boys and girls. It's coaching basketball and coaching kids. I'm a real believer in that."
