DAN GALBRAITH'S NEWS/FEATURE JOURNALISM

Samples of Dan Galbraith's news and feature writing:

GLOBAL MARKETER WIDENS ITS COMMODITY LINE

By Dan Galbraith

Originally appeared in The Packer Sept. 17, 2007

Seald Sweet International, known as one of the top citrus-marketing companies, might have to change that label: The company isn’t all about just citrus anymore.

The acquisition of Katopé International, Rungis, France, in early September should allow the Univeg Group/Seald Sweet International to broaden its scope into the tropical fruit category and become an even more major produce player than it already is, new Seald Sweet chief executive officer Mayda Sotomayor said.

Univeg already does more than $2 billion in annual sales and operates in more than 20 countries. The Belgium-based Univeg, which owns 80% of Seald Sweet, is one of Europe’s largest supply chain management and growing operations. Univeg owns produce growing operations throughout Europe, South Africa, South America and the U.S., and has European fresh-cut produce operations, logistics services and distribution operations.

“We want to diversify the company and leverage our global presence,” Sotomayor said. “Citrus will always be important for us, but this new acquisition will give us a big presence in exotics, and we’re very excited about it.”

Seald Sweet hopes to become as well known for importing commodities such as pears, grapes and blueberries from places such as Argentina, Peru and Uruguay as it is now known for its efforts in citrus. The Katopé acquisition, in addition to plans to finalize a new distribution facility by year’s end, are part of the plan.

Seald Sweet plans to open the distribution center in Swedesboro, N.J., by Dec. 31, Sotomayor said, to replace the warehouse facility it currently leases.

In addition to facilitating Seald Sweet’s storage and repacking needs, the new distribution center should allow Seald Sweet to venture into the pre-prepared meal category for the first time, Sotomayor said, and add to the company’s capability in the areas of value-added products and fresh imported commodities.

Univeg will operate the 200,000 square-foot distribution center that will be three times as large as Seald Sweet’s existing warehouse, said David Mixon, Seald Sweet’s chief marketing officer. He said the operation, which is within two miles of the other facility, could employ up to 200 additional workers.

Katopé’s versatility with regard to its production base could provide Univeg/Seald Sweet a wide range of opportunities for expansion, especially since Katopé ships tropical, citrus, deciduous and stone fruit year-round, and also deals in flowers, vegetables and salads.

Katopé, which does an estimated $230 million in annual sales, credits itself with a combined volume of 24 million cartons annually, according to its Web site. The company’s offerings include avocadoes, pineapples, mangoes, grapefruit, oranges, lemons, apples, pears and grapes, in addition to the stone fruit.

Although Univeg’s proposed deal with Ready Pac Foods Inc., Irwindale, Calif., fell through earlier this year, as Ready Pac instead partnered with Bayside Capital, Miami, Univeg/Seald Sweet remains driven to globalize.

Mixon said the Katopé addition represents a strengthening of Seald Sweet’s business within its global sister company organizations. Adding the European distributor should provide Seald Sweet the ability to market its North American products in Europe, Mixon said.

“That will give Seald Sweet the opportunity to present to our customer base a much broader basket of produce in a vertically-integrated approach that we feel is not always presented to them in an effective manner,” he said. “With the continued growth in this direction, it will enable us not only to be the leader in the citrus category but also through other commodities. That can be anything in the produce department that our parent company is involved in.

“The whole produce department is available for Seald Sweet,” Mixon said. “It’s just a matter of us putting together the structure and processes that the customers desire.”

Sotomayor said she plans to meet Katopé company officials within weeks, noting that the company’s “very strong base in France” could be of particular advantage to Seald Sweet. Katopé also maintains a presence in such areas as Brazil, Costa Rica and South Africa, Sotomayor said.

Katopé, a century-old fresh-produce company, has 70 marketers spread across France, South Africa, Japan and the United Kingdom, according to the company’s Web site.

Part of the global expansion plan involved promoting Sotomayor from senior vice president to CEO and shifting the company’s other senior vice president, Mixon, into his new role.

Seald Sweet, which does more than $20 million in yearly citrus sales, ships up to 12 million cartons a year, Mixon said.

— Additional reporting by The Packer's Doug Ohlemeier

SOTOMAYOR NAMED SEALD SWEET'S FIRST FEMALE CEO

By Dan Galbraith

Originally appeared in The Packer Sept. 17, 2007

Personnel moves at Seald Sweet International, Vero Beach, Fla., have made Mayda Sotomayor the first woman chief executive officer in the company’s 98-year history.

Sotomayor, formerly one of two senior vice presidents at the company, a subsidiary of the Belgium-based Univeg Group, said she looks forward to taking a lead role in Seald Sweet’s plans to expand into more international markets and into more commodities while maintaining its strength in citrus.

“Seald Sweet and the Univeg Group have provided me with such opportunity. I am a true testament to the fact that if you work hard, you can get ahead in the industry,” Sotomayor said. “There’s a lot to do, and I’m not sleeping a lot at night these days, but we have a lot of potential.”

While Sotomayor acclimates to her new role, Seald Sweet’s other senior vice president, David Mixon, is getting used to his new responsibilities as the company’s chief marketing officer leading new business ventures.

Sotomayor said all other management roles at the company remain the same, adding that the job changes for her and Mixon were effective Aug. 29 but that the company held off on announcing them because of a need to focus on other important day-to-day operations.

“I will have more responsibility with administration and overall performance,” Sotomayor said. “As far as responsibilities go, David will have more of a focus on marketing efforts in the U.S. and abroad.”

Mixon joined the company’s management staff in 2004 and has since focused on expansion in Florida, California and Texas.

Mixon, who has nearly 29 years of produce industry experience, said the move isn’t a new position but represents more of a title change for the duties he has been performing for Seald Sweet.

“These personnel changes should give us more focus and should allow our efforts to be more directed to our strengths,” Sotomayor said.

Sotomayor, who has led the charge to develop Seald Sweet’s import programs in recent years, recently was elected to the board of Mouton Citrus, a Seald Sweet partner and top South African citrus producer. She also serves on the Forbel SA board of directors. Forbel is a Seald Sweet-owned citrus company in Uruguay.

In addition, Vitor Figueiredo is the newly appointed chief financial officer of Univeg’s Portugal location.

— Additional reporting by Eastern Editor Doug Ohlemeier

For more of Dan Galbraith's work, or more news and editorial coverage of the fresh produce industry, please visit http://www.thepacker.com/.

SCHOOLS SUFFER HARSH EFFECTS

By Dan Galbraith

Originally appeared in The Atchison Daily Globe April 15, 2005

Kansas legislators may get an "E" for effort, but ask Atchison-area superintendents how they might grade the lawmakers' performance on school finance, and you're looking more at the letters surrounding "E" in the alphabet -- "D" and "F."

Local school administrators are quick to point out the shortcomings of the plan legislators recently adopted, but are perhaps even more fearful of what the Kansas Supreme Court might do next and how everything will impact area teachers, students and their taxpaying parents.

USD 409 Superintendent Steve Pummel is talking about possible teacher layoffs while others in the area are facing staff reduction as well as local option budget issues.

"This whole thing is historical. Decisions are going to be made soon that we'll be talking about for the next 20 years," Pummel said. "It all boils down to what the Kansas Supreme Court says in the next couple of days, and then the Legislature's reaction to it. We're looking here at two powerhouses that don't like to be wrong, and local teachers and students are the ones who are suffering. It hurts our kids and our community, but you can't spend what you don't have."

Pummel said he is like most other superintendents in the state with regard to how he looks at the $127 million increase in school funding recently adopted by the Legislature -- unhappy with the way the plan favors larger, richer districts and suspicious about the chances the plan will appease the high court.

"Fiscally, the Legislature has done a terrible, horrible job," Pummel said. "What they're doing is like making your house payment using a credit card -- you may be able to get by for a couple of years, but it's going to come back to haunt you in the end."

The Kansas Supreme Court says 'Don't make this a political issue,' then what do they do?" Pummel added. "They go and make it a political issue. You look at school finance and you see an inequity in funding."

The Legislature's plan is expected to become law on Saturday, with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius allowing it to pass without her signature.

Most school officials believe the Supreme Court in turn will reject the law and send it back to the lawmakers to fix.

That leaves a whole lot up in the air, USD 377 Superintendent Bob Overstreet said.

"The Supreme Court has a lot of options -- it can declare the legislation does not meet its demands and throw the whole thing out, it can agree not to fund schools or allow them to open, it can appoint a 'master' (to oversee revision of the plan), or it can accept the plan as is," he said. "It's difficult to do much planning until we get some of these answers."

Pummel said his knee-jerk reaction of possibly having to lay off nine teachers works on the assumption that there's a high probability the court will reject the Legislature's plan because it doesn't allow ample school funding, nor does it address the issue of making sure Kansas students are assured a quality education.

"The key question is, 'What is a suitable education?' and who is going to decide that?" Pummel said.

Until many such issues are resolved and more revenue earmarked for schools can be found, Pummel said USD 409 has to take a conservative stance on teacher contracts.

The situation is perhaps even more stressful in smaller districts such as USD 425 Doniphan West. Although that district combined the Highland and Midway-Denton schools in an attempt to help its financial status, decreasing enrollment and inadequate funding are causing increased financial turmoil.

Steve Adams, USD 425 superintendent, said that while this year's plan includes more new money than has been available to schools since 1992, it's not nearly enough and not nearly as fair as it should be.

"This Legislature plan adds some money, but it's grossly unsuitable," he said. "It's simply a reallocation of existing resources that looks a whole lot better on paper than it actually is."

The additional monies we would receive through this plan won't even offset the losses we're seeing in enrollment," Adams added. "My best guess is that the Kansas Supreme Court is going to tell the Kansas Legislature they're not done yet."

Without receiving a raise in school funding since 1999, tiny districts like Doniphan West have been losing students and teachers at an alarming rate, Adams said.

While it would be a last resort, Adams said he and the USD 425 board might even consider another consolidation in upcoming years.

"We've always approached our situation with an open mind," he said. "Already, we have reduced our teaching staff to the point where we're as low as we can go staff-wise and still provide an adequate education. We're at the point where we don't have that much more fat to trim."

USD 425, which employs about 40 teachers, lost about 10 percent of its teaching staff from last year to this year -- three through natural (means) and another through reduction of force.

Meanwhile, the proposed USD 409 teacher cuts would amount to about 4.5 percent of that district's teaching force.

Veryl Peter, director of school finance Department of Education, said there is little that school administrators can do to help their districts' situation until the Legislature and Supreme Court settle their differences and finalize money to be allotted to schools.

"Nobody knows what the Supreme Court is going to do," Peter said. "It would be nice to know (that schools could at least count on the $127 million of new money granted by the Legislature), but it's just kind of a waiting game.

"Some will make the assumption that the current formula will stand up, but what if the court doesn't buy that?" Peter added. "It is a tough decision. I'm sure the superintendents and school boards in this state don't want to cause any more turmoil for teachers than they have to, but you also have to protect your district financially."

One of the biggest contributing factors to the teachers' discomfort is time-oriented logistics that don't add up. Peter said districts have to notify teachers of their contract renewal status by May 1, and Pummel noted that superintendents across the state must zero out their operating budgets by June 30.

Pummel also said it's important to realize that if a district offers a contract to a teacher, it must be honored, regardless of whether or not the state funding situation changes after the contract is tendered.

All of this leaves people like Pummel playing things on the safe side. He said that while USD 409 may initially cut up to nine teaching positions, he hopes to hire some or all of them back after the money situation stabilizes.

"Best-case scenario -- we are able to hire everybody back and we're all fat and happy; if the money comes in, we will hire staff back," Mr. Pummel said. "But worst-case scenario -- everything stays the same and we have to reduce our funding accordingly."

While the Legislature's plan, if it stands, would give Atchison Public Schools about $420,000 in extra money, Pummel noted that most of that would be tied to specific programs.

Peter verified that USD 409 would have only about $208,000 of the money left to use for its general fund -- the rest of it would be earmarked for at-risk and special education programs. He noted that increased fuel and insurance costs could chew up much of districts' extra general fund monies.

The school finance situation won't come to an adequate resolution, Adams said, until the Legislature increases the base student aid and leaves intact low-enrollment weighting that benefits districts like his.

"The school finance formula is fine -- it's just that it's been the same formula since 1992, and they just need to fund it properly. The legislators' own study supported that, but they choose to ignore those results."

To cope in the short-term, Adams said local option budgets will be necessary.

"It's just a quick-fix -- we'd only ask enough to offset declining enrollment and inflation -- but schools like ours are not going to be properly funded without some new tax money from somewhere," he said. "Legislators, in effect, are pushing the responsibility of raising taxes from themselves to the local school districts. Legislators are just skirting their responsibilities and not biting the bullet to ask for the tax money themselves."

In USD 409, Pummel says he and others may need to look at alternative solutions to the annual issues with school finance.

"We may end up reassigning an administrator to a teaching position," he said.

Overstreet said increased enrollment in USD 377 may protect it from having to cut teaching positions, but he isn't expecting the Effingham-based district to get rich anytime soon.

"Under the existing plan, we would get an additional $207,000, but with fuel costs increasing and that sort of thing, we've already identified that many additional expenses for next year," Overstreet said. "Unless our school board decides to raise our LOB, we'll be lucky to break even. This district has already cut most of the teaching positions it can cut, unless we cut programs, and I don't see us at that point right now. But I see this district as being way behind on teachers salaries and benefits, and this prevents us from making any gains there."

With all of the complex issues clouding the school finance debate, the only obvious thing to school administrators is that local teachers, students and the state of education in general will suffer some deep-penetrating effects.

FARMERS BRING IN BUMPER (-TO-BUMPER) CROP

By Dan Galbraith

Originally appeared in The Atchison Daily Globe Oct. 4, 2004

It's a bumper crop in Atchison County. Or, maybe more fittingly, a "bumper-to-bumper" crop.

Farmers from all across northeast Kansas are sitting in their trucks, waiting in long lines at grain elevators for up to two hours, looking to cash in on their corn and soybean harvests that will almost certainly shatter all-time production records.

For farmers like Tim and Mark Boos of Lancaster, it's been a long time coming.

"I've been farming my whole life, and this is the best corn yield ever. Luckily, we haven't gotten hailed on yet," said Tim Boos, who has been working area row crops in his family farm operation for about three decades. "In a good year, we'll have 130-bushel corn -- that was the best I've ever seen until this year -- but our machines are showing 170- to 180-bushel corn yields. I haven't been in the beans yet, but they're doing well, too. It looks like we'll have 65-bushel beans."

While harsh weather -- especially drought -- caused most Atchison County farmers to suffer heavy losses in both 2002 and 2003, Mother Nature more than made up for things this summer, Boos said.

"We've had above average moisture, and the rains came at the right times," he said. "The only problem now is the prices."

With overflowing supplies of corn and soybeans, crops are not bringing the prices per bushel they normally would. Furthermore, many farmers find themselves spending a lot of time not only harvesting and trying to estimate their profit, but also waiting in line to unload their merchandise.

"The prices are a little depressing, but it's a lot better feeling than we've had here lately," said Ed Theis, who has worked the fields since 1952 and now helps his four sons run a family operation called April Valley Farms in Leavenworth. "We've had certain fields do this well before, but it's never been this widespread. The rains were very timely, and there were very few 90-degree days."

The severe drought years, coupled with the drooping U.S. economy brought on by the 9/11 attacks, made this year's vital to many farmers' ability to stay in business, said Mark Theis, who was waiting in line with his father here on Thursday afternoon.

"I don't think too many farmers could have taken much more like it has been. Another year like the last two we've had would have been catastrophic," he said. "Now, what's scary is that if the elevators get full, what's going to happen? They're going to get full and close the doors."

"Things are going slow right now for us because we're having to sit here so long to get rid of it (the grain)," Ed Theis said.

April Valley Farms has survived over the years better than many other farm operations, the Theises said, because the family didn't put all of its eggs in one basket. Instead, the Theises made up for some of the grain losses they suffered by earning profit on the livestock portion of their operation.

"The livestock has carried us," Ed Theis said. "That has paid the bills for us the last couple of years -- especially the cattle."

"Hogs just shot up from 52 to 58, and that's really rare," Mark noted. "Demand for pork has been really high. Maybe some of it is the low-carb diets, which pork is supposed to be good for. Or maybe people just got tired of eating chicken."

While grain farmers fully expect to make profit this year, it still may not totally make up for all the losses of 2002 and 2003, the Theises said.

"You'll make up some of the losses (but not all), unless you had your corn contracted at a rate of $3 or something," Mark Theis said.

Ray Ladd, of the Atchison County extension office, said there aren't strong enough words to describe the euphoria surrounding this year's crop yields.

"I don't know, adjective-wise, what you can say -- fantastic, unusually good, best-ever -- these are yields farmers previously thought were not possible," he said. "And it's happening on a countywide basis. This is a harvest they'll remember forever. As far as years of profit and years of loss, farming might be a 50-50 proposition over the last decade, and the last two years have been extremely short crop years for Atchison County. You need these good years to cover your expenses for the last two years. Farmers realize this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal."

DAN GALBRAITH'S SPORTS JOURNALISM

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."