Basketball teams to open on the road
The Tonganoxie boys and girls basketball teams will begin their seasons against Baldwin Monday at different tournaments.
The teams have been practicing since Nov. 15. They will have a public red vs. white scrimmage Thursday at Tonganoxie High School.
The freshmen girls will play junior varsity girls at 5:30 p.m. Mixed squad and varsity scrimmages will follow.
Then, the freshmen boys will scrimmage the junior varsity. Mixed squad and varsity scrimmages will complete the evening.
Boys
The boys begin their season at 7:30 p.m. Monday at DeSoto High School.
The Chieftains’ first opponent, Baldwin, was 11-11 last season. Baldwin has three returning starters.
If the Chieftains beat Baldwin, they will play at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against the winner of the DeSoto vs. Eudora game.
A loss would pit Tonganoxie against the loser of the DeSoto Eudora game at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Chieftains have 29 boys practicing.
They looked ragged in a pep-rally scrimmage last week. After Scott Breuer opened the scrimmages with a dunk for the red team, the white team won team by a point, 16-15.
Senior Neil Rieger and juniors Kyle Rodell and Breuer led the red team. Sophomore Bryan Gurss led the white team in the semi-upset.
Girls
The girls begin their season 7:30 p.m. Monday at Nike Middle School in Gardner.
Tonganoxie plays Baldwin. Baldwin was 14-8 last season and returns three starters but has little height.
The Chieftains will play Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Nike Middle School if they lose and at 6 p.m. at Gardner-Edgerton High School if they win.
The Chieftains have 16 girls out for the team. Sophomore Andrea Korb plays guard. She led the team with 10.4 points a game, 4.2 assists per game, and 64 steals last year.
Four of Tonganoxie’s starters from last year’s 8-14 team return, as do eight letter winners. Coach John Lee lists Korb; Sara Poje, senior guard; Deaven Workman, senior forward; Jill Stauch, senior forward; and Marcy Dodge, senior guard, as his top returners.
Jill Stauch and Workman join Korb as returning scoring leaders. Alicia Stauch, sophomore guard, and Aimee Eisman, sophomore forward, should also contribute.
“This is a very talented group that should be a lot of fun to watch,” Lee said. “I hope and expect big things from them.”