High school sports notebook

Power Players

Last weekend’s Joan Wells Invitational volleyball tournament at Lawrence High featured some of the best talent the country has to offer.

Roeland Park Miege, which improved to 26-1 on the year by winning the tournament title without much of a challenge, has two girls committed to Division I schools on its roster.

Kathleen Ludwig is headed to Kansas State, and 6-foot-4 Leah Maurer is headed to UNLV. Miege is ranked No. 6 in the country in the most recent Prep Volleyball rankings.

Splitting The Uprights

No one is calling Free State placekicker Brian Sims “Mr. Automatic,” but he’s close to perfection.

Sims, a 5-foot-7, 140-pound senior, has been successful on 22-of-24 extra-point attempts. Sims was 6-for-6 in last Friday’s 42-14 victory at Shawnee Mission East. He also has a 22-yard field goal this season.

Bittersweet Reunion

The Joan Wells Invitational gave the host team an opportunity to face its former coach, but the Lions lost to Molly LaMere’s Blue Valley Northwest squad in three games in the seventh-place match.

As the teams shook hands after the loss, LaMere hugged each LHS player, causing many to break down in tears.

“We were with her for a couple of years and had a lot of fun,” senior setter Rachel Van Horn said. “It was good to see her. We just really wanted to win.”

Family Ties

Tracy Resseguie was a man torn prior to Friday’s Free State-SM East football game. Resseguie has been SM East’s choir director for the last 11 years, but two of his sons – junior Kyle and sophomore Kirk – are members of Free State’s football team.

“It’s hard, it’s really hard,” Resseguie said after leading an SME ensemble in a pre-game rendition of the National Anthem. “Do I have mixed emotions? Oh, yeah.”

During the game, Resseguie sat with Firebirds’ coach Bob Lisher’s wife, Diana, and some other Free State fans while wearing a blue shirt that matched SM East’s primary color.

Resseguie’s oldest son, Jamie, now on Baker’s football team, also played for the Firebirds.

Lions, Firebirds Remain 6A

When the Kansas State High School Activities Association released the latest set of classification and enrollment numbers last week, Lawrence’s two biggest high schools remained in Class 6A. Lawrence High, with a 10th, 11th and 12th-grade enrollment of 1,313 students came in slightly larger than Free State High, which had an enrollment of 1,164.

Both schools remained planted in the 6A pack, which includes schools as large as Derby (1,525) and Olathe East (1,510) and as small as Blue Valley (1,088) and Leavenworth (1,066).

Around the area, most schools remained in the same classes they were in for the past two years. Class 5A schools include: Ottawa and Mill Valley. Class 4A schools include: Baldwin, Santa Fe Trail, Eudora, De Soto, Perry-Lecompton, Tonganoxie. Class 3A schools include: McLouth, Oskaloosa and Wellsville.

Ottawa, however, dropped to 4A in all sports except football.

Lawrence’s other schools, Seabury Academy and Veritas both remained the same, with Seabury falling in Class 1A and Veritas falling in the 8-man Division I football class.