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CHS
Spring Sports Undergo Coaching Overhaul for 2009 Retirements, job moves prompt most of five head coaching changes Published: Friday, June 20, 2008, by Paul Sturm, C-T Sports Editor One of the most extensive alterations of the Chillicothe High School sports head coaching roster in a single year in many years is set to occur in the 2008-09 school year, ironically exclusively involving spring sports. According to CHS principal Tony Perry and new athletics director Matt Brownsberger, five of the six CHS spring sports programs, including two of the school’s most successful programs of the past decade-plus and both track and field teams, will have new head coaches when their 2009 seasons roll around. There are no changes in the head coaching ranks for fall or winter season sports. Topping the list of changes are Vickie Garrett, coach of the very-successful girls’ track and field team since the mid-1990s, switching from that to boys’ golf and the decision of volunteer co-coaches Ed Douglas and Ron Keith, who have led the boys’ tennis team to great heights the past 12 years, to step down in favor of former CHS Lady Hornets tennis standout and college player Amanda (Hardie) Marsh. Garrett now will be coaching both CHS golf programs. Stepping into the girls’ track and field vacancy will be Brad Cavanah, son of Brookfield High football coach Shane Cavanah. Also next spring, veteran boys’ track and field assistant Ken Stull will step up to the head coach’s role replacing Bill Shaffer, who stepped aside after being hired as the new CHS assistant principal to replace Bryan
Copple, who becomes the middle school principal. The fifth spring sports change will have volunteer coach Bill Allison adding the girls’ soccer reins to the boys’ soccer duties he handled in the boys’ program’s inaugural year last fall. He replaces Margie Lowe, who guided the Lady
Hornets kickers in their second year after assisting Jeff Wolfe in the program’s first campaign in spring 2007. Back
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CHS Coaches Net Award C-T Photo / Paul Sturm
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Face Tough Non-League Slate to Begin 2008-09 The gauntlet has been thrown down to the 2008 Chillicothe High School football Hornets by their head coach, Phil Willard. With what should be a veteran-dominated squad with skill players aplenty, Willard last Friday formulated a daunting schedule aimed at challenging the 2008 CHS players to be their best from week one through hopefully a successful appearance in expanded state playoffs. With 2008-09 football classifications and district assignments announced by the Missouri State High School Activities Association early Friday morning, Willard joined many other west-central and northwest Missouri head coaches and athletics directors at a hotel near Kansas City International airport to construct schedules for the next two seasons. With the departure of Platte County - the largest football Class 3 school in the state the past two years - not only from the Midland Empire Conference, but from Class 3 into Class 4, the new alignments produced the expected result for Chillicothe - taking Platte County's spot in the
northwesternmost Class 3 district with Savannah, Cameron, and Smithville. The Hornets will face that trio in that order each of the next two Octobers. In 2008, Chillicothe will play Savannah and Smithville at home with Cameron the lone district home game in 2009. See schedule on our Fall Sports Page. In 2009, the schools will switch game sites, meaning the Hornets will host Marshall, Grain Valley, Benton, Maryville, and Cameron. The 2008 season will mark the first time in 10 years Chillicothe will not face Platte County, which emerged as a Class 3 state power and 3-time champion during its 10-year stay in the MEC. Although at one point Willard expressed possible interest in the Pirates as a non-conference foe, it didn't work out for 2008-2009. Back
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Football Hornets Districted with MEC Schools in 2008-09 Chillicothe High School football coach and retiring athletics director, Phil Willard, was sequestered with other regional prep football coaches and ADs at a hotel near Kansas City International airport today, setting 2008-09 football game schedules after the classification and district assignments for the next 2-year cycle were released by the Missouri State High School Activities Association early this morning. As was anticipated, due to projected classification changes and known conference switches, Chillicothe will return to a Class 3 district with three fellow members of the Midland Empire Conference Cameron, Smithville, and Savannah. The Hornets have been grouped with three non-league schools Boonville, Richmond, and Odessa the past four years. That means Chillicothe - for the first time since the 2002-03 cycle will have three discretionary playing dates to fill with non-conference opponents. The past four years, all seven of its MEC games during the pre-district portion of its schedule has been booked solid with conference games. Potential non-MEC possibilities could range from former long-time geographic rival Trenton to departing MEC member Platte County to former Hornets foes Kearney or Marshall to ex-district opponent Richmond, which the Hornets have played each of the past five years in either district or state play, to strong Class 2 program Lawson, which was considered for Platte County's MEC spot that went to St. Joseph: Bishop LeBlond. As for the impact of redistricting around the C-T-area, only Class 2 Carrollton escaped change for 2008-09. The Trojans, surprise 2007 district champs in Class 2 after nearly a decade of little or no on-field success, will remain grouped with Missouri River Valley Conference small-division schools Lexington, Higginsville, and Knob Noster. Also in Class 2, Brookfield and Tri-Rivers Conference rival Clark County return to being paired, joined the next two years by Macon and Ewing: Highland, while independent Trenton beginning the post-DeAndre Vandevender era goes west to connect with what should be a very strong Maryville club, LeBlond, and South Harrison, where THS coach Wes Croy previously was head coach. In Class 1, Braymer has been split away from the district with Hamilton and Polo, which remain together. BHS' Bobcats go in with last year's unbeaten state champ, Orrick, which is expected to be as strong or stronger in 2008. Also in that district (13) will be Independence: St. Mary's and Lexington: Wentworth Military Academy. Staying with Hamilton and Polo in Class 1 District 14 will be Gallatin with Maysville moving in. In District 11, Marceline stays with Putnam County and Milan, but Princeton replaces Schuyler County. In the 8-man ranks, Ludlow: Southwest's cooperative program with Breckenridge is planned to continue, but the Wildcats will be in a new district, since there are two new 8-man schools (Belton: Heartland and Chilhowee) and two (Fairfax and Craig) have merged under the Craig banner. Southwest will be in District 2 the next two years, competing against fellow Platte Valley Conference schools Stewartsville, DeKalb, and Union Star and independent St. Joseph Christian, 2006 state champ. Not only is there the normal every-other-year district realignment beginning next fall in football, but the state will initiate an expanded, five-round state-championship playoff system, doubling the number of teams qualifying. Under the new system, round-robin district playoffs will continue as the last portion of the "regular" season, but both the first- and second-place teams in district standings will advance to the playoffs, being cross-matched with an adjoining district's qualifiers (District X champ vs. District Y runnerup and vice versa) for a new first round the Wednesday after the regular season ends. Those first-round winners potentially two teams from the same district then will meet in the sectional (second) round the next Monday. Quarterfinal and semifinal games will be on the following Saturdays. The Show-Me Bowl will remain on Thanksgiving weekend. District play for all four-team districts will begin in Week 8 (Oct. 17 in 2008) of the regular season, while five-team districts in the 8-man classification and the one Class 5 district will begin in Week 6 (Oct. 3 in 2008). Due to the expansion of the playoffs field, the first-allowable practice date for 2008 will be on Monday, Aug. 11. The preseason interscholastic scrimmages (jamborees) will take place Aug. 22-23, and the first-possible contest date will be Friday, Aug. 29. Additional details on Chillicothe's 2008 and 2009 schedules and the new playoff system will appear in future editions. The CHS schedule should be available for Monday's edition. Incidentally, Willard recently submitted a retirement letter for his duties as a part-time CHS physical education instructor and high school athletics director to Chillicothe school district officials. It was officially accepted at the January board of education meeting. He indicated he plans to continue serving as high school football head coach. Back
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Return to MEC Nest The Midland Empire Conference yesterday officially welcomed back St. Joseph's Bishop LeBlond High School to the conference's ranks after a 21-year absence. It will replace Platte County, which moves to the Suburban Small 7 conference in the Kansas City region next year. Chillicothe R-2 Schools superintendent Dale Wallace confirmed to the C-T the action which had been anticipated in recent weeks. The vote by the seven holdover MEC districts to add Bishop LeBlond beginning next school year was a unanimous one. "The conference has been in contact with several districts to gauge their interest," Wallace related, confirming the MEC communicated with Trenton, Lawson, and Kansas City: St. Pius X, as well as LeBlond. Like LeBlond, Trenton is a former MEC member which has been independent since leaving the league a number of years back. Based on geography, enrollment size, and competitive potential, Lawson and LeBlond long have been considered the best fits, but Lawson responded that it wished to remain in the KCI Conference. Back
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Schools Voting on Football Playoff Expansion, Separate Private/Public
Playoffs COLUMBIA - In voting to be completed this month, Missouri State High School Activities Association member schools are considering changes to the group's by-laws which could institute separate postseason playoffs for public and non-public schools in all sports except football and, in a separate proposal, expansion of football playoff qualification by one team per district. Proposal No. 24 on the MSHSAA 2007 ballot, submitted by petition by one of the members, would mandate that MSHSAA sponsor separate district and state championship series for public and non-public member high schools in all sports except football. Only a simple majority vote is required for passage of the change, which would become effective July 1, 2008. Proposal No. 25, submitted by the association's board of directors, its football playoff study committee, and football advisory committee, would qualify both the first- and second-place teams in each district for the state playoffs for a 4-year trial period, beginning in 2008. A first-place team from one district would meet the second-place team of an adjoining district in a new first round of a five-round playoff bracket. This would require the starting of the 10-week regular season one week earlier. Preseason interschool scrimmages (commonly called “jamborees”) would still be allowed the weekend prior to the first regular-season game. Only member senior high schools currently registered for football vote on this question. Again, only a simple majority is required for passage. The number of required physical conditioning practices each participant would have to have prior to participating in an inter-school scrimmage would change from 14 at least nine (9) individual days of practice. Another proposal which would impact Chillicothe High School sports is more routine. Proposal No. 27, submitted by the MSHSAA board and soccer advisory committee, would add a third scheduling option for soccer of 20 games and one (1) tournament. That change would be effective July 1, 2007, if passed by the simple majority. Districts' completed ballot must be in by May 1 to be counted. NOTE: The
follow up article on the MSHSAA election ran in the Friday, May 4, edition
of the C-T. Back
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Board Hires New Basketball Head Coach The Chillicothe R-2 school district has hired a new head boys basketball coach and physical education teacher. Matthew Brownsberger, who is currently finishing his fourth year in similar positions at Warsaw High School in Warsaw, Mo., was hired Tuesday night during the R-2 board's executive session at district headquarters. “We are very pleased to welcome Matt to our staff,” Dale Wallace, R-2 superintendent said. He added that Brownsberger has demonstrated that he is an “excellent” physical education teacher and coach, having done so at a very competitive district and part of the state. “This is a very logical move for him coming from a high school of 450 students and we feel he will make a very smooth transition. We know Matt will be a fine asset to our district and community,” Wallace said. Brownsberger will fill the void left by Chad Snyder, who submitted his resignation to the board last month after eight years as head basketball coach and physical education instructor.
Matt Brownsberger, head coach of the Warsaw High School Wildcats the past five years, has verbally accepted the vacant boys' basketball head coaching and high school physical education instructor positions at Chillicothe High School for the 2007-08 year. Brownsberger, a 2002 graduate of Northwest Missouri State University (Maryville) and graduate of Blue Springs South High School in metropolitan Kansas City, succeeds Chad Snyder in the positions. Snyder informed the district about a month ago that, after 10 years as boys' basketball head coach (among other teaching and coaching posts) at his alma mater, he would not ask for a contract for 2007-08. Brownsberger's only head coaching experience has been at Warsaw, which has high school enrollment of approximately 450 students, where he guided the Wildcats, members of the Tri-County Conference, to a composite 59-47 record over five seasons. The past three seasons have seen the WHS boys post a combined 53-28 mark. In 2005, the Wildcats won their district championship and were runnerup this past season, losing the district title game to Eugene in overtime. Eugene then lost to eventual state runnerup Kansas City: Pembroke Hill by 14 in the first round of state play. One of Brownsberger's players this past season, 6'2” Tyler Burke, was selected first-team All-State by the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. Another highlight of Brownsberger's Warsaw tenure was the team posting its best-ever finish in the Tri-County Conference, which includes Jefferson City: Blair Oaks, Versailles, California, School of the Osage, and Eldon. Blair Oaks won a district title this past season and lost in the first round of state. A high school Academic All-American in 1997, the new CHS coach served as an assistant coach on the Northwest Missouri State staff from 2001-03. Back
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Seasons, Chad Snyder Leaving CHS Post Chad Snyder, who led the Chillicothe basketball Hornets to a 30-2 record and state runnerup finish in 1997-98, his first season as head coach at his alma mater, and a 6-19 mark this past season, has opted not to continue at the school after this term. CAPTION: basketball head coach Chad Snyder points out something to his team during a timeout huddle during this past season's opening game. Snyder's letter of resignation from his CHS post as physical education teacher and boys' basketball coach, effective at the end of this school year, was accepted by the district's Board of Education at its regular monthly meeting last night. C-T file photo / Paul Sturm Back
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Kicking In With the private funds required under a policy approved in 2005 in hand, the Chillicothe R-2 School District Board of Education last (Tuesday) night gave unanimous formal approval to the addition of both girls' and boys' soccer programs to its offering of extracurricular activities. By 7-0 vote in open session following an unrelated executive session as part of last night's regular monthly meeting, the school board gave the “thumbs up” to the sport generally considered the most popular among fans worldwide and widely participated in by young children in community and regional leagues around the United States. The new girls' program will commence in spring 2007, the boys' in the fall 2008 season, confirmed Dale Wallace, R-2 district superintendent. “The board is interested in offering as wide a variety of opportunities as we can,” Wallace said, explaining both last night's vote and the policy - allowing program additions when private, outside funding was available - adopted a year ago. That policy has spawned the addition of boys' swimming last winter and now the soccer programs. The new programs will be varsity (and junior-varsity level, if there are sufficient players) and will join in the competition within the Midland Empire Conference, Wallace said. CHS is the last MEC school to add soccer. Wallace said finding coaches “is the big hurdle now, finding capable, qualified coaches. I know (athletics director Phil) Willard has been searching our staff, trying to see if we have anyone already on staff interested.” The superintendent did not speculate on whether, if coaches are not found among current staff, the district would look to hire additional or replacement staff whose duties would include coaching soccer or if it might seek to utilize the “emergency coach” provisions of Missouri State High School Activities Association bylaws to employ someone from outside district staff. Games will be played either on Danner Park property or the Green Hills Soccer Club's fields across from that park, Wallace predicted. Back
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District the Same COLUMBIA - The Chillicothe football Hornets - for the first time in a while - will have the same 10 opponents four years in a row. The new enrollment-based classifications and district assignments for the 2006-07 football seasons in Missouri were revealed by the Missouri State High School Activities Association this (Thursday) morning and Chillicothe's remained unchanged from the 2004-05 schedule cycle. As in the past two years, the Hornets will contend against three Missouri River Valley Conference schools to their south - Richmond, Odessa, and Boonville - in Class 3 District 14. Phil Willard, Chillicothe High football head coach and athletics director, was in Kansas City at a meeting with all other Midland Empire Conference school representatives, those from the West Central Conference, and a few independent schools, this morning to receive the new assignments and hammer out the pigskin schedules for 2006 and 2007. For Chillicothe, it is possible those slates will be ordered exactly as they have been the past two years, but other MEC schools may have to switch theirs around some, impacting when they could play CHS. While the Hornets' situation is effectively unchanged from the past two years, Cameron, which won the 2005 Class 2 state title after being runnerup in 2004 with an outstanding team, is shifted up to Class 3 the next two years. It has been grouped in District 16 with fellow MEC schools Platte County, Smithville, and Savannah. Maryville is now the lone Class 2 school in the MEC. St. Joseph's Benton and Lafayette stay in Class 4. C-T-AREA PREP FOOTBALL TEAMS' DISTRICTS - 2006-07
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Trager Memorial Building
C-T Photo/Paul Sturm A new multi-function facility honoring the late Shawn Trager will be built at Jerry Litton Memorial Studium in Chillicothe this summer. The 18x53' building is being constructed with memorial funds and donations made following Trager's death at age 19 in a Kansas traffic accident in spring 2004. The Shawn Matthew Trager Memorial Multi-purpose Building will be located just north of the grandstands at Litton Stadium It will house the concessions stand, an equipment storage area, and a Hornets apparel shop. Matt Trager noted the new facility was developed with the blessing of the Litton Foundation which has provided funds for the upkeep of the stadium since the late 1970s. The new Kynar-coated Morton steel building will have the red and black school colors as an exterior color scheme and will have 9-feet-high red walls, a black roof, and white trim. It will be climate-controlled. A formal dedication ceremony is planned for Friday, September 9, the night of the football Hornets' first 2005 home game against Maryville. If a new stadium is built at some time in the future, the new building will be able to be moved for relocation. A 2003 graduate of CHS, Shawn Trager was a multi-sport athlete starring in football and track and field. He was attending Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, on a football scholarship at the time of his death in a traffic crash near Baldwin City on April 13, 2004. Follow up photo and caption... C-T August 10, 2005
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Participation
Fees for District's Student Athletes Waived Student athletes participating in school sports next school year will not have to pay the $25 participation fee, thanks to a unanimous vote by R-2 board members. The participation fee pertained only to students involved in the district's athletic programs and netted the school district approximately $10,000 annually. Adopted on July 15, 2003, it had gone into effect for the 2003-04 school year (see related article below). By a 4-2 vote, the board also approved an addendum to the district's policy on co-currucular and extracurricular activities programs. The addendum allows for the addition of non-district funded interscholastic activities currently not offered by the district under some of the following conditions:
Chillicothe
School Board Adopts New Activity Charges Activity Director Phil Willard's activity fee proposal was unanimously approved by the school board at their August meeting, 2003. Board members raised the question about other activities being charged, like cheerleading. Cheerleaders already pay for their own uniforms, which costs them several hundred dollars, so students will be charged for their participation in sports only. Students will be charged $25 for participation in one sport, $15 for a second sport, and $10 for a third sport. Families that have more than one child at the middle school and/or high scholl will be charged no more than $75. Fees will be charged immediately to no-cut teams and will be non-refundable if the child quits or is dismissed from the team. For teams that make cuts, the fees will not be charged until the final roster is established. For students who cannot afford the fee, a work program at their school will be developed. The deadline for Winter Sports is December 12, and the deadline for Spring Sports is March 29. The checks should be payable to the Chillicothe High School and taken to the CHS office and given to Ms. Lisa Wilson. Back
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Portrait
of Bob Carter Donated to CHS Paul Sturm, Chillicothe Constitution Tribune, December 14, 2004
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 CHS
HOOPS FIXTURE VANCE BOWS OUT
Long-Time Freshman Boys' Coach Retiring After 32 Years C-T article 03 22 04, Paul Sturm A long-running era in Chillicothe High School basketball is over. Larry Vance, who has coached basketball - mostly as head coach of the Freshman boys - for the past 32 seasons has decided to retire. At the annual basketball banquet on March 17, Vance was presented with a gift by the other CHS hoops coaches and made some brief remarks. "One of the things I will miss most is the relationship with my fellow coaches," said Vance, who was leaned on heavily for advice and counsel by CHS Varsity and Junior Varsity coaches through the years. "The thing I will miss the most, however, is the relationships I developed with the players. When they joined the Freshman team, they became 'my kids' and as I'd watch them through the rest of their high school years, they'd still remain 'my kids' to me." After thanking his wife, Margaret, for her support through his years of working with a generation-plus of CHS cagers, Vance admitted that he'll probably find it impossible to completely withdrawn from contact with Hornets hoops. "I'm sure I'll pop into the gym during practices sometimes," he conceded, a situation Hornets Varsity head coach Chad Snyder had earlier indicated he'd welcome. "It's been a great ride," Vance concluded to a warm ovation. Back
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CAPTION:
Ron Keith, left, and Ed Douglas, former prep and college standouts as players who have served as volunteer co-coaches for the Chillicothe High School boys' tennis program the past 10 years, recently received the United States Tennis Association's Missouri Valley region
2007 Outstanding High School Coaches Award. The region includes all of Missouri except for the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas. To qualify, a recipient must have coached at the high school level for at least 10 years, have at least 25 players out for the team during the year honored, and have a “no-cut” policy (anyone who goes out for the sport stays on the team). During their CHS coaching tenure, the Douglas-Keith duo has guided the Hornets to a 151-26 team-matches record, the second-best winning percentage all-time in Missouri high school ranks among boys' team coaches. Under them, the Hornets have won nine Midland Empire Conference titles (losing only once in 50 matches), qualified for state tournament team play nine times - advancing to the quarterfinals five times, and had numerous players qualify for individual state tournament play in singles or doubles with four singles and two doubles champions in district tournaments.
Warsaw's Brownsberger
Gets CHS Job
A ground-breaking ceremony was held
for a new multi-function facility honoring the late Shawn Trager which will be built at Jerry Litton Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe this summer. The 18-by-53-feet building is being constructed with memorial funds and donations made following Trager's death at age 19 in a Kansas traffic accident in spring 2004. The announcement of the new building was made jointly by Trager's family and the school district. The building will house a concession stand, an equipment storage area and a Hornets apparel shop.
Work is well under way at the new multi-function facility honoring the late Shawn Trager at Jerry Litton Memorial Stadium. The 18-by-53-feet building is being construction with memorial funds and donations made following Trager's death at age 19 in a Kansas traffic accident in April 2004. The building is expected to be finished by the Hornets Soap Scrimmage, Friday, Aug. 19. As well as housing the concessions stand, the building will have an equipment storage area and a Hornets apparel "shop."
A donated portrait of the late Bob Carter, sports editor of the Constitution-Tribune for nearly three decades prior to his untimely death in late 2001, is presented to Chillicothe High School activities director and football head coach Phil Willard (white shirt at right) and boys' basketball head coach Chad Snyder (behind Willard) by Deborah Lindley on behalf
of her husband, Scott (to her right), and numerous other friends of Carter's. The painted portrait, along with a plaque identifying those
who contributed to the portrait's commissioning and plaques signifying Carter's posthumous induction into the state high school football and basketball coaches' associations' Halls of Fame, will hang in the high school commons. The presentation, along with comments from several persons from Chillicothe and area schools Carter covered, took place between games of Monday night's home basketball doubleheader against Macon.
C-T Photo/Paul Sturm