By John Mesh
Hutchinson High School coach Mike Vernon, Hutchinson’s Terrell King, Buhler’s Bodey Redenbaugh, Halstead’s Connor Herman and Haven’s Nash Wray helped lead the West Team to a 26-8 victory over the East Team Saturday night at the 52nd Kansas Shrine Bowl Football Game.
The game was played at Dodge City’s Memorial Stadium. Proceeds benefit Shriners Children’s projects.
Vernon was an assistant coach for the West team. King and Redenbaugh will play college football for the defending NJCAA Division I national champion Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons.
Wray will play baseball at HutchCC and Herman will play football for Friends University.
Redenbaugh and Herman helped anchor the West offensive line at right tackle and right guard.
There were 10 future Hutchinson Blue Dragons competing in the game.
The West defense forced a 3-and-out on the first drive of the game. The punt against a 40 mph wind ended up in the West side end zone and was recovered by West Brody Weir of Wellington. The xxtra point by Eli Jones of Norton is good. West team led 7-0 with 10:30 to go in the first quarter.
East quarterback Bravin Powell, from Gardner-Edgerton and a future Hutchinson Blue Dragon, scored on a 45-yard TD run with 9:58 left in the second quarter. Powell was the 2024 Sports in Kansas All-Classes Player of the Year.
Aquinas’ Elsie Slaughter caught the 2-point conversion pass from Powell to give the East team its only lead of the game at 8-6.
Norton quarterback Eli Jones put the West team ahead for good with a touchdown run with 7:27 left in the first half. The conversion failed and the score was 13-8.
Maize South’s Christian McDonald returned an interception for a touchdown to give the West a 19-8 lead with 6:43 left in the third quarter.
Cheney’s Josh Burdick, one the co-captains for the game and the West team’s Most Valuable Player scored the final touchdown for the West, which led 26-8 with 40 seconds left in the third quarter.
Lansing’s Ayden Ellington was the East team MVP.
The West leads the series 32-18-2.
The next three Shrine Bowl games will be played at Emporia’s Welch Stadium.
Team Blue girls, Team Gold boys triumph at KBCA All-Star Games
Four players and three coaches with area connections participated in the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Girls and Boys All-Star Games Saturday at Kansas Wesleyan University’s Mabee Arena.
Team Blue won the girls game 70-61 and Team Gold won the boys game 107-61.
Buhler High School graduate Natalya Krafels, a 5-foot-9 forward, was a member of the KBCA Girls Blue Team. She is headed to Grand Canyon University. Krafels scored 2 points.
Andover’s Aliyah Green, a 6-1 post who played her first two seasons at Hutchinson High School, was a member of the Gold Team. She will play basketball at Butler Community College next year.
Green scored 7 points and grabbed 6 rebounds.
Val Norwood from Wellington led Team Gold girls with 16 points. Arkansas City’s Saliyah Henderson-Johnson and Hoxie’s Emily Bainter each scored 7 points for Team Gold.
Henderson-Johnson also grabbed a team-high 7 rebounds and Central Plains’ Marilyn Soeken had 6 points and 3 assists.
The Team Blue girls were led by Hanover’s Anna Jueneman with 12 points.
Labette County’s Landry O’Brien and Centralia’s Oen Deters each scored 10 points, De Soto’s Makenzie Farmer 9, Hays’ Molly Martin 7 and St. Mary’s Hayden Heim 7.
Halstead High School boys basketball coach Derek Schutte was the Gold Team girls head coach.
Two Hutchinson Community College signees were members of the KBCA Gold Boys Team. They are Gabe Pyle, 6-6 guard from McPherson, and Bear Moddlemog, a 6-4 guard from Moundridge.
Pyle, who was named Mr. Basketball by the KBCA before the game, led four Gold players in double figures with 19 points. Moddlemog scored 9 points and grabbed 4 rebounds.
Elyria Christian’s Ty Romero scored 14 points for the Gold team, Andover’s Joshua Kim 13 and Ellinwood’s Landon Simpson 10. Kapaun-Mount Carmel’s Corbin Johnson had 9 points and 13 rebounds.
Three players scored 11 for the Blue team — Ottawa’s Caleb Hepner, Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Tyler Salmon and Goodland’s Brady Brumbaugh.
The Blue Team Boys head coach was former Blue Dragon men’s coach Steve Eck, now the boys coach at Kapaun-Mount Carmel.
Eck was assisted by HutchCC alum Kurt Kinnamon, now the boys coach at McPherson High School.