The Longview Lakers’ are intesnse as they are headed to the playoffs for their third consecutive season. The Laker’s current record of 28-25 and only have lost five games in April and May combined.

“Going into the season we knew we were going to have a strong offense, and we struggled for a little bit, but people adjusted. We have been strong ever since,” sophomore pitcher James Fitzgearlds said.

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The Lakers knew this was how they were going to play all season. “We knew from the start that we had a lot of talent on the team. We had a rough patch in the middle of the season, but we knew we would work our way out of it,” sophomore first baseman David Ullrich said.

The 1-12 losing streak started when they lost to Kansas City Kansas Community College 8-5 on March 7. Their only win during the streak was a 15-5 win over Cloud County Community College on March 14.

Sophomore catcher Austin Hill said it really showed them what they needed to fix. “We have to go over .500 this season to get to the playoffs and that really put us in a do or die situation. We could have either laid down and gave up or came back swinging and that’s what we really have done,” Hill said.

“This is how we have expected the whole season to go because of our talent level,” sophomore first baseman Josh Dennett said. “A lot of the freshman are now experiencing what it’s like to win at this level,” he said.

Fitzgearlds describes the comeback against Highland to be the team’s hardest game all season. “I think that shows we were used to winning and even with the recent deficit at the beginning we were able to pull through,” said Fitzgearlds.

The Lakers are going to need to use their experience and talent if they are going to have a shot at repeating what they did in 2007. Hill said they expected to make the playoffs. “Our main goal is to make it to the World Series,” Hill said.

Registration is now open for the intramural volleyball and basketball leagues at Blue River, with 5-on-5 volleyball starting Feb. 21 and 3 on 3 basketball starting Feb. 23.

“The intramural sports leagues will provide fun, free recreation on campus, an opportunity to meet other students, and a way to become more involved in the college experience,” said Blue River athletics coordinator David Owens.

Owens says that because the one day tournaments for intramural basketball and volleyball produced such a positive turnout, he decided to expand to weekly league games this semester.

Students from all MCC campuses are welcome and can join as a team or alone.  Teams can include up to two non-MCC players.  A $25 deposit per team is required, but the money is fully refundable if the team attends all games.

Team registration forms are available at the Campus Life office in the Arts and Sciences building at Blue River.  A printable version of the registration form can be found at: http://blogs.mcckc.edu/insider/2012/01/intramural-league-sports/.

The deadline for registration is Feb 17.

The Lakers worked out February 7 (Michael Scassellati/The Current).

The Longview Lakers baseball team starts their season on Saturday, Feb. 11, playing against Richland College (Texas). It’s taken a lot of hard work and preparation to get ready for that game. A total of 29 players are on the team, but two are already injured, and 19 of them are freshmen. According to coach Clint Culbertson, though, these two potentially problematic issues do not affect how he goes about coaching his team.

“The freshmen this year had a lot of experience already, so they knew what to expect. We coach based off of whether we have a speed team or a hitting team. This season we tried to focus on pitching and defense early on in practice,” Culbertson said.

At the beginning of every season, a team always has goals that they expect to meet, but realistically they know that not all of those goals can be met.

“Our goal is to win another championship. I think that should always be the goal that you should try to go for but if we don’t it’s not a failure,” Culbertson said.

The MCC-Blue River Trail Blazers soccer teams are preparing for the upcoming fall season. The coaches, Brad Childers (women) and Dave Owens (men), are in the process of signing new players in hopes that this season will be as successful as the previous seasons.

The women’s team just signed Bailey Barnett, who will graduate from Liberty North High School this spring. From Lee’s Summit Community Christian High School, the men’s team signed Hunter McRoberts, who has an excellent scoring record.

Childers said that this season will be challenging and rewarding. The team will lose nine of his 2011 starters, whose time at Blue River has expired. Two 2011 starters will be key players while they continue to rebuild.

The new player, Barnett, will be added as a goal keeper. She has “attributes that are vital to maximizing her development,” Childers said.

According to Barnett, the trick is to develop quality players who will blossom at the right moment.  “If history repeats itself, we will likely become legit contenders again next season,” he said.

Owens said he has confidence that the men’s season will be a success. “We have built a program that now has a good reputation and the year to year standard is high,” he said. The new player, McRoberts, has the ability to score goals with his “thunderous shot” and that’s what is going to be expected from him.

In the next few weeks the men’s team will have another signing with new players that include Adam Schroeder (Ray-Pec), Josh Medina (North Kansas City), and Chase Carter (Lee’s Summit North). All three of these players are midfielders and have “excellent all around skills and will continue to allow us to be a team that emphasizes a pass and move philosophy of soccer,” said Owens.

The greatest obstacle for the men’s team will be lack of continuity, according to Owens. Every year, half of the roster needs to be replaced and makes it tougher for the team to come together.

All-American Sammi Phegley (Alex Greenlee/The Current)

by Alex Greenlee

Longview Laker Sammi Phegley has been named second team All-American. The news came as a surprise to the freshman setter.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it, so when we were at the banquet and coach Rob Kaleikau said my name, my jaw dropped to the floor. I was so surprised,” she said.

Phegley started playing volleyball in Texas. “I’ve been playing volleyball since fourth grade and I started out playing Catholic Youth Organization, which is somewhat competitive,” she said. When Phegley was a freshman in high school, she and her family moved to the small town of West Plains, Mo.

Since she is only 5 feet 7 inches tall, Phegley has always been at a height disadvantage. “You cannot give up and you always have to have a positive attitude, you have to be able to trust your teammates and trust they will do their job so you can do yours,” she said.

Phegley said she thinks her height might cause her problems in the future. “I want to play at a higher level, but I think my height is at a disadvantage to me because normally everyone that plays in a big college is over 5 foot 10 inches tall,” she said.

Phegley says she couldn’t have won the award without her team and coach. “I’m also very proud that my teammates all believe in us and that they never gave up. After we won regionals and were going to nationals, the look on my coach’s face was pure happiness and I knew he was very proud of us. You could tell coach felt great about his accomplishments as coach,” she said.

Electives are part of almost every program at MCC, and students can take virtually anything to fulfill the requirement. One break from traditional lecture classes is Bowling I and II offered at Blue River. Set up similarly to an actual bowling league, this physical education class gives students the opportunity to get outside the classroom.

Bowling has been offered at Blue River since 1989. Eight students participated in the first class held at Blue Springs Bowl, but the class now averages a full 32 students every semester. Bowling I and II are both held at the same time at Lunar Bowl in Blue Springs, and the students bowl together and help each other improve their game. Since the class is offered on Friday afternoons,
many students find bowling a relaxing end to their academic week. According to Peggy Tuter, who has instructed both Bowling I and II since they began, the class often sees students return to take Bowling II.

“Around four to six return every semester. This semester, there are five back for Bowling II. It happens sometimes that students just can’t get back in. That class can fill quickly,” she said. Tuter says she believes that higher level bowling classes would also see students continue on from Bowling II.  “I think if Bowling III and IV were offered, students would bowl their entire two years, just because it’s a really fun class with a little bit of competition, too.”

Bowling I student Brad Holder says the fun and competition are what attracted him to the class. “This is actually the only class I’m taking this semester,” he said. “I wanted to take it light and have an easy semester. Now I think I’ll probably take Bowling II with my other classes in the spring. It’s fun, and I can use it to fill out my schedule a bit.”

David Stockton, a freshman at Longview, is taking Bowling II with his wife Becca, a sophomore at Blue River. They took Bowling I together during the summer session and were glad to be able to return to the lanes. “I really like Coach Tuter, and the class has improved my game a lot. I want to be a better bowler,” David said. He also says that he enjoys the stress relief he gets from bowling. Becca agrees with him whole heartedly. “We have seven children between us. It’s nice to have a way to get out in public without them and relax with each other,” she said.

Whether looking to fulfill a graduation requirement with a non-traditional class or trying to find a niche in a new hobby, bowling is definitely worth a student’s consideration. It offers the opportunity to try something different and maybe find an unexpected skill, which is part of what college electives are intended to do.

Most students breathe a sigh of relief when they finish their physical education requirements in high school and think they’ll never take another course again. But some find themselves needing a P.E. course as a degree requirement, or taking it as an elective, while others have an interest in pursuing careers in physical education themselves. Peggy Tuter has been guiding MCC students through what she hopes will be life changing courses for 26 years. A graduate of Blue Springs High School, Tuter holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in physical education from Central Missouri State University.

“Back then, as a woman, you could be a nurse, you could be a secretary, or you could teach. Women’s sports were not popular,” she said. She and her twin sister still played every sport they could in college, though the pair focused on softball and field hockey.

In 1985, Tuter became the volleyball coach at Longview, and, in 1987, she began teaching her first class, bowling, at Blue River. “I still have a soft spot for that class, since it was my first one,” Tuter said.  She coached at Longview for 15 years before becoming the women’s varsity volleyball coach at Park University and, more recently, Wellington High School. However, she still teaches bowling at Blue River and has gone on to instruct a variety of other courses, including physical education, first aid, bodybuilding, golf, and tennis. She also serves as the Physical Education Department Coordinator at Blue River.

Tuter says that her primary job through the course of her career has been coaching, though she views teaching and coaching as being very similar.

“They’re a lot alike. You’ve got to teach kids how before you can coach them through,” she said. Tuter also enjoys the break in monotony and student diversity that teaching allows her from coaching. “In coaching, you take high school players or a college recruiting class through all four years. When you’re teaching college, the class changes every sixteen weeks. You wind up learning a lot about students and diversity when you get a lot of different types of students, not just athletes.”

Tuter has kept her passion for both coaching and teaching because of the long term influence she has over her students lives. “You try to teach them something – a life-long skill that maybe turns into a regular hobby, or maybe something else about fitness, get them into shape, help them eat better, be healthier.”

In her long career, Tuter has garnered much recognition for her accomplishments. Her professional memberships include the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and the United States Volleyball Association (USA-VB). Several of her players have been named Academic All-Americans, and in 2004, she was awarded MCAC Coach of the Year by the other conference coaches. This is now her 25^th season coaching volleyball, and she is closing in on 600 career wins. Tuter continues to impact her students and players for the better, and her experience and insight make her one of MCC’s greatest assests.

The MCC-Longview women’s volleyball team concluded its season with an eighth-place finish in the NJCAA Division II national tournament in Toledo, Ohio in November.

After upsetting fifth-seeded Parkland (Ill.) 18-25, 25-2, 15-25, 25-22, 15-13 in the first round, Longview lost to Phoenix (Ariz.) College 25-20, 25-16, 23-25, 25-19 in the second round and fell into the consolation bracket.

The Lakers then lost to Central Community College (Neb.) 25-19, 25-22, 26-28, 25-19 in consolation play and to Grand Rapids (Mich.) 25-20, 25-17, 25-22 in the match for seventh place.

Cowley County (Kan.) Community College won the Division II championship, downing Oakland (Mich.) Community College 23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-21 in the final. Longview lost three matches against Cowley County this season.

Longview middle hitter Melodye Church was selected to the all-tournament team.
The Lakers finished with a 21-16 record.

The plan, MCC-Longview volleyball coach Rob Kaleikau said back in September, was to toughen up his team with some top-notch competition early, take some lumps and peak at the end of the season.

“We did it by design,” Kaleikau said. “We knew our record would take a hit but we wanted to play the toughest teams as much as possible and then peak at the right time.”

The lumps were a little tougher than expected, but Kaleikau’s plan so far has worked to perfection.

After starting the season 0-5, Longview made the steady improvement Kaleikau hoped for, culminating in a late-season surge that landed the Lakers in the NJCAA Division II national tournament, which starts today, Thursday, in Toledo, Ohio. The Lakers, 20-13, are seeded 13th in the 16-team field and will meet No. 4 seed Parkland (Ill.), 38-7, in the first round of the three-day, double-elimination event at Owens Community College.

Kaleikau put his team through the Johnson County tournament to start the season, where it dropped four matches against nationally ranked competition. At the end of September, the Lakers were still a mediocre 8-9.

But when the Lakers ended their regular season with a tough 3-2 win at Kansas City, Kansas, Community College, Kaleikau knew his team was ready for a postseason run.

“We went to KCK and won in five games and two days later we were off to regionals,” Kaleikau said. That win gave us confidence against a good team. In practice we had talking about how it was crunch time and we worked really hard those last two weeks (of the regular season).”

After breezing past Northeastern Oklahoma A&M 3-0 in the first round of the regional tournament at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley, Longview faced a showdown with East Central Community College for the District O spot at nationals. (District O includes schools from District 2 in Oklahoma and District 16 in Missouri.)

This would be Longview’s third match against East Central, the two-time defending Regional champion. The Lakers lost both regular season matches, the first one going to five sets back in August.

Longview and East Central would go five sets again, but this time the Lakers prevailed 25-21, 15-25, 25-13, 10-25, 15-10 and earned the eighth regional title and fourth national tournament berth in school history.

“East Central was certainly a tall order,”Kaleikau said, “We were definitely the underdogs going in.

“But we knew if we dug deep and played with heart and passion, we would have a shot.”

Some blocking adjustments against East Central’s imposing front line helped, but Kaleikau said it was the Lakers’ resiliency that made the difference. He called it their best effort of the season, good enough to land setter Sammi Phegley, libero Taylor Carmichael and middle hitter Melodye Church on the All-District first team, and middle hitter Emily Brand on the second team. Kaleikau was selected district coach of the year.

This will be Longview’s first trip to nationals since 2007, which means none of the current players have been there before. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be familiar with the level of competition. Three of the tournament’s teams – top seed Cowley County (Kan.), Johnson County and Kishwaukee (Ill.) – all appeared on the Lakers’ schedule this season. The Lakers and Parkland were in a tournament together during the regular season but didn’t meet.

“It’s quite an honor to make it out of the pack and into nationals,” Kaleikau said. “There will be some nerves, but we’ll get there, get grounded and we’ll be ready to go.”