Greetings from Concordia

I am back at the Holiday Inn Express in Concordia. I just got off the phone with my dad, and now I'm going to do a little housekeeping before going to bed. I have to get up at 7 a.m. and be at Concordia High School by 8:30 so I can be ready for the Concordia Invitational volleyball tournament. Smith Center is 17-5 and seeded second; the Lady Red plays Clay Center at 9 a.m., Concordia at 10, Minneapolis at noon and Southeast of Saline at 1 p.m. The other pool--Washington County, Marysville, Beloit, Republic County and Riley County--will play at the elementary school on the east side of town. The top two schools in each pool advance to the semifinals, with the winners playing in the championship match.

Today was not a good day for Smith Center volleyball, even though the Lady Red did not play. Smith Center found out it will be in the same sub-state tournament as Hill City. In Kansas, schools are assigned by classification to various sub-state tournaments, and the winner of each sub-state tournament advances to the state tournament. Teams are assigned strictly by geography, and although Hill City and Smith Center are in the same league and only 90 miles apart, there was hope the two schools would go in different directions for sub-state, which has happened in previous years.

However, the cause was hurt when both Atwood and Trego were bumped down to 1A, and two schools from southwest Kansas, Hodgeman County in Jetmore and South Gray in Montezuma, moved up to 2A. With a glut of southwest Kansas schools in 2A, there was no mechanism to send those in the far northwestern corner of the state southward, which has happened in basketball and track.

In my column Continental Drift, which runs in five newspapers Main Street Media publishes, I have proposed seeding 16 schools--eight #1 seeds and eight #2 seeds. The #1 and #2 seeds would be ranked and paired on the S-curve--top #1 seed and lowest #2 seed and so on. Then everyone else would fill in geographically  However, the Kansas State High School Activities Association probably thinks this would cost way too much and probably never will go for it.

I wish Hill City was in a different sub-state as Smith Center because I want to see Alan Stein get his team back to state. He is a very good man and a very good volleyball coach, but Hill City hasn't been to state volleyball since 2005. It's too bad both he and Nick Linn's Lady Red can't both get to state this year. It stinks. Really stinks.

The rest of the Oberlin sub-state is Oakley, Leoti, Rock Hills, Ellis, Plainville and the host Red Devils. You never know what will happen, but barring the unforeseen, Smith Center and Hill City should play for the championship, much the same way they did in 2011, when the Lady Red won at Ellis and moved on to state.

Phillipsburg and Norton will be in the same 3A sub-state at Southeast of Saline. Trego and Stockton are hosting in Class 1A-Division I.  Russell, meanwhile, will be going to Hoisington to join the Cardinals, TMP-Marian and five schools from southwest Kansas. Odd split in 3A.