Bond between eight seniors spurs Maize South to undefeated high school basketball season
Checking egos has never been an issue for the Maize South boys basketball team with a roster that includes eight seniors.
The group has been together since middle school, when they reeled off back-to-back undefeated seasons. Many of them are multi-sport athletes together, but all of them are close friends.
They have been waiting six years for this season, their last year playing together, and they’ve made it worth the wait.
Maize South is ranked No. 1 in Class 5A and improved to 21-0 on Tuesday with an 83-60 win over Valley Center. The Mavericks will try to punch their ticket back to the Class 5A state tournament in Friday’s sub-state championship game against Andover Central.
“Egos have never been a problem because we all have the same goal,” Maize South senior Tory Homan said. “We all want the same thing and that’s to win a state title. We want to be the first ones to do it in school history.”
In the senior class alone, Maize South is equipped with everything a team needs to win a title: size, shooting, ball handling, defense, athleticism and, most importantly, chemistry.
The Mavericks have a handful of players who have the scoring ability to average close to 20 points. But the team rather relies on a balanced scoring attack because the seniors have bought in to sharing the basketball.
“Ever since we started playing together, we’ve all had great attitudes,” senior Jeron Askren said. “We all want the same thing and that’s to win and to succeed together. We want to do it for each other.”
“Everyone is just focused on doing what we need to do to win,” senior Sammy Dresie said. “No one is trying to get their own.”
The combination of Homan (6-foot-7) and Darius Felton (6-foot-6) overwhelm opponents inside. Lead guard Michael Kates gives the Mavericks a shifty scorer on the perimeter, while the versatility of Askren (6-foot-4) is difficult to defend and Dresie is a tenacious defender. Sam Kemp, Brady Rapp and Jason Monk are three more seniors part of the unbeaten equation this season.
While Homan (Fort Hays State) and Kates (uncommitted) provide a lot of the scoring punch as basketball-first players, the team benefits greatly from the toughness of the multi-sport athletes who are standout football players. Dresie (South Dakota State), Askren (Missouri State), Felton (Butler) and Rapp (uncommitted) are all future college football players who bring that edge to the basketball court.
“People used to joke with me when I took the job that the suburban kids weren’t going to be very tough,” said Maize South coach Joe Jackson, who came from Wichita East in the City League. “But these kids are tough. It’s such a unique group and it’s just a really special group of kids to be able to coach.”
The camaraderie on the team hasn’t been constructed in the five months they spend together during the high school basketball season. These are bonds that have been forged through everything from playing sports to video games to just hanging out together for six straight years.
Teams that possess that level of care can sometimes do special things on the court, like when Maize South rallied from five down in the final 70 seconds on the road at Derby to ultimately prevail in overtime to keep its undefeated season alive.
“I called a timeout late and I’m looking at the guys in the huddle and looking in their eyes and I don’t think in my first or second year I would have seen the confidence,” Jackson said. “But those guys were calm, they were locked in and they were determined. It’s fun to be around kids who have each other’s backs like this group does.”
“When you play with guys you love, it just makes you want to play that much harder for the guys next to you,” Askren said.
It’s a quality that reminds Jackson of the 2015 team he had at Wichita East, which finished 24-1 and won the Class 6A championship.
“So many things have to go right for you to win a title, but this team does remind me of (East’s title team) personality-wise and with how much these guys care about one another,” Jackson said. “They’re in this thing together. It does feel like we have that ‘it’ factor. Now that doesn’t guarantee anything, but this is a really special group.”
KSHSAA basketball sub-state scores
Class 6A girls
Derby 71, Lawrence Free State 24
Liberal 58, Wichita North 12
Washburn Rural 61, Wichita Northwest 24
Wichita East 47, Maize 35
Wichita Heights 59, Junction City 10
Wichita South 42, Dodge City 30
Wichita Southeast 51, Garden City 46
Class 5A boys
Andover 65, Salina Central 61
Andover Central 48, Emporia 45
Great Bend 54, Bishop Carroll 51
Hutchinson 69, Goddard Eisenhower 63
Kapaun Mt. Carmel 74, Arkansas City 40
Maize South 83, Valley Center 60
Class 4A girls
Andale 51, Chapman 48
Circle 58, Rose Hill 34
Clay Center 64, Mulvane 33
Clearwater 56, Augusta 46
McPherson 66, Hugoton 17
Scott City 60, Buhler 47
Class 3A boys
Burlington 68, Halstead 56
Cheney 74, Chaparral 38
Fredonia 69, Bluestem 54
Haven 65, Nickerson 31
Hesston 66, Smoky Valley 37
Lyons 52, Kingman 41
Trinity Academy 71, Neodesha 44
Wichita Collegiate 68, Douglass 18
Kansas high school basketball sub-state schedule
Class 6A girls sub-state championships (Friday)
No. 8 Wichita Southeast (11-10) at No. 1 Wichita Heights (19-2)
No. 7 Wichita East (11-10) at No. 2 Derby (18-3)
No. 5 Washburn Rural (14-7) at No. 4 Wichita South (14-7)
Class 5A boys sub-state championships (Friday)
No. 8 Andover Central (14-7) at No. 1 Maize South (21-0)
TBD at No. 2 Kapaun Mt. Carmel (18-3)
No. 6 Topeka West (14-7) at No. 3 Andover (17-4)
No. 5 Hutchinson (15-6) at No. 4 Great Bend (16-5)
Class 4A girls sub-state championships (Friday)
No. 9 Scott City (11-10) at No. 1 Wellington (20-1)
No. 7 Clay Center (13-8) at No. 2 McPherson (17-4)
No. 6 Andale (13-8) at No. 3 Circle (15-6)
No. 5 Concordia (13-8) at No. 4 Clearwater (14-7)
Class 3A boys sub-state semifinals (Thursday)
at Chaparral
No. 2 Wichita Collegiate (15-5) vs. No. 3 Fredonia (14-7), 6 p.m.; No. 1 Cheney (19-2) vs. No. 4 Wichita Trinity Academy (11-10), 7:30.
at Southeast of Saline
No. 2 Burlington (15-5) vs. No. 3 Santa Fe Trail (12-8), 6 p.m.; No. 1 Hesston (18-3) at No. 4 Southeast of Saline (12-9), 7:30.
at Hoisington
No. 1 Ellsworth (17-4) vs. No. 4 Lyons (8-13), 6 p.m.; No. 2 Haven (15-6) vs. No. 3 Hoisington (12-9), 7:30.
