The five winter sports coaches for Osawatomie all shared their favorite moments of this past season for their respective teams during the annual winter sports banquet March 9, but boys’ basketball coach Darren Soucie provided a bit of humor. It certainly brought a smile on Spencer Booe’s face.

“A couple of weeks ago during practice, we were working on a five-on-five press defensive drill, soon it’s a four-on-six drill,” Soucie said. “I asked myself, ‘What the heck is going on? We’ve got to get Spencer on the right team.’ Spencer said, ‘Coach, I thought you wanted me on defense.’ He’s one of those kinds of kids who has a smile and keeps going on. It’s good to see a kid who wants to play defense.”

Despite seeing its season come to an end with a double-overtime loss to Louisburg in the semifinals of the Class 4A substate tournament, Osawatomie has plenty to be proud of. The Trojans finished 19-3 overall, went a perfect 10-0 in the Pioneer League for the second straight season and garnered state rankings from several major media outlets in Kansas and Missouri throughout the course of the season.

“It’s been a great season for the Osawatomie Trojans,” Soucie said. “The season didn’t end on the varsity level the way we wanted it to, but the guys have nothing to hang their heads about.”

Success was found throughout the OHS boys’ basketball program as both the junior varsity and C-Team squads finished with at least 10 wins.

Soucie said he was finally able to see a halftime performance by the OHS Dazzlers, and he thanked them for all the cheer and spirit they provided for the Trojans fans this season.

Dazzlers coach Lina Needham was the first coach up to the podium, and she had plenty of reason to cheer. The Dazzlers earned a 1 rating at the Alex Bergan Cheer and Dance event Feb. 28 in Baldwin City. In addition to the team’s 1 rating, Darbey Madden, Tayler Soucie, Amber Klein, Jacy Lucas and Wendy Cooper earned a 1 rating in partner stunts. Janzen Maring earned a 2 rating in jumps. Maring and Katie Newport served as the Dazzler captains in the 2009-10 season.

Boys’ swim coach Sarah Dorsett went over the accomplishments of each of her swimmers, who captured the Inter-League Championship title for the third straight season and placed 12th out of 29 teams at the state meet — Osawatomie and Paola were split into different teams at state. Jared Auten earned second-team all-state honors after placing fourth in the 100 butterfly and sixth in the 50 freestyle.

“That far exceeded my expectations,” Dorsett said.

First-year wrestling coach Matt Higgins provided three highlights of the season, one of which involved Tyler Daniels.

Daniels took to his home mat in late January for the Osawatomie Wrestling Invitational. He was one victory away from wrestling for third place at 171 pounds, but he needed a miracle in his consolation semifinal match to advance.

“He was down by 10 points,” Higgins said. “Coach (Mark) Allen and I look at ourselves and Tyler needs to make something happen. Tyler throws the kid and gets him into a hold and pins him.”

One of Higgins’ other favorite moments in a year in which his squad was littered with youth and inexperience was when Osawatomie rallied from a 24-9 deficit to defeat Bonner Springs in a dual in late January. Zack Grimes, Caleb Lofing and Trevor Needham scored pins to secure the victory. Needham will be the lone Trojan lost to graduation.

“I’ve really enjoyed this season,” said Higgins, who had two state qualifiers in freshman Devon Dozier and Grimes, a junior. “I couldn’t have started with a better group of guys.”

Girls’ basketball coach Don Blanchat was next to the podium. After talking about the “drastic” improvement he saw from his young squad, which carried only one senior and two returning starters from the 2008-09 season, he handed out some awards: Janzen Maring was named the Defensive Most Valuable Player and had taken the most number of charges (five); Tess Newport was the top 3-pointer shooter and earned the Ms. Hustle award; Tayler Soucie earned honors in three categories:
rebounding, blocked shots, productivity; Brittany Whitley was named the Most Improved Player; Rebecca Fisher was the Offensive Player of the Year.

“We showed a lot of nervousness the first two weeks of the season, but we gained valuable experience,” Blanchat said. “We made some freshmen mistakes, but we saw some glimpses of the future of the team.”