Festival offers entertainment, green eats
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Popeye may have drawn his mythical strength from it, but to Lenexa, spinach is more than a pick-me-up.
It’s an integral part of the community’s history.
Once hailed as the Spinach capital of the world, Lenexa for the last 23 years has celebrated the leafy green with its own festival at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park, 87th Street Parkway and Lackman Road. Just like in the past, this year’s event will offer something for everyone, recreation supervisor Debbie O’Connor said.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 8 with a $1 admission for everyone older than 12. A TV crew from the Travel Channel will document the festivities, which will include live music, vendors of handmade crafts and antiques, a variety of spinach-themed food, and, of course, appearances by Popeye, Olive Oyl and the gang.
“When they (the Travel Channel) do something like this, the food fits the region,” O’Connor said.
“I believe that’s a big reason why they’ve picked this up.”
O’Connor said the live music, which will feature different acts throughout the day, is as varied in content as the festival with styles ranging from steel drum island tunes and folk music to blues and The Kelly Band, a traditional Irish group.
On the food side of things, Cheryl Doleshal, an administrative assistant with the parks and recreation office, said there would be 15 to 20 vendors, all distributing food with a “green” theme.
“They try to have everything have some sort of takeoff of spinach,” she said.

Lenexa VFW to be brief home to Vietnam ‘Moving Wall’ memorial
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
For 23 years, the Moving Wall has helped Americans pay their respects to the soldiers who perished in Vietnam.
A half-scale, portable version of its permanent namesake in Washington, D.C., will stop moving Sept. 14 in Lenexa — at least for a little while.
John Ueland is a Vietnam veteran and a member of the “Black Horse” 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and Lenexa’s VFW Post No. 7397. He said the Moving Wall served a simple, direct purpose.
“It’s so people just won’t forget, basically,” he said. “And I think that’s true of all wars. That’s why we have a memorial in the first place.”
Bruce Fischbach, Post 7397 commander, said that though his post put up all of the funds needed to bring the memorial to Lenexa, it has been a joint effort of several organizations, such as the Boy Scouts, the Cub Scouts and Lenexa’s Michael White American Legion Post No. 407, named for the first Lenexa resident killed in Vietnam.
“It’s not just people here,” Fischbach said. “We’ve got people from Ottawa, we’ve got people from the Olathe post, from Overland Park. So it’s not just our post doing this. It’s everybody. It’s a combined effort.
“We figure that by the time it’s all said and done, we’re going to have thousands and thousands of person-hours into this.”
Fischbach said the memorial, which will reside at Post No. 7397 at 9550 Pflumm Road, bore a special significance for much of his post’s membership, many of whom are Vietnam veterans.
“This is really an important thing for those guys,” he said. “They want to bring it here because when they came back from Vietnam, it wasn’t the best time. This is just a memorial to all the people that sacrificed.”
A lot of preparation still must go into the four-day event, and Fischbach said the post needed volunteers for everything from 24-hour security to providing information to visitors. Fischbach said donations would be welcome.
Despite the fact that the public relations campaign for the event just was starting, Fischbach said early response from the community and other organizations had been extremely positive. Much of the construction material needed for setup had been donated, such as lumber and landscaping improvements, and Kansas City Power & Light will donate two power poles to the site.
“Everybody has kicked in, and everybody has helped in any way they can,” he said.
Opening ceremonies will take place at 11 a.m. Sept. 15, but the memorial will be open at 4 p.m. Sept. 14. Out of respect, the post has prohibited food, drink and cell phone use. For more information, visit the post’s Web site at www.vfw7397.org, or call 492-2244.

Lenexa’s economic development in good position
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Economic development in Lenexa is benefiting from, not withering under, a “perfect storm.” At the Sept. 4 Lenexa City Council meeting, Lenexa Chamber of Commerce President Blake Schreck delivered the semi-annual report of the Lenexa Economic Development Council. He indicated that now is an exciting time for development in Lenexa, as the city continues to reach its potential westward.
“I joked about being repetitive here the last couple of times we’ve made our reports, but we’ve been talking for some years about the ‘perfect storm’ of all the market factors coming together, and that’s what we’re dealing with right now,” Schreck said.
The factors include a combination of available land, demographic factors, residential growth and “access from the infrastructure that’s already in place,” he said. Retailers, homebuilders and commercial developers are all taking notice of Lenexa.
“Really, it is a unique time in Lenexa’s history, because we’re basically half-built,” he continued. “Everything that continues out west from the 435 loop is kind of filling in that second half.”
City leaders worry the recent adoption of the machinery and equipment tax exemption by the state will erode a significant portion of Lenexa’s current tax base. In response to that, the city is looking at other alternatives as potential replacements for that revenue. Schreck said retail growth would become a viable option. He pointed to the success of The Legends development in Kansas City, Kan. as one example of retail’s success. Schreck said Lenexa’s City Center project may not be quite as “destination in scope.” Even so, City Center could be a huge tax boon for the city.
“With all of the talk of arenas and soccer fields and everything, now there’s always kind of a destination retail component to that,” he said. “So if you can land some significant kind of anchor, that’s a huge deal.”
“(Retail centers) generate tens of millions of dollars in sales tax, and that can continue to pay off a lot of the services, the infrastructure of the roads and the basic necessities that residential growth doesn’t pay for.”
The goal, Schreck said, was to continue to expand in all facets of economic development, and appeal to the western portion of the county.
“If we can kind of be an anchor for Western Johnson County, and that growing demand that’s outside the 435 loop to the west,” he said.
“If that can kind of draw those folks in and have that visibility right there on that node of 435 and 87th street, that’s absolutely what we’re trying to do.”

Art show to be on display at City Hall
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Don’t feel like making the drive down to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art? Don’t worry because Lenexa City Hall is playing host to the Lenexa Artists’ Show for the 16th year.
The exhibit, which will be on display until Oct. 1, will feature exclusively local talent. To enter a piece, recreation supervisor Debbie O’Connor said, one must be older than 18 years old and a resident.
O’Connor said that interest and feedback from the community always has been strong. In fact, she noted that through the years the demand had increased to the point where the original slate of four shows had to be increased to between 10 and 12 a year, with the current show being the highlight of the bunch.
“I just think that the community embraced it,” she said. “I think that art has been getting a lot of exposure lately all around the metro area, and I think that Lenexa, being on the cutting edge, has been moving right along in that direction.”
The artwork will be judged in three categories, with a “Best in Show” award given to the overall winner, O’Connor said. Those categories include photography, 3-D art and a painting/drawing/other category. Cash prizes will be given to the winners, which will be unveiled Sept. 18 at City Hall.
O’Connor said the show has helped open residents’ eyes to the depth of artistic talent in the city.
“I think it’s just wonderful,” she said. “There wasn’t any place locally to have their work displayed.
“This is really just bringing local talent right to the doorsteps of citizens.”
O’Connor added that as long as City Hall was open, anyone could come in and view the artwork on display for free, but that hours sometimes varied in the evening so to be sure to check in advance.
Every year, she said, it seems the quality of the submitted work somehow managed to top itself.
“It’s just amazing, the art that has passed through City Hall,” she said. “I think that each show that has displayed, you think ‘Wow, it can’t get any better.’”
“But it really does. What’s there now is really fabulous.”
Call 477-7500 for hours or more information.

JCCC president settles in, sets goals for school
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Terry Calaway has been the president of Johnson County Community College since June 15, and only this weekend will he and his wife, Marlene, finally have a chance to get their bearings.
Now settled in to their home in Lenexa, the Calaways look forward to getting to know their surroundings.
“This is really the first weekend where we didn’t have something planned,” Calaway said. “Really, to take the time and take a deep breath and figure out how to get into the community. That’s our goal now, to kind of get some balance.
“We want to get to know people who know us as Terry and Marlene.”
Calaway’s first days in office have been a whirlwind of constant activity, with much of his time spent acclimating himself to the community college. Hearing about JCCC’s stellar reputation is one thing; experiencing it is quite another.
“If you know much about community colleges, you know about this college,” Calaway said. “Having been here now a couple of months, I can see the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys’ of that. It really is true.”
Calaway said his goal wasn’t one of improvement so much as it was of maintaining an already lofty set of goals and expectations. However, there are other areas into which he is beginning to dip his toes, so to speak, which he feels can be better utilized to the school’s benefit.
“Our college has not been as involved in dealing with legislation and public policy issues,” he said.
“We need to be, so we’re going after some of that. I’m one of those people who says that the college president should be in the middle of our legislative agenda.”
Calaway also said he felt that community colleges often were an overlooked part of the higher-education equation, and that he hoped to create an environment in which increased communication and involvement among area K-12 schools, JCCC and baccalaureate institutions such as the University of Kansas and Kansas State University was the norm.
“What we have to do is make sure that the transition is seamless between the high school and the community college, and the community college and the university,” he said. “There are some places, I think, where unnecessary or inappropriate barriers are being put up for students as they’re leaving here.”
Some of the challenges he’s experienced to date weren’t so much because of the nature of the job as they were because of the Johnson County area, he said. He said the degree to which JCCC is enmeshed within the community is part of what makes it such a unique place to work.
“I think one of the things I would say about my job — the thing that makes it a very rewarding experience — is that every day is different,” Calaway said.
“Today’s challenge is one that won’t be replicated for a while, if you will. You never know what the day will bring.”
It might seem like a lot to take in during the first months of a new job, but Calaway acknowledged it came with the territory. For now, however, he and his wife are looking forward to the chance to relax, and they might even be spotted at Sept. 8’s hometown event.
“We’re gonna try and hit the Spinach Festival,” he said about their weekend plans. “We have no clue what it’s about, but it just sounds like it will be fun.”

Teacher to enhance music education with grant from Sprint
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Ask Kimberly Michaelis which extracurricular activity she thinks is the most beneficial for her students, and she’ll answer honestly enough. Just don’t expect her to be impartial.
“I’m biased, but I’m going to say that music is more important,” said Michaelis, a strings instructor for the Shawnee Mission school district. “Learning an instrument, learning to sing, it prepares students for real life in a way that I think a lot of other stuff can’t.”
That’s why Michaelis applied for a 2007 Sprint Achievement Grant. She was one of a handful of educators in the district selected. The money, nearly $1,200, will be spent on technology upgrades that she could put to immediate use in her classrooms, such as a mini-disc recorder and a computer program that would allow her to spend more time giving individual attention to the students and less time “stuck behind a piano.”
Enabling parents to get more involved with their children’s practice time at home, she said, was another benefit of the new equipment. The mini-disc recorder will allow her to send sound clips to parents to let them know what they should or shouldn’t be hearing when their children rehearse at home.
“Especially with our fourth-grade beginners, they’ll have non-musical parents who will say, ‘Well, they get their instrument out and they pluck, but I don’t know if they’re doing what’s right or not,’” Michaelis said.
“And that’s totally understandable.”
Michaelis added that she would be able to record songs for the Web site, so parents know what they should listen for.
Michaelis, who divides her time each week among six elementary schools, including Rosehill in Lenexa, said that teaching music at the elementary level produced unique challenges, but that the district’s musical excellence started in elementary classrooms.
“When kids are texting 24/7 and so involved in sports and everything, you have to start them young,” she said.
“If you want kids to be performing at a level that most administrators want them to be at as high schoolers winning the state competitions and such, that doesn’t develop overnight.”
Michaelis said students in the Kansas City area were fortunate to have so many quality schools because it kept competition among the districts high.
She indicated that the competition would help keep music programs viable when other districts nationwide have to cut their programs because of budget constraints and other considerations.
“It would be really odd for, say, Blue Valley to drop their music program because kids would flock to the other districts,” she said.
“That’s a good thing for us because it does keep it competitive.”
Still, she said she felt her district was at the head of the musical class.
“Shawnee Mission has been around longer than the other two (Blue Valley and Olathe), and I think they set the standard of excellence,” she said.

SM West debate hopes to continue strong tradition
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Sarah Weiner, now entering her fourth and final year as a member of the debate team at Shawnee Mission West High School, had a small piece of encouragement to offer upon meeting the team’s newest freshman members.
“I really believe that the best decision they made in high school, they actually made in the middle of eighth grade when they signed up to take this class,” she said.
Weiner is the program’s most decorated member, having just finished a year that included a second-place finish in policy debate at the National Forensic League’s national tournament, which took place in June in Wichita and Derby, and a third-place finish at the state debate tournament.
Her partner for those events, Andrew Baker, is a recent graduate of SM West and is on a debate scholarship at the University of Texas at Dallas after winning the prestigious Phyllis Flory Barton Top Debate Speaker award at the NFL tournament.
Ken King, the program’s instructor and head coach, said SM West’s debate program always has been strong.
He cited enrollment numbers that, in the not-too-distant past, have exceeded 100 students; three consecutive top four finishes at the state tournament; and seven straight qualifications for one of the two national tournaments in which the program participates.
Debate, he said, can help students develop a multitude of useful skills, not the least of which was the ability to think critically while keeping an open mind.
“Parents are constantly telling me, ‘My kid is going to be good at debate because they argue with me all the time,’” he said.
“Frankly, that’s not what makes a good debater. It’s good to have opinions, but (debate) forces you to have an open mind because you don’t debate the same sides of a topic in every round.”
Weiner, who hopes to earn a college scholarship this year and continue with debate collegiately, agreed with the academic benefits that debate could provide, but felt there were other, more social, advantages as well.
“These are people who have seen you early in the morning when no one is functioning, in your pajamas,” she said. “The squad becomes really close, especially the kids who get really involved.”
That sense of closeness was exhibited on a larger scale at the national tournament this summer, when King witnessed something he’d never seen before. Kansas was well-represented, having placed multiple teams at the tournament, and as several of those teams went deeper and deeper into the competition, the state banded more tightly together.
“At this particular national tournament, Kansas had several teams do really well,” King said. “When we saw that Saint Thomas Aquinas was still going, and that Wichita East was still going, we were all prepping together to work as a unit. It was one of the neatest experiences I’ve had.”
King said that experience in debate allowed its team members to learn skills necessary to success not only in college, but later in life as well.
Some of those skills, he said, were lost even on many college students today.
“You have to be able to illustrate what you’re talking about — not just make a claim, but also to explain why that claim is relevant,” King said. “Most students — frankly, most college students — don’t do that. They’ll make a statement and assume that because they said it, people will believe it.
“Debaters don’t do that.”
Weiner agreed, stating that her debate work and research has even afforded her a leg up on her current class schedule.
“I sit in government class, and we took a pretest,” she said.
“Most of it, I knew. I have to understand how federal government works and how they make policy.”
But debate, King and Weiner said, is hardly all work and no play. In fact, when King is recruiting eighth-graders to enroll in the class during their freshman year, he understands they’re probably not going to be enticed by promises of critical thought development and great note-taking skills, however useful they may be down the road. Instead, he focuses on the social bonds that Weiner mentioned previously and the more entertaining aspects of being part of the team.
“We do a lot of travel,” he said.
“We illustrate that we’ve gone to New York, we’ve gone to Boston; places all over the country. We usually spend at least four or five weekends a semester traveling across the states.”
“What I think keeps debaters is yeah, they enjoy the activity, but it’s a social outlet, too.”

Woman fulfills dreams with dance studio
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Erin Novak is what one might call a go-getter.
Novak started dancing when she was 5; was teaching classes by 14; had opened her own studio, the Starstruck Performing Arts Center, upon graduation from high school; and had started her own professional company, Seamless Dance Theater at 11650 W. 85th St. in Lenexa, upon receiving her degree in fine arts from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The 26-year-old said teaching dance and emphasizing the arts in general was important for today’s youth.
“When I was a kid, I remember I would run outside and make up my dances, and I feel like right now with the way our society is built, kids are in front of the TV, or they’re playing video games,” she said. “There’s no creativity there, and I feel like that’s an important aspect.”
Novak said part of her company’s mission was to raise awareness and foster creativity and interest in the arts.
“The whole idea behind Seamless is to just give kids that opportunity — to see dance and to maybe spark some imagination,” Novak said.
In an effort to do that, Novak said, her company has made an effort to get out into the community. The company invited more than 500 students from the inner-city to its May performance and a Q&A with the dancers afterward. Novak said the response was so positive that the company would invite 700 or 800 to its winter performance in December.
“They might say, ‘Maybe I don’t want to dance, but that was really cool,” Novak said.
“Maybe I want to paint, or maybe I want to play an instrument.’ Anything that sparks imagination, I think.”
Novak recently had the chance to fulfill a dream of hers and reach out to young dancers on a more personal level. Part of her goal was to provide a scholarship to a young dance student — one who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to continue dancing. Novak searched for a candidate who stood out but found no one. Two days before the Aug. 15 deadline the company’s board of directors set, good fortune struck.
“A mutual friend knew the owners at United Dance Studio, and so I called them and said ‘Hey, I have this dance scholarship and didn’t know if you knew of anybody that could use it,’” Novak recalled. “They said, ‘I just can’t believe that you called. We’ve been discussing this little girl and trying to figure out how we were going to help her.”
The little girl was 6 year-old Sydney Miller.
Sydney suffers from a tumor in her pituitary gland, which was diagnosed when she was 3 years old. Her mother, LaTonya Miller, said her condition has had a number of side effects, including blindness in her right eye, a growth deficiency that requires six shots of growth hormone a week and non-functioning thyroid and adrenal glands.
Miller, a single mother, said the dance scholarship would give her daughter a chance to feel normal during a short life that has been anything but. She said the opportunity was like an answer to her prayers.
“It’s just been really hard, and this is such a blessing,” she said. “It will help so much.”
Novak said she hoped her company could provide these opportunities for others in the future.
“We hope that in the coming years, we can do more,” she said. “We’re small, and we’ve only been around for about a year and a half. But we’re working our way up.”

Resident sees the world on two wheels
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Jack Miller has seen more of the world in the last 20 years than most people will in their lives, and he’s done it all on a bicycle.
“You really see the countryside,” Miller, 83 and a Lenexa resident, said of his preferred mode of travel. “And you have interesting interactions with the local people.”
It started in 1988 with a bicycle tour in the Netherlands. While the experience was enjoyable, Miller said that after three years of seeing the same country, he and friends he’d made on the tour decided to try something new. So they went right to the source.
“A group of us got together and went directly to the bicycle company that did it and said, ‘If we get a group together, will you give us a new, different tour?’” Miller recalled. “They said yes, so that’s what we’ve been doing for the last 17 years.”
International Bicycle Tours has helped Miller, his friends and occasionally his family members see a lot of Europe. With the sights and sounds of Denmark, Sweden, England, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia and most recently France, stamped on his passport, Miller already has made plans for next year’s tour, which will take the group to Switzerland.
“I’ve got plans for next summer, and the tour is trying to convince me to do it a year beyond that in Tuscany, Italy,” he said. “It all depends on how the health holds out.”
Miller said the tours are slowly paced to give the tourists an opportunity to immerse themselves in foreign cultures and interact with local people while seeing the European countryside.
One of Miller’s favorite moments as a bicycle tourist was during his first trip in Netherlands.
“We stopped for a rest, which we usually do every 20 to 30 minutes,” he said. “We were within a block or so of a windmill, and several of us walked down to take pictures. Well, the farmer, wearing a coarse, home-knit sweater and wooden shoes, came down to find out what these people were doing, taking pictures of his windmill.
“He said, ‘Come on in, let me show it to you,’” Miller continued. “He invited us in, showed us the windmill and how it operated. That’s the kind of thing you don’t get on a train tour or a bus tour.”
Miller said that hospitality has been the same on every trip, with the locals being more than happy to stop and talk with the tourists, offering knowledge and personal anecdotes on the history of their countries and homes.
Miller said his favorite country thus far, Denmark, had another draw as well.
“That’s one thing about Denmark,” he said. “The pastries were outstanding.”
Miller said he kept up a year-round training regimen — biking in the summer and walking in the winter — to keep in shape for each year’s journey. And while he couldn’t speak to whether this method of travel would be for everyone, he was certain about one thing.
“It’s something I thoroughly enjoy,” he said. “I like to see the country, and I like to get acquainted with the culture. It’s a very interesting experience for me.”

QB picture still murky, but Herring takes early lead with start
Garth Sears | Special to the Lenexa Centennial
When Shawnee Mission West running back JD Steffen tore up Olathe Northwest’s defense Aug. 31 to the tune of 7.8 yards per carry, the Vikings naturally kept giving him the ball.
When Steffen stopped playing as the lead widened, backup Cassidy Waters pounded the ball for 5.8 yards per carry. SM West’s running game was unstoppable.
In fact, the Vikings passed the ball only two times the entire game, three times including a two-point conversion.
Talk of a quarterback controversy seemed almost silly because a quarterback didn’t seem necessary.
But a time this season is coming when a third-and-seven situation late in the fourth quarter will need a playmaker behind center.
Now coach Tim Callaghan is trying to determine which player that will be.
Senior Matt Canon, sophomore DJ Balazs and junior Danny Herring are vying for the starting spot. As of now, Herring has the slight edge and started the game Aug. 31.
“Danny needs to run the offense and gain some confidence,” Callaghan said. “He’s on par with the rest of the team, but I’m not happy with where the whole team is at so far.”
Callaghan is used to Blake Lawrence, a standout prospect who now plays for the University of Nebraska, quarterbacking for his state runner-up team last year.
“I think they all need to grow up, and we need to become a better team,” Callaghan said of this year’s squad.
Herring said Canon and Balazs have stronger and more accurate arms than he does, but he is more of an option quarterback.
“They both have better arms than I do,” he said. “I have to work hard to stay in front of them.”
He also said that although he wasn’t passing much Friday, he was glad for the opportunity to start because it allowed him to get a better feel for the game firsthand at the varsity level.
“It gave me a little time to get in there and get used to everything,” Herring said. “Varsity is a lot faster.”
Herring also expressed faith in his team’s ability to improve regardless of who wins the quarterback spot.
Despite a 28-7 victory over the Ravens, Callaghan is unsatisfied with his team’s progress, and Herring thinks his team can improve.
“Right now, it’s early in the season, and we have a lot of things to work on,” he said.
“Once everyone gets used to playing together, I think we’ll be a pretty good team.”

New coach, new outlook for Cougars
Garth Sears | Special to the Lenexa Centennial
On the Shawnee Mission Northwest varsity volleyball team, there are no seniors, a first-year coach and virtually no expectations of success from opponents.
And the Cougars couldn’t be happier.
“Everybody else isn’t expecting anything from us, but we’re ready to be a presence in the league and surprise a few teams,” junior setter Alicia Watson said.
The varsity team is composed of seven juniors, one sophomore and one freshman, so every starter this year can return next year to build on the progress they make.
“We’re going to build a foundation this year. It is an advantage that most programs don’t have to be able to keep every player for two years,” said coach Holly Davidson, herself a member of the class of 1999 and standout player. “It’s also new philosophy and expectations with me.”
Davidson is ushering in a new outlook for her team. Even if nobody expects the Cougars to succeed, she demands they do.
“I want to win our first substate game,” she said. “Another goal of mine is to beat the other Shawnee Mission schools.”
In addition to laying out the foundation for the future, the Cougars want to do a little damage.
“I think we have great chemistry,” Davidson said. “I think that sometimes they’re better than they should be because they communicate so well and work hard together. I think they are able to lift each other up. As we have ups and downs, those things are going to hold us together.”
Having no seniors doesn’t only benefit the bevy of juniors for next year but also in the following years.
“It’s exciting for me, as a sophomore, to be on varsity and experience everything,” sophomore outside hitter Katie O’Nele said.
The freshmen and sophomores will taste varsity experience and offer unique leadership to their teams when they become seniors.
“This year, we’re working on growing together, learning about each other and becoming a team,” Watson said. “Next year, we won’t have to go back to that. We can move on and work on winning.”
For now, the Cougars can take advantage of lowered expectations and surprise some teams.
“We’re hoping that we can beat some teams and shock some teams,” Davidson said. “I don’t think people expect that from us right now.”
Meanwhile — and perhaps most importantly — the Cougars can grow and work to become a force in the area. It seems the Cougars’ future is as bright as they want to make it. O’Nele said it simply: “We can make it really far.”

Bliss steps up as junior
Garth Sears | Special to the Lenexa Centennial
Olathe Northwest goalkeeper Gabe Bliss is making strides to become a Sunflower League elite player.
“Gabe is a solid goalkeeper, very athletic,” coach Mark Shelton said of the junior. “He can get up in the air quickly, has great reactions. Not only does he lead by example by his play, but can direct the defense in front of him in a leadership role.”
But his strengths as a player won’t separate him from the rest of the pack. How much he improves on his weaknesses will separate him.
Bliss said he was eager to get more playing experience.
Shelton cited his positional play — such as taking better angles to the ball — and his demeanor on the field as areas where Bliss can improve.
“He’s a great kid, outstanding person on and off the field,” Shelton said. “But maybe his biggest area for improvement will be to be a little more demanding on the field. He’s such a nice human being, but he has to be able to get on his teammates and push them.”
Bliss is only a junior but has a full year of starting under his belt.
“Right now, I’m already as experienced as some of the other keepers in the league,” he said. “I’m pretty well-respected around the team, so I do have some influence.”
Shelton and Bliss spoke about Bliss’ improvement in saving balls down low and to the sides. Shelton mentioned his ball handling. Bliss specified his left side as the side that needed the most work.
In addition to helping the Ravens strive for a state championship, Bliss also hopes to set himself up for an excellent senior season that will garner the attention of Division I colleges.

Local runner earns Pike’s Peak redemption
Andy Marso | Sportswriter
The first time Lenexa resident Chris Ronan participated in the Pike’s Peak Ascent cross country race was in 2001. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
After all, Ronan was a quite an athlete in his day and had even run for the University of Kansas in the mid-1990s. Sure, he had let his body go a little since then and hadn’t trained seriously for four or five years.
But that was the point of Ronan trying Pike’s Peak then — setting a goal to get back in shape so he could step on the scale without dread.
The Pike’s Peak Ascent is no jog in the park, though. It’s a grueling half-marathon to the top of the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, ending at an elevation of 14,115 feet.
The air gets thinner as the race goes on, increasing the difficulty exponentially the farther a competitor runs. Most of the other entrants were from Colorado or Utah; for a “flatlander” like Ronan, the 2001 trek was pure hell.
“I just didn’t have any concept at all of what it was,” Ronan said.
“It was just the most miserable experience ever, absolutely God-awful, it was so bad. ... I must have stopped I don’t know how many times.
“I remember laying down on a rock and people going by me saying, ‘C’mon, you’ve got to get up.’”
Ronan finished the race, but just barely.
His sister, a Denver native, was waiting at the top to pick him up. He had told her that he expected to finish in about three or three and a half hours. By the time he struggled to the top, nearly five and a half hours later, she was almost ready to send out a search party.
Ronan finished 1,011th out of 1,169 runners, well short of his goal. But the Pike’s Peak Ascent did have the desired effect in another way — it spurred him to get back to serious running.
For the next six years, Ronan began waking up before the sun to train. He pounded out the miles, getting himself in marathoning shape and eventually surpassing even some of his college times.
He was working with longtime friend and running partner John Rinkenbaugh to devise training regimens, e-mailing back and forth even as Rinkenbaugh moved from Johnson County to Topeka to Fargo, N.D. and Fort Myers, Fla.
Ronan competed in the Boston Marathon and other high-level races. But he never forgot the Pike’s Peak debacle.
“It just kind of gnawed at me that I did that one so badly,” Ronan said. “Generally, if I do something badly, I want to make it right.”
Ronan decided this year he had to go back and face the Peak’s Peak monster.
He searched for a spot to train for some elevation and settled on Shawnee Mission Park.
It wasn’t the Rockies, but at least it was hilly.
Ronan ran about 60 to 80 miles per week through the sweltering heat and humidity of the Kansas summer.
The air seared his lungs, but it also helped prepare him for the difficulty of breathing at high altitudes.
“It was so humid every day,” Ronan said. “I would be cursing it every morning... but as much as I hated it, I think it probably did help a lot.”
When the annual Pike’s Peak Ascent came along Aug. 16, Ronan was ready.
He set off, again shooting for the three- to three-and-a-half-hour range. Ronan intentionally went without a watch because the changes in incline and altitude make it nearly impossible to pace the race.
With about three miles left, Ronan passed a group of runners and heard one of them say, “about three hours.” His heart sank.
“I thought, ‘Oh that sucks, I’m not going to break three hours,’” Ronan said.
“There were a couple times I wanted to ask somebody, you know just say, “Hey, can I look at your watch real quick.’”
Ronan resisted, though. He knew he was passing a lot of people and running significantly better than he did in 2001. He would wait until the finish to find out just how much better.
When Ronan reached the top, though, even he was shocked at what he heard. His time was 3:09:46 and he had finished 79th out of 1,163 runners, an amazing accomplishment for a “flatlander.”
It hit him that the man he had passed nearly an hour ago must have been estimating that they were on a three-hour pace.
“When I came across and saw 3:09, especially after hearing that guy say ‘three hours” about 40-some minutes ago, I felt pretty good about it,” Ronan said.
Good enough to hang up his sneakers for a while.
Ronan is only 33, but the years of running have taken their toll on his knees. He’s not sure how much intense training he’ll do in the future, though he has his eyes on running the New York Marathon at some point.
Meanwhile, he’s passing on his running knowledge and old war stories to the next generation as an assistant cross country coach at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
One of his first e-mails after completing the ascent this year was to his colleagues on the Aquinas coaching staff.
“I’m happy to say my Pike’s Peak demons have been exorcised,” Ronan wrote.

— Contact Andy Marso at 764-2211, ext. 138, or amarso@theolathenews.com.