Props To The Small School Players

The media does a really great job of covering city league schools. The 6A schools that have thousands of students and tons of athletes to pick from. However, the small schools need love too. Which is why I was hired and stationed in Dodge so that Southwest Kansas would get more coverage. Now I will admit I am not ALWAYS around the small 2 and 1A schools but they do get covered now.

I got to thinking about the population of some of the schools in small towns out here last night and realized some of these schools have very slim pickin' on who gets put on their field or court. They don't have 30 juniors and seniors coming out for the basketball team they have 12 and of the 12 about 8 of them were on the football team as well.

I watched Ingalls play Minneola last night. A 1A match up. Both teams with 12 players and some kids on the bench that look like they were barely old enough to know how to tie their shoes without help from their parents. Young Players.

However I particularly was impressed by one player, Zach Thomas. Thomas is a senior and quite and athlete. He is obviously the key player on the Bulldogs team. You could tell not just by the way he played but by the way every other Ingalls player on the floor looked to him for everything. He was a leader and a scorer.

I only got to see him play the first half but in the first half he was all over the floor. The point guard and a post player(and keep in mind he is only 5'9: not the tallest of guys to be on the post). He could handled the ball and himself better than any player out there.

In the time I was there I saw him hit 3 treys and he ended the game with 5. He was the leading scorer with 24 points which doubled the next closest players in points.

Not only did Thomas show great ability to play but like I mentioned earlier his teammates looked to him. Every pass their eyes went to him first, high fives were distributed regularly, and my favorite part... any assist Thomas made or was made to him... he gave the point back giving his teammate just as much credit! He was a leader on the floor.

Now I know there are kids all over the state who put up great stats and can do it all on the floor much like Thomas can and I'm not saying they shouldn't get recognition. I just wanted to let the small schools know... it isn't the size of a man that makes him great, it's the character. Keep shooting Zach!