Columns

Column: For the Class of 2020, school's out...forever

Being a senior in high school is one of the best times of a person’s life, especially when he or she lives in a small town. Everyone knows your name, and when people see you in public, they always ask, “Are you ready for school to be over?
Plainville senior Heidi Jones reflects on the loss of her senior year in this column for Kansas Pregame. (Left photo: John Baetz; Right photo: Kaiden Van Schuyver)

Opinion: KSHSAA decision was necessary

To say I was passionate about high school football growing up in Smith Center is a bit of an understatement. Football was my identity as a teenager. It permeated most aspects of my life and was seldom far from my mind. Heading into my junior season of high school football I was beyond excited.
Kansas Pregame publisher John Baetz talks about KSHSAA's decision to cancel the remainder of the state basketball tournaments and announces revisions to plans for the Spring Edition.

Final call for spring questionnaires

Baseball, softball and track coaches from across Kansas should have received a link to our team questionnaire in their email inboxes sometime over the last few days and the deadline is fast approaching to return a questionnaire in time to ensure your team's inclusion in our second annual Spring...
Pictured, left-to-right: Liberal's Syris Dunlap, Haven's Maguire Estill, Osborne's Darrien Holloway and St. James Academy's Katie Moore. (Dunlap photo by Bruce McPhail, Estill photo by Dedria Ashworth, Holloway and Moore photo by Everett Royer)

Predictions: State Championship games

At Kansas Pregame we're hard at work on basketball and wrestling previews for our second annual Winter Preview magazine, but that doesn't mean we can't find some time to take a closer look at the final weekend of high school football in the Sunflower State.
Clockwise from top left: Derby's Tre Washington, Wichita Northwest's Reagan Jones, Andover Central's Ty Herrmann, Axtell's Quinn Buessing, Smith Center's Joel Montgomery and Norton's Dante Smith. (Washington photo by Walter Dixon/Derby Informer, Buessing photo by Everett Royer/KSportsImages.com, all others Kansas Pregame file photos.)

Predictions: Quarterfinal playoff games

As the high school football season draws closer to an end here in Kansas, here's a quick rundown of the quarterfinal match-ups and our best guess at who will make the semifinals in each classification: 6A Blue Valley North at Blue Valley Another year, another late season playoff push for coach...

Anaylsis: KSHSAA football bracket breakdown

After eight weeks the Kansas high school football regular season is complete and the opening round of the postseason starts Thursday, October 31st and Friday, November 1st. The Kansas State High School Activities Association playoff brackets are prepped and ready to go.

Who should be on the cover of Kansas Pregame?

I hear the question often: "How do you choose the athletes for the covers of your publications?" Well, it's not a science, but a number of factors impact who participates from year-to-year - magazine theme, cover shoot location, the month of the shoot, etc.
Pictured, left-to-right: Kansas Pregame Football Preview 2019, Kansas Pregame Winter Edition 2018, Kansas Pregame Spring Edition 2019. (Photos by Bree McReynolds-Baetz and Everett Royer)

Achilles Healed - The Devin Hedgepeth Story

Devin Hedgepeth was an elite defensive back who also excelled in the classroom, and after graduating from Derby High School in 2010 he accepted a football scholarship to Oklahoma State University where he would play his way into a starting role as a true freshman.
From left-to-right Hedgepeth at Derby, Oklahoma State and now. (Derby photo from Kansas Pregame files, Oklahoma State photo courtesy Oklahoma State Athletics, Head shot courtesy Devin Hedgepeth)
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