Conway Springs and Scott City named All-Sports Award Co-Champions

Conway Springs and Scott City are the Class 3A All-Sports Co-Champions for the 2011-12 school year.

The two tied at the top with 30.5 points and after several attempts at a tiebreaker, it was determined the Cardinals and Beavers would be named co-champions. The schools narrowly beat out Silver Lake, just one point behind at 29.5. Wichita Independent took fourth with 25.5 points and Hillsboro rounded out the top five with 24.

Neither Conway Springs nor Scott City had ever won an all-sports championship before this year. Conway started the year strong, as it convincingly won a football state championship over Silver Lake 49-7. Then, the Lady Cardinals took second on the tennis court to Ellinwood.

Conway scored 15 points in the fall to Scott City’s 5.5. The Beavers finished in the top eight for football, then took sixth at the boys’ cross country championships. A strong winter season put Scott City back in the conversation.

The Beavers repeated as state champions on the basketball court then dominated the mats to win a state wrestling championship. Conway finished in the top eight of basketball to score 2.5 points, but that was all for Conway for the winter. Scott City used two titles to take a 21.5 to 16.5-point lead heading into the spring.

Conway again won a state title on the tennis courts on the boys’ side and Scott City scored nine points between the boys and girls track teams. The Cardinals scored five points between the boys and girls track to tie it up.

“Number one is we have great kids,” said Conway Springs Athletic Director and head boys basketball coach James O’Brien. “I also think it starts with our community. Our parents are more than willing to keep our kids active, get them involved with sports at a young age. Obviously, our kids work hard.”

Conway won more than half of its 30.5 point on the football and boys’ tennis championships. Scott City did the same with wrestling and boys’ basketball.

“Our kids have bought into (Head Coach Glenn O’Neil’s) program,” said Scott City Athletic Director Randy Huck of the boys’ basketball team. “The kids look up to Coach O’Neil, they believe in what he tells them and when you have something like that in place, the program just takes care of itself.”

The communities of Scott City and Conway Springs are extremely similar. Both are farming communities with strong, supportive families. Both schools believe this dynamic is integral to the success of its athletic programs.

“Everyone has a high standard that we all try to live by,” said Huck. “I think the kids get their work ethic from their parents.”

“It starts with our community,” said O’Brien. “Our parents are wanting to keep the kids active, get the kids involved in sports at a young age, then obviously our kids work hard, we’re a blue collar town where a lot of our kids are farmers.”

Both schools have noticed time and time again that their teams may not be the most talented, but every time their student-athletes step on the field, they know that nobody will work harder.

How we scored it: We awarded points to the top eight team finishers at the state championships in every sport. Eight points went to the champion, seven to the runner-up, six to the third-place team and so on, down to one point for eighth place.

In the event of ties, we split the points. In sports that did not have contests to decide all places, such as football, we split third-place points among the semifinal losers and split the points for fifth through eighth places among the quarterfinal losers.

Place    School    Score

T-1 Conway Springs             30.5

T-1 Scott City                      30.5

3 Silver Lake                       29.5

4 Wichita Independent         25.5

5 Hillsboro                           24

6 Hoisington                        21

7 Rock Creek                       20

8 Kansas City Christian          19

9 Goodland                        18.5

T-11 Norton Community        18

T-11 Salina Sacred Heart      18

13 Nemaha Valley              17.5

14 Phillipsburg                    17

15 Wellsville                     15.5

16 Hutchinson Trinity           15

17 Burlington                     14.5

T-18 Garden Plain               14

T-18 Sabetha                     14

20 Douglass                       13

21 Holcomb                      12.5

22 Beloit                           11.5

T-23Humboldt                     9

T-23 Marysville                    9

T-25 Ellinwood                     8

T-25 Frontenac                    8

T-25 Rossville                     8

T-25 St. Marys                     8

T-29 Caney Valley                7

T-29 Sterling                        7

T-29 Thomas More Prep        7

T-32 Central Heights             6

T-32 Riley County                 6

T-34 Chaparral                     5

T-34 Cimarron                      5

T-34 Council Grove                5

T-34 Effingham                     5

T-34 Southeast of Saline        5

T-39 Cherokee Southeast    2.5

T-39 Galena                       2.5

T-39 Hays-TMP-Marian        2.5

T-39 Moundridge                2.5

T-43 Pleasant Ridge              2

T-43 Smith Center                 2

T-45 Eureka                          1

T-45 Osage City                    1