Vogts to be assistant high school boys’ basketball coach

www.aa.psu.edu/sports/mbasketball

On Nov. 9, the Western Plains Unified School District No. 106 met for its regular meeting in Ransom, Kan.

Several items were discussed, but most notably was the extension of a contract to one Todd Vogts to be the assistant boys’ basketball coach for the high school team.

Stunned silence has permeated the circles in which Vogts travels because anyone that knows him knows how much experience he has with the game invented by James Naismith — except for the occasional pick-up game with friends, Vogts has never played basketball for a team.

Even so, Vogts is excited to be helping lead the basketball charge in Bobcat country. He understands the game, but it is the shooting that plagues him with the most problems. It just isn’t his strong point.

Today after school will be the first day of practice.

Several of the players know how much experience Vogts has, but they underestimate how physical he will play on the post. After all, that is one reason he was brought in.

Bobcats head coach Jerrod Horchem said he wants Vogts to help teach the big boys how to play tough while under the basket.

Vogts knows he can come through in that department, and he is also confident that he will be a quick student of the game and be able to contribute more as the season progresses.

The boys’ team comes of a winning record from last year, winning 11 of 21 games.

When asked about how this year would go, Horchem said he wasn’t going to make guesses, but he did make it clear to his team during their first meeting that he takes the game very seriously and wants to succeed. Horchem played collegiate basketball while attending a small college in Nebraska.

With an experienced player and a novice coming together to help lead the team, it should be an interesting season of Bobcat basketball.

“I will be keeping people informed about how this new coaching adventure is going via my blog at www.voiceofthevogts.com,” Vogts said.

In other coaching news, Travis Schafer has been named the head high school girls’ basketball coach. This will be his first year coaching, just as it is his first year as a teacher (he teaches second and third grade at the Western Plains Elementary School in Ransom).

Schafer has said he is excited to be controlling the reigns of the team and is excited to bring a little more passion back to the court in hopes of intensifying the fan base and the confidence of the Western Plains student athletes.

The Lady Cats are coming back from a less-than-stellar season, and though Schafer declined to speculate about the success of this year’s squad, he did say he is confident they will be playing harder with more heart than most of the teams.

Schafer will be assisted by Debbie Hagans, who is a social studies teacher at Western Plains High School.

Practice for the girls also begins today. It was initially going to start at 6:30 a.m. for the first day of a week’s worth of two-a-day practices, but due to weather concerns, the first practice was delayed until the end of the school day.

Two-a-days will begin tomorrow, according to Schafer.

Horchem is only holding afternoon practices.

Hutchinson News showcased in D.C.

I just had to share this quick because I thought it was pretty neat.

Amy DeVault, a journalism instructor at Wichita State University, was in Washington, D.C. Saturday. She was there for the annual national student journalism convention (brought to you by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association). There were a lot of other people there too.

I follow her on Twitter, and I noticed a very cool tweet she sent while touring the Newseum, which is “a 250,000-square-foot museum of news” that “offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits,” according to the Newseum’s “About Us” page.

Here was the tweet she sent out: “Hutch news is the ks paper of the day outside the newseum in d.c. http://yfrog.com/b6df4ij”

It was sent 1:19 PM Nov 14th, according to the post.

Here is the picture she linked to:

A Kentucky paper was featured next to it.

Every day the Newseum features a different paper, but I still think it is cool that the Hutchinson (Kan.) News was featured and Kansas folks were there to see it.

I’m jealous. I wish I could have been there.

Pheasant season begins, Vogts hunts for breakfast and succeeds

Several hunters were spread out across a field this morning north of Utica as they hoped to bag a pheasant. As I took this picture, one hunter wave and stumbled in the field. He almost fell. I felt bad and drove off quickly before he decided to pretend I was a pheasant.

As most guys in Kansas woke up this morning ready to hunt since today was the first day of the opening of the pheasant hunting season. While they put on camouflage gear adorned with orange safety vests, I woke up hungry.

I did put on my trusty camouflage St. Louis Cardinals hat, but I wasn’t interested in killing birds. I wanted to kill the hunger grumbling in my stomach.

During this past week I had talked to one of the Western Plains High School janitors, and he told Utica, Kan., had a café that served a good breakfast buffet.

I was sold as soon as I heard buffet.

Not wanting to go by myself, though, I enlisted the company of Western Plains third and fourth grade teacher Rebecca Windle and her sister, Bonnie Windle, who was visiting for the weekend. My roommate, Travis Schafer, would have gone too, but he had to head to McPherson, Kan., to take test for his teacher license.

We left Ransom, Kan., bright and early, hitting the road by about 9 a.m.

We quickly made the 14-mile drive west to Utica.

If you try to find Utica and are worried about not finding it, don’t fret. There is a water tower that clearly displays the name of the town.

If it wasn’t for this sign, we might not have found it because the café didn’t look anything like I was expecting.

Though Utica is a throbbing metropolis, we found the Utica Community Café with relative ease. It was in the old school facility on the north edge of town.

Walking up to the building, we were welcomed by a friendly note scrawled on a marker board sitting outside.

For a moment I worried we weren’t going to be allowed in because we weren’t hunters and didn’t drive a golf cart, but then I remembered I had my trusty camouflage hat on. It was like having a press pass. They let us right in without question.

Upon entering, a couple people looked at us kind of funny like, so I explained we were first-timers. The ladies working were more than happy to help walk us through the steps to getting fed.

We went to the buffet line and piled our plates high with bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and fried potatoes. Some of it was a little cold because apparently people just coming in to eat breakfast at almost 10 a.m. isn’t what the Utica Community Café is used to, but the food was still good. Rebecca was worried the biscuits and gravy would be superior to hers, but I assured her they weren’t.

Rebecca and I both had happy plates because we practically licked them clean. Bonnie, on the other hand, wasted a little food because she couldn’t man-up and finish her meal. I was a little embarrassed, but what can you do?

There was also coffee, but it wasn’t as quite up to par as the food. We got there in time for the bottom of the pot, which looked gross.

No. This isn’t motor oil. Scary, right?

One of the ladies helping us navigate the massive café saw the plight of our Styrofoam coffee cups quickly volunteered to bring us fresh java. We were much obliged.

After finishing our grub and reflecting on its tastiness, we got up to pay. We almost made a faux pas by leaving a tip on the table. Then Rebecca notice a tip jar next to the cash register, so Bonnie grabbed the dollar bills off the table and stuffed them in the jar.

We thanked the crew for the wonderful meal and went back outside.

Climbing back into the truck, Rebecca reflected how she had never been to Utica. Bonnie never had been either, and I had been only once to run a bus route.

It was exploring time.

Utica is a quaint town that seemed to have an inordinate number of dogs roaming the streets, which were primarily dirt. There was one almost-paved road near the grain elevator, though.

As we drove, we noticed Utica was having a hard time letting go of Halloween even though it is the middle of November.

Yes, the spider’s web is green. I think an alien spider probably wove that fly deathtrap. Either that or the radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his incredible Spider Man powers did it.

As we drove we also notice at least two churches in the small town. One church got creative with its propane tank.

Clever play on words, don’t you think?

The main street businesses have all the bases covered. There is a United States Post Office, a hair salon, a photography business and a bar, which no small town would be complete without.

Vic’s Short Branch bar is right on the main drag. You can’t miss it.

Utica truly does think of everything, too. For example, right next to the fire hydrants that all the dogs undoubtedly use as toilets, there are water fountains for the Utica resident to quench their thirsts at while they walk their canine pets.

I was also impressed that the fire hydrant was blue and white. Red or yellow ones are so boring.

Just because it was Saturday and the beginning of the hunting season, not everyone was just relaxing and having fun.

A couple gents were working on an oil well.

For the ride back to Ransom, we took country roads.

We saw some cool lime stone, and a huge buck crossed the road in front of us. We tailed it for a while but got frustrated when it hid behind some trees, and yes, it was hiding. It was peering out at us from behind the leaf-less branches.

Utica was a nice town, and I was impressed with the café. I plan on returning for my morning meal at some point, and I want to check out Vic’s sometime soon as well.

I don’t know if Rebecca or Bonnie will go back with me. Bonnie doesn’t live here in Ransom, and Rebecca complained about having to go so early. In fact, as soon as we got back to my house, she passed out on my couch.

Notice she sleeps with her hand in her pocket. What is that all about?

What a pansy.

Hopefully next weekend I can find another small-town café to try out. I love breakfast!

NOTE: Special thanks to Rebecca for letting me use her camera for this. I left Ransom without mine . . . I know. I couldn’t believe it either.

Eagle journalists place well in competition

From CGHS Journos At 2009 Kansas State Fair

Members of the Canton-Galva High School newspaper staff pose for a picture Oct. 27 in the Encampment Building at the Kansas State Fairgrounds.

The CGHS students competed in the Scholastic Press Corps competition, which is a part of the State Fair’s “Kansas’ Largest Classroom” project.

Schools from across the state competed. CGHS received an honorable mention for the four-page newsletter the members had to produce during their one day at the fair in September. Grand Champion honors went to Sterling High School and Goddard High School received the Reserve Champion award.

Pictured from left are journalism adviser Jessica Bowman and students Taryn Nelson, Kaity Hollingsworth, Michelle Shannon and Caitlin Kopf. Not pictured is student Kris Larson.

Remembering to-do list just got easier

Last night I had a moment of clarity wash over me.

In retrospect, it seems so easy, and I honestly feel a little dumb for not thinking of it before.

It began with me sitting in my recliner working on a marketing project for a client. As I finished my work for the evening, I tuned the television to “King of the Hill” and a sick feeling closed in around me.

I forgot something I needed to do, and I think it might have been important, I thought to myself.

I hate when this happens, so I spent the next 30 minutes frantically searching the catacombs of my mind to find the piece of information that slipped from the forefront of my thoughts.

I missed all of “King of the Hill” even though I was in front of the screen, and I still couldn’t remember what I was forgetting.

Then an idea struck me.

I’m incredibly attached to my BlackBerry smartphone, even if the phone and I are admittedly having difficulties right now.

The BlackBerry device has a plethora of pre-installed programs that are geared to help keep you organized, such as the calendar and the address book that I use on a daily basis. However, most of the programs just aren’t conducive to my life. I find it to be a cumbersome task to get “MemoPad,” “Tasks” or “Voice Notes Recorder” data from my BlackBerry and onto my computer in a form that I can easily use.

Of course, I could use my “Documents To Go,” but that isn’t geared toward quick organizational tasks. It is more for creating longer forms of communications.

So, as my thought process plodded along, I realized I had two more programs at my disposal that I was overlooking – text messages and e-mails.

Text messages wouldn’t work well, though, because there were length limits. E-mail, however, would work fine, and I have two e-mail addresses coming to BlackBerry.

Of course! I could send myself an e-mail every night with a list of things I needed to do the following day. I could start writing this e-mail each morning and keep adding to it until I went to bed, at which time I would simply click the send button.

The next morning when I fired up my laptop, the e-mail with my to-do list would be waiting for me, and I wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting anything.

So last night I created an e-mail and sent it to myself.

This morning I had my to-do list waiting in my Inbox.

It worked rather well, and to further the organizational ability of the e-mail, I printed it and added items to the bottom of the list with my handy-dandy ink pen.

Now, as I end the end of the workday, I don’t necessarily feel like I got an incredible amount of work done, but I feel more confident that I’m not forgetting something, except for that thing I forgot last night. The darn thing is still eluding me.

I will still continue to use other forms of to-do lists in addition to my new e-mailing scheme. For example, I also have a Google Tasks list going that I can see whenever I am at my computer, which is constantly.

And I will send myself a quick text or even use one of BlackBerry’s pre-installed programs, but I feel using the e-mail list as the common place for all to-do items to meet will serve me the best.

How do you stay organized? Is there another method I could use that would serve me even better?

If so, let me know. Until then, I’m just going to cross my fingers that I don’t loss my phone because if I do my plan would be shot, and I would probably go through withdrawal-like symptoms of not being able to use Twitter from my BlackBerry. It would be an ugly site that no one wants to see. Trust me.