Mvp june 2013 issue

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contents 6

2012-2013 State Champs MVP celebrates the 2012-2013 State Champions of Shawnee County.

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Hall of Fame

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The Next Level

Local student-athletes taking their talents to the college level.

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The Next Level: Softball

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The Next Level: Baseball

Stories behind the TSCSC Hall of Fame inductees.

Nick Meck Shawnee Heights State Champion Wrestler

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The Next Level: Track, Volleyball, Golf, & Rowing

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The Next Level: Basketball

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The Next Level: Soccer

29 The Next Level: Tennis, Cheerleading/Dance,

& Swimming 30

The Next Level: Football

CONTRIBUTORS

On the Cover: Shawnee County student-athletes of the 2012-2013 school year.

Publishers Braden and Tara Dimick Editor-in-Chief Tara Dimick Photographer Rachel Lock Designer David Vincent Contributing Writers J.B. Bauersfeld Account Executive Tara Dimick 785.217.4836

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MVP Junior Advisory Board Lindsay Dunekack Byron Lewis Topeka High School Jeremy Hurla Trenton Miller Seaman High School Kirah Lohse Hayden High School Jonathan Mariani Topeka West High School Allison Vlach Washburn Rural High School Madison Wegner Silver Lake High School Alisha White Highland Park High School

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BY j.b. bauersfeld The Topeka Shawnee County Sports Council created the Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame to honor a legacy of outstanding performance by athletes, coaches, administrators, and sports writers and broadcasters with Shawnee County ties. The Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1996. The 2013 class of inductees include: Dode Lesser, Ben Meseke and Troy Wilson.

Dode Lesser Hall of Fame inductions may seem old hat to Dode Lesser. After all, the Seaman graduate was inducted into the Washburn University Hall of Fame nearly 20 years ago (in 1985). Lesser was a stud at Washburn, playing both ways on the offensive and defensive lines, earning all-conference honors his senior year in 1964.

Following his playing days in Topeka, Dode (whose given name is Darryl), had stints in the old Continental Football League and the Canadian Football League (which is actually older than the NFL). However, Lesser’s professional career nearly ended before it ever got off the ground.

Prior to landing with the Wheeling Ironmen in West Virginia, Lesser tried out for the Canadian League at age 23, but things didn’t go so well, as he told Sports Illustrated in the December 16, 1968 issue: Darryl first tried out for a Canadian team on the word that there would be only 25 Americans in camp. (The league quota is 13 per team.) When he arrived he found 35 American rookies alone, and the veterans hadn’t even checked in yet.

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Lesser played very well in the first intrasquad game. The next day he was cut.

“Man, I was down,” he remembers.

“I was determined to go back to Topeka and help out my father in his business. I felt I had kind of let my brother down. He had been working for my father all the while I’d been in college. When Lou Blumling called, I didn’t want to come to Wheeling at all. It had been hard enough to face people in Topeka after getting cut in Canada. It would have been even worse not making the Ironmen.

The Topeka Capital-Journal named Lesser number 46 on its countdown of the Top 100 athletes in Shawnee County history.

Continue to page 14

He did make the Ironmen though, playing for the team for three seasons before eventually making it back to the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts.

Submitted by TSCSC

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Troy wilson Troy Wilson has won championships at every level. Back to back titles on the basketball floor while he was at Shawnee Heights. Gold medal finishes in the discus and shot put rings, also in high school. An NCAA DII title on the gridiron while at Pittsburg State. And then there was that little Super Bowl title he helped capture while he was with the San Francisco 49ers. There was even an Arena Bowl championship as his playing days were in their twilight with the Tampa Bay Storm.

Wilson’s dominance in all three sports is a big part of the reason the CapitalJournal had Wilson in its top 10 on that impressive list. And although he would pay for his school and earn his living on the football field, it was the basketball floor that provided

Now a youth mentor while he’s still trying to shore up his health, Wilson has yet to settle on a permanent career to follow up his football years.

“I’m still trying to figure out what to do when I grow up,” he quipped.

Now though, Wilson’s championships aren’t measured by rings and medals, but by smiles and giggles. The father of two teenagers, a boy and a girl, Wilson said he had to give the game up when he did so he would still be able to play with his kids. “I always had the thought that I was going to make sure I got out so I would be able to function with my kids. (Injuries) linger with you but I feel blessed to be able to be around my kids and football at the same time.”

the most vivid memories from his days in Tecumseh. “The fact that we went back-to-back state champions (in 88-89) was one of the biggest accomplishments I’ve ever had,” he said.

Currently, he’s enjoying watching his two children grow up.

“It seems like they just play so much. I remember playing and traveling occasionally when I was playing when I was younger. These kids nowadays, we’re 100 percent on the go every weekend. I think it’s a good thing, but my only concern is that I don’t want her to get burned out.”

After his championship days at Shawnee Heights came a standout career at Pitt State. With the Gorillas, Wilson started his career as a tight end before settling in at the defensive end spot. Good thing too, because that was exactly where the San Francisco 49ers put him after picking him up in the seventh round of the 1993 draft.

Even with all of the travel, Wilson said he still finds time to look back and reminisce about his playing days, specifically the relationships with teammates; “Everyone’s pulling together and fighting their hardest to win, and when you can find a way to laugh and smile between all the hard work, then you know it’s worth it.”

The obvious follow up question: Would you go back and change anything if you could? Was answered with a simple, “No. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

At Shawnee Heights High School, Wilson’s sport changed with the season. In the fall, it was football; in the winter it was basketball; and in the spring, it was track and field.

Still, he didn’t see a hall of fame honor calling.

“I was more surprised than anything.

After (The Topeka Capital-Journal) had done the Top 100 athletes, I didn’t know the TSCSC (Topeka Shawnee County Sports Council) was independent of that, so it took me by surprise,” Wilson said.

Normally, a seventh round pick struggles to even make the team. Wilson not only made that team, but made three others in the NFL (Denver, New Orleans and Chicago) before finishing up his NFL career where it started with the 49ers. He would play two more years in the Arena League in Tampa Submitted by TSCSC Bay.

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Ben meseke There are plenty of intangibles that go into being successful in athletics: competitiveness, cunning, anticipation, maximum effort, passion, work ethic, and intelligence all come to mind. It’s tough to argue, though, that any one factor means more than heart. That extra willingness to never give in, never quit, even when things aren’t going according to plan. Ben Meseke has those qualities in spades, especially the heart; even if he had to finish his coaching career with someone else’s.

In March of 2010, Meseke received a donor heart, something he had been awaiting for a year. It has extended his life, although he realized that it came at the expense of someone else’s.

Shortly after surgery, Meseke started exchanging letters with the mother of the young man who donated his organs after being killed in a car accident.

“I’ll never forget the first letter she wrote me. It still gives me goosebumps.

I learned what the word bittersweet

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meant,” Meseke said. “I’ve enjoyed my family these last couple of years because of it, but there was a young man who had his life snuffed out because of someone going down the road texting.”

Meseke retired from coaching in 2011 after 15 years at Shawnee Mission Northwest, one year after successfully coming back from receiving his new heart. It was his goal to prove to himself that he could come back, even if he couldn’t continue long term.

Before finishing his career in Kansas City, Meseke spent 18 ultra-successful seasons at Hayden, winning 12 state championships, six in basketball and six in cross country. Meseke also coached the first boys’ basketball team in Topeka to finish a perfect season, the 1982-83 4A state championship team led by Mark Turgeon and Tommy Meier.

“It’s just an honor to be able to work with those guys (Mark Turgeon and Tommy Meier),” Meseke said. “And I really mean this: they taught me things, they did things the right way.

You didn’t have to worry about them doing the goofy little things players

can do. I always say that I love the dunk and I love the three-point shot, the way it swishes through; but the assist is a very special play, and those guys handed me so many assists.”

“I love the school I’m at right now (Shawnee Mission Northwest), but I think the thing that I noticed the most (after leaving) was the Hayden community.” Meske said. “Back in the early 80’s we went through a little turmoil. Tuition went up and our enrollment went from close to 1,000 to about 500. It was looking pretty bleak.

We had some good teams and the community got behind us.”

Meseke carried on a basketball tradition started by the late, great Ken Bueltel.

During the 80’s and early 90’s, it was unusual to find open seats inside Bueltel Activities Complex.

There’s just nothing more fun than a home game at Hayden. Be it football or basketball, it’s just something special.”

Meseke said. “I see schools here in Kansas City that are three or four times larger (than Hayden) and they have

Submitted by TSCSC

good teams, but you just don’t see that community there.”

For Hayden supporters, it was easy to get behind a coach that filled the trophy case with a half dozen first

they reacted to have something that no one could take away from them, it was pretty cool to me.”

But it wasn’t just Hayden. Meseke added, “Topeka treats their high

“There’s just nothing more fun than a home game at Hayden.” place basketball trophies. For Meseke though, it wasn’t necessarily the championships that were the most rewarding, though raising a trophy and cutting a net certainly helped.

“When we had great seasons, I’d always go over and sit down on the bench and watch the kids erupt in celebration out there,” Meseke said.

“They’d been given a memory that you can’t go out to Wal-Mart and buy. They’ve earned it. To see the way

school sports in the right way and that’s quite an honor.”

Now that he’s stepped away from the hardwood and hung up the whistle, Meseke still finds times to watch games on TV and in person, but he’s not watching them the same way he used to. “I don’t sit there with a pencil in my hand, writing down plays. Not having to get up on Monday to get ready for Washburn Rural on Tuesday.”

Now he’s getting ready for another challenge, the challenge of staying busy without a full load of classes to teach and a gym full of fans on Friday nights.

But after his health scare, it’s just the next step of a career that has been filled with heart.

Meseke talked about meeting the mother of his donor one year after his transplant. “I was in the lobby of her hotel and she walked in the lobby. I had never seen a picture of her, I didn’t know who she was, but our eyes met and immediately both of us knew.”

The 22-year-old donor was a Wichita State student who wanted to be a teacher, a turn of irony not lost on Meseke, who because of his heart, isn’t able to teach and coach any longer.

The same man who so lovingly looked at the assist on the basketball floor is still alive because of the ultimate assist off the court. Meseke is 65 now, but quipped, “actually I’m just 24.” MVP

The Topeka-Shawnee County Sports Council congratulates the

Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2013 Dode Lesser, Seaman Coach Ben Meseke, Hayden Troy Wilson, Shawnee Heights

Meet these inductees and this year’s outstanding high school athletes at the Sports Awards Banquet & Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Thursday, June 27, 6 p.m.

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For tickets, please contact Visit Topeka Inc. at (785) 234-1030

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June 2013 MVPSportsMagazine.com

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