ALTAMONT — Emotions ran high a week ago for the Labette County Grizzlies.

While the Parsons Vikings’ 2019 campaign hasn’t quite lived up to the turnaround season a year ago, the Vikings oddly enough find themselves in the exact same place they were a year ago — 1-1 in district play with three games left in the regular season and in control of their own destiny.

District assignments for the 2020 and 2021 football season were released by the Kansas State High School Activities Association on Tuesday.

Parsons falls to district favorite Frontenac

ALTAMONT — An overtime shootout with an angel looking down on Altamont left the Labette County Grizzlies with a 26-20 win over the Fort Scott Tigers, keeping the Grizzlies in the driver’s seat for the SEK League crown.

Twists and turns at an M. Night Shyamalan pace have defined the Parsons Vikings’ campaign thus far. While Parsons sits at 2-2, it’s undefeated in the only season that matters.

ALTAMONT — Ask Labette County Grizzlies head coach Sean Price about last week’s 28-7 loss to Winfield, and he’ll tell you he wishes he had a mulligan. 

Two more matches for the Labette Cardinals left the same result as the first 16 of the season. Labette dropped to Independence on the road on Friday before being swept at home on Monday by NEO A&M, leaving the Cardinals winless at 0-18 on the year.

A fall of varying narratives took another wild turn on Friday night as the Parsons Vikings, coming off two straight lopsided losses, shutout the Baxter Springs Lions 40-0 on homecoming night to kick off district play.

COFFEYVILLE — Labette County was down six points in the fourth quarter then scored two unanswered touchdowns to earn a 27-19 win at Field Kindley High School on Friday night.

ERIE — With both the Cherryvale Chargers and Erie Red Devils coming off their first wins of the season in Week 2, Friday night’s matchup provided an opportunity to go into district play on a winning streak. 

ST. PAUL — A study of St. Paul’s schedule showed that Friday night’s home opener against West Elk was likely the toughest game through the regular season for the Indians. Both teams entered the game 2-0 and the showdown had the makings of the state’s best 8-Man contest. 

ALTAMONT — With a come-from-behind win over Independence in the rearview mirror, the Labette County Grizzlies are aiming to stay perfect in the SEK League and get above .500 on the season with a win in Week 3 against Coffeyville.

A humbling 44-15 loss to Anderson County has the Parsons Vikings hitting the reset button ahead of its Week 3 matchup on the road against the Osawatomie Trojans.

TOPEKA — A measure that would have booted private schools into their own division was shot down by the Kansas State High School Activities Association’s board of directors on Wednesday at one of its two annual meetings. 

While the Labette Cardinals showed signs of life at times against the Fort Scott Greyhounds in Wednesday’s second KJCCC match of the season, the final result read the same as the first 11 matches for the Cardinals.

Separating private schools into their own division, splitting Class 1A back into two divisions and upping the amount of time transfer students must sit out are among the proposals that will go before the Kansas State High School Activities Association Board of Directors at its September meet…

FORT SCOTT — The brutal start to the Labette Cardinals’ 2019 volleyball campaign compounded at the second Fort Scott Tournament of the season over the weekend as Labette lost four matches to drop to 0-11 on the season.

Cherryvale tames Bluestem Lions

INDEPENDENCE — The Labette County Grizzlies dug themselves out of a hole to gain their first win of the season on Friday night, beating Independence 36-31.

A euphoric win a week ago for the Parsons Vikings has quickly faded to memory as the Anderson County Bulldogs stormed into Marvel Park in Week 2 and routed the home team 44-15.

With the dust hardly settled from last week’s stunning five-overtime win over Iola, the Parsons Vikings are now set for a Week 2 matchup with the Anderson County Bulldogs back at Marvel Park.

Russell McCarty of the Labette County Grizzlies lines up on defense during the team's jamboree.

ALTAMONT — Coming off a 40-0 season-opening loss to Pittsburg, the Labette County Grizzlies hope for a reset on the road in their SEK League opener against Independence in Week 2.

ALTAMONT — A week removed from a 1-2 debut quad at Parsons, the Labette County Grizzlies stitched together a 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-17) sweep in a best-of-five set dual with Coffeyville on Thursday in the Grizzlies’ home opener.

SEMINOLE, Okla. — Seven matches into the season and the Labette Cardinals are still winless after losing in four sets to Seminole State 3-1 (25-27, 25-14, 25-14, 25-16) on Wednesday on the road.

Ethan Houk wasn’t supposed to be under the spotlight.

MOUND CITY — Oswego made an early statement on Saturday, defeating Chetopa in the championship match of the Three Rivers League Preseason Tournament.

ALTAMONT — The 2019 cross country season’s first race took place at Labette County last Thursday.

Five overtimes left the Parsons Vikings with a stunning comeback win and nothing else left to give.

Oswego hangs 64 in Bloody Bucket win over Chetopa

One year ago, the Parsons Vikings’ turnaround campaign that ended in the quarterfinals of the 3A playoffs started with a dominant win over the Iola Mustangs.

A thrilling rivalry match between Parsons and Labette County capped off the season-opening volleyball quad on Thursday at Parsons High School.

ALTAMONT — The herculean task of upsetting the Pittsburg Purple Dragons was made even harder this week for the Labette County Grizzlies as starting quarterback Austin Jones will be sidelined with an injury he suffered during the team’s jamboree.

Wednesday’s KJCCC opener left the Labette Cardinals still sitting without a win on the 2019 season while the Allen Red Devils won its first conference match since 2015. 

The Cherryvale Chargers opened the 2019 volleyball season on Tuesday with a pair of sweeps against Sedan and Coffeyville.

OSWEGO — Another year of high school girls golf teed off on Tuesday as Labette County hosted its annual invitational at Oswego Golf Course.

CHETOPA — Coming off a 34-win season that fell one match shy of a berth to the 1A state tournament, the Chetopa Green Hornets’ window for another run is still wide open in 2019.

INDEPENDENCE — The Parsons Vikings girls’ tennis team competed at a tournament in Independence on Saturday. Parsons finished sixth out of six teams in a loaded field, notching six points.

ALTAMONT — As the fourth year of Heather Wilson’s tenure as the Labette County Grizzlies head volleyball coach begins this fall, the longtime staple of Altamont is hoping a young roster can take the reins of one of the SEK League’s most consistent squads. 

Full-fledged inter-squad scrimmages kicked off around the state on Friday with four local schools hosting their own jamborees. 

The Parsons Vikings girls tennis team opened the 2019 campaign with a third place finish at its season-opening home tournament on Thursday.

Football players and female athletes are the most susceptible to concussions, according to statewide concussion data released by the Kansas State High School Activities Association. 

OTTAWA — The Labette Cardinals are still winless, now 0-5 overall, to start the season after a 3-1 (16-25, 25-16, 25-13, 25-20) road loss to Ottawa JV on Wednesday. 

The first-ever football jamborees kick off on Friday across the state for high schools in Kansas. After legislation was passed by KSHSAA that allowed teams to get together for preseason scrimmages, programs quickly organized three-to-four-team jamborees that will allow schools to go live aga…

Brooke Hopper enters her first foray into a head coach’s role with a massive rebuild laid at her feet. 

FORT SCOTT — Labette Cardinals head coach Haley Miller expected her team to walk away from the Fort Scott Tournament with plenty of lessons learned, but also with at least one win to its credit. 

FORT SCOTT -- In its annual excursion an hour northeast to tip off the new campaign, the Labette Cardinals volleyball program traveled to the Fort Scott Tournament on Friday. The Cardinals dropped its first game to host Fort Scott 3-0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-18) before getting swept by Neosho Coun…

With the 2019-20 school year upon us, the Sun is speaking with every athletic director in its coverage area to get a scope of how each program is shaping up for the upcoming academic year.

A proposal that would separate public and private schools into their own KSHSAA sanctioned state championships has been submitted to the association by the Frontier League and will be on the agenda for the KSHSAA Board of Directors meeting on Sep. 18.