While there have been a few scheduling hiccups along the way, the 2020 fall prep sports season — which was in danger of not happening at all — is hitting the home stretch.
Iola High’s Fillies tennis team is the first of the local competitors to enter the postseason, with Class 4A Regional action set for Saturday at Parsons.
Iola is one of eight schools who will compete at the Forest Park Courts in downtown Parsons. The Class 4A State Tournament will be held Oct. 16 and 17 at Topeka’s Kossover Tennis Center.
Suiting up for Iola will be its No. 1 doubles team, sisters Sidney and Miah Shelby, the No. 2 doubles team of Keira Fawson and Rebekah Coltrane, and No. 1 singles player Jessica Tidd.
Iola’s cross country teams still have two more weeks of the regular season before their regional meet on Oct. 24 at Chanute.
The top three teams will qualify for the state meet, along with the top 10 runners not on those squads, with the possibility of other individual qualifiers being added. Class 4A state runners will compete at Wamego Country Club Oct. 31.
The Fillies volleyball team will get the luxury of playing their Class 4A Regional Tournament at home Oct. 24, hosting Chanute, Fort Scott, Ottawa and Paola.
The surviving squad will advance to the State Tournament, set for Oct. 30-31 at Hutchinson Community College — with a catch.
The Kansas High School Activities Association has changed up the volleyball postseason format, by adding a state quarterfinal round before the state tournament begins.
The eight substate winners in each division will play a quarterfinal round on Oct. 27, with schools from even-numbered districts hosting a best-of-five match against substate winners of the odd-numbered districts. (Iola is in District 7, and thus would be the visiting team in this scenario.)
THAT LEAVES football, which will slightly alter how it determines postseason placement for its teams. (A vast majority of Kansas high school teams qualify for the playoffs.)
In years past, a school’s district record would determine its place in specific districts, and thus the seeding for the playoffs, which begin Oct. 30 or 31. Further tiebreakers are decided by head-to-head matchups, and then through a point differential formula in district games. But unlike years past, the average point differential in those qualifying games will determine the final tiebreaker, because some schools will play fewer district contests this year because of COVID-19.
Iola is in that boat, with the Mustangs losing games this year against district foes Frontenac and Anderson County because Iola was placed under a two-week quarantine order. That also means the Mustangs will have only three district grames, on Monday at Prairie View, Oct. 17 at home against Girard and Oct. 23 at home against Burlington.
Iola is the only Class 3A, District 2 school yet to play a district game this season.
Elsewhere, Humboldt is 0-2 in Class 2A, District 2 action, with losses to Eureka and West Franklin, with games remaining against Jayhawk-Linn, Wellsville and Osage City.
Yates Center also is 0-2 in district play in Kansas Eight Man-I play, and still must play Sedan, Marmaton Valley and West Elk.
