Ark Valley News - Out of the office

Out of the office
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: January 29, 2015

Mini Hornet reunions at VCHS

It was like old-home week during the January Jam basketball tournament at Valley Center High School Jan. 23.

Folks with some deep Valley Center roots were in the gym that night.

I snapped a picture of relatively recent Valley Center High School graduates Aaron Lindstrom (2010), Warren Balthazor (2010) and Luke Bishop (2011). They were in the stands together watching the Valley Center-Maize South game. They were sitting with Tyler Gentry's parents, Dan and Tracy Gentry. I didn't see Tyler.

You may have seen Aaron's engagement announcement in the paper last fall. He's marrying 2011 VCHS graduate Bethany McCormick (Mike and Phoebe McCormick's daughter). No word on whether Balthazor or Bishop have wedding plans.

After that, I took a picture of some old-school Hornets.

Dave Hickerson, former longtime VCHS baseball coach and middle school teacher, was talking to intermediate school Principal Greg Lehr (also a VCHS graduate), while former Hornet football coaching great Mike Smith was talking to longtime football (and now basketball) stat man Bobby Massey. Hickerson is principal at Maize South High School.

I also saw, briefly, 1972 VCHS graduate Linda Yoakum. A retired Wichita school teacher, Yoakum continues to keep stats for the Wichita Northwest High School basketball team.

She is the daughter of one of our favorite Valley Center couples, Raleigh and Bonnie Lackey.

Basketball runs strong in the Lackey family's bloodlines. Yoakum's son, Jason Reffner, was a big part of the Hornet teams in the late 1990s.

Jason graduated in 1998. He made perhaps Valley Center High School's most memorable basketball shot of all time. In 1997, he sank a desperation 40-foot jumper at the buzzer to beat Class 5A state power McPherson in overtime.

"It was like a dream," Jason said after the game.

Jason's grandpa still talks about that shot.

Why not? It's fun to reminisce.

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Speaking of old-home week, it was neat to read about Drew Johnson in the paper this week (Page 3).

Drew, a 2007 Valley Center High School graduate, announced his engagement to Nicole Ohlde, a former standout basketball player at Kansas State University. Drew and Ohlde are both employed with the Clay County School District. Drew teaches digital media communications.

Basketball has been good to Drew.

It helped him get a college education, helped him get a job and, now, it helped him find a spouse.

You may remember that before Drew graduated from Valley Center High School, he signed letters of intent to play football and basketball at Friends University. He would've played soccer, too, if they would've let him.

Drew was an assistant basketball coach in Valley Center for a few years.

"Somehow in Clay Center, Kansas, he met a woman who loves basketball as much as he does," Drew's mother, Carolyn Johnson, said in an email this week.

Congratulations to Drew and his family.

Chris Strunk is publisher of The Ark Valley News. Reach him at 755-0821, news@arkvalleynews.com or on Facebook.