The magnificent seven

St. Mary’s Colgan High School celebrated some of its diversely talented senior class Wednesday by recognizing seven student-athletes who have signed letters of intent this year.

Austin Barone will be kicking footballs at the University of Kansas, Christian and Zach Smith will play in the historical Ivy League at Princeton, Drew Gill will be joining the defending Division II national football champions of Pittsburg State, Casey Steinmiller will also be staying home to run track at Pitt State, Sam Gilbert will be playing baseball at Fort Scott Community College and Morgan Gilmore will be playing softball at Labette Community College.

The story of a kicker

Barone, a soccer player converted into an All-State placekicker, calls himself a Jayhawker at heart and signing with KU represents a dream come true.

“It’s unbelievable,” Barone said. “When you grow up in Lawrence and you go to the games and you see the atmosphere up there, you really fall in love. When you’re a kid, everybody says ‘I want to be a Kansas Jayhawk, I want to wear the jersey, I want to run out of the tunnel and I want to do all that.’ The fact that it’s happening soon is unbelievable.”

On Wednesday, Barone elaborated on how kicking footballs entered his life.

“The first year I kicked was my junior year,” Barone said. “I transferred down here my sophomore year because we felt like a Catholic education was what we wanted and (because I didn’t live with my parents) I wasn’t able to play right away. I didn’t go out until the third week of the season. Coach Smith came up to me my sophomore year and said, ‘We really want you to be a part of the team’ and from then on, I went out and did everything the team did except for I couldn’t play any games.”

Barone kicked on successful Colgan teams both his junior and senior years. In his first year playing varsity football, Barone made 8 of 10 on field goals and 57 of 63 extra points and his 81 points ranked behind Christian and Zach Smith. During his senior year, Barone made all nine field goal attempts and 55-for-59 on extra points, scoring 82 points, again only behind Christian and Zach Smith.

In addition to all the points on the scoreboard, Barone played a major role in winning field position by kicking footballs high and deep enough to give special teams additional time to run down and make tackles on opponents brave enough to run the ball out of the end zone against speedy Colgan.

Barone said all his time spent at kicking camps like Doug Blevins and Chris Sailer and his private lessons with Kansas City Kicking gurus helped develop him into a real kicker.

“I felt like I learned how to kick so now I can focus in on trying to get better rather than trying to just figure out what it’s about,” Barone said. “I can control my destiny now. Whether I want to work my butt off and become a really good kicker I can or if I don’t, it’s something . . . I bear that.”

Barone joins a KU football program fresh off an embarrassing 2-10 season which resulted in the firing of Turner Gill and the hiring of former Notre Dame head coach and New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis.

KU placekickers Alex Mueller and Ron Doherty combined for 50 percent field goal accuracy, junior Doherty 75 percent and sophomore Mueller 37.5. Doherty also doubled as punter, finishing third in the Big 12 with a 42.8 average, including a 62-yard punt against Missouri.

Surely not many Div. I recruits have taken Barone’s route.

“If you would have told me two years ago that today I’d be standing here and saying that I’m going to KU to play football, I never would have believed you,” Barone said. “I really don’t think it will hit me until Day 1 when I show up.”

KU begins its 2012 regular season Sept. 1 against South Dakota State.

Barone plans to major in a business-related field and minor in political science with his eyes on law school.

Smith twins join historical program

Christian and Zach Smith have a chance to play in arguably the most historic college football program in the world, Princeton.

After all, the Princeton Tigers and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights played the very first college football game on Nov. 6, 1869. Rutgers defeated Princeton six goals to four and Princeton won the return match eight to zero later in 1869. Princeton and Yale played their first game in 1873 and the Tigers have been wearing black and orange since 1876.

The Tigers have won 28 National Championships, their last coming in 1950, and Dick Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy in 1951. Princeton and the other Ivy League schools dropped from Division I to Division I-AA (now the Division I Football Championship Subdivision) in 1982.

Christian talked Wednesday about how lucky he and Zach are to get into Princeton, considering its rigorous academic standards.

“It's incredible,” Christian said. “We wouldn't have had a chance to get in if it wasn't for football. We were in one of the lower groups with our grades.”

Please keep in mind that Christian and Zach both rate high on the Colgan honor roll.

It’s approximately 1,228 miles and 21 hours, 12 minutes from Colgan High School to Princeton University and this distance factor at first gave the Smith twins some apprehension.

“Yeah, just because leaving Pittsburg, it's a lot different but once we went up there and met the people and saw the campus, it became easier after that,” Christian said.

Standouts in Kansas high school football over multiple years, Christian and Zach face a new world playing college football.

“Yes, I'm looking forward to that,” Christian said. “Even at a few camps we went to this summer, you could really tell the difference between high school and what's going to be college.”

Princeton opens its 2012 season Sept. 15 at Lehigh.

Closer to Home

Like Barone and KU, Drew Gill followed his heart to Pittsburg State, definitely not the first and definitely not the last Pittsburg kid to choose staying home.

“Ever since I was little, I've been a fan of Pitt State,” Gill said. “My grandparents have always had season tickets to the games and I've gone to the games with them since I was in grade school. The national championship this year sparked it a little bit and since I started tackle football, one of my goals was to go to Pitt State and play for them. That's one of the reasons that's driven me to excel and get better at football . . . I've always wanted to play football at Pitt.”

Gill played defensive end at Colgan, where he recorded 70 tackles and 10 sacks his junior year and 65 tackles and five sacks his senior year. Listed at 6-foot, 195 pounds, Gill will be converted to defensive back or linebacker at Pitt State or any college football program because of size.

Regardless of whatever position he ends up playing, Gill already speaks with a defensive-oriented mentality.

“I hope to earn a spot eventually at linebacker,” Gill said. “I've always enjoyed defensive positions because there's a certain rush that comes along when you get to tackle a ball carrier. I've preferred defense ever since I started playing.”

Casey Steinmiller, a state qualifier in the 300-meter hurdles last year, will be making a 100-meter jump next year at Pitt State.

“I’m looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time because it’s a little bit more than what I actually run in high school,” Steinmiller said. “It should be a lot of fun and exciting.”

Steinmiller will run the 400 hurdles at Pitt State.

The Pitt State men are currently ranked No. 6 in the latest poll released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Steinmiller said that he plans to major in commercial graphics and minor in digital media.

Senior pitching ace Morgan Gilmore has enjoyed a standout softball career at Colgan. Her career has run the gamut from pitching a no-hitter in a regional final and being the winning pitcher in the state title game her sophomore year to playing on a losing team her junior year.

“It's kind of been a dream because you can go from one year being a third runner-up to the next year winning a state championship to having a losing season and then going 13-1,” Gilmore said. “It's just up-and-down and it really depends on your coaches. Right now, we have great coaches and I credit a lot of that to them.”

Gilmore went 9-12 her junior year with a 2.20 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 143 innings and she hit .444 with six doubles, one home run and 25 RBI. She has been the senior leader on a resurgent Colgan softball team in 2012, currently 13-1 entering tonight’s Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League doubleheader against Riverton.

Labette Community College features recent area graduates Kenzie Dunlap (Girard), Chaney Fox (Southeast), Stormi Bond (Riverton), Jessica O’Daniel (St. Paul) and Kelsey Overacker (Cherryvale). The Cardinals are coached by head coach Ryan Phillips and assistant Kae Lani Bryan.

“The coach and the girls,” Gilmore said of her attraction to Labette. “The coach is great and I feel like he's the type of coach who can make you into a better player and send you on to somewhere farther on in your career.”

Sam Gilbert follows recent Colgan graduates Zach Caldwell, Stu Jeck and Aaron Snow into the Fort Scott Community College baseball program.

As a sophomore, Gilbert hit .444 with five doubles, one triple, two home runs and 24 RBI, as well as 22 runs scored. He had an even better junior year as both shortstop and pitcher for the Panthers.

In a media release, Gilbert said that he chose the Greyhounds because they have a “good baseball program with high standards for achievement.”