How about the professional and college scene for sports in Kansas. The Kansas City Chiefs had a great first game and the Royals have the best record in the American League.

Kansas State is off to a good start in football and Fort Hays State is 2-0 after wins over Central Oklahoma and Northeastern State.

And the Kansas Jayhawks, well, there is always basketball season.

Prep thoughts

A couple statement wins for some local football teams. Great Bend beat their rival for the first time in five years with a pretty good effort at Lewis Field Stadium in Hays. The Panthers handled the Indians 40-29 and could now take a huge step toward winning the WAC title with a win at Garden City tomorrow.

Larned made sure to let it be known its season was far from done after a loss at Hoisington in week one. The Indians came back to handle La Crosse by a 40-12 score and set the stage for another big test this weekend at Kingman. Kingman is 2-0 on the season.

Elsewhere in the area Ellinwood will look to get back on track after its loss to No. 1 Victoria. The Eagles, 1-1, will host 0-2 Kinsley. Central Plains, who lost to Victoria in the first week, will host 0-2 Macksville. St. John, 0-2, will get its chance to battle Victoria this week.

Hoisington can take a big step toward winning the Central Kansas League West title when it battles Pratt. Both teams are 2-0 on the year with the Cardinals 2-0 in the CKL West and Pratt 1-0.

Former athlete/coach update

Donovan Dowling was one of a string of tremendous goal keepers for the Barton Community College men’s soccer team. He ranks first in career shutouts and first in shutouts in a season. He posted 24 in his career, 14 his sophomore year.

Dowling went 39-4-2 while at Barton, graduating in 2009. From there he went on to Indiana-Purdue Fort Worth where he was a 2-year starter, earning All-Conference honors for the Division I school. He played for the Kansas City Brass of the Premier Developmental League while in college.

He got into coaching as an assistant for Fort Hays State in its inaugural year of 2011. Fort Hays went 11-5-2 that first year and were ranked as high as No. 9 the next year at the NCAA Division II level.

Dowling took over the head coaching job at Northeast Texas Community College in 2013. He spent two seasons at the helm in Northeast Texas, guiding the men to a 17-4-2 mark in 2014 – the best in school history. The school was ranked as high as No. 4 and earned an NJCAA Tournament berth. His first team in 2013 went 14-7 after taking over a team that went 5-14-1.

This season, Dowling has taken as assistant coaching spot with the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.

Around campus

Today would be a good evening to be at the Student Union. A free shoulder massage. In fact, about once a week you can find a good student activity happening at Barton. Last week it was Casino Night. Next week it is Movie Night, where Barton students can purchase a ticket to the movies at Golden Belt Cinema 6 for $3. Yep, $3 movie night with your college ID.

Diane Engle, director of student life puts on these activities for Barton. She hangs out at the theatre on Movie Nights and sales tickets. It’s kind of like buying shrimp from the back of a van – cash only. There are several $3 Movie Nights during the school year.

A book fair is set for Monday at 9 a.m. in the Union.

More fall activities offered include free bowling, free bingo, Halloween Dance, Skating and a Late Night Breakfast at the end of the semester as students prepare for finals.

And finally

Wow, now that was a wind storm a week ago. Hurricane strength in fact at near 85 mph.

I was officiating some junior high football in Larned and was headed back to Great Bend when it hit us. My good friend Steve Webster and I ran into it just outside Dundee. It came all at once and slowed us down to about 10 mph.

It was reminiscence of some old Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference trips over the mountain passes in Colorado covering Fort Hays State with Steve. The trip went from gleeful conversation to full concentration on where the road was. Only in the mountains if you went off the road they might not find you until the spring melt.

The rain was literally coming in sheets nearly sideways as we focused on the road. My wife, who is, let’s say, not fond of storms, began to text and to say there was no electricity in Great Bend.

Our trip at 10-20 mph lasted until the curve just south of Great Bend. The rain finally let up and as we entered town on Patton Road the damage was noticeable right away.

But neither of us were ready for what we saw as we approached the intersection at Patton and Broadway. We could see large chunks of material in the road but couldn’t tell what is was until we were nearly at the stoplight, which of course wasn’t working.

At that point we realized it was the insulation from the roof at Lincoln Elementary School. That made me wonder just what my house was going to look like. As we dodged the limbs strewn across Broadway we made our way to my house.

Fortunately, for me at least, it wasn’t as bad in my area of town near the middle school.

Maybe that wind finally blew the dome off the top of Great Bend that had been keeping rain away.