BY MACK McCLURE
mmcclure@gbtribune.com
By the luck of the draw, Great Bend High School head basketball coach Chris Battin gets his old mentor — former GBHS head coach and current Gardner-Edgerton head coach Jeff Langrehr — today in the 2011 Bluestem Classic in El Dorado.
The Panthers (4-4) will be taking on Langrehr’s Trailblazers (4-4) at 4 p.m. at El Dorado High School.
“The stars have aligned once again for us to play each other,” said Battin, who was an assistant for Langrehr for three seasons at Great Bend before taking over the reigns when Langrehr accepted the Gardner-Edgerton position two years ago. “It’s one of those deals where those things happen and for us, we feel like we’re on a crash course for each other.
“There’s really no way around it. It ought to be a good test for us. Gardner-Edgerton has one of the best programs in Class 5A. It will be fun going up against Jeff again.”
Battin led the Panthers to the 5A state tournament last March in his first season, where they played none other than Langrehr’s Trailblazers, falling in the first round to finish 15-8 overall.
Langrehr guided Great Bend to back-to-back state championships in 2005 and 2006.
Great Bend, which has a 2-1 Western Athletic Conference record, is playing its first game since losing to Dodge City last Friday on the road.
The winner of this afternoon’s game plays the winner of the 5:45 game between Wichita Collegiate, 7-1 and top-ranked in 3A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, and Wichita-Haysville Campus (2-6) at 8:45 on Friday night. The two losing teams play at 4 on Friday.
In the Garder-Edgerton’s most recent game, the Blazers lost 59-38 to Blue Valley Northwest last Friday.
The Trailblazers are led by multipurpose senior standout Bubba Starling, a quarterback in football, who has signed to play at Nebraska, although he is also projected as a top-5 pick for the upcoming 2011 Major League Baseball draft.
Starling, who missed a couple of basketball games competing in the U.S. Army national high school football game recently, is also a standout basketball player. He held his own last season against Perry Ellis of Wichita Heights, regarded as the top player in the state, and led the Blazers to the state tourney.
“He’s a tremendous athlete, that’s the bottom line,” Battin said of Starling, notorious for follow-slam dunks. “He’s not afraid to go up and take it deep.
“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime kid, really.”
The Panthers have already been battle-tested, losing to the likes of top-ranked McPherson, 6A Manhattan and Dodge City, along with Kearney, Neb., in the championship game of the season-opening Hays Shoot-Out
“We feel like we’ve played a good schedule and good opponents,” Battin said. “It just comes down to us taking care of the basketball and having the intensity and the enthusiasm we need to win.”
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