COLUMN: Chuck’s Kiddie Korps

Let’s have some fun talking about the future, eh?

There’s enough gloom and doom in the world these days, let’s throw open the blinds and let some positive sunshine in.

With that being said, and with all due respect to basketball coaching legend Dick Vitale (aka Dickie V), who years ago came up with his list of super freshmen basketball players whom he dubbed the Diaper Dandies, here is my list of some really good young players on the way up.

And, hoping I’m not leaving anyone out and with no intention of making fun of someone’s youth, I would like to introduce my on-paper-only Chuck’s Kiddie Korps all-star team for Sanders and Mineral counties (Sand-Mine?) for the 2023-24 basketball and wrestling seasons.

My apologies to anyone I missed!

Right off the bat I would like to acknowledge the freshmen, and in a couple cases eighth-graders like Plains cross country rising star John Owen Jermyn, who turned more than a few heads this past season in running circles.

As did his teammate, Marina Tulloch, a freshmen harrier who has future state champion written all over her.

I will hopefully continue this tradition into other sports in the years ahead if possible, but for now, here is my CKK SandMine all-star team for budding basketball players and wrestlers with more promise than all the politicians of the world combined.

You have to start with St. Regis freshman Conner Lulis, the guy who was tasked with stepping into the huge shoes of graduated senior Caleb Ball, the school’s all-time scoring leader.

Lulis, who caught many an eye last year as an eighth grader on the Tigers’ varsity, has emerged as an ample replacement for Ball. His smooth as silk shot from beyond the three-point line is what the term “nothing but net” is all about.

Lulis also took the reins from Ball as quarterback of the Tigers’ playoff caliber football team and had an outstanding freshman year in that role.

Just up Interstate 90 in Superior is another freshman (I don’t think freshwoman is an approved pronoun, so freshman it will be), Josie Crabb, who has emerged as the floor leader of the Lady Bobcats. She comes from the same mold as her sister, Lanie, who’s high school basketball career was cut short by a knee injury. Josie is a scrapper, with quick reflexes and a nose for the ball.

Plains resurgent basketball Trotters (girls team name) have a trio who I felt were worthy of making the list: Ava Lawyer, Aubree Butcher and Claire Lakko. Lawyer and Butcher are both 5-7 forwards who have been key factors in the Trotters’ vast improvement over previous years. So is Lakko, a tough, skilled player who along with her teammates gives the Plains school a solid foundation for the coming years.

Hot Springs has got to feel good about it’s future, with a line-up loaded with potential, including freshmen Ben Aldridge and Daniel Slonaker. Both come from Savage Heat legacy stock (Lauryn Aldridge, and Slonaker brothers Weston (a junior this year) and Lincoln, graduated). And both are 5-11, agile and quick on the court.

Back down the canyon in St. Regis, the Lady Tigers also have a pair of CKK worthy freshmen, Lilly Sansom and Emma Gillette. They have emerged as solid contributors to go with the Lady Tigers’ outstanding guard combo of junior Shylah Dalka and Shannon Todd, a smooth-shooting sophomore guard.

Perhaps nowhere is excitement over a pair of freshmen higher than Superior’s boys team, where 6-5 post Landon Richards and 5-9 guard Gannon Quinlan have turned the young Bobcats into a dangerous team to face in the upcoming playoffs.

Both Richards and Quinlan were members of the school’s unbeaten junior high league champions from the recent past. And both have displayed abilities and basketball moves that go way beyond the freshman norm.

Quinlan has become a feared sharpshooter, often via long-range three pointers, while Richards has been a factor under the basket, both scoring and rebounding, for the Cats this year.

In the wrestling ranks, Superior has another potential state champion in the making in 160-pound Turner Milender, the latest in a line of Milender athletes who have left their mark at the school. Decker Milender won the state B-C 126-pound title last season as the Cats captured the BC team title. Peyton Milender, was a standout volleyball and basketball player during her high school career for the Lady Bobcats.

And no freshmen list would be complete without props to T Falls 5-7 guard Addy Deal and Noxon guard Abby Yoder. Both are key parts of the present and future at their schools.

All these players are part of a very promising crop of underclassmen now working their way up the varsity ranks at schools throughout the bi-county area.

The official prize for being named to this first-ever Chuck’s Kiddie Korps squad?

A heart-felt well done from a guy who has enjoyed watching high school sports in this area and doing my best to give you and your teammates props on these sports pages.

Well done, young men and ladies!