Park Hill senior Marqeuas Bell poured out over half of 1,000 points in his senior season alone, leading the Trojans to a 17-11 record and to the Class 6 District 8 Semifinals.
Behind a talented senior class, led by the Bell brothers, the Park Hill boys’ basketball team surpassed 16 wins for the first time in half a decade this past winter.
Kendrick and Marqueas Bell were a deadly duo on the court, being two of the top-3 scorers in the Kansas City Suburban Conference Silver Division. Marqueas Bell erupted for 539 total points on the season – good for an average of 20.7 points per game, leading the conference – and even dropped 45 points in a loss to Liberty right after the New Year.
Kendrick Bell scored 14.1 points per game on a 45.7 percent rate from the field and a 43.9 percent rate from deep, along averaging 5.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals. The Trojans took third place in the Liberty North Tournament, won the William Jewell Tournament – where Kendrick Bell was the MVP – and went 1-1 in the Lee’s Summit Tournament.
Four of Park Hill’s 11 losses on the year were against Staley and Oak Park, who were ranked in the top-2 of Class 6 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches’ Association. Ty Schreck was another senior who started each of the last two years as point guard and Dayton Howard was a big piece in his first year at Park Hill after transferring from Savannah.
Juniors Desire Tonye-Nyemeck and Gavin Schaag were starters this past winter and will bring the most experience back from the 17-11 squad, along with sophomore Cameron Jones who came off the bench. Schaag was a deadeye from downtown, making 48 shots from deep – tied for the most in the conference – on a 35.3 percent rate and scored 10 points per game.
Park Hill senior guard Kendrick Bell started each of the last two winters and was a large part of the Trojans success this past winter.
The Lady Trojans had to find a new identity after replacing their head coach and top-2 leading scorers from 2022, including Kennedy Townsend who is now playing at the University of Creighton. Kenedi Dorrell stepped in as the new head coach for Park Hill after spending multiple years as an assistant.
For the first time since 2018, the Lady Trojans ended with a losing record after winning 11 and losing 15 games. Park Hill had some offensive struggles throughout the winter, averaging 43.1 points per game – and giving up 44.2 points – its lowest since 2014.
It took some time for the Lady Trojans to get into groove, losing nine of the first 12 contests. Park Hill won the consolation side of the Kearney Tournament and then went 5-5 in the final 10 games of the regular season.
The Lady Trojans were the No. 6 seed in the Class 6 District 8 Tournament and stunned Liberty North on the road in the opening round, quite the improvement from the 39-23 regular season loss when they had more turnovers than points. Park Hill nearly pulled off another upset when taking Staley to double overtime but fell short by three points.
Allison Gonier ended her sophomore campaign with a state title in the 115-weight class.
In the first year of MSHSAA having two classes of girls’ wrestlers, Park Hill ended in eighth place at state with a pair of individual champions. Angelina Vargas and Allison Gonier collected two gold medals as the sophomore duo made a name for themselves in their young careers.
Vargas only lost one match all season and repeated as a state champion in the 120-weight class. Gonier ended with 40 wins and three losses in the 115-weight class and had a better outing at state after taking third place her freshman year.
Ever Herlyn was the runner-up in the 145-weight class, falling to Park Hill South senior Maddie Kubicki who ended her high school career with an undefeated record and four state championships. Rylin Beatty, Bryanna Priest-Tapia and Ava Myers also made it to Mizzou Arena.
Vargas and Gonier weren’t the only first-place finishers for Park Hill as Erik Egstad also won it all in the Class 4 106-weight class. Egstad went 41-5 throughout the winter.
McKenna Sonsa was the Lady Trojans leading scorer this season as the junior averaged 8.7 points per game.
Jim Humphrey took fifth place in the 190-weight class while Noah Johnson, Ethan Vande Ven and Sammy Mormino missed out on the podium. The Trojans ended in 15th place with 43 points as a team.
The Park Hill girls’ swimming team had seven individuals make it to state, but none of them walked away with any hardware. All of the Lady Trojans missed out on getting past preliminaries.