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Casey Amerin, Manhattan CHIEF Thunder

Posted on by Pat Melgares

Not once…not twice…not three times. For four years in a row, a basketball team of small town, homeschooled high school boys has claimed the championship in a national basketball tournament. This team is based in rural Kansas.

Team photo, Manhattan CHIEF Thunder
Manhattan CHIEF Thunder

Casey Amerin is coach of this championship team. Jeff Schurle and Travis Goff from the Keats/Riley area are the volunteer athletic directors. Their team is the Manhattan CHIEF Thunder.

Casey grew up at Plains. He enjoyed playing basketball and football. He studied business education at K-State, became a teacher and coach, and met and married Rebekah. They moved to her home area near Clifton, where Casey manages LCL Buffalo Ranch and worked as a basketball official for several years.

Casey and Rebekah had four sons and a daughter. When they decided to homeschool their children, they learned of a Manhattan-area organization named Christian Homes In Educational Fellowship, or CHIEF for short.

CHIEF is a non-profit organization that provides support to Christian homeschooling families through group meetings, field trips, curriculum and athletics.

CHIEF sports include football, girls volleyball, and boys and girls basketball and golf. The team home court is at the Beacon Center gymnasium owned by Lighthouse Baptist Church in the rural community of St. George, population 639 people. Now, that’s rural.

The Amerins joined CHIEF. When their oldest son Gage became old enough to play basketball, Gage joined the junior high team. Casey made the hour-long drive to take his son to practice and eventually was asked to help coach. In 2017, as Gage moved up to the high school level, Casey became the head boys basketball coach.

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Stan Weber

Posted on by Pat Melgares

What can we learn from sports? Sports can teach us the excitement of competition, the value of hard work and preparation, the sting of defeat and the thrill of hard-fought victory.

Portrait, Stan Weber
Stan Weber

Stan Weber has experienced all of this: As a player, a commentator and as a dad.

As his last child reaches the end of his collegiate athletic career, Weber recently reflected on the value of athletics – not just the lessons for sports, but lessons for life.

Weber is a lifelong sports fan. “No one I’ve met yet loved sports as much as I do,” he said.

He couldn’t get enough: “When I was four years old, I’d be watching games on TV. My friends wanted me to come out and play, but I’d tell them to wait until halftime.”

Weber grew up playing multiple sports, living in the suburbs of west Wichita. He attended school in the nearby rural community of Goddard, population 5,084 people. Now, that’s rural.

Weber was an outstanding athlete, named MVP of the Shrine Bowl his senior season. He was even named by the Wichita Eagle as the state’s Male Athlete of the Year. He was recruited elsewhere by future superstar coaches such as Jimmy Johnson and Pat Dye, but chose Kansas State. He appreciated the whole package of K-State’s sports, academics…and especially the people.

“I came to K-State because of the people,” Weber said. “These are true Kansans with a love for each other.”

He overcame an injury to win the starting quarterback job in his junior year, became a team captain and led the team in rushing while earning Academic All-American honors his senior season. He also met his future wife, K-State cheerleader Nancy Freshnock of Manhattan.

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Brian Stucky, Hallowed Hardwood

Posted on by Pat Melgares

Let’s hit the hardwood. No, I’m not referring to chopping firewood for winter.

Book cover, Hallowed Hardwood
Hallowed Hardwood, by Brian Stucky

In this case, hardwood refers to the hardwood floor of old-time basketball gyms across Kansas. Today we’ll meet a Kansas author who has written a book about classic basketball gyms in towns small and large across the state.

Brian Stucky is a retired teacher, author and artist in Goessel. He grew up on a farm near Goessel and attended Liberty Rural Grade School. He credits his parents, Ransom and Mary Stucky, for spurring his interest in basketball.

“Dad taught us fundamentals and mom was our number one fan,” he said. The senior Ransom even made the all-conference team while playing for Bethel College in 1948.

Brian carried on his father’s interest in basketball. At Moundridge High School, Brian played on the school’s first state champion team in 1971. He went on to play at Bethel College himself, including the tournament team of the 1973 KCAC champions.

Brian pursued a long and successful career in teaching and coaching basketball, volleyball and track at high schools and junior highs in Buhler and Goessel before retiring. As a track coach, he coached 13 individual state champions and two AAU national champions. In 1984, he carried the Olympic torch in the torch relay.

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