Kansas Sports

This past year in sports has been one to remember for the state of Kansas. Throughout the various sports seasons, we’ve watched many of our favorite teams reach new heights. No other area of the country has experienced such an overwhelming wave of athletic success in such diverse fields of sports. Here are some of the biggest highlights.

For most of us, seeing the Royals win the 2015 World Series was an unforgettable experience. A baseball title was brought back to Kansas City for the first time since 1985. The Royals finished their season with 95 wins and 67 losses, which is better than the 1985 team’s record of 91 and 71. This championship team achieved many great things throughout the course of a single season. In the American League Division Series, the Royals knocked off the Houston Astros, winning the series 3-2. From there, they faced the Toronto Blue Jays in a best of seven series and clinched the American League Central title for the first time ever. Throughout the country, and according to former Royal great George Brett, it has been said that this is the best Kansas City Royals team in the history of the organization and their performance against the New York Mets in the World Series showed why.

“The atmosphere at Kauffman Stadium was like nothing I had ever experienced before,” said Spencer Manning, Soph., who attended the first game of the World Series. “Everyone was very excited, you could also sense how anxious everyone was. It was one of the best nights of my life.”

With the Royals becoming world champions in Major League baseball, the Kansas City Chiefs had football fans hoping for a Super Bowl victory this season. The last time the Chiefs won a Super Bowl was in 1969. It’s safe to say that the city was itching for another successful playoff run. After starting off the regular season with a 1-5 record, the Chiefs went on a roll, going 11-0 since Oct. 18. Although the Chiefs ended up losing to the New England Patriots in AFC Divisional round, the 2015-2016 season would go down as one of the most historical seasons in Chiefs history.

Kansas would be mentioned once again in world news regarding soccer. On Sunday July 5, 2015, a record-breaking number of people tuned in to see the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team win the World Cup. On this world title team, there were four women from Football Club Kansas City: Lauren Holiday, Heather O’Reilly, Amy Rodriguez, and Becky Sauerbrunn. The U.S. knocked off six teams to make it to the final against Japan. This would be a rematch of the 2011 World Cup final, where Japan defeated the United States in a penalty shootout. That would not happen this time. The U.S. had a four goal lead 16 minutes into the game. Carli Lloyd finished the game with three of the five total goals that the United States had, including a hat trick. This was the first World Cup title for United States in 16 years and would be their third overall.

The final Kansas team that made headlines this past year is located just six miles from Eudora. The University of Kansas volleyball team had a season for the books. After going undefeated throughout their entire regular season, the Jayhawks were considered to be one of the toughest teams in the nation. For the first time in school history, Kansas would advance to not only the Elite 8, but the Final Four. Although they would lose that matchup against former Big 12 foe Nebraska, these Jayhawks would go down as the most successful Kansas volleyball team in the history of the program. The Jayhawks finished their season with a 30-3 record (their three losses came from the two schools that played in the national championship, Nebraska and Texas) and a program-best #4 national ranking by the AVCA Coaches Poll.

Teams of all different sports achieved great things this past year and the outlook is promising.

“I really hope that it doesn’t take 30 years to win it all again!” said Spencer.