Month: October 2017

Sporting KC competes for playoff spot Saturday at Minnesota United

Sporting Kansas City enters Saturday’s match at Minnesota United FC knowing a victory would result in a club-record seventh straight appearance in the MLS Cup Playoffs.

The newest chapter of the regional rivalry will kick off at 7 p.m. inside TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, with three hours of live coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. on FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX Sports Midwest and FOX Sports GO. Additional live updates and exclusive offers will be available on the Sporting KC Uphoria app .

Postseason implications abound for both clubs as the amorphous Western Conference playoff picture begins to take shape. Sporting KC (12-7-11, 47 points) is in a three-way tie for second place alongside Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders FC, although the club has two games in hand on their Pacific Northwest rivals.

Minnesota (10-16-5, 35 points) sits in a less enviable position, seven points below the playoff line, and anything less than a victory in their home finale would all but dash the Loons’ postseason dreams.

Manager Peter Vermes’ men will try to rebound from a 1-0 defeat to first-place Vancouver Whitecaps FC last weekend – the team’s first loss at Children’s Mercy Park in 2017.

Saturday’s contest marks the beginning of an all-important stretch that will see Sporting KC play three of its last four games on the road. The side has claimed two away wins this season, and a victory at TCF Bank Stadium would go a long way in Sporting KC’s push for a top-two finish and the Knockout Round bye that comes with it.

Led by head coach Adrian Heath, Minnesota is currently enjoying the best spell of its inaugural MLS campaign.

The Loons have won three of their last four matches – including a wild 3-2 comeback win at high-flying Atlanta United FC on Tuesday – and boast a 5-4-1 record since July 29 after starting the year 5-12-4.

Minnesota received goals from its top three goal scorers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, as Abu Danladi struck in the 48th minute before Christian Ramirez equalized on 90 minutes and Kevin Molino bagged the dramatic winner in the sixth minute of added time.

Ramirez leads the Loons with 14 goals in his first MLS season, while rookie Danladi has added eight of his own.

Molino has struck seven times to go along with a team-best nine assists, but the midfielder will be one of several players unavailable Saturday due to national team commitments.

If Minnesota’s strong suit lies in its attack, their Achilles heel has been a defense that has leaked 63 goals in 2017 – the most in MLS.

In stark contrast, Sporting KC has conceded just 24 goals and wields a 0.80 goals against average that would be second-lowest in a 34-game regular season in MLS history.

Tim Melia and Ike Opara have played pivotal roles for the league’s best backline, becoming strong candidates for MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and Defender of the Year.

A relevant subplot surrounding the game centers on international duty. Sporting KC will be without U.S. Men’s National Team trio Matt Besler, Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi, while the absences of James Musa (New Zealand), Kevin Oliveira (Cape Verde) and Soony Saad (Lebanon) reduce the depth Vermes has at his disposal.

Minnesota faces a similar challenge, as regular starters Molino (Trinidad and Tobago) and Francisco Calvo (Costa Rica) join Michael Boxall (New Zealand), Johan Venegas (Costa Rica) and Jermaine Taylor (Jamaica) for World Cup qualifiers or friendlies abroad. Calvo has made 25 starts as the Loons’ defensive anchor throughout 2017.

Sporting KC and Minnesota United FC are poised to battle for the fourth time in all competitions this season. The sides first met in Minneapolis on May 7 as Danladi and Ramirez scored first-half goals in a 2-0 win.

The most recent regular season meeting came on June 3 at Children’s Mercy Park, when Sporting KC used goals from Opara, Jimmy Medranda and Saad Abdul-Salaam to run away 3-0 winners.

Opara scored again in a 4-0 defeat of Minnesota on June 14 in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32. Gerso and Daniel Salloi also found the back of the net as Sporting KC began its run to the tournament title.

– Story from Sporting KC

Victim of fatal accident in 500 block of Washington Boulevard identified

The victim of a fatal accident on Wednesday, Oct. 4, in the 500 block of Washington Boulevard has been identified, according to a police spokesman.

The victim was Francisco Granados, 29, a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, police said.

Police responded to the accident around 6:06 p.m. Oct. 4 and found a silver sport utility vehicle that hit a gold sedan.

An initial investigation found that the SUV was occupied by two males in their 40s traveling southbound on Fifth Street at a high rate of speed when they struck the gold sedan, police said. The sedan was westbound on Washington Boulevard.

Granados, the driver of the sedan, was ejected from the vehicle and was dead at the accident scene, according to police.

The two persons in the silver SUV were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The accident is being investigated by the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department’s Traffic Support Unit-Critical Collision Response Team.

KCK teacher receives research award at KU Medical Center

Dr. Gerry Carlson, right, KUMC Molecular Biology Department chair, recently presented the Tom Steadman award to Zulma Perez-Estrella, center, from the Kansas City, Kansas, school system. Perez-Estrella and students did research with Dr. Aron Fenton, left. (Photo from KUMC)

Zulma Perez-Estrella, a teacher in the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, recently received the Tom Steadman Teacher-Research Opportunity Award at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.

The award gives a high school teacher the opportunity to contribute to original research being conducted within the KUMC Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department.

As a recipient of the award, Perez-Estrella chose to work in the laboratory of Dr. Aron Fenton during the summer of 2017. Her research explored the regulatory properties of the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase, which will contribute to developing drugs to control hyperglycemia associated with diabetes.

This award is named after Tom Steadman, a farmer and rancher in Woodward County, Okla. It was from observing Steadman’s actions that Dr. Fenton first realized the value of academic service as an important way of giving back to the community. Graduating high school students can benefit from help in exploring available career options; therefore, there is a need for individuals in professional fields to create opportunities to supply that help. The ability to see something that is needed coupled with the willingness to fill that need exemplifies how Steadman has led his life.

Zulma Perez-Estrella has been an instructor in the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools for the past four years. During her first year at Harmon High School, she instructed and coordinated classes in the biotechnology program, which has now expanded to a district wide Bio+ Program.

For the 2017-2018 school year, approximately 40 junior and senior Bio+ students were selected from four KCKPS high schools. These students will enroll in Introduction to Biotechnology, Principles of Cell and Molecular Biology, and Introduction to Bio-manufacturing, in which they will practice and perfect numerous laboratory skills and techniques, while receiving high school and college credit via KCKCC.

To further prepare Bio+ students for college and careers in STEM fields, they will also participate in individual laboratory research at partner institutions (past partners include KUMC and K-State Olathe). These students will also be taught how to interview for jobs, especially in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) area. Some will earn paid full-time summer work (past partners include KUMC’s Department of Pharamacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics and Ceva Biomune in Lenexa), where they have put into practice the skills learned in Bio+.

Perez-Estrella discovered her passion for education in 1996 when she became a math and science educator for Girls Incorporated of Alameda County, Calif. In the process of helping young girls deconstruct their fears in these subjects, she developed a new outlook toward STEM training.

For seven years she created interactive science, math and health curricula for summer camps and afterschool programs, which continued while she worked with the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Inc., a leader in delivering multiculturally appropriate health care services in Southern Alameda County.

As a health educator-clinic supervisor of TVHC’s school-based health center, she also taught high school health education for four years, and prepared students to lead health education presentations in the community, reaching over 4,000 youth annually.

Upon moving to Kansas City in 2010, Perez-Estrella continued her commitment to serving urban, immigrant and underserved communities. While a student at KUMC, she served as an instructor and curriculum writer for Camp Pathological and KCK Saturday Academy, where she continued to educate youth in her new commitment to the Wyandotte community.

Over 15 years in education has solidified Perez-Estrella’s belief that a quality work force requires teachers who will assume the great responsibility of providing a thorough and rigorous education and inspire student excellence.