Month: July 2019

Chicago Fire to visit Sporting Saturday in KCK

Sporting Kansas City (4-7-7, 19 points) will play its second home match of the week when the Chicago Fire (5-7-7, 22 points) pay a visit at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park.

Tickets for the interconference clash are available at SeatGeek.com as a pair of longtime rivals battle for three points in the 54th regular season meeting of the series.

FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX Sports Midwest Plus and FOX Sports GO will provide three hours of live coverage beginning at 7 p.m., while listeners can catch the action locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM. Fans can also access the Sporting KC App for in-game updates.

Three days removed from a 5-1 defeat to MLS Supporters’ Shield leaders LAFC, Sporting will aim to bounce back on Saturday and extend their home winning streak versus Chicago.

Manager Peter Vermes’ side has won three straight home meetings against the Fire and owns a 4-0-2 home record in the series since September 2012.
Furthermore, Chicago enters the weekend on a 21-game road winless draught that dates back to last year, the longest active spell in MLS. Head coach Veljko Paunovic’s men have gone 0-15-6 on their travels since winning 2-1 at Orlando City SC on May 26, 2018.

Sporting has lost two straight matches on home soil and will hope to avoid its first three-game home losing skid since 2014.

Goalkeeper Tim Melia will step between the posts on the brink of a major milestone, as his 56 career regular season wins are one shy of tying legend Jimmy Nielsen’s all-time club record.

Coincidentally, Melia’s first triumph in a Sporting uniform came in May 2015 when he posted his first career MLS shutout in a 1-0 defeat of Chicago. Victory on Saturday would also give Sporting its 200th all-time regular season home win.

The Fire burned especially bright on Wednesday in a 5-1 demolition of reigning MLS Cup champion Atlanta United FC.

Former Sporting forward C.J. Sapong bagged a brace, Argentine playmaker Nicolas Gaitan tallied a goal and three assists, and Atlanta was down 5-0 before the halftime whistle. The hosts coasted through the second half en route to victory, vaulting within a point of the playoff spots in the East.

Chicago occupies eighth place largely due to a dreadful road form, but a talented roster is adorned with numerous players capable of deciding matches.

Gaitan ranks fourth in MLS with eight assists, Sapong leads the team with eight goals, and versatile attacker Aleksandar Katai is second in the league with 69 shot attempts.

Further from goal, MLS veteran Dax McCarty and German World Cup winner Bastian Schweinsteiger anchor an experienced midfield.

Neither side figures to be at full strength, as seven players adorn Sporting’s injury report and Chicago midfielder Djordje Mihailovic is with the U.S. Men’s National Team for the Concacaf Gold Cup.

Of chief interest for Sporting fans, forward Johnny Russell (hamstring) and defenders Jimmy Medranda (hamstring) and Graham Zusi (adductor) are listed as day-to-day.

Russell has enjoyed another strong campaign with seven MLS goals-tied for the team lead alongside Krisztian Nemeth and Felipe Gutierrez-while Zusi will be the club’s lone representative at the 2019 MLS All-Star Game presented by Target on July 31.

The last two meetings between the clubs have seen Sporting prevail in high-scoring thrillers.

The most recent fixture at Children’s Mercy Park took place on July 29, 2017, when Daniel Salloi and Benny Feilhaber were among Sporting’s goal scorers in a 3-2 victory.

On March 10, 2018, Sporting ousted the Fire 4-3 in a barnburner at Toyota Park. The visitors took a 2-0 lead, conceded three goals in 12 minutes to fall behind 3-2, then rallied late behind Medranda and Gutierrez goals to claim a wild win.

The rivalry between Sporting and Chicago isn’t as fierce as it once was, but the clubs nevertheless share a colorful history. Animosity entrenched the fixture in 2000, when the Kansas City Wizards edged out Chicago for the MLS Supporters’ Shield by virtue of greater goal differential before sinking the Fire 1-0 in the MLS Cup Final on a goal from Miklos Molnar.

Four years later, the Wizards earned an identical 1-0 triumph in the 2004 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final at Arrowhead Stadium, receiving a golden goal in the 95th minute courtesy of Igor Simutenkov.

  • Story from Sporting KC-

KCK schools name two instructional improvement officers

The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools recently named two instructional improvement officers.

Dr. Troy Pitsch, most recently the superintendent of schools – elementary principal for Unified School District 294 in Decatur County, in northwest Kansas; and Terrence M. Sanders, a former principal of East Union Middle School of Union County Public Schools in Monroe, North Carolina, began their duties on July 1.

Among the responsibilities of Pitsch and Sanders in their new roles with the school district are supervising and evaluating principals; assisting principals with decision-making and problem-solving; planning and developing programs to be implemented across assigned schools; assisting in the implementation of district initiatives and serving as a liaison between principals and the chief of schools.

Dr. Troy Pitsch

At USD 294, Pitsch led the district in its effort to achieve excellence for students, added guided small-group instruction, a progress monitoring system, wrote more than $70,000 in grants for student resources, expanded the pre-kindergarten program to double its previous enrollment and helped with facility improvement during his tenure.

Pitsch has more than 17 years of education experience, primarily in Title I schools. He has served as a teacher, assistant principal and principal in Pflugerville School District in Pflugerville, Texas.

He has a doctorate in educational administration, educational policy and planning from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s in educational leadership and administration from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, and a bachelor’s degree in social studies composite in history and the social sciences education from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He also has a district leadership certification from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, with certifications in district leadership and early childhood – 12 principal for the state of Kansas.

Terrence M. Sanders

Sanders, at East Union Middle School, led an effort that resulted in an 11-point gain in seventh grade math from the previous year in 2018, and exceeded growth in eighth grade reading in 2018.

He also has served as the principal of Heritage Elementary School and interim principal of Bailey Middle School in the Spring Independent School District in Houston, Texas.

He also served as assistant superintendent for Professional Development for Houston Independent School District (HISD) in Houston, Texas. In this position, he directed professional development services for nearly 13,000 teachers, provided leadership and coordinated new teacher orientation for more than 1,500 teachers, collaborated with the Academic Services Departments, including elementary and secondary curriculum and instruction, multilingual, innovative and special education to support instructional improvement efforts.

He served as principal of Judson W. Robinson Jr. Elementary School in HISD, where he increased student enrollment by nearly 100 students for the 2013-2014 school year, and met state standards on end-of-grade tests from 2012 to 2015 based on state assessments and earning distinction honors in math.

He has more than 10 years of educational experience and is a former assistant principal of Walnut Bend Elementary School in the HISD and a third and fifth grade teacher in Charlotte Mecklenburg School District in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Sanders has a master’s degree in school leadership from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. He has a principal certification from Texas and North Carolina.

  • Information from Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools

NAACP to meet July 8

The Kansas City, Kansas, Branch of the NAACP will meet Monday, July 8, at the Livable Neighborhood building at 4953 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.

The regular executive committee meeting will start at 6 p.m. and the regular membership meeting at 7 p.m.

All members and the public are encouraged to attend the branch regular monthly meetings and to invite others to come. For information, call 913-281-7900.