Several local offices will be closed for the Monday, May 31, Memorial Day holiday.
Unified Government offices will be closed that day, along with Board of Public Utilities administrative offices.
Residential trash and recycling will not be collected on Monday, May 31. Trash collections will be delayed one day next week.
Memorial Day also is a holiday for state offices and federal offices.
The BPU’s business offices will be closed, and emergency service will be available. For power emergencies, customers may call 913-573-9522. For water emergencies, call 913-573-9622.
Jubilant Blue Devils whooped it up after learning Friday they had earned KCKCC’s first-ever bid to the NJCAA Division I national soccer tournament to be played June 3-8 in Evans, Georgia. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins)
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information
For the first time in the nine-year history of women’s soccer at Kansas City Kansas Community College, the Blue Devils are in the NJCAA Division I national tournament.
Boasting their best record ever (12-2-1), the Blue Devils earned an at-large bid in the national tourney to be played at Blanchard Woods Park in Evans, Georgia, a suburb of Augusta. The 12-team tourney will begin Thursday and run through Tuesday, June 8.
A three-team, four pod format, KCKCC is grouped with Eastern Florida State, the No. 3 seeded team in the tournament, and Laramie, Wyoming.
KCKCC will open against Eastern Florida State (8-0-2) Thursday at 5 p.m. and then take on Laramie (13-1) Friday, also at 5 p.m.
All three teams were ranked in the Top 10 in the final NJCAA Division I rankings – Eastern Florida No. 3, Laramie No. 6 and KCKCC No. 10. Pod play will be held through Saturday with the four winners advancing to the semifinals on Monday.
“The pressure is off; we’re playing with house money,” KCKCC coach Shawn Uhlenhake said. “I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to try to go undefeated and win the regional that we were afraid of losing, But the last three days of practice, the girls really looked good, excited. We have not been this healthy since early in the season. If we play freely with nothing to lose, this is going to be a dangerous team.”
The Blue Devils will leave Saturday with hopes of adjusting to the Georgia weather.
“It’s in the 60s here, I assume it’s going to be a lot hotter in Georgia,” Uhlenhake said.
No. 4 ranked Snow College out of Utah and No. 11 Indian Hills of Ottumwa, Iowa, were the other at-large selections.
“There were some pretty intense conversations with the committee,” said KCKCC Athletic Director Tony Tompkins, who made the KCKCC presentation on behalf of assistant coach Jefferson Roblee and Uhlenhake.
“I think the deciding factor was our overall body of work during the season,” Tompkins said. “Emphasis was not only on the national ranking, strength of schedule and wins over top teams all year long but also how hard the team played, how they conducted themselves and how well they would represent the region, the college and the community.”
In addition to being the Jayhawk Conference’s top ranked team, the Blue Devils won the outright conference championship (12-1-1), a conference that boasted five teams in the national rankings at one time or another.
The Jayhawk leader in goals scored (61) and fewest goals given up (10), the Blue Devils’ only losses were at Coffeyville, 2-1 in the regular season finale, and 2-1 to Barton County in the Region VI semifinals, a game in which the Cougars scored the winning goal with 2:09 remaining.
The Kansas City Monarchs finale game of the three-game series with the Sioux City Explorers was postponed Thursday because of inclement weather in Sioux City, Iowa.
The two teams will make up the game when the Monarchs return to Sioux City on Aug. 11. The teams will play two seven-inning games.
Kansas City begins a three-game series Friday night against the Cleburne Railroaders as part of a six game home stand.
First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas.
The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:35 p.m. and the video stream will air on aabaseball.tv. The game can also be heard locally on 1510 ESPN Kansas City.
Tickets to all Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.
