BURLINGTON

Burlington Wrestlers: Under The Lights

By Allie Harris
  Burlington’s Wrestling Invitational marks the beginning of tournament season for the teams. This year is the boys’ 31st invitational and the girls’ 6th. The extravagance and care put into it is truly unique to Burlington High School in a number of ways. 
   This event begins on January 6 at 9 am and usually runs well into the evening. There were 22 girls’ teams and 20 boys’ teams in attendance. As the first tournament of the year, wrestlers really get to show what they’re made of. 
   The fight is to be a finalist for the chance to participate in BHS’ most famous wrestling tradition, the Under the Lights Ceremony. The room goes completely dark. With the help of Craig Kuhlmann, Powerpoint slides are made for every single finalist for the event. 
    They are announced in pairs based on who they are wrestling in the finals. Every wrestler gets their own slide on their achievements in the sport. They show up as a shadow behind a screen, and as they come out, the spotlight follows to illuminate their path. Completed with a smoke machine, the whole ordeal is quite dramatic. 
  “It’s basically the reason why all the schools come here,” Senior Wrestler Justyce King says. The ceremony is what makes this invitational stand out against the crowd. Everyone fights for a chance to make finals.
   This year’s event was yet another one to remember. A state-wide outage on the website the brackets are created with made for some frustratingly long delays in matches. Even with the bad, though, Burlington still did very well. Three boys and eight girls placed, while two boys and four girls made it under the lights.

Let's Get Hyped for Burlington Basketball Annual Tournament

By Lyra Codney
 Some would argue Burlington High School mid-season basketball tournament, one of the hardest 3A- 4A competitions in the state of Kansas. This invitational tournament including 8 team’s total boys and girls. Burlington, Sabetha, and Silver Lake, are the 3 3A schools. Then, the remaining 5 are 4A schools, Ottawa, Independence, Labette County, Rock Creek, and Paola, are the 4A schools
 This varsity cut-throat tournament allows for students to play against other teams not in their league. This benefits the students by because they set to play harder, more difficult teams they usually cannot. It also helps the team prepare for sub-state where the stakes are higher.
 “Although you could leave this tournament 0-3, very easily in fact, that team will have benefited from the toughness of this tournament and typically is a REALLY good team leaving town 0-3.  And typically, if you’re leaving the tournament 3-0, you have a team that could compete to really make some noise at the state level as well!” Says Justin Logan the Boys Basketball Coach.
 With the competition being so aggressive, many teams, as Mr. Logan said will go home with no wins. However, with such a high-stake game a crowd is bound to appear. This allows for students who have never experienced cheering or the loudness of the game to be able to.
 On top of the experience the crowd gives, it also gives the small community a chance to acquire more business. Many of our restaurants will be able to boost sales due to eight different teams in town and the parents of the kids.
 This tournament helps the students gain more experience being whether win or lose. Also, helps the community gain more money due to the visitors. This tournament is very beneficial to anyone involved.