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Saturday, December 1, 2007
Two and Counting
Central Kansas, KS
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Three straight berths in the Class 6A state final, titles in 2006 and 2007, and two titles as an assistant in 2002 and 2003, have made White Auditorium in Emporia Heights coach Kip Pulliam’s alternate home court.
HSSTM: Surprise question. I’m not going to ask you about Heights; instead, I’m going to ask about a school on the opposite side of town from Heights. You were a star at Campus High when they made the state title game in 1988. Surely you remember the game.
Kip Pulliam: It was a close game; we played Shawnee Heights. We’d been No. 1 all season. It came down to we were down one with zero seconds left, but one of our players got fouled. He went to the line with no time left on the clock with a chance to win the game. He ended up missing both; but that’s not the reason we lost. It was a lot of fun, though. As a player, you want to play in the state championship game. I think we only had one loss that year; my dad, Stan Pulliam, was the coach.
HSSTM: So he was a longtime coach there at Campus?
Kip Pulliam: Yeah, he coached there for eight, nine years. I grew up in a small town in Texas, and everyday, even when I was little, I was always in the gym with him, when I was three, four (years old). I was there all day with him in the gym. Ackerly, Texas, I grew up there; then, we were in Valley Center for a few years before we ended up at Campus. There, for three years, we were always top five in the state and in the state tournament.
HSSTM: Heights is no stranger to success on the state level – winners the past two seasons, as well as in 2002 and 2003. Pick three elements of your program that put your teams in position to accomplish such feats – and one of them can’t be hard work. We’ll take that as a given.
Kip Pulliam: Defense is No. 1 by far. It’s something that our program has never been known for. But it’s one of the reasons we go back to the state tournament and win championships. Another thing is camaraderie – playing like a family. We’ll have our ups and downs, but you have to come out of it. You got to realize that you’re going into battle as a family, and that you can’t battle each other. The next is focus. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot every night. They know who we are; we’ve built our name. All it takes is one night you don’t show up, and you get beat. There are a lot of good teams around the city and in the state.
HSSTM: Every successful coach has learned from several other successful coaches. Who are your mentors, and what did they contribute to your overall coaching persona?
Kip Pulliam: My main one is my dad, Stan Pulliam. He’s always been the run and gun. That’s how I’ve always played and coached. We haven’t been able to do that much over the past three years, because we’ve had such big girls, but we’ll change it back up this year to more running and gunning.
Then, I would say Ron Slaymaker (coach at Emporia State) and Ron Heller (former Friends men’s coach). (Pulliam played college ball for both coaches.) Slaymaker was part of the selection committee for the Dream Team (1992 Olympics). He was the president of the NAIA at the time, which put him on the selection committee that year. I learned more about the ‘big man’ game from him. I learned more about guard play from my dad and Slaymaker.
HSSTM: Heights received some national recognition this off-season from Sporting News, which named your team one of their top 20 prep girls teams in the nation to watch this winter. Also, Heights is one of a couple handfuls of girls teams in the nation this year which will be sponsored by Nike. Is Kip Pulliam on the way up the coaching ladder, or is he a lifelong high school coach?
Kip Pulliam: Right now, I’m happy where I’m at. I’ve had opportunities to leave and move on. And it hasn’t been anything to make me even talk to my wife about. I’ve got a great thing here. I really like the administration, the kids, the faculty. This is just a great place to work. I can’t see myself wanting to leave anytime soon.
HSSTM: Take us through the area and state and give us your picks of the top girls teams and players?
Kip Pulliam: Wichita South is going to be really tough with Christine Elliott and Megan Lassley, and a great coach, Mike Helmer. And with coach (Don) Racine, Carroll is always going to be good, playing team basketball. Kapaun is going to be really good, with Darice Fontaine. North and Southeast have got new coaches and a bunch of good athletes – they’ll be contenders right away. Northwest has a really good freshman class. They’ll keep getting better in the coming years. And we’ve got a bunch a good area teams – with the Andovers, Goddards, the Maizes.
Statewide, Derby’s going to be really good – a top-five team in the state. In the state overall, Olathe South’s going to be really good; Junction City; Shawnee Mission West; Washburn Rural. Our sub-state will probably have six of the top 10 teams in the state again. The 6A champ will probably come from our sub-state.
Right now, we’re in the top 20 teams to watch in the Sporting News magazine. That’s not only good for us; that’s good for everybody in the USD 259 and the state of Kansas. It puts Wichita and Kansas on the map. And we wouldn’t be that good if it wasn’t for the teams we play every night.
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The KSHSAA Board of Directors voted in September to permit coaches in basketball, volleyball and football to coach their teams...
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