All Good Things Must Come To An End

The KVKL regular season has finally come to an end, and what a season it was.  The KVKL continues to grow and flourish as a staple of the Lawrence community and we are all a big part of that.  It has been fun seeing all of the familiar faces over the summer as well as getting to know some new ones.

Congratulations to Wildman Attack Force for bringing home the championship cup this season.  You boys and girls played excellent, strategic kickball.  It was definitely quite an impressive run through the tournament.  As the overall 7 seed, they clearly demonstrate the level of parity our league has begun to achieve.  Wildman navigated through many of the top teams in the league and played championship caliber kickball for three straight weeks; exactly what it takes to bring home the hardware.

Love it or hate it, Wildman resurrected the constant use of the bunt, but if that is what it takes to win, so be it.  It’s not completely unstoppable, but when it is executed properly it can be a deadly way to get runners on base and into scoring position.  I tip my cap to them for sticking with it and playing their game.

Pita Pit came into the game as the presumed heavy favorite.  They didn’t exactly play their best game of kickball, but they were able to keep it relatively close with their overall skill and athleticism.  As it often happens in sports, one costly play can make all the difference.  Unfortunately for Pita Pit their costliest error(s) came in the first inning, allowing an error laden three run bunt-home run.  For a game that ended 5-2, it was more than enough to give Wildman all the momentum they needed.  Pita Pit didn’t run the bases particularly well either – kicking into multiple double plays – which is very uncharacteristic.

Congratulations to Red Lyon for winning the first ever Reasonably Awesome Bracket.  It had to be a fun experience and I’m sure the majority of the league was envious of the simple fact that you earned the right to play an extra week of kickball.  The Reasonably Awesome Bracket is essentially crowning the 9th place finisher (fitting that Red Lyon finishes the as a top 10 team), but I still think that they too could have easily made a deep run through the playoffs of their own had a couple of things gone differently.  Where oh where will this new trophy be on display?

Lastly, Free State came out on top of the Less Awesome Bracket, defeating the Brewballers 10-6.  Hopefully we can all catch a glimpse of the glorious trophy while enjoying a pint down at Free State.  Congratulations to you boys and girls on the big win.

It’s hard to believe it’s all over for the summer league once again.  Time flies when you are having fun and kickball is certainly that.  I want to take a moment to thank the commissioner, Diana Garcia, for all of her hard work and dedication to making things run so smoothly all season long.  Also, everyone else on the KVKL board, thank you for everything.  Your ability to work with each other and bring everything together is definitely underappreciated.  All you boys and girls do all of the work behind the scenes to ensure that everyone is ready to play kickball all across the city throughout the summer.  You truly make all of our drunken Sundays easier and more enjoyable.

I hope to see everyone throughout the fall and winter months, so don’t be strangers.  I’m still interested in playing a full on game of snow kickball if we can gather up enough individuals.  All we need is some actual snow this year.  Imagine sliding from halfway down the baseline with (or without) a mini sled.  I might be getting ahead of myself here…but keep it in mind when you’re bored this winter.

Great season everyone and thanks for making mine another memorable season.  Best of luck in all you do.

Take care,

KM