Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Langrehr commits to play basketball at MidAmerica

Five months ago, Conner Langrehr freely admits MidAmerica Nazarene wasn’t a blip on his radar screen as he weighed his college basketball options.

The son of Jeff Langrehr, who took over the Gardner Edgerton boys basketball in June after a successful 15-year stint in Great Bend, it’s hard now for Conner to imagine playing elsewhere. So hard, in fact, he committed to the Pioneers earlier in the month and became the first player in the program’s 2010-11 recruiting class.

“Before we moved here, I’d never heard of (MidAmerica) and I didn’t even know they existed really,” Conner admitted. “I knew Matt Keeley had gone there, but I know clue where it was.”

Keeley, a former Great Bend star who played for Jeff Langrehr in high school, has returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach and was instrumental in helping the MidAmerica men land Langrehr.

Really, all of the Pioneers’ coaches were.

After arriving in Gardner in late June, Conner began working with Bill Fleming, another MidAmerica assistant, and formed a relationship with head coach Rocky Lamar through additional workouts and open gym sessions.

“It was mind-blowing how amazing their coaching was,” Conner said. “Their coaches are brilliant. I got so much better so quick, I decided there was no place I’d rather play.”

Named an honorable mention Class 5A performer by The Wichita Eagle, Langrehr was also a first-team All-Western Athletic Conference selection and helped Great Bend share a league crown last year. He averaged 13 points and three assists per game, a release from MidAmerica said.

Hoping to replicate the success he had at Great Bend, where he guided the Panthers to back-to-back 5A titles in 2005 and 2006, Jeff Langrehr is thrilled with how things have worked out so far at Gardner Edgerton.

“It’s something we’d considered for a while, moving east,” he said. “The chance to come to Gardner was perfect, because it’s still a relatively small town, but close to the city.”

The prospect of a new challenge after 22 seasons as Great Bend’s baseball coach, including 5A championships in 1995 and 1998, and a decade and a half coaching basketball appealed to Jeff and his wife, Sherry.

“There was maybe a feeling like accomplished everything there was to accomplish in Great Bend,” he said.

Always a fan of Lamar’s, coach Langrehr couldn’t be happier to have Conner commit to the Pioneers, especially now that he lives so close to MidAmerica’s campus.

“I’ve always thought highly of him and his program, so we were pretty happy to hear he was going there,” Jeff Langrehr said.

Now, Conner can simply focus on making the Trailblazers in his father’s first season at the helm a success.

“That’s one thing my dad told me would be a huge weight off my shoulders, signing before the season so I don’t have to worry about playing well against a certain team when a scouts at the game,” Conner said.

And he’s excited to get his senior season underway.

“We’ve got some absolute freak athletes,” Conner said.

The Trailblazers already had Bubba Starling, a three-sport star and perhaps the best athlete the town has produced. In addition to Conner, Gardner Edgerton boasts a point guard who moved to the district from Hays, Jaydan Juenemann, and Dexter Newsome, a transfer from Olathe Christian.

Meanwhile, coming off the program’s fourth consecutive appearance in the Final Four, the Pioneers, who are ranked No. 22 in the NAIA Division I Preseason Coaches Poll, tip off the 2009-10 season Nov. 6 at home with the Jeff Uphaus Classic.

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