Hollywood Heights is back with four Division I prospects in the same starting lineup

For decades, Wichita Heights has been one of the best public high schools in the country for basketball talent.

And Hollywood Heights is back.

This season’s girls basketball team is 16-0 with the No. 1 seed in Class 6A West, but these Falcons can boast something few public high school programs — boys or girls — have seen:

Four Division I prospects in the starting five.

Senior Taylor Jameson is signed to play at George Mason. Junior Laniah Randle and sophomores Cayanna Stanley and Zyanna Walker have Division I scholarship offers. The fifth starter, senior Ashton Conley is set to play soccer at Butler Community College but has been given the opportunity to play basketball, too.

But the Falcons said they aren’t shocked. They know the work they’ve put in.

“We don’t try to take it to that next level like, ‘Oh, we have those offers,’” Stanley said. “We try to just play together like we don’t.”

Jameson, being the lone senior of the group, has set a good example for the group, Walker said. The two have played together throughout youth basketball.

“We always told each other, ‘You’re gonna go D-I. You’re gonna have big dreams and do big things,’” Jameson said.

And with two other players who will one day play in Division I basketball, coach Ken Palmer said this year’s Heights group is like an AAU team that has played together for a couple of years.

Randle, who holds a Wichita State offer, said she knows where everyone is going to be at all times. Stanley said she sees the team like a puzzle, and it’s all put together.

“With the different talent I have on that team, any girl can spark us,” Palmer said. “Makes my job a lot easier.”

But the 2019-20 Falcons’ story isn’t complete without looking back to last year’s state tournament.

The Falcons won the City League with ease and beat Maize, one of the best teams in the Wichita area, for the right to go to the Class 5A quarterfinals in Emporia.

Heights was one of the favorites to bring home the championship trophy with six other titles since 2000. The Falcons didn’t have a lot of senior leadership, but as far as talent was concerned, few teams could match Heights.

But Kansas City Schlagle could.

Schlagle beat Heights 69-67 in the quarterfinals. Randle scored what would have been a game-tying runner at the final buzzer, but the referees ruled the ball didn’t leave her hand before time ran out.

The Falcons were done the same day they arrived at state, and Schlagle finished third in 5A.

Heights lost two games through the regular season last year. The Falcons found trouble in the City League only with Bishop Carroll, who finished runner-up at state in 2018.

This year, Carroll is solid again, but when Heights went on the road Jan. 14, the Falcons won by 41 points. And that was an average night.

Heights is outscoring opponents by 38 per game and wrapped up another City League championship with a 67-25 win at Wichita East on Tuesday. But that dominance came back to bite the Falcons at the state tournament.

“It humbled us,” Jameson said. “Going through City League, the scores are pretty high, so the competition is basically ourselves. We have to go into practice and scrimmage ourselves like it’s a game.

“Last year we walked in with not necessarily big heads but we didn’t really know what was coming.”

The Falcons said that won’t happen again.

Heights has been bumped up into Class 6A. If the Falcons reach the state tournament, they’ll be a couple of miles south at Wichita State’s Koch Arena.

“I feel like if we do make it, we’re going to have the whole city behind us,” Stanley said. “They’ll realize how much work we’ve put in, not only this year but last year and the summers.”

Heights is 8-0 against Class 6A competition this season, including an impressive 56-34 win against last year’s state champion Washburn Rural.

Rural is one of the best teams in 6A again this season, and there are two other undefeated teams in 6A West in Topeka and Liberal.

The route to a state championship won’t be easy, but Palmer said he was almost excited when he learned his group was bumping back up to 6A.

“They threw us in there not really knowing what we’ve got coming,” Palmer said. “They haven’t gotten hit by the storm yet.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 10:28 PM.

Hayden Barber

The Wichita Eagle

316-269-6760

Wichita Eagle preps reporter Hayden Barber brings the area updates on all high school sports while adding those hard-to-find human-interest stories on Wichita’s student-athletes.