Craig Wind has written for Rivals.com along with his own recruiting service . Wind weighs in on 810 Varsity events and Kansas City metro area players through the year.

Back in the day, about this same time of the year, Kansas and Missouri would duel ‘head to head’ mano y mano at the HyVee Shootout at Avila University.  So adeptly then, Chad Rader and 810 Varsity has brought it back in grandiose style

This should be a barn-burner of a day of high school hoops heaven at Blue Valley North HS…

Piper (KS) vs. Raytown South MO, at 11:30 am
Steve Wallace does a great coaching job at Piper. They are very athletic as a team and very well coached in the open floor. This will be a battle of long and bouncy point guards with 6’2” Derrick Jackson 2026 vs. 6’1” Travon Henderson 2024. Two-time state champion head coach Reggie Morris is fielding his best team in his three-year tenure at Ray South. Nice opener.

Blue Valley West (KS) vs. Hogan Prep (MO) at 1:00 pm
I already wrote about losing 6’5” Eli Kovich to a wrist injury vs. Olathe East in December. Very tough blow for West. 6’2” Will Watson 2024 can guard, and he’ll have his hands full with 6’2” Kevin Sorrells 2024 in a matchup of solid senior wings.

Olathe South (KS) vs. Pembroke Hill (MO) at 2:30 pm
I already wrote about Nic Anderson. That’s not the only star in the backcourt for South, as 6’3” Matthew Corrales 2024 and 5’11” Jordan Mason 2024 gives them a deep and skilled shooting trio of guards in the backcourt. Pembroke has the ultimate coach’s son running the show in the in 6’1” Maverick Hawkins 2026. He’s very talented.

Blue Valley Southwest (KS) vs.  Center (MO) at 4:00 pm
Southwest majors in having football AND baseball players on their squad each and every year. 6’3” Emmitt Peters 2024 looks to be the exception averaging 12 ppg for BVSW. He’ll go head to head with 6’5” Xavier Byers 2025, a big strong physical forward with toughness and intensity. This MAY be a football game on
the hardwood.

Mill Valley (KS) vs. North Kansas City (MO) at 5:30 pm
Speaking of football, how many 21st century state championships now for the Mavericks? THIS WILL BE (or could be) football on the hardwood! 6’8” Carter Kaifes 2025 plays for MoKan and he’s got mid D1+ skills and potential. But he’ll face off against the Hall of Fame legendary Ed Fritz of Blue Valley Northwest fame. This could well be his first game back in Johnson County. NKC is deep with athletes and always very well coached. 6’9” Samuel Dada is an unknown SR post who will impress. Lots of scholarship potential in this contest!

Blue Valley Northwest (KS) vs. Staley (MO) at 7:00 pm
These last three games will be little miniature ‘wars’ at North on the first Saturday of the year 2024. I already wrote about Jake Fritz, and he’s not the highest decorated 2024. That belongs to 6’8” Joey Matteoni 2024 who has committed to NW Missouri State, a D-2 powerhouse. He’s long and talented and very skilled. He’ll match up with 6’6” Ken’Vion Stone 2024 and a very young and talented but very inexperienced Staley program. Lots of 21st century high school boys basketball championship contests in this affair. Aaron Ihm and Chris Neff get to find out what their teams are made of in a wonderful border war!

Blue Valley North (KS) vs. Lee’s Summit West (MO) at 8:30 pm
The host team is head coached by Ryan Phifer who is as good a coach as there is in the state of Kansas. Lots of former champions lined up by 810 Varsity's Chad Rader, the Mustangs won the 2021 6A state title champions. This version is led by 6’2” Gerard Hinson 2025. He can make shots deep and he’ll need to. Lee’s Summit
West is LOADED with good players and head coach Michael Schieber is an outstanding coach in his own right. We’ve already diatribed on the ‘diaper dandy’ Cameron Barnes. Barnes gets the rock from 6’3” Chaz Watson 2024 who can dunk it and shoot it as well. The Titans are deep with scholarship players. The ‘nightcap’ will not disappoint.

One GREAT day of high school basketball.