Estell has played football and competed in wrestling all four years of high school. He is a four time letter winner in wrestling and a three time letter winner in football.

As a wrestler, Kevin has been to state twice, as sophomore and a junior, and he is on his way to his 3rd state tournament appearance this year as a senior. His junior year he placed second in state and earned a spot on the first team all-state team.

This wrestling season Estell said he plans on winning state. He has an impressive record of 32-4 and has won 5 tournaments.           

“There will be a few tough matches in the state tournament,” Estell said. “I will have to turn it up, but I know I can win.”

This football season, didn’t go very well as a team for Belton, but Estell had a great senior season on both sides of the ball. He was an all-state offensive lineman and an all-conference defensive lineman, and even led the team in tackles. He was also an all-conference lineman his junior season as well.

Estell said that the team didn’t win as many games as he would have liked this season but that they improved as a team. He said he hopes that he helped the younger players get better and show them how to work. He also said he thinks the program will continue to get better with the coaching staff that Belton has.

“The thing I learned most from high school football was to just have fun playing,” Estell said. “When you play you just got to have fun, and pick up your pace at the same time.”

Line Coach Justin Hamilton said that Kevin’s best trait as a football player is his strong work ethic and hunger to win. He says Kevin will do what he has to do to win and that is important in football.

“It makes it easy as a coach to have someone like Kevin on the team,” Hamilton said. “He is willing to do whatever you ask him to do, and he does whatever he can for the players around him to achieve greatness.”

Kevin said he is really looking forward to attend Western Illinois next year. He said he is really excited to start playing football and meet new people. He also said that he thinks he will really enjoy the university he has chosen.

“Football is my life,” Estell said. “I’m very excited to get to play in college, and I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity and get as much out of it as I can.”

Estell said that he enjoyed his visit very much and that he thinks he will really like playing for Western Illinois.

“The coaching staff at Western Illinois seems amazing,” Estell said. “The players I’ve met were really cool as well.”

Estell will begin working with the team in late summer before the fall semester begins. He says he has been working very hard to improve his strength and speed as an athlete. He has made a big impact on Belton as an athlete and he plans to do the same in the future with Western Illinois University.

The meet went very well, overall, for the Belton Pirates. 13 of the 16 competitors who competed placed in their respective weight classes. Strength and Conditioning Coach Eric “Scherf” Scherfenberg, who has both competed and coached in more power lifting competitions than he can count, said that he was very happy with the performance of the team. He also said that it was nice knowing that we had two athletes who would have placed higher in the weight classes above theirs and that we didn’t have any of our competitors who are currently in a winter sport.

“We achieved our number one goal, which is to stay healthy,” Scherfenberg said. “We also achieved our other goals, having several guys achieve their personal best, place and a few guys even breaking a meet record.”
          
Sophomores AJ Goffoy and Taylor Trapp, who both competed in the 181 pound jr. weight class, said that they were very happy with their performance at the meet. Goffoy placed 6th overall in the weight class and Trapp placed 5th in the weight class.

“I feel like I did really well,” Trapp said. “Even though I didn’t win, I got my personal best in all three lifts and that gives me a lot of confidence.”

Goffoy also got his personal best in all three lifts and he said he feels like he will keep making improvements and be able to place higher in the next meet.

Sophomore Travis Norman placed 8th in the 198 pound jr. weight class.   

“I feel like I made good improvement,” Travis said. “It was a good environment to do well in.”

Seniors Shawn Norman and Chris Oden both competed in the 181 pound men’s weight class. Norman placed 6th in the weight class and Oden earned a bronze medal, placing 3rd in the weight class.

“I feel like I met my goals and put myself in a good spot for the beginning of the season,” Shawn said. “The meet got me ready for the next three upcoming meets.”

Oden said he is happy with the performance of the team and that he was happy with placing 3rd.

“Placing 3rd was good, but I could have done much better,” Oden said. “I didn’t have a great day; I didn’t meet my goals.”

Senior Anthony Biondo and sophomore Dalton Logan both broke a meet record in their weight classes. Logan broke the bench press record in the 148 pound jr. weight class with a 215 pound bench press lift. Biondo broke the hang clean record in the 173 pound men’s weight class by 25 pounds with a 300 pound hang clean lift. Biondo placed 6th overall in the 173 pound weight class.

Scherfenberg said that he is excited for the next upcoming meets. He said he feels like the team that he brings will perform very well and will meet all personal and team goals just like this past meet.

Sophomore Clay Stine said that he has had a good season so far and that he looks forward to the rest of the season.

“The season so far has been delicious,” Stine said. “I have won some tournaments and my record is good this season.”

Stine’s record this season so far is 22-3, his final record of  last year was 40-11.

Stine said that he thinks senior Kevin Estell will be able to make it to state this year if he goes into tournaments with a good mind set like he has had all year.

Sophomore Sergio Ramos said that he has not had that good of a season so far.

“I have lost quite a few matches this season, but it I did better than I expected to do this year,” Ramos said.

Head coach Jeff Davis said that the wrestling team is blessed with the tough and hard working athletes that are on the team. He also added that the team continues to prove every day, with the help of the staff that is driving the young men at a torrid pace.

“The wrestling team is young, with only one varsity senior,” Davis said. “Taking second at the 12 team North Kansas City tournament speaks for the drive these high fliers possess.”

Not only did the wrestling team place second at the 12 team North Kansas City tournament, but six pirate wrestlers made it to the finals. The six champions at the meet that made it to the finals were freshmanBrian Sanders, sophomore Clay Stine, freshman Caleb Chevalier, junior Robbi Jones, freshman Austin Goin, and senior Kevin Estell.

Estell is the only varsity senior on the 2011-2012 wrestling team. He said that his season is going pretty well, and so far the season has been what he has expected. He has an amazing record of 25-1, and hopes to keep it going throughout the rest of the season.

“We have a young team, and at first they weren’t very experienced, but throughout the course of the season they have stepped up and started getting better,” Estell said.

Many of the wrestlers on the team has said that they predict Estell can definitely make it to state if he has a good mindset and ambition to make it all the way. Estell also said he thinks he can make it to state.

“I know I can make it to state,” Estell said. “There are over five kids ranked in top ten in my districts, so I think it will be good competition.”

Estell said he thinks that there have been a couple of duals where wrestlers haven’t done their best.

“We all have good and bad days, but we definitely learn from our mistakes,” Estell said.

As the wrestlers season continues and quickly approaches, they will be training very hard to have chances to make state.

The Lady Pirates struggled in the first half on both offense and defense. The girls were only able to put up three points in the first half, missing almost every shot attempt. The defense had a hard time stopping the Park Hill South offensive scheme as well as the fast breaks.

The ladies have struggled all season with scoring points, only averaging thirty points a game, most of those coming in the second half, putting them in a hole early in the game and giving their opponents the early momentum. All though the offense has struggled, unlike this game the defense has played well holding their opponents to low enough scores to stay in the game.

The Lady Pirates played much better in the second half on offense, scoring sixteen of the nineteen points. The girls shot six for twenty-eight, a shot percentage of 21.4%.

Junior Post Emilee Biondo said that the team really needs to work on both offense and defense. She said they aren’t able to score enough points to keep them close to the other team.

“We have to stop turning the ball over,” Biondo said. “We have a lot to work on.”

The girl’s basketball team has turned the ball over two-hundred and fourteen times this season in their nine games. They turned the ball over on offense a season high of thirty-four times against Park Hill South, which has played a big role on why the girls are struggling on offense.

Junior Guard Ashley Cole who leads the team in points per game with ten, had eight against Park Hill South. She said the team just isn’t playing well enough right now but that they have the ability to play good.

“We can be good,” Cole said. “We just haven’t been able to score many points.”

Cole also added that the team is working hard in practice. She said she expects the team to start playing better and get some wins.

The Lady Pirates will have to win nine of their next seventeen games to be able to tie last season’s record of 9-17. The girls so far are 0-3 against conference opponents, but still have nine more conference games to go, and if they can win all of those nine games they can still have a shot to win their conference.

A few of the conference games coming up are against William Chrisman High School, Raytown High School and Raytown South High School. The ladies are also preparing to play in the Pleasant Hill High School Invitational Tournament. Their first opponent is against Grandview High School. The girls hope to do well in the tournament and in these next few conference games so that they can turn their season around.

Many swimmers said that they are proud of themselves for dropping so much time this soon in the season. There were several swimmers who earned lifetime best times at the meet Dec. 20.

The meet took place at Harrisonville Community Center against the Harrisonville Wildcats, the Warrensburg Tigers, the Platte County Pirates and our own team. Belton came in fourth place, but still had 62 percent best times.

Freshman Beija Stroud swam freestyle and butterfly in two relays along with the 200-meter IM and the 500-meter freestyle.

“I really enjoy butterfly,” Stroud said. “My fly has gotten so much better and my time just keeps dropping.”

Stroud said that she dropped time in all of her events and that it made her proud.

“I even dropped time in my 500 freestyle,” Stroud said. “That’s a really hard event.”

Stroud said that she is looking forward to the next meet at Mizzou because she enjoys swimming against more people and enjoys the all-day meets.

Junior Alexis Finley said that she really enjoyed swimming in the last meet. Finley swam freestyle in two relays: the 200-meter freestyle and the 500-meter freestyle. She said that she thinks she did good because she dropped a ton of time on her events.

“I dropped 10 to 15 seconds on my 500 freestyle,” Finley said.

Finley said that her favorite event was the 400-meter freestyle relay because she feels like she is the strongest in that event.

“I really like doing relays because it’s not just me swimming by myself,” Finley said.

Sophomore Amara Jefferson said that she also thought the meet was a great way to end the semester. She swam freestyle in two relays, along with the 100-meter breast stroke and 100-meter butterfly.

“My favorite event was the 400 freestyle relay,” Jefferson said, “I enjoy it because it’s just a fun way to end the meet.”

Jefferson said that she is looking forward to the Mizzou meet because it will be fun to hang out on the campus during free time. She said that she thinks throughout the rest of the season her teammates will continue to improve their times.

The season is only halfway over and the swimmers are still steadily improving their times, technique and skill. Swimmers are looking forward to the next big meet at Mizzou and hope that they do well.

The Pirates were executing their offense very well, hitting shots from the perimeter and hitting the post players down in the paint, working the ball all around the court. The Raytown defense didn’t seem to have an answer for the Pirate’s offense, never being able to hold them to take the lead.

Senior Guard Avan Ward was a big part of the offense for the Pirates against Raytown, scoring 26 points in the game. Ward said the offense was on point and it felt great to get that win.

“Beating Raytown gave us a lot of momentum and confidence,” Ward said. “Now we are ready and have the confidence to go against Ray South.”

The offense kept the lead from the very beginning until the end, winning by an advantage of 9 points, after putting in the backups through out the fourth quarter.

The defense had a very strong performance as well, stopping the so far impressive Raytown offense to just 46 points, and only two points in the first four minutes of the game after they had scored the first basket. The defense made many nice plays, stealing, blocking and drawing fouls to get the ball back in their possession.

The defense helped gain much of the offensive momentum by creating plays and scoring on fast breaks. The Pirates did the small things right, like hustle, smart fouls and hitting a high percentage of their free throws.

Junior Guard Ben Long said that the team played good and that they keep getting better.

“After playing like that I’m excited to play our next game,” Long said. “We have a lot of confidence now.”

Sophomore Forward Lewis Wilkins had a nice game on both offense and defense, scoring 9 points, hitting a big three point shot early in the game and nailing both of his free throws late in the game to sustain the lead.

Wilkins said that it feels good winning like that, and that it helps gain momentum when they are playing good and they can hear the crowd getting loud.

“We did much better playing as a team,” Wilkins said. “We play a lot better as a team than we do as individuals.”

Wilkins also added to other comments from his team mates that they gained a lot of confidence from the win.

The win over the Raytown Blue Jays brought Belton’s record up to 5-4, and 2-1 in conference play. The boys have a two week break until their next game Jan. 3, the first game of 2012. The Pirates play at Raytown South, who is having a very good season. The win will be big for the Pirate’s success this season.

Their meet was held at Longview`s Community College Aquatics Center. They swam against Grandview High School, Center High School, Ruskin High School, and Platte County High School.

Platte County High School came in first place, overall they earned a total of 129 points against Belton. Belton High School took second place, Grandview High School came in third place, Center High School came in fourth place, and Ruskin High School took home last place.

Junior Alexis Finley, said she thinks that everyone did really well at the meet.

“I think that we all did really well,” Finley said. “Everyone definitely gave 110% in all their races.”

Compared to the beginning of the season many of the new swimmers are able to finish all of their races with a lot of confidence. Times continue to drop and drop after each meet, to eventually reach goal times for conference.

Sophomore Hally Nelson said that she really enjoyed the meet and seeing everyone improve.

“The meet was really fun and I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the meet,” Nelson said.

First time swimmer Andrea Maldonado, said that she was very happy with the overall outcome of the meet and the fact that swimmers are bonding more and more each meet and practice.

“I think that everyone did really well to try and finish their races and cheer for each other during the relays,” Maldonado said. “I think we are really getting closer as a team, with our dinners and stuff.”

There is always room for improvement as a swimmer and definitely as a swim team. Sophomore Rachel Hoffman said that she thinks there were a few things the girls could have done a little bit better.

“I think we need to work on being a team a little more,” Hoffman said. “We also need to work on our relay exchanges and having a little bit faster flip turns to get our times down even more.”

Freshman Selena Haunty said she is getting used to swim meets more and more as they go by. Haunty also said she enjoys going to different places to swim against more schools.

“The meet at Longview was really fun, I think that we did a great job,” Haunty said. “We do have a few things that we can work on as a team, but we have come a really long way since the beginning of the season.”

This meet went very well for the Lady Pirates swim team, so far the season has been a really good one, improving times at each meet and getting adjusted to being a team and competing as a team.

Sophomore Katie Giacone, a new swimmer, swam the 50 and 100 meter freestyle events. She got personal bests on both events, making Belton proud. Giacone swam her 50 freestyle, two laps in a short 27 seconds. She swam her 100 freestyle in one minute and two seconds, which is an incredible time drop from her 1:06 a short three days before.

“Dropping time on my 100 freestyle and the relays were my favorite parts of the meet,” Giacone said.

Giacone will be a handy weapon of the swim team this year; she’s a sprinter. Many returning swimmers have been surprised by how good she and the other new swimmers are doing.

Another new swimmer, freshman Beija Stroud, said that she thinks the Invitational was a lot more fun than the normal meets. She said that she feels like it was more of a challenge since their were more schools.

“I think that it was good for us to be able to put more of a challenge on ourselves,” Stroud said.

Stroud said that she feels like the season has been going well because it has been organized.

“I really enjoy all of the team dinners,” Stroud said. “As being a girl who has never been on a swim team before, it’s a really good experience.”

Stroud said that her favorite part of the meet was competing in the 100-meter backstroke against some of the other Belton girls.

“I really like how all of the girls, even the other teams, were super nice and not cocky about how well they swim,” Stroud said. “It makes it a lot more fun.”

Co-captain and junior Amelia Mullins said that the meet went well because a lot of swimmers dropped time.

“I feel like this season is going great,” Mullins said. “A lot of people are improving and we are really coming together as a team.”

Mullins swam the 200-meter individual medley and the 100-meter butterfly, along with two relays. She improved time on several of her events and said that she feels like she will drop more time as the season goes along.

“My favorite part of the meets are when we all stretch as a team because we just goof around with each other,” Mullins said. “It’s a lot of fun to watch the other team’s reaction to us.”

Head Coach Martjin Keltner said that he was happy with the meet Saturday.

“I was happy with the times, but there is still room for improvement before the season is over,” Keltner said.

Many of the girls said that they are looking forward to the rest of the season and that they hope they improve. They still have about ten meets left and the girls are anticipating what comes next.

The first half of the game was very low scoring, ending the first two quarters 10-11, the Lady Pirates trailing. The defense proved in that first half that they could stop Winnetonka and hold them to a low scoring game. The offense just couldn’t score enough to take a lead and gain momentum.

Junior Emilee Biondo said that the team is having a hard time getting shots to fall. She also said that they aren’t running their offense very well.

“Our defense is playing good,” Biondo said. “We just need to get better on offense and we will win.”

The girls had the game tied 10-10 right before half but then suffered a technical foul. Winnetonka took advantage of the foul and made a free throw right before the end of the  half to take a one point lead into the half.

The second half didn’t go as well for the Lady Pirates as their defense loosened up and allowed 24 points in the second half, losing by a final score of 23-34. The girls seemed to be much more tired in the second half, especially on defense.

The girls still struggled on the offensive side of the ball, only putting up another 13 points in the second half. The girls are just having problems getting their shots to fall. They feel as if they are taking good looks and taking the right shots but they aren’t putting them in the basket and putting points on the board.

Junior Guard Ashley Cole who has played varsity basketball since her freshman year said that the team is really struggling on offense and that they are working on it in practice. She also added that they had a key injury in the game against Winnetonka, losing Senior Guard Tayler McEnaney to an ankle injury in the first half.

“We have struggled on offense,” Cole said. “Losing Tayler is going to hurt us but hopefully someone else will step up.”

Cole scored 15 points in Monday’s game against Winnetonka, the most on the team in that game. Cole also leads the team in points scored in total season stats as well through out the first five games. Behind her was McEnaney but now that she is injured, the offense could begin to struggle even more.

The loss puts the Lady Pirate’s record at 0-5. Not the start they were looking for, but there are still plenty of games left to turn the season around and the team believes that they have the chance to do that.

The Pirate’s defense seemed to be improved, nearly shutting down Oak Park’s star post player, one of the top players in the area. The strong defensive performance gave a chance for the quick offense to take the lead early and keep adding to it as the game progressed.

The boys however, lost their following game against rival school Ray-Pec 44-30. The team was right there in the game only trailing by a few points until the 4th quarter when the Panthers took off with the lead, sealing a win.

The loss brings the Pirate’s record to 1-1 to start the regular season, but the boys are currently participating in the Ray-Pec invitational tournament that will last through the week of Dec.5th – 9th .

Senior Kyle Simmons said he thinks the team is playing well but that they need to stop turning the ball over so much. He also said that the team is showing that they have improved since last season.

“We still have a lot of room left for improvement,” Simmons said. “But I think we will pick it up quick and start winning.”

The Pirate’s will be playing their first conference game against Fort Osage High School Dec. 13. The boys split the series 1-1 with Fort Osage last season, winning in their first meeting 54-46 and then losing 60-42 in their second meeting.

The team has three games next week including the conference game against Fort Osage and then two non-conference games against Grandview High School and Excelsior Springs High School. If the Pirates will look to improve their 1-1 record to 4-1 next week, which will be Belton’s Boy’s Basketball’s best start in years.