Wild Week Sees Team Fall, Coach Propose, Loss to Hawks Avenged

By Steve Bowman
Editor, The Brentwood Spirit

Things just went from wild to crazy for the Brentwood High School girls basketball team. The good kind of crazy.

The wildness started last week when Brentwood lost a game it desperately needed to win for a chance to repeat as the South Central AA Conference champions. Having beaten Crossroads by 11 the week before on the road, you’d have thought BHS could handle them at home with the league title on the line. But the Eagles lost a heartbreaker 30-28 to lag two games behind Valley Park in the conference race with three games to go.

On the very next night, as the Eagles were breezing past Maplewood, head coach Chris Jones publicly proposed to his girlfriend during halftime. The scene included a teddy bear, a heart-shaped box of chocolates, a diamond ring, a delighted crowd and a news crew from KSDK-TV Channel 5. More on her response later.

The craziness continued last night, when the Eagles entered a noisy gym in Valley Park. The mighty Hawks were 18-2 overall and 8-0 in the South Central, including an overtime win at Brentwood two weeks earlier. BHS players faced a bleak situation:

We’re two games behind Valley Park, so even if we beat them tonight, then win our last conference game of the season on Friday, we still might end up in second place. For us to end in a tie for the league title the Hawks will have to lose their last game to Crossroads, whom they’ve already routed by 32.

The Eagles ignored the bleakness and lowered the boom. They rallied behind sophomore center Sophia Rivera, played one of their best games of the season and won by 11. Yes, they’re still in second place and can co-win the conference only if Valley Park loses on Friday. But with the way they so convincingly avenged the earlier loss to Valley Park, just don’t accuse them of lacking pride.

Valentine’s Day Surprise

Talk about your ups and downs. Chris Jones experienced both a high and a low last week. But in the grand scheme of things, there’s really no comparision – in total it was a great week. After all, basketball is just a game, wins and losses are temporary, while true love lasts forever.

On Valentine’s Day, one night after the bitter loss to Crossroads, Jones proposed marriage to his girlfriend Mickie Kuhlmann during halftime of Brentwood’s home game with Maplewood. With the entire crowd watching, he pulled a ring out of his pocket, dropped to a knee near center court and asked her to marry him. She said yes. The crowd cheered. The Eagles went on to win.

Jones and Kuhlmann met at Webster University in the late-1980s where they both played basketball. They dated for a while, lost touch after school, reconnected as friends in 2006 and started dating four years ago. He works in construction and she’s in IT.

Though Jones insists, “I’m not a romantic guy,” and Kuhlmann later said, “I didn’t know he had it in him,” the proposal was well planned. First Jones found a ring.

“I got on line and read that the number one thing is to make sure the dog gone ring fits right,” he said. “Nothing is more embarrassing than when it won’t go on the finger.”

Valentine’s Day is a great time to propose but this year it fell in the middle of a stretch of four games in four days for the Eagles, so Jones decided to pop the question at halftime. But first he called Kuhlmann’s father George, who lives in Cape Girardeau, to ask his permission. George and his wife Judy were thrilled and maybe a little relieved. They had wondered if, after years of dating, Chris and Mickie would ever get married.

Said Judy, “I got home from work and my husband said ‘Come sit down.’ He’s had a lot of health problems so I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ He said, ‘Chris Jones called me.’ I said, ‘What?’”

Chris wanted to make the proposal special, so he contacted KSDK-TV Channel 5 to see if they’d be interested in covering it. On Valentine’s Day? Of course they were.

Jones invited relatives to the game and asked them to keep the surprise a secret. He didn’t tell his players about his halftime plan until minutes before.

Said senior Shelby Linneman, “When he came into the locker room at halftime he had the flowers with him and we said, ‘Oh, we’re his valentines, that’s so adorable.’”

That’s when Jones told them his plan. Before the game, each woman entering the gym was invited to put her name on a slip of paper to be eligible to win a heart-shaped box of chocolates during a drawing at halftime. Of course, that was part of Jones’s scheme to get Kuhlmann onto the gym floor. When announcer Dan Williams called her name as the winner, she received the box at the scorer’s table and turned to see Jones jogging toward her with a teddy bear in his hand and a big smile.

The crowd was quiet as he approached her. “Will you make me the happiest guy in the whole world?” he said. He got down on one knee and the crowd cheered as it suddenly realized what was happening. He extended to her a small box with a ring in it and continued: “And be my wife for the rest of your life?”

“Yes,” she said quietly.

“Good answer,” he said with a chuckle, before sliding the ring onto her finger.

The crowd roared again as the couple embraced and kissed. Then Jones said, “I gotta get back to work,” and headed to the locker room. As Kuhlmann walked back toward the bleachers, the entire basketball team rushed out from the locker room to surround her. Each player gave her a hug and a rose from the bouquet that Jones had brought to the locker room.

“He deserves the best and we’re really happy that he’s finally settling down,” said Linneman. “And it helps us a lot because she does so much for us and we do not want her going anywhere. She helps calm him down and she gives him a girl’s perspective on things, which is really nice because sometimes I think he forgets that girls and guys are much different. It’s very special getting her part of the family.”

“It was just a total surprise; I didn’t know he had it in him,” said Kuhlmann. “His whole family was here and some of our friends. He’s been bugging them all season to come so I thought they just decided to come today. I thought Channel 5 was here covering the game. Afterwards they asked me, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I’m shocked, surprised and quite frankly it’s about time.’”

“I’m not a romantic guy,” Jones insisted afterwards. “Her parents said, ‘Oh, you did this by yourself? We have a whole new level of respect for you.’”

South Central AA Conference Standings
As of Feb. 19, with one game left
Valley Park, 8-1, 18-3
Brentwood, 7-2, 14-6
Hancock, 5-4
Crossroads, 3-3
Maplewood, 2-7
Bayless, 0-8

Feb. 18: Brentwood 39, at Valley Park (18-3) 26
Story line: Yes, Brentwood benefited from Valley Park’s icy 17 percent field goal shooting. But the Eagles also dominated the airways as Rivera collected 11 points, 10-plus rebounds and an incredible 10 blocked shots.
Leading scorers: Rivera 11, Lydia Dorenbusch 10, Valley Park’s Mara Teer 6.
Leading rebounder: Rivera keyed her team’s 51-27 advantage.
Field goal accuracy: Brentwood 32 percent, Valley Park 17 percent.
Free throws made: Brentwood 8, Valley Park 8.
Assist leaders: Linneman 5, Danni Coates 2.
Steal leaders: Coates 5, Linneman 2.

Feb. 14: at Brentwood 45, MRH (3-15) 38
Story line: Brentwood won it with a 19-7 run in the second quarter. That’s good for Chris Jones, as his team’s 14-point lead at halftime allowed him to relax a little more to propose to his girlfriend. During the second half, said Jones, “I told the girls, ‘If you don’t win and pull this out I’m going to take the ring back.’”
Scorers: Rivera 13 points; Claudia Jones 10; MRH’s Grace Beidenstein 20.
Rebounds: Rivera 16.
Field goal accuracy: Brentwood 36 percent.
Free throws made: Brentwood 10, MRH 9.
Assist leader Coates 6.
Steal leader: Coates 3.

Feb. 13: Crossroads (5-12) 30, at Brentwood 28
Story line: This game seriously damaged Brentwood’s chances of repeating as the conference champs. The Eagles led by seven early in the fourth quarter but were outscored 10-2 in the final period. Said Linneman, “Bad shooting, bad free throws, bad team cohesion, bad everything. The Crossroads game was a heartbreaker.”
Scorers: Rivera 9; Ar’shay Lampkin 7; 9 apiece for Essence Price and Sara Such of Crossroads.
Field goal accuracy: Brentwood 28 percent.
Free throws made: Crossroads 5, Brentwood 2.
Assist leaders: Coates 3, Linneman 2.
Steal leaders: Coates 2, Linneman 2.

Feb. 12: Northwest Academy (2-7) 57, at Brentwood 49 in 2 OTs
Story line: Northwest trailed by 13 in the first quarter, tied it by halftime and outscored the Eagles 19-11 in two overtimes.
Linneman: “We shouldn’t have lost that game.”
Scorers: Linneman 15, Rivera 13, Dorenbusch 12, Northwest’s Latisha Bolds 15.
Field goal accuracy: Brentwood 33 percent.
Free throws made: Brentwood 16, Northwest 9.
Assist leader: Coates 4.
Steal leader: Lampkin 3.

Feb. 11: Brentwood 57, at Hancock (7-13) 40
Story line: Brentwood’s 12-4 run in the second quarter built a 14-point halftime lead that was never seriously threatened. Rivera dominated, leading the team in points, rebounds, steals and blocks. Said Chris Jones, “She’s the workhorse; we all climb on her back and ride her as far as we can go. She’s probably getting more minutes than anybody and that’s just because I don’t have anybody to put in her place.” But Jones said his team relaxed in the second half: “With four minutes left in the game we have a 12- to 13-point lead and we’re not doing crap. We’re not getting the rebounds. We talk about ‘hit, find and go’ on the rebounding − when a shot is taken, hit your man, find the ball and go get it. But it’s just contact and some girls don’t like contact. When we didn’t do it I put my second group in there. Not only did they do a good job but they pushed the lead to 17, 18 or 19.”
Scorers: Rivera 12, Jones 11, Linneman 10, Hancock’s Sarah Jerden 16.
Field goal accuracy: Brentwood 56 percent, Hancock 30 percent.
Free throws made: Brentwood 25, Hancock 17.
Assist leaders: Coates 8, Linneman 6.
Rebound leader: Rivera 16.
Steal leader: Rivera 3.
Block leader: Rivera 3.

Feb. 7: Brentwood 41, at Crossroads (3-11) 30
Story line: A 10-3 run in the third quarter stretched Brentwood’s two-point lead to nine. Coates was everywhere, leading in scoring, assists and steals, and she sank 10 of 13 free throws.
Scorers: Coates 12; Rivera 12; Crossroads’ Sara Such 8.
Field goal accuracy: Brentwood 37 percent.
Free throws made: Brentwood 16, Crossroads 12.
Assist leader: Coates 5.
Steal leader: Coates 3.
Block leader: Rivera 6.

Brentwood Scores as of Feb. 19
Dec. 6: Lost to Burroughs 39-12
Dec. 9: Beat Carnahan 64-55
Dec. 11: Beat Lift for Life 45-31
Dec. 13: Beat McKinley at Cardinal Ritter 55-35
Dec. 26: Beat Cleveland at Cardinal Ritter 53-16
Dec. 27: Beat River Gardens at Cardinal Ritter 46-41
Dec. 28: Lost to Cardinal Ritter at Ritter 59-31
Jan. 9: Beat Barat 45-16
Jan. 10: Beat Bayless 54-25
Jan. 13: Lost to Clayton 54-25
Jan. 24: Beat Hancock 53-35
Jan. 28: Beat Maplewood 34-33
Jan. 30: Beat Confluence 38-34
Jan. 31: Lost to Valley Park 61-59 in OT
Feb. 7: Beat Crossroads 41-30
Feb. 11: Beat Hancock 57-40
Feb. 12: Lost to Northwest Academy 57-49
Feb. 13: Lost to Crossroads 30-28
Feb. 14: Beat MRH 45-38
Feb. 18: Beat Valley Park 39-26