Football
Jalen Wilson is a football player, too. He helped Kansas top Missouri in HS All-Star Game
Go online and search the name “Jalen Wilson.”
Chances are, you’ll get pictures and a small bio of the 23-year-old Brooklyn Nets forward, once an Allen Fieldhouse mainstay from Denton, Texas.
Now, try “Jalen Wilson Bishop Miege.”
This time, you’ll find a recent high school graduate: Jalen Wilson from Bishop Miege, a class of 2024 defensive lineman who concedes it’s “kind of cool” to share a name with the former KU basketball great.
And as of last night, the winner of “Outstanding Lineman” at the BeYOUnion Kansas vs. Missouri All-Star Football Game.
A game his team won.
“I was kind of surprised,” Wilson said of receiving the honor. “I didn’t think I was gonna win anything.”
But the Butler Community College commit would take that title and more at Friday’s all-star game.
The Greater Kansas City Football Coaches Association organizes this annual clash. On Friday, the 32nd game took place at the De Soto football field featuring some 90 high school seniors, the best that Kansas and Missouri had to offer from the fall 2023 season.
“It’s obviously a pretty big honor for them,” Kansas coach Joel Applebee said. “To get to play one more high school game and to get a chance to win their last high school game — I know these kids were proud to be part of the team.”
For the Missouri squad, led by coach Logan Minnick, pride was especially on the line. In each of the last three years, the Missouri side has won. Friday, it looked to extend that streak to four.
But not without a fight from the Sunflower State, which won 34-28.
Missouri’s first drive, which featured a fourth-down conversion and touchdown brought back by penalty, ended in an interception by Blue Valley safety Anthony Lonergan.
Mill Valley’s Kenten Laughman kicked a 52-yard field goal to give Kansas a 3-0 first-quarter lead.
The Kansas team stretched that lead to 10-0 in the second quarter. Blue Valley Southwest quarterback Dylan Dunn found Blue Valley West’s Crew Myers for a touchdown, and that lead grew to 17-0 on a 95-yard pass, once again from Dunn to Myers.
Missouri answered in the second quarter, faking the triple option and instead going with a reverse to Kearney’s Cohen Jacobs, who streaked down the sideline and scored.
The Missouri side began the second half with an onside kick in hopes of cutting into the deficit further. Instead, the Kansas team recovered and pushed the lead to 20-7 on a field goal.
Missouri closed the gap to 20-14 on another reverse that went for a score, but Myers scored his third touchdown — a 71-yard pass from Dunn — and Eudora’s Adrion Seals intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown to push the lead to 34-14.
The Missouri side answered with two late scores: Grain Valley’s Ty Williams scored, and quarterback Sal Caldarella connected with Park Hill South’s Marcus Parker to cut the lead to 34-28 with a minute left, but the ensuing onside kick was unsuccessful and Kansas ran out the clock.
“They battled and battled,” Minnick said. “We didn’t give up when we could’ve.”
Dunn was named the game’s MVP.
“It was special,” Dunn said of the win. “All week, we were practicing together, and I think it showed out here tonight, the team chemistry we had.”
The hardest part of the game, according to Dunn, was “getting back in rhythm” since he’d last played in the fall — especially on a new team with only five days of practice together.
“You meet the group of guys on Sunday, spend a lot of time with them all week and then you guys go to battle on a Friday,” Laughman added.
Still, as some players head into the beginnings of their college careers, it seems like the Kansas team’s chemistry will be built to last.
“It was fun to play football with them and just to build a relationship with them,” Dunn said. “We’ll see a lot of these guys in the future.”
The Star’s Maddie Hartley contributed to this report.