Rose is back

From her ankle boo-boo

The rain fell down

And Gotham did, too.

The return of star midfielder Rose Lavelle, meant to spark Gotham during a patchy run of league form, instead provided just a silver lining on a gray and rainy Saturday afternoon during a 2-1 home loss to the Kansas City Current.

It was the first appearance for Lavelle — the fan favorite who had been sidelined from Gotham (3W-3D-5L) and the U.S. women’s national team following offseason ankle surgery — since Nov. 16.

“All the hard work she’s put in with the medical team, the high-performance team, the coaches, has been amazing, but especially her,” Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amorós said this week. “We can see her finally with her teammates, where she belongs, doing what she loves — which is playing for her team, for Gotham in front of our fans.”

The cheers for Lavelle started in the 31st minute when she rose from the substitutes’ bench to begin warming up beyond the goal line.

At halftime, she shared a hug with Liberty counterpart Breanna Stewart, who joined the crowd at what’s now known as Sports Illustrated Stadium for the team’s annual Pride match.

Lavelle entered in the 74th minute to a sustained round of applause, and wasted little time getting on the ball and showcasing her trademark saucy dribbling. Minutes later, she sent a left-footed shot just wide of the top corner.

She also applied the pressure that led to a Current own goal deep into stoppage time.

The day of mixed emotions ended with the ceremonial presentation of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup, the regional club title Gotham won last month, further underscoring where the team is caught at the moment.

There’s another trophy to be proud of and show off, affirming the club’s ambitions to be relevant on an international level.

At the same time, there’s the reality of the standings: Last year’s NWSL semifinalists finished the afternoon in ninth place, outside of playoff position, and faced the prospect of sinking as low as 12th (out of 14) by the end of the weekend.

They are winless in their past four NWSL matches (0-1-3), a stretch dating back six weeks to an April 26 victory over the Washington Spirit.

They have scored just 13 goals in 11 games, despite a wealth of attacking options, and have a goal differential of plus-1.

Kansas City (9-0-2) is the best team in the league and quickly showed why.

Gotham conceded in the third minute off a giveaway by Emily Sonnett, allowing Temwa Chawinga to spring Michelle Cooper for a quick strike. The visitors doubled their lead in the 11th minute on a blink-of-an-eye move up the right side, this time Chawinga converting off a cross from Cooper.

Gotham twice appeared to have pulled one back in the second half, only for both goals to be disallowed. In the 49th minute, Sonnett headed in Sarah Schupansky’s corner kick, but Sonnett was whistled for a foul on the set piece.

In the 63rd minute, Esther González was judged to be offside after collecting a loose ball in the box and slotting home what would have been her league-leading eighth goal of the season.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man connected to a shootout that injured two people following a high school basketball game at North Kansas City High School on March 2, 2024, was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday.

Michael Smallwood pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault, one count of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of fourth-degree assault back in March.

Smallwood will serve six years for the first count of second-degree assault, seven years for the second count of second-degree assault, four years on the unlawful use of a weapon charge and one year on the charge of fourth-degree assault.

The sentences are set to be served consecutively.

While the prosecutors said they plan to ask the judge for a 19-year prison sentence for Smallwood in the plea agreement entered in March, the agreement allowed Smallwood and his attorneys to argue for a lesser sentence.

“I was fired at and I shot back, understanding that it was reckless for me to do that in a crowd of people,” Michael Smallwood wrote in the plea agreement.

Michael and his younger brother, Lavon’Dre Smallwood, were both originally charged with armed criminal action and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon in connection with the shootout.

Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said the shooting started after a dispute between two groups of young men who were leaving a Missouri Class 6, District 8 basketball game between Staley and North Kansas City.

KSHB 41 I-Team’s Caitlin Knute obtained surveillance video of the shootout. You can watch her report below.

KSHB 41 I-Team obtains video showing shooting outside North Kansas City High School

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WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A principal released and grades allegedly changed to meet graduation requirements: Wichita Southeast High School is in the spotlight at the state level as Kansas lawmakers address claims of grade tampering. The situation has also prompted a debate on how best to measure school success.

Following the report from Kansas’s largest school district, the state’s school finance task force dove into the issue.

“They were really promoting the idea that their graduation rates had improved by 5%. And then I go and look online to pull up that particular school’s results and they’re almost twice as bad as our state’s for the lowest category,” said Rep. Kristey Williams, R-Augusta, of Southeast High School.

The questioning follows Wichita Public Schools’ celebration of district-wide improvements for graduation rates, reporting the more-than 5% jump from 2023 to 2024. But with that celebration comes the investigation into grade tampering at Wichita Southeast.

In a statement Wednesday, Wichita Public Schools confirmed “less than 10 students’ records were changed and there is no indication of data inaccuracies in past years.”

The acknowledgement of grade tampering is enough to get Rep. Williams to question the use of graduation rates to measure student success.

“Graduation rates are not correlated at all. I mean, if we want to babysit, that’s one thing. We want to have a safe place for them, that’s one thing, but that doesn’t mean you’re learning anything,” she said.

Not everyone feels the same.

“I think when you look at any industry, including the legislature, there are bad actors that you have to do things around. That doesn’t mean you should throw out that metric altogether,” said Kansas State Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Dr. Frank Harwood.

Dr. Harwood said while graduation rates are the best indicator of economic drivers, there are other things to consider.

“We could talk to business and industry about what those things are,” he said. “When we have those conversations, it’s actually about character development much more so than many other things, so I mean if we’re going to talk about some of those things, employers are looking at character development much more than they’re looking at state assessment scores.”

Ultimately, lawmakers say that if a diploma is going to be used to measure success, then they need to define what graduation really means.

“I’m hearing some employers say for some reason, they’re getting the really great students coming out, and then I’m getting those that say, ‘Wow, they really aren’t coming out knowing or being able to do much,’” said Kansas Sen. Renee Erickson, R-Wichita.

Kansas lawmakers haven’t decided on how best to measure student and school district success, or whether they’ll change current practices.

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