OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Clint Rider has heard the question before, but still doesn't have an answer.
"That's a difficult question to ask," said Rider, the head coach at Blue Valley Northwest football.
The question: Is Grant Stubblefield better at football or basketball?
Even Stubblefield himself doesn't know.
"I really couldn't tell you that," Stubblefield, a running back at Blue Valley Northwest said. "But, I've put in work in both of them."
That's an understatement.
Stubblefield is an All-State running back from the reigning 6A State Champions in football.
But he's also the reigning 6A Player of the Year in basketball, when the Huskies also reached the championship game but fell to Wichita Heights.
"Oh, one of the best high school athletes I've ever been around," Bennett Ratcliff, a linebacker at Blue Valley Northwest, said. "Probably the best I've ever been around."
So count on Stubblefield being a candidate for the Direnna Award, which goes to the city's best basketball player, as well as one of the favorites for the Simone Award, which goes to the best football player in Kansas City.
Blue Valley Northwest already has experience with that. Quarterback and fellow multi-sport star Mikey Pauley won the Simone Award a year ago.
"I mean it was really cool to see Mikey win it last year," Stubblefield said. "When you win, all those individual awards come."
That's what Blue Valley Northwest is planning to do again — win.
The Huskies collected their first football state title last November, shocking powerhouse Derby by a score of 41-21 in Emporia, Kansas.
Following it up is the next challenge.
"Yeah I think this year is definitely a test of our meddle," Rider said. "And what our players have built here and the legacy that they've built."
They'll have to earn it as BVNW will have it's typical, monstrous Eastern Kansas League schedule. The Huskies open up with reigning 4A State Champion St. James.
But even in it's off-week away from the EKL, Blue Valley Northwest is scheduled to play Lee's Summit North, the no. 1 ranked team in the city.
"Ha, that's a rough off week," joked Ratcliff.
Meanwhile, Ratcliff has an answer for the question of which sport Stubblefield is better at.
"Basketball. Because our offensive line is pretty good so he's got a lot of help there," he said.
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