The Kansas City metro has some amazing youth athletes, some with prodigal abilities. Picking just a few to shout out wasn’t easy, but we went for it anyway.
Corbin Allen
Corbin Allen works hard. A 6’5”, 170-pound shooting guard, he’s coming off a high school basketball season that saw lots of colleges eyeing him for a place on their roster.
The Oak Park High School senior has already committed to the University of San Diego, turning down offers from North Dakota State, Ball State and six others. He’s an incredibly productive player.
Oak Park basketball head coach Sherron Collins calls him a coach’s dream—and a coach’s headache. “Sometimes he wants to work so much that I have to kick him out of the gym,” he says. “We’ll have to call his mom and tell her, ‘Don’t let him do anything extra.’ He gets banged up a lot and he doesn’t complain. He plays through it. He practices through it. And he just always works, man. He wills us to win and does a lot for us.”
In four seasons at Oak Park so far, he has accumulated 781 points (195 per season). His team is ranked 32 nationally, second in Missouri and first in Kansas City. Allen was awarded MVP for scoring 27 points in one game during the 2024 Norm Stewart Classic in December. Collins thinks he has a chance to go to the NBA. “He works hard and has a great family behind him, and that plays big into it,” Collins says.
Jaxon Hicks
Jaxon Hicks won the 2024 Thomas Simone Award in December as Kansas City’s most outstanding high school football player, and his football coach Chad Frigon says it’s an honor well deserved.
Hicks has earned “everything he’s got,” says Frigon. He’s relatively small for a running back, but that hasn’t held him back. “We have him on the roster at 5’8”, 160 pounds, and he worked hard to get to that size. He was a wrestler before. He worked his way into the spot where he’s strong and fast, and he ended up having a great senior year.” The first game this season, the team’s other running back got injured, and Hicks took over as the team’s full-time running back.
Hicks plays with a lot of heart, Frigon says. “He’s definitely a team-first kid. He’s one of those people that, whether we were behind or ahead, always had the same demeanor. He never really panicked. He never got too excited. He was one of those guys on your team you need that keeps everybody level.”
Claire Sullivan
“A coach’s delight. A wonderful student-athlete. A really good person.” That is golf coach Mike Grove’s first take on his outstanding golfer, Claire Sullivan. She has been a varsity golfer since 2021, and she’s a four-time Kansas state qualifier and a two-time Kansas state champion. Sullivan won four of the regular season tournaments that the team played in and has averaged a yearly score of 73. She set an individual school record of 68, which was two under par, at the Lawrence Country Club, Grove says. She was a three-time individual state medalist and a member of the Kansas City Mid-America Cup Team in 2022 and 2023. She won the 2024 Kenneth Smith Award for the top player in the metro area.
“In this day and age that we live in, she was a breath of fresh air,” Grove says. “Like any highly skilled player, she’s had different coaches work with her, different swing instructors. She was open to everything. She never balked at anything that we tried to do. She was all in every day. She was just an unbelievable teammate and a fierce competitor.” Sullivan is not planning to compete in college, Grove says.
Logan Parks
Logan Parks helped her team win the state title in 2021 and was the 2023-2024 Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year. She is one of 24 players on the AVCA All-America Watch List for National Player of the Year, and she won the prestigious Evelyn Gates Award in November, which honors a female high school varsity volleyball student-athlete who exhibits top-tier skill, spirit and sportsmanship in the Kansas City area.
“She’s very dedicated,” says volleyball coach Matt Allin. “She works hard year-round. She’s a great teammate and is very caring and giving. Just an overall great person who has been a huge part of our volleyball program the last four years.”
Parks has been the captain of the team for the last three years. “She gets to know her teammates,” Allin says. “They trust her to lead, and they trust her to make them better.”
Parks’ athletic prowess makes her one of the best volleyball players to ever play in the KC area. Her setting accuracy and hitting power are second to none, Allin says.
Parks just played in the Under Armour All-America match in January in Orlando, which is a competition of 26 of the best volleyball players in the country. “She’s very coachable, very open to new ideas, always wanting to learn and always wanting to try new things and improve physically and mentally.”
Parks recently accepted a scholarship to play volleyball at Stanford University next year.
Whitaker Steward
Whitaker Steward has an “Olympic mindset,” says his swimming coach Tom Kleiboeker.
Steward made the national select camp at the Olympic Training Center in 2024 and is currently ranked 2nd in the nation for 17–18 year olds. He’s an Olympic Trials qualifier in the 1650 freestyle, and he won a silver medal winner in the 1650 freestyle at Winter Junior Nationals. At the Olympic Trials at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, Steward finished 34th in the 1500 freestyle, an incredible feat. However, it did not qualify him for July’s 2024 Olympics in Paris.
“His success inspires and helps others believe that they, too, can achieve what I call the ‘Olympic mindset,’ which is understanding that great achievement comes from excellent habits and that greatness is a lifestyle and not a hobby,” says Kleiboeker, who heads the Northland’s Tsunami Swim Team, where Steward trains. “We have a great partnership, and he’s a joy to work with every day.”
Steward is also Kearney High School’s record holder in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle, a 12-time Greater Kansas City Suburban Varsity Conference champion, a three time All-American in the 200 freestyle and a two-time All-American in the 500 freestyle.
Steward has committed to swim for the University of Tennessee after his senior year.
