KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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A generation ago, there wasn’t much in the way of athletic tradition at Grain Valley High School, but that’s changed dramatically in recent years.
“I have coached basketball in Class 2 and 6 at the same place,” Eagles girls basketball coach Randy Draper said.
Draper arrived in 1995 as the boys basketball coach and also has coached both girls and boys tennis at Grain Valley.
When he arrived 30 years ago, the school and its athletic programs were those of a relatively sleepy small town.
“We thought it was going to get bigger and would change,” he said, “but I would be lying to you if I said I saw this.”
Enrollment at Grain Valley High School used to top out well below 600 students.
“This fall, we have over 600 kids out for fall sports,” said Grain Valley Activities Director Brandon Hart. “We're at an all-time high right now. We had 150 out for football. Volleyball, soccer, golf, tennis — we've seen incredible numbers. We've seen a lot of spirit, a lot of growth over the last 10 years.”
The Eagles are growing in athletic prowess on the field, too.
“It's been a fun time to be a part of it, as you see it take off, and now it's a different beast,” Draper said.
Eagle pride is at an all-time high.
“It's crazy,” said Grain Valley sophomore goalkeeper Charlie Bergantine. “The energy is always really up there. All the programs and stuff, they've improved a lot, like a crazy amount.”
There are even Eagles soaring at the pro and major college levels these days.
Grain Valley graduate Jacob Misiorowski was a rookie all-star last month for the Milwaukee Brewers, who own baseball’s best record. He’s 4-1 with a 3.89 ERA since his June 12 debut.
“Misiorowski, you know, I had him in middle school PE,” Draper said. “You see those kids and you think they're special, but you don't think, ‘Well, yeah, he's gonna throw 98 (mph) in the major leagues. He's gonna throw 100 (mph) in the All-Star game?' Yeah, we'd be lying if we said that, but it's great for our kids to get to see it done, opens that window of what they think they can do.”
Another former Grain Valley star, Grace Slaughter, won the DiRenna Award as Kansas City’s top girls basketball player and was chosen as Missouri’s Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year in 2023. She’s now a star with the Mizzou women’s basketball team.
“I've been fortunate enough to be Grace's coach,” Draper said. “... Her uncle and I have a standing commitment. Her first WNBA game, we're going together.”
With so much momentum, Grain Valley sports suddenly feel big.
“We have a strong culture here,” Hart said. “I think we have a culture that puts kids first, and we have a culture of high expectations. We have a culture of strong relationships, and people want to be a part of that. We see a lot of new people moving into the community, and I think that success is contagious. People see that, and they're coming to Grain Valley and they want to be a part of it.”
Bergantine feels it.
“It's awesome,” he said. “I'm so excited to be a part of it. I couldn't wish for anything more than this.”
But the soul of Eagles athletics remains that of a small town.
“The connectivity — we've kind of kept a small-school feel while getting a whole lot bigger,” Draper said. “Everything's important. It's been cool to watch. Everything — that's academics, activities— it all matters. It's all celebrated.”
Grain Valley moved up to Class 5 for football in 2020, a sign of the school’s meteoric rise in recent decades.
Still, the Eagles’ only MSHSAA team state championship came 48 years ago, a Class 1A crown in boys track and field.
The squad had finished third in 1976, and those two state trophies would stand as the only top-four finishes for any Grain Valley program for another 25 years.
Baseball finished fourth at the Class 3 state tournament in 2003 and 2004, but the Eagles’ athletic success has surged along with the town’s population in more recent years.
Softball snagged a Class 3 state runner-up finish in 2012, boys soccer finished third in Class 3 in 2015 and fourth in 2016, and wrestling claimed fourth in Class 3 in 2017.
Baseball added a Class 5 runner-up finish in 2021, while girls soccer also finished second at state that year, and girls tennis finished in the top four for three consecutive seasons from 2021-23.
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