Near the intersection of KS-4 and KS-156 sits Claflin, Kansas, home to roughly 700 residents, Miller\u2019s of Claflin furniture store, Squeegy\u2019s Bar & Grill, a few churches and one of the best female high school basketball players in the country.
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Like the rest of her town, Emily Ryan has a humble background. She\u2019s a junior at Central Plains High School, which has about 85 total students. Her parents met in Claflin while both teaching in the town, and Emily is the fourth of their five children, all athletes. Other than occasional trips elsewhere, Ryan has never known anywhere but her family farm in Claflin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen people ask what you want to do on a Friday night, it\u2019s usually just drive around, listen to music and talk,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t really have much else to do. Sometimes we like to run over to McDonald\u2019s and fun stuff like that.\u201d
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nTo get to the closest McDonald\u2019s is a 20-minute drive well outside of Claflin, though, a detail fit for a town most would submit as the definition of the middle of nowhere.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut that\u2019s not the case for sports. Central Plains is a factory for state championships in multiple sports, but its domination in girl\u2019s basketball is on another level. The program has won five-straight 2A Kansas state championships, won 108-straight games and is in the midst of another undefeated season as it pushes for yet another state title.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nRyan hasn\u2019t been around for all of it, but she\u2019s been the program\u2019s centerpiece since her arrival. She is yet to lose a high school game, and she consistently puts up video game numbers. Per game as a sophomore, Ryan averaged 37.2 points, 7.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 6.3 steals, as well as shooting at a 69-percent clip and 95 percent from the foul line, all in 24 minutes per contest.
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