How two AAU basketball coaches brought overnight success to this Wichita high school

The overnight success by the basketball teams at Wichita Independent is dispelling the notion that summer AAU club coaches would struggle to translate their success to the Kansas high school basketball world.

The Independent boys basketball team won its first Central Plains League title in more than a decade on Tuesday with a win over Medicine Lodge to finish with a 18-2 record, while the girls basketball team also beat Medicine Lodge to wrap up a 16-4 campaign for one of its strongest seasons in recent memory.

Both teams are ranked in Class 2A with state championship aspirations. And both teams are coached by Wichita natives who found their coaching start in AAU, as Tyler Keim, the creator of the Wichita Padres, heads the boys team and E.J. Garnes, who coached with the Kansas Defenders, leads the girls team.

“There are a lot of good coaches around here coaching in the summer, so hopefully this does help (break the stereotype),” Keim said. “It really helps when I walk to established coaches like (Maize South’s) Joe Jackson and (Derby’s) Brett Flory and they tell me to keep doing what I’m doing, keep grinding, keep pushing because you’re going to be successful.

“We’ve had a lot of high school coaches send their kids to play for my teams with the Padres during the summer because we play the right way.”

During the summer, Keim and Garnes are able to hand-select their own teams. There’s little to no scouting for upcoming opponents and the play isn’t as structured as high school basketball.

But ultimately, basketball is basketball and both Keim and Garnes have found a way to transfer their success from AAU to the small private school in the Central Plains League.

“I always felt like I could coach, but to see the pieces fall together like this, it’s just extremely humbling,” Garnes said. “I want nothing more than to keep this going. This is not something I want to do for just this year or next year. I want Independent to be the Sunrise of girls basketball in our area.

“I know the idea is far-fetched, but why not aim for that? We want to build our program where we get respect on a national level. That’s our goal. Will we get there? Who knows, but we’re going to work our butts off to try to get there.”

As the victories have piled up for both teams, attendance has grown on Tuesday and Friday nights for Independent basketball games, as fans have taken a liking to the fast-paced style that both teams play.

Keim has won countless tournaments in the summer, but usually only in front of a handful of parents in the stands. That’s the biggest advantage high school basketball has over its summer counterpart: the pride of playing for a school and community.

“Playing for a state title is so much different than playing in high-level tournaments in the summer,” Keim said. “Trying to put Independent on the map. They haven’t been good for so long, but I love what we’re building here and it’s been so much fun. I’m way more addicted to this than coaching in the summer now.”

Here’s a look at how each coach has rapidly built their program:

‘You’re not ready to play us’

Keim worked as a volunteer assistant coach for the Kapaun Mt. Carmel boys basketball team off and on for six years before he was hired as the head coach at Independent in 2021.

He had a good sense of what it took to run a high school program, plus he had support from all over the city for the job he was doing coaching with the Wichita Padres during the summer.

When he was hired, Keim had already coached a handful of returning players and had a few more players transfer to Independent. The first year was a learning process, but the Panthers were immediate winners: the team finished with a 17-6 record and reached the Class 2A state tournament.

“We still had to learn how to win,” Keim said. “We talked a lot my first year about how you have to figure out how to play at a high level for four quarters. But the biggest thing was just communicating with the kids and letting them know that I believe in them and the sky’s the limit for them.”

Independent has hit its stride this season, as it spent the majority of the regular season with the No. 1 ranking in 2A.

Senior Conar Harris is averaging 17 points for the Panthers, while fellow seniors Joseph Recalde-Phillips, Christian Dean, Isaac Combs, Javon Beadles and Leyton Merrill and junior Sir’Ryan Dennis have thrived in Keim’s up-tempo system.

“We’re in your face pressing the whole game,” Keim said. “We do some run-and-jump where we’re trapping and taking away the first pass, then pushing the ball down the court with some of our fast guards. I see some of these teams on film walking the ball up and I just go, ‘You’re not ready to play us.’”

Before Keim arrived, Independent was used to scrapping for only a couple wins every season. The seniors who were around for those losing seasons are the ones that Keim is most happy for.

He believes this team has the talent to make a run for the state championship in Manhattan next month.

“Some of those seniors have been on the other side of those 30-point blowouts,” Keim said. “It’s been so much fun to see those kids win and have fun and just be happy with where they’re at right now. My kids are ready to play.”

‘It just feels like one big family at Independent’

Independent has had an influx of talent since Garnes was hired as girls basketball coach.

The team’s two leading scorers are transfers from Sunrise Christian Academy, as sophomore guard SaMiyah Ellis is averaging 22 points and junior forward Stephie-Safi Salumu is averaging 14 points. Junior Leah Thompson is another transfer, from East, to establish a role on the team.

Independent also has two freshmen who have made an immediate impact, in Deena Holmes, a 6-foot-2 center, and Sylvia Selmon, a dynamic guard.

But the players that Garnes is most proud of are the two returners: senior Dana Imankulova and sophomore Alexi Shadid. Imankulova, a foreign exchange student from Kazakhstan, was the leading scorer on last year’s team, but has embraced more of a play-making role to help the team win this season.

“She was actually thinking about leaving because she thought there wasn’t going to even be a team,” Garnes said. “I had to convince her that we were going to have a team and she believed me and bought in. In a society where transferring and leaving is the norm, for her to buy in and stay just shows her character. She’s taken a little bit of a back seat scoring-wise, but her leadership and her willingness to get others involved have been huge to our success this year.”

Garnes, a former standout player himself at Wichita Southeast, has made a seamless transition to the sidelines, but credited those around him for his immediate success.

He said he has learned from watching Keim coach the boys, while also leaning on his own staff that includes Taylor Mires, Kieria Miller and Jason Selmon. He also pointed out Independent’s recent success in football and basketball has correlated with the hiring of school strength and conditioning coach Rashad Daniels.

“It just feels like one big family at Independent,” Garnes said. “The parents are amazing. They make you want to go out and win every single game because they show us genuine love and they come to support us every game and bring snacks and drinks for the girls. And then just small stuff, like shaking your hand after a game. It’s kind of like a small-college feel here. It’s an exciting time at Independent right now.”

Ellis was a standout scorer for Sunrise last season, but played in front of only a handful of fans. The 5-foot-7 guard has enjoyed putting on a show for a crowd of people at Independent, shattering the program’s single-game scoring record with 43 points in a game earlier this season. She followed with 38 points the game after that.

“It’s weird because SaMiyah’s biggest scoring games are the ones where it doesn’t feel like she scores a lot,” Garnes said. “She averages a lot of points, but she’s always willing to get her teammates involved. She’s good at getting her teammates involved early and then letting the floor open up for her and picking her spots. She’s very efficient and one of the best female guards I’ve seen on the fast break. For her, it’s just about staying aggressive and not worrying about the big numbers.”

Not only is Independent, which is ranked No. 7 in Class 2A, extremely young (Imankulova is the team’s only senior), but it is also inexperienced with playing together.

That’s where Garnes’ summer-time experience pays off with his history of winning with teams that are sometimes only together for the weekends. Even though Independent hasn’t played together for as long as some of its top competition, Garnes believes the team is capable of beating anyone.

“We’ve got players who have come here and wanted to buy in to the school and to our program,” Garnes said. “We just hold them accountable. We have the talent, but in our league, it takes more than talent to win. We’re playing teams that have been together since they were in peewee. That’s why we have to focus and lock in and hold each other accountable.”