2 March 2024
DERBY, Kan. (KSNW) — The Derby Panthers boys basketball team is one win away from earning back-to-back appearances in the Kansas Class 6A State Tournament.
There was a time not too long ago when one of the Panthers’ starting guards was told he’d never play basketball again.
Jack Ulwelling is Derby’s starting shooting guard. He can also run the point. He’s the perfect team guy. Ulwelling can shoot it, drive it, dish it, and he’s a clutch player.
The fact that he’s playing at all defies what a doctor told him three years ago after he suffered an injury in middle school.
“Yes, I had a very slim chance of me ever being able to play contact sports again,” said the junior guard.
That’s what a doctor told Ulwelling after his accident during eighth-grade physical education class at Derby North Middle School.
“Something happened, and I found out a femoral thing in my hip had been broken and that I needed surgery on it. I had to deal with it all summer, being out for three to four months, and it was a tough time for me,” said Ulwelling after a recent practice.
Derby varsity basketball head coach Brett Flory visited the eighth-grader not too long after he had hip surgery.
“And when things were looking pretty bleak, I just tried to kind of help his spirits a little bit. I never really, I mean, we’d have camps and stuff like that, but I’d never really been one-on-one with him like that before,” said Flory. “And right as soon as I walked in, it was pretty obvious his mind was on ‘I’m gonna get through this, and I’m gonna play for you in high school.’ So, I knew we had a special kid on our hands right there.”
Ulwelling says his family encouraged him to not give up on his dreams of playing again.
“I always at first, I looked at it as him telling me the truth. And as a doctor, that’s what I want to hear. I don’t want him to tell me something that’s not real,” he said. “So, I obviously had to take it as a hit. And then from there on, I did everything that the doctors told me to do and helped me get back and just staying and having a positive mindset about it. I always knew I was going to play again.”
“We all remember being in eighth grade and imagine being told that when sports has been your life, and you’ve been raised in a sports family the way he had, to be absolutely devastating. And that could send a lot of kids probably into a spiral, but Jack’s response is pretty typical, Jack, that no, you’re not going to beat me,” said Flory. “And I’m going to make this happen, and he has. We’ll never know how much it has or hasn’t hampered his high school performance, but all I know is that he’s been one of the most fun players to coach I’ve ever had.”
Ulwelling made the freshmen team as a freshman and also played on the junior varsity. He stepped up to the varsity level as a sophomore. He played a lot last year, coming off the bench.
His most heroic moment came in last year’s sub-state final at Washburn Rural in the final seconds of the fourth overtime. The Junior Blues led the visiting Panthers 72-71 with 15 seconds left in the fourth OT, and Derby had the ball.
“We’d set up kind of a double stagger screen for Kaeson Fisher-Brown. He comes off those. They jumped Kaeson. Leave Jack, and Kaeson trusted him to throw a sophomore the ball with his entire career on the line. And not surprising to many, Jack came through. The minute it left Jack’s hands, I just started walking to half-court to shake hands with the other coach because I saw it come off, and I knew that thing was going in.”
Derby won in thrilling fashion, 74-72 and advanced to the state tournament.
The Panthers can return to state if they can beat cross-town rival Campus on Saturday at Derby High.
Ulwelling says the Panthers have more work to do.
“Not yet. The job’s not finished. As a team, we battled through some stuff. We really came together as a family, started playing very well these past few games, and we still got to finish the job.”
Derby (14-7) has won 9 of its last 10 games, including a 54-37 victory over Dodge City in the first round of sub-state. The Panthers split a pair of games with Campus during the regular season. In Derby’s homecourt win over Campus on Feb. 13, Ulwelling led the Panthers with 21 points.