
The annual Ralph Miller Classic kicks off today and is coming with a new twist.
For the first time ever in the history of Chanute High School, the girls basketball team is participating in the tournament alongside the boys. For the first 52 years of the tournament’s history, the high school boys team has been the only team to participate in this tournament.
“I am really excited about the girls being in this tournament,” Chanute varsity girls coach Dustin Fox said. “This has been in the works for a lot of years. It is great that for the first time in 53 years, our girls have the opportunity to play in it.”

The girls tournament features an eight-team bracket, with some quality competition.They start their first game at 4:45 p.m. in the big gym against Belle Plaine, with the boys following right after at around 6:30 p.m. against Coffeyville.
The tournament will go from today to Saturday.
“I think it’ll be a competitive tournament for us,” Fox said. “There are some teams that are really good but it’ll be a tournament where we’ll be able to compete to win games.”
The Ralph Miller Classic was named after Ralph Miller, who was a legendary basketball coach at CHS and later coached Wichita State, Iowa, and Oregon State, achieving tons of NCAA tournament appearances and achieved a number of conference titles.