Things are at a point in Kaylin Noonan’s career at Burlingame that if she doesn’t come out of a game with a new school record, it’s bigger news than when she does.
 
In a sense, breaking records has become somewhat of a broken record for the senior Bearcat standout.
 
Not that it’s become old or monotonous for her.
 
“I didn’t anticipate being able to do what I’ve done,” Noonan said. “But I’m so grateful that I have been able to. It’s been so wild and my teammates have been so supportive of me.”
 
In Tuesday’s 45-33 win over Mission Valley, Noonan became Burlingame’s career leader in steals. It marked the third straight game in which she’s set a school record.
 
On Monday, Noonan broke the school record for assists in a season in a 70-23 win over Southern Coffey County. Last Friday in a 62-33 win over Cornerstone, she became the program’s career leading rebounder.
 
Three records in three games.
 
And that came on the heels of topping the 1,500-point milestone in the Bearcats’ 49-29 win over Colony-Crest on Feb. 6. Which came a game after she broke her own single-game scoring record in a 41-point outing on Jan. 30  in a 62-26 win over Northern Heights.
 
One has to go back to the final day of the Lyon County League Tournament on Jan. 27 to find a game in which Noonan didn’t record some kind of personal accolade.
 
“Each time I update the record books, I see she’s getting closer in another one,” Burlingame coach Jeff Slater said. “It’s been pretty crazy, but she takes it all in stride. Team success is more important to her than individual success. If you ask her what her goals are, she wants those team goals. She wants to get back to state. She was crushed when we didn’t perform well at the Lyon County League Tournament. Her team success mentality out-weighs her individual success approach.”
 
Slater knew early on Noonan had a chance to be a special player, even before he became head coach of the Bearcat program at the start of the 2020-21 season. Also Burlingame’s head football coach for the past 10 seasons, Slater has served as the elementary physical education teacher during that span and Noonan caught his attention right away.
 
“I’ve had her since kindergarten in PE class,” Slater said. “I have said several times, just her competitiveness at a young age – even in a game of tag or whatever it may be in PE class – set her apart. That shows up in everything she does. At a young age and getting to work with her in PE class every day, there were days where she made a lot of her friends and classmates mad with how competitive she was. She was always wanting to win and that is kind of what makes her special.”
 
It didn’t take long for her to make an impression at the high school level, either. Though she didn’t start right away, she was a major contributor for the Bearcats as a freshman and not long into her career she put up 26 points in a game against perennial league power Lebo.
 
Noonan credited her family for having her prepared to make an impact right away.
 
“When I was younger, my dad and my brother were my first coaches,” she said. “I feel like for me, I felt like I could see the court better and that came from watching my brothers play when I was younger. I was very involved with that. I just seemed to understand the game quickly.”
 
Noonan ended up leading the Bearcats in scoring her freshman year at 14.6 points per game, helping Burlingame to a 20-3 mark. As a sophomore, Noonan set Burlingame’s single-season scoring record with 457 points (18.3 per game) in leading the Bearcats to the first-ever state tournament appearance in program history.
 
Last year as a junior, Noonan upped her scoring average to 20 points per game and became the program’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Hayley Lewis, who scored 1,157 points during her career from 2010-14. Lewis also held the program’s career rebounding mark at 667 rebounds with Noonan breaking that record last week.
 
In Burlingame’s next game, Noonan will likely add Lewis’ single-season rebounding record as well, sitting just four away from the 217 boards Lewis grabbed in 2014.
 
“Her old coach is one of our PE teachers and he would tell me all the time how good she was,” Noonan said of Lewis. “I was always hoping I could strive to be that good and work as hard as she did.”
 
While scoring and rebounding came naturally to Noonan, she said she’s worked hard on her defense in recent years to become a more complete player. That’s showed in the record books as well, getting the career steals record on Tuesday, breaking Daelyn Winters’ record of 273. She shares the single-game mark of 9 with Winters and is only 15 away from tying Winters’ single-season steal mark of 100, set in 2022.
 
“That one definitely means a lot to me,” Noonan said of the steals mark. “Rebonding and scoring is something I’ve always been decent at. That’s always been something I’ve driven towards. I needed to work harder on the defensive side to become a better defender and not just be out there to score.”
 
With a relatively young team around her this year, Noonan has taken on a new role for the Bearcats this year. She’s taken over the point guard role and directed Burlingame to a 13-5 record. Along the way, she’s broken the single-game assist record she shared with Winters and set the single-season mark, topping Taylor Carson’s total of 83 in 2014.
 
“Moving her to point guard this year has helped us,” Slater said. “She’s always been a really good passer. From Day One, when she gets a rebound, we’ll let her lead the fast break in transition and she’s had good shooters she’s been able to find. She’s a really good facilitator. I didn’t know I was getting that out of her out of the point guard position because the past three years we’ve had her in the post. But she’s done a great job of running the offense.
 
“It’s her motor and the energy she brings. This year is her most complete year because she’s had to do it in every category.”
 
If Noonan is to catch Winters’ career assist mark of 274, Burlingame likely will have to make a bit of a postseason run, currently sitting at 223 in her career.
 
She’d love nothing more than to have an extended season, one in which she’s currently averaging 20.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 4.7 steals per game. But not necessarily to add more records to her collection. After getting a taste of state as a sophomore when Burlingame finished third in Class 1A Division I, Noonan wants to cap her prolific career with another trip to state.
 
“I definitely think that’s possible,” Noonan said with Burlingame currently on a seven-game winning streak. “The past few games I’ve seen the other girls step up and do the things I knew they could do. We’re getting to where we can be and I feel like we’re becoming a better team and it’s starting to look good.”
 
Regardless of whether she can lead Burlingame back to state, Noonan has left her mark for future Bearcats to look up to.
 
“It’s the best feeling knowing that some of those young girls here will do that,” she said. “Slater’s daughter wears my number and tells me all the time that she’s wearing my number and all the things she’s doing. It just makes my heart so happy to know she looks up to me that way. 
 
“I couldn’t have gotten here without my teammates, my coaches and my parents and without God being the center of it giving me all these abilities.”
 
OTHER BASKETBALL STANDOUTS
 

• Maur Hill's girls clinched the Northeast Kansas League title for the first time since 1985, winning just the second league crown in program history.  The Ravens have won eight straight since dropping two games in late January, getting a 48-45 overtime win over Jefferson County North on Feb. 2 that loomed big in the league race. Maur Hill has won four of its last five league games by 14 or more points and edged Pleasant Ridge 55-51 on Tuesday.
• Valley Falls’ Korie Kirkwood went over 1,000 points in her career in the Dragons’ 66-16 win over McLouth on Feb. 6.
• De Soto’s David Cobin broke the school record for single-season assists, getting 11 last week against Lansing to move to 100 on the season. The old record was 92. Lansing’s Brett Graber had 20 points in the game.
• Freshman Maddie Vickery hit two free throws with 2.2 seconds left to lift Washburn Rural to a 61-59 win over Manhattan last Monday. She finished with 26 points in the game and then added 18 and came up with the late heroics again on Friday, hitting the game-winner with 2.9 seconds left in a 46-44 win over Hayden, avenging an earlier loss to the Wildcats.
• Central Heights’ Ethan Rowan went for 35 points, 14 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 assists and 3 blocks in a game last week.
• Elyria Christian’s boys clinched its second straight Wheat State League championship last Friday with a 77-51 win over Little River. Ty Romero had 28 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in the win and is averaging 21 points per game this season.
• Goessel rallied from 13 points down to beat Wichita Classical in overtime on Tuesday night, 49-46. The Bluebirds hit a 3-pointer at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime, one of a school-record 12 3-pointers the team made in the game.
• Chase County’s Natalie Neff hit five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 17 points in the Bulldogs’ 63-31 win over Waverly, leading three Bulldogs in double figures.
• In its final year in the Mid-East League, Rock Creek clinched a share of the boys’ league title in beating St. Marys 72-53 last Friday. Brady Schneider led the way with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
• Abilene’s boys swept a pair of victories as Brax Fisher averaged 18.3 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in the victories.
• Centralia’s boys had a huge week last week with three wins, beating Marysville 49-33, St. Marys 71-59 and Valley Heights 63-47. The Panthers stayed undefeated in Twin Valley League play going into a three-game week this week as well.
• Seabury’s boys have won 12 straight games. After getting his first career triple-double a week earlier, Chase Honarvar repeated the feat last Tuesday with 20 points, 19 rebounds and 11 blocks. He came up 2 blocks shy of a third straight triple double, getting 19 points and 16 rebounds last Friday while Jace Smith had 20 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists and Aidan Page added 14 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists.
• Atchison County’s Madison Martin recorded her four double-double of the season in a win against Valley Falls, getting 17 points and 11 rebounds. She also added 6 blocks.
• Silver Lake’s girls remained undefeated, getting an impressive 68-39 win over No. 3 and arch rival Rossville last week. MaKenzie McDaniel had 17 points and 12 rebounds while McKinley Kruger added 17 points and Kailyn Hanni added 14 points and 6 rebounds.
• Santa Fe Trail’s Jalen Smith erupted for 30 points against Osawatomie on Feb. 9.
• Nemaha Central knocked off Class 2A No. 1 and previously undefeated Riverside with a 53-47 win in a clash between unbeatens in Big Seven League play. Freshman Emma Hermesch scored 16 of her 19 points in the second half and also added 7 rebounds.
• Axtell’s Eli Broxterman averaged 19 points and 4 assists per game last week, including a career-best 30-point game against Pawnee City, Neb., on Tuesday.
• Shawnee Heights’ Breezy Canady scored 21 points against Topeka West on Feb. 6.
• Highland Park’s Pearmella Carter had games of 33, 25 and 22 points in three games last week. Her 33 came against KC Central and she had 11 rebounds against KC East and 18 rebounds against Atchison. Angelique Gowan-Britt had games of 17, 27 and 12 points and had a triple-double against Central with 11 assists and 10 steals.
• Lebo’s Saige Hadley scored 23 points and had 12 rebounds in the Wolves’ win over Lyndon last week.