Blue Springs Male Athlete of the Year - Carlos Anderson

The high school coaches who watched him perform his senior season named Carlos Anderson the Missouri co-Offensive Football Player of the Year.
His coach, Kelly Donohoe, calls the elusive running back, “One of the most talented players I’ve ever coached. He did things in a game that you had to go back and see on tape. You’d slow it down, watch a run again and again and just wonder how he did it.”
First-year Wildcats track coach Joe Cusack said Anderson is the “finest all-around athlete I’ve ever coached.”
Yet the two-sport star leaves Blue Springs High School with one nagging question.
“If I could have done more, could we have won state in football or track?” asks Anderson, who will play football at Northern Iowa University. “It still bothers me that our teams never got a ring in football or track. “I know I had some great games and we had some great moments as football and track teams. I just wish we could have done more – for our coaches, for our fans and for each other.”
Anderson, who ran the anchor on the 2007 state championship 1,600 relay team, sent retiring coach Gary Parker out with a memorable victory in that race.
“Then we finish fourth this year,” Anderson said. “That hurt, it still hurts. I know after a while it won’t hurt as much, but it’s depressing. I wish I had another year. But I’d always wish that because I want to help make this school successful.
“I was so proud to be a part of Blue Springs High School. I know college is going to be fun, and everyone says that college is the best time of your life, but it’s really going to have to be a lot of fun to top high school. I can’t believe it’s over.”
Anderson was a perennial member of The Examiner’s all-area teams in football and track. He was one of the metro area’s premier sprinters and put up unbelievable numbers in football - like a 288-yard, five-touchdown performance in just more than a half against William Chrisman.
But the game Anderson enjoys talking about is a 19-14 win over then undefeated Columbia Rock Bridge, that catapulted the Wildcats into first place in the state rankings his junior year.
“Chase McCoy, who I just talked to the other day, kicked four field goals in that win,” Anderson said. “That was fun. That’s a game I could talk about all day.”