There's nothing like the cheers when Kansas City kids play for Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC

On a goodwill trip to the Kansas City Police Department Special Operations Division last month, Chiefs defensive lineman Xavier Williams was stopped in the parking lot. A friend from his youth in south Kansas City, now a policeman, recognized him and they chatted for several minutes before exchanging phone numbers.

“Things like that didn’t happen in Arizona,” said Williams, who until this offseason played for the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL.

Since Williams, who played at Grandview High, signed with the Chiefs, he has run into and heard from too many friends to count. That is among the happy developments he shares with fellow athletes from Kansas City who suit up for the teams for which they cheered as youths.

Right now, the stars are aligned to connect each of Kansas City's professional sports team with local products.

Royals reliever Jason Adam attended Blue Valley Northwest High. He and Williams join Sporting KC veterans Matt Besler, who attended Blue Valley West, and Seth Sinovic, from Rockhurst High, as local athletes who represent their hometown teams. Another current Sporting KC player, Daniel Salloi, attended Blue Valley Northwest as an exchange student from Hungary.

A former area high school standout doesn’t often land in his hometown. Based on research by the Chiefs and Royals and The Star, fewer than 20 who attended a Kansas City-area high school have suited up for local teams. Sporting KC hits for a better average, with a dozen players from Kansas City-area high schools over the past two decades. Until relocating last year to Salt Lake City, the FC Kansas City women's pro soccer team also had a couple of homegrown products on its roster.

And when Kansas City fielded an NBA team for 13 years, the Kings, a pair of former Wyandotte players suited up, Lucius Allen and Larry Drew.

“It’s hard to find a lot of people from here who’ve made it in professional sports,” said Williams, the new Chiefs defensive lineman. “It’s not like Miami, or California or Texas, where there are more people. You've got a million guys from Georgia or Florida on pro teams.”

The population base here is one explanation. Weather is another,with warmer year-round climates typically producing more outdoor-sport athletes.

So when a KC kid makes it to the highest level — and gets to play in Kansas City — it’s a double cheer: Let’s go see one of our own play for the hometown team.

Adam was like so many who attended Royals games with his youth team in uniform. He remembers participating in a pregame parade around the Kauffman Stadium field.

“We thought that was the coolest thing in the world, walking around the warning track,” Adam said.

Same with backyard baseball.

“I was always dreaming as a kid, picturing myself in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, all that stuff,” Adam said. “I was doing it with the Royals.”

The Royals selected Adam in the fifth round of the 2010 baseball draft but traded him to the Twins in 2014 for outfielder Josh Willingham. Willingham helped the Royals down the stretch of the their postseason quest, recording a key ninth-inning single in the 2014 American League Wild-Card game.

The Royals didn’t forget about Adam. They brought him back after he spent nearly three years recovering from arm troubles. He made his major-league debut this season, and it took several appearances before he didn’t have to fulfill a ticket request.

“But I’d rather be here leaving tickets than somewhere in the minor leagues not worrying about it,” Adam said.

Williams, who spent his first three NFL seasons with the Cardinals before signing in Kansas City as a restricted free agent this winter, expects to be leaving plenty of tickets this season.

“The phone didn’t stop ringing for three straight weeks straight (when he signed with the Chiefs),” Williams said. “Everybody, friends, my mom, family going crazy. I was still processing it.”

Williams was coming home to the team he grew up following. Late Chiefs icon Derrick Thomas was his first favorite player. One of the dads on his Little League team worked security at Arrowhead Stadium and found a way to let the kids in.

“Every kid grows up wanting to play for his hometown team, and for me, it was the Kansas City Chiefs,” Williams said.

For Besler and Sinovic, the Royals and Chiefs also were the big teams to follow. For a while, anyway. Sporting KC, or the Wiz and Wizards, as th Major League Soccer team was originally known, didn’t exist until 1996.

Besler remembered attending the Royals' home finale in 1993 when, in his final home game, George Brett kissed home plate. He also got a lesson from his father when he picked uniform No. 5, Brett’s number.

“ ’You know what that means?’ he asked me,' " Besler recalled. "I said I didn’t, and he said, 'Sit down in this chair and let me tell you.' ”

Sinovic, whose father, Bill, was a placekicker for the Kansas State football team, remembers the thrill of playing in a Missouri-Kansas all-star soccer game at Arrowhead, where the Wizards played, as a Rockhurst senior.

“That was a dream,” Sinovic said. “You never think it could become a reality.”

But it did, and it continues to, for the few who are fortunate enough to play at the highest level in their own hometown.

The KC Kids

Research by the teams and The Star came up with this list of Kansas City-area high school athletes who played at least one season for the Chiefs, Royals or Sporting KC:

CHIEFS

Bud Abell, LB, 1966-68, Southeast

Dave Martin, LB, 1968, Bishop Miege

Kerry Reardon, DB, 1971-76, Rockhurst

John Strada, TE, 1974, De La Salle

Gary Palmer, OG, 1975, Central

Chris Goulb, DB, 1977, Shawnee Mission North

Brad Budde, OG, 1980-86, Rockhurst

Jack Epps, DB, 1987, Shawnee Mission West

Richard Estell, WR,1987, Harmon

Kevin Wyatt, DB, 1987, Rockhurst

Bruce Pickens, DB, 1993, Westport

Tommie Stowers, TE, 1994, Hickman Mills

Jason Belser, DB, 2001-02, Raytown South

Ryan Lilja, OG, 2010-12, Shawnee Mission Northwest

Donald Stephenson, OL, 2012-15, Blue Springs

Xavier Williams, DT, 2018, Grandview

ROYALS

Don O’Riley, P, 69-70, Northeast

Steve Mingori, P, 1973-79, Rockhurst

Frank White, 28, 1973-90, Lincoln

Ray Sadecki, P, 1975-76, Bishop Ward

Steve Renko, P, 1983, Wyandotte

David Cone, P, 1986, 1993-94, Rockhurst

Steve Jeltz, IF, 1990, Lawrence

Brian McRae, OF, 1990-94, Blue Springs

Russ Morman, IF 1990-91, William Chrisman

Steve Shifflett, P, 1992, Pleasant Hill

Kevin Young, IF/OF,1999, Washington

Dusty Wathan, C, 2002, Blue Springs

Tommy Hottovy, P 2002, Park Hill

Kit Pellow, IF, 2002, Olathe North

Mike Morin, P, 2017, Shawnee Mission South

Jason Adam, P, 2018, Blue Valley Northwest

SPORTING KC/WIZARDS

Diego Gutierrez 1996-97, 2002-05, Blue Springs

Scott Vermillion, 1998, Olathe East

Ryan Raybould, 2005-08, Rockhurst

Will John, 2006-07, Rockhurst

Matt Besler 2009-18, Blue Valley West

Seth Sinovic, 2011-18, Rockhurst

Michael Thomas, 2012, Aquinas

Kevin Ellis 2013-17, Oak Park

Eric Palmer-Brown 2013-17, Bishop O’Hara

Jon Kempin, 2014-15, Blue Valley North

Andy Gruenebaum, 2014, Blue Valley North

Daniel Salloi 2016-18, Blue Valley Northwest

Jaylin Lindsey, 2018, Blue Valley West

This story was originally published June 8, 2018 at 2:01 PM with the headline "There's nothing like the cheers when Kansas City kids play for Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC."