Jock Talk

The winter sports season for our area high schools is fast drawing to a close. The Wrestling season has already been completed for the most part with the state tournament held this past week. The team dual state tournament is still on the agenda I guess.

The basketball sub-districts and districts are winding down and the state tournaments are ready to take place. We are hoping to get some of our Western Nebraska Teams down to Lincoln and hoping they bring home some top honors.

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I am still getting good reports on our former Kimball High basketball players who are excelling at the college level. Mike Daum at South Dakota State University is really shining as a red-shirt freshman. His Jackrabbitt team lost to IPFW 91-79 but Mike had 22 minutes of play scoring 13 points while going 5/10 from the field and 1/4 on 3 pointers and 2/3 on free throws plus 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal.

Against Western Illinois the Jacks won 87-67 with Mike playing 19 minutes, scoring 18 points on 5/6 from the field and 8/8 at the line, had 5 rebounds and 2 assists.

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Kendall Ferguson was a key to his Hastings College team picking up big wins this past week. The Broncos won 83-81 over Midland with Kendall getting 22 minutes of play and scoring 10 points

on 4/6 shooting including 2/4 on treys, along with 5 rebounds. Hastings then pulled a huge upset against number 15th ranked Dakota Wesleyan with a score of 74-67 this past Saturday at Mitchell, South Dakota and Kendall had a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds. He was 4/8 from the field and 1/1 on treys, ½ at the foul line along with the 15 rebounds had a blocked shot.

The Broncos are still hoping to gain a berth in the National playoffs but need a couple of wins in the conference tournament to make this happen.

And how about this? Kendall this week is leading the Great Plains Athletic Conference in rebounding with 247 in 27 games played averaging 9.15 per game. The next in line of the top 20 listed is 14 rebounds back at 233! So proud of these guys.

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­Bryant Knigge just came onto my radar screen! The former standout for Potter-Dix is going to school at Ottawa University in Kansas, about 30 miles from Kansas City. He is doing both basketball and indoor track, or was, at the same time. I saw, and you might have also, a video of him making a defensive maneuver where he went under a bigger player’s legs from behind, then jumped and deflected a pass in quite an unusual method.

I also saw a picture of a severe cut to his elbow when his pole snapped while pole vaulting in an indoor track meet at Washburn University in Pittsburg, Kansas this past Friday that required a dozen stitches and will keep him from competing in either basketball or track for a while at least. The pole broke about 4 feet down from the top and his elbow came down on the rest of the pole with this all happening at opening height.

Get well Bryant and keep us informed.