Jock Talk

A tough weekend of basketball for the Kimball High girls and boys with losses to Sidney and Chase County. Both of these schools have talented teams and will be hard to beat by anyone on their schedules. In looking for excuses as to why the Horns were demolished to such extreme, the Kimball girls have lost their leading scorer and top play maker as junior Alex Reader is done for the season and will be undergoing knee surgery this month. The boys were without a couple of key players due to illness and injury. And, the Horns had an extended absence from competition going 26 days without a game due to cancellation of two games because of weather, and because Kimball elects not to participate in holiday Tournaments, unlike their opponents. I personally would like to see the state shut down all the Holiday Tournaments and give the players, coaches and everyone a complete break and a chance to travel or just enjoy the Christmas break, but that is not the case.

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By the way, the two games that were weather cancelled, have now been rescheduled with the Bayard game now set for Jan. 30, at Kimball, with no JV games and a 5 p.m. start time. The Hershey game, also at Kimball, will be held on Feb. 11.

The administration has also announced that the home games with North Platte St. Pats on Jan. 28 has been designated Lav-Out night for cancer awareness and everyone is asked to wear lavender colors on that evening.

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The busy schedule for Kimball school sports activities this week had Potter-Dix at Kimball this past Tuesday night for both girls and boys basketball. Friday night Kimball travels to Bridgeport for games beginning at 4 p.m. for the JV contests followed by girls and boys varsity. Saturday Kimball travels to Gordon for JV games at 1 and 2:30, followed by girls varsity at 4 and boys varsity at 5:30.

Monday evening there is freshman boys basketball at Mitchell at 5:30. The SPVA Tournament play begins on Monday also with boys action while the girls take over on Tuesday. Play then switches to Mid Plains Community College in North Platte Thursday through Saturday. The first round games will by played at home sites but the pairings were not to be made until this past Wednesday. So sorry, I can’t tell you where Kimball will be playing, but it looked like maybe both boys and girls would host first round games. Junior High boys basketball at Kimball this Tuesday, Jan. 17, with Burns at 3 p.m.

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Enjoyed some talk with Jake Reader over the holiday break. Jake was home to spend some time with the family and take part in sister Tori’s wedding. Jake was wearing a shoulder splint after having surgery on his shoulder from a football injury this past fall. The big guy plays for Ft. Lewis out of Durango, Colo. I noticed he took it off long enough to lead a few dance routines at the wedding.

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Mike Daum is still making headlines for his play at South Dakota State University. In his last game, a loss to University of Omaha 101-93, Big Mike scored 28 points, was 10/20 from the field, 3/6 on 3 pointers, 5/8 at the line, had 10 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals.

He had a great December and because of his outstanding play, was named Summit League December Male Athlete of the Month! In December he averaged 25.4 points per game, and 7.5 rebounds. He shot 53.6 percent from the field, 40 percent from behind the arc, 92.4 percent at the foul line, scored 206 points and had 20 or more points in 7 of the 8 games. He set career scoring records for himself of 33 and 39 points in consecutive games, and a school record of 16/16 free throws and also a school record of 43 consecutive free throws from Dec. 7 to Dec. 22! He also was Summit League Athlete of the Week on Dec. 19. You fans might make note that he will be playing in Denver against University of Denver on Jan. 25 with game time of 7 p.m.