Jock Talk

Western Nebraska didn’t fare so well at the Nebraska State Girl’s Basketball Tournament, with none of our teams getting past the first round. I am speaking of Mitchell, Sidney and Potter-Dix. Sidney came the closest, losing by just four points, but none-the-less, all of them had excellent seasons and we salute them for getting that far. Now, we turn our attention to this week’s Boy’s State Tournament action and it looks to me like Scottsbluff in Class B has the best chance to advance past that first round contest.

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Time now to start turning our attention to the spring sports, but in the meantime, still some Federation Wrestling taking place for you fans to follow, and the State Shooting contest in being hosted by the Kimball Shooting Club this year on March 17-18 at the Kimball High School. Track and boy’s golf are the next sports for the Kimball Schools and the first track meet is the Chadron State College Indoor coming up March 18. The first outdoor meet is the Kimball Invite on March 25. Don’t see any golf action for the Kimball boys in March, at least on the schedules I have from the school.

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However, Golf Course opens Friday! That is the word from Course Superintendent Jeremy Williams out at the Four Winds Golf Course. At 8 a.m. tomorrow (Friday), March 10, the course will open for play, so better get your season passes purchased, get the clubs cleaned up and do a couple of sit ups, and maybe a push up or two, and head for the golf course.

If you want to get in some practice out of the wind and possibly want to do things the right way under the watchful eyes of Four Winds Pro Chad Wise, better check out the new indoor facility he has put together at his home, where you can play several different famous courses, in a formulated atmosphere of course. Give Chad a call for all the information and go take a look at what he has to offer.

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Sorry to hear the Pine Bluffs girls and boys failed to repeat as Wyoming State Champions at last week’s State Tournament. Both teams ended up fourth, but the boy’s tied the state record for consecutive wins without a loss at 50! They took home their share of individual awards for All State, etc. Senior Hunter Thompson was named 2-A Southeast Player of the Year and for the fourth straight year was All State.

In another article in the week’s paper I talk about the fans and how important they are to High School Sports. They can also be a negative factor and this proved true at the Wyoming State Tournament as I have reports that the fans were bad in how they responded to Hunter Thompson as the opposing team’s fans booed him when he made a shot or good play and cheered when he would miss. What a dismal way to treat a truly special young man.

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Mike Daum update... Just catching a few of his latest highlights as I get ready to watch the championship game tonight (Tuesday) of the Summit League Tournament between South Dakota State and Omaha. Big Mike and the Jacks won their first two games over Denver University and In-State rival South Dakota by respective scores of 83-73 and 74-71 to advance them into the title game. Due to my Tuesday noon deadline, that is as far as I can report until next week and you fans should know the results well before then.

Mike had 33 points against Denver and 18 in the win over Number One seed South Dakota, but in all reality, he was really defended strong in that game and double and triple teamed, a smart move by their coach. Mike has been named Summit League Player of the Year and, of course, is first team also. Going into the tournament he had 773 points to break a 25 year old record of 747 at SDSU. He is averaging over 25 points per game. I also saw he was named by one organization as the Nation’s Most Underrated Player of the Year! Did I mention, Mike Daum is from Kimball, Nebraska? Go Jacks! Go Big Mike!