Kimball’s Mike Daum continues to reap honors as he leads his South Dakota State Jackrabbits to victories, including, winning the Summit Conference regular season outright. His individual honors are amazing, but us fans are becoming accustomed to reading and hearing about all of his many accomplishments.
Again this year, he has been named 1st Team All Summit Conference and Player of the Year, a repeat of both honors he was rewarded with last season. At the time of this writing, he had already been named Player of the week 7 times. Among some of his stats are an average of 23.6 points and 10.1 rebounds. He had 12 double-doubles in 14 League contests, and, Nationally, is 1 of 3 players to average a 20 point double-double. Mike has 81 3-point field goals, and has made 167 of 198 free throws for 84.3%. He is sitting 6th in Division One basketball in points per game, and he went over the 2,000 point barrier in his college career on February 1. He is the nations 5th highest active scorer in total points. Mike has scored 30 or more points 11 times in League play and is averaging 26 points and 12.5 rebounds. In his third year of play, he is a 3-time All summit League Player in some capacity!
Catching you up on a couple of his latest games, in a 97-90 win over IPFW, Mike scored 31 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. He hit on 8 of 12 shots from 3 point range on the way to his 18th double-double of the season and 29th of his career.
In a 66-60 win over Western Illinois this past Saturday, Mike had 33 points, was 9/23 from the field and 3/9 on 3 pointers, along with 12/13 from the foul line and had 19 rebounds.
Now it is Conference Tournament time this week and let’s all cheer for the Rabbits to win out and make the Big Show for a repeat showing in the NCAA Tournament. Let’s go BIG MIKE!
----------------------------------------
I have been busy gathering info for the Kimball High Spring Sports and know that Four Winds Pro and Kimball High Boy’s Golf Coach, Chad Wise, has 12 young men signed up for the program. With the success they had last year, and with only one of the varsity team graduated in Jordan Greenwood, and with 4 returning starters and lettermen back, look for the Longhorns to bring some excitement back again. Coach Wise said he has one goal of improving the short game from 100 yards and in. Another exciting bit of info is that Kimball will host the District Tournament this season during the week of May 14th. Coach Wise said they have been meeting and going over rules, but have not been able to begin practice as the Four Winds Course is not open yet. A tentative opening date of March 15th is in the works, but that will depend, of course, upon the weather. First tournament for the Longhorns is March 29th at Chase County.
----------------------------------------
I have not gotten a roster yet for Kimball Track, but I can tell you once again, they open March 17th at the Chadron Indoor. Some quality athletes back for the track season as well.
----------------------------------------
For any youngsters who missed the signups for summer baseball and softball, contact Luke Dea and get the info you need and do it as soon as possible as he is getting things organized and ready to go.
----------------------------------------
If you missed the Donkey Basketball held this past Friday evening at the Kimball High gym, you missed out on a very fun and entertaining evening. We all got to see some athletic moves, as well, from the Kimball High Student team, the Kimball Teachers Team, the Kimball Fire Department and the Cervi Ranch Team. A full house should have made it a profitable event for the Kimball Ranch Rodeo organization who sponsored the event. Lots of the fans also enjoyed the night breakfast served up prior to the Donkey Ball.