Jock Talk

Mike Daum did it again. Our Kimball man led his South Dakota State Jackrabbits to a championship win over rival South Dakota in the Summit Conference Tournament, and, once again, they are headed to the Big Show. In his three years with the program, the Jacks have accomplished this feat. And, once again, Mike was named MVP of the tournament. He has also been named, once again, as the Summit League Player of the Year. He has been winning so many honors, it is hard to keep up with all of them, including making some early All America lists.

Did I mention he was named National Player of the Week for his play in the Conference Tournament? In the first Tournament game, the Jacks won 78-57 over North Dakota State and Mike had an easy night playing over 26 minutes, but still scored 19 points and pulled 11 rebounds. He was 7/15 from the field, 2/5 on 3 pointers, and 3/3 at the foul line.

Next up was Western Illinois and the Jacks won 66-60, and in the title game, Mike had some early foul trouble getting 2 quick calls and he went to the bench after only 7 minutes of play and sat the balance of the opening half. He came back strong in the second half to finish with 27 minutes, 25 points, hitting 5/11 on 3 pointers and 8/8 at the line, plus 11 rebounds. For the tournament, he averaged 25.6 points and 13.6 rebounds, and had 10 shots count from beyond the arc.

Be sure and check your TV schedules so you can watch Mike and his crew in action when the March Madness Tourney gets rolling.

----------------------------------------

The Western Trails Conference coaches gathered recently and selected their All Conference teams for the Winter Sports. Hanna Biesecker was All Conference for the Girl’s Basketball team. Justine Heeg and Carli Wurdeman were given Honorable Mention. While Biesecker and Heeg closed out their careers as seniors, Wurdeman is only a sophomore.

In Boy’s Basketball, Kimball had junior, Isaac Reuter, and sophomore, Brendan Walker, given Honorable Mention.

In wrestlins, senior, Garret Pedersen, was All Conference at 120 pounds and junior, Jordan Cluff, was named Honorable Mention at 113 pounds.

----------------------------------------

Looking at the spring sport schedule, the track season gets underway this Saturday (March 17) at the Chadron State College Indoor meet with a 9 a.m. start time. Coach Gene Mohr has a count of 49 athletes checked out with 29 boys and 20 girls. He said he will take about 25 total to the Chadron meet. The outdoor season will get started at the Kimball Invite on March 24th.

The Kimball boy’s golf team is going to have a late start as they cannot practice because the Four Winds Golf Course is not open and has now had the open date moved back to at least March 23rd. Coach Chad Wise is hoping they can at least get on the practice range sooner. First tournament for the Kimball team is March 29 at Chase County.

----------------------------------------

Congrats going out to the Pine Bluffs Boy’s Basketball team for winning another state championship. This is their second state title in 3 years! Both the boys and the girls programs have been very successful as of late and hats off to the coaches and athletes.