Blizzard Or Not, Spring Sports Season Arrives

Welcome to the spring sports season in Western Nebraska! If the bus driver can see the road, and if they have them plowed open by Saturday, the Kimball High track team will head up to Chadron State College for their first meet of the season, which thankfully is an indoor meet.

Coach Gene Mohr has 39 tracksters checked out with 21 girls and 18 boys, but may take a limited number to this meet. The outdoor season will open March 23 at the Kimball Invitational. Come on Weather Man ... Give us a break!

The Kimball High boys golf team has been working hard, sitting inside and going over rules and other items under the direction of Four Winds Golf Pro and Coach Chad Wise. Coach Wise has 10 young men checked out and anxious to get on the course and once again they should be the team to beat in their class. With 3 returning full time varsity starters, and 5 returning letter winners total, this season is bright.

I received a call from Four Winds Course Superintendent Jeremy Williams informing me that the scheduled March 15 course opening is not going to happen. Here again, the weather is not going to let it happen. I don’t think anyone wants to play in a foot or two of snow, complete with wind and cold, anyway. It will be at least a week later, according to Jeremy. It will depend upon the weather.

Coach Of The Year

Adam Bohac

Still a lot of college hoops going on for us fans to keep us excited while we are cooped up inside.

Let’s start by congratulating former Kimball High standout Adam Bohac, who went on to play for the University of Nebraska Men’s Basketball Team, for being named the Great American Conference Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year as he directs his Southern Nazarene University team to another great season.

Southern Nazarene defeated Southeastern Oklahoma 80-77 to win the GAC Tournament this past week, repeating as the tournament champs, and this is the first time in GAC history for a team to win back-to-back titles. Now they advance to the NCAA Division Two tournament so check your TV schedules and try to find when they might be on the tube. By the way, they are now 28-5 on the season. Wow, Nebraska should maybe try to lure Coach Bohac back home like they did Scott Frost!

Big Mike

NIT Bound

A bit of bad news, along with a lot of good news, to report this week on our own Mike Daum and his South Dakota State Jackrabbits. The number one seed SDS lost Saturday in Summit League Tournament play to Western Illinois 79-76 which will take them out of an NCAA bid most likely.

For whatever reason, Big Mike wasn’t getting the basketball very much and only had 4 points at halftime. He ended up with 16 points, making 5 of the 10 shots total he took. He was 6/7 at the foul line, and did have 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

The good news is that since SDS did win the regular season conference play, they are in the NIT Tournament for sure, so Mike will get some more games to add to his already enviable and awesome career scoring, etc.

Other things of note, during the month of February, Mike averaged 30 points and 13.8 rebounds in the 6 games played, and had 5 double-doubles! For the 3rd time Mike was named the Summit League Player of the Year, and he was also placed on the Summit League All Conference 1st team for the 4th time!

Mike is one of 3 players nationally averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds and is the only one with 25 and 10 marks. He now holds SDS and Summit League records for points and rebounds, and is the only player nationally to actively hold program records in points, rebounds, and 3 pointers. At this time, all I can tell you is check for when they are going to play in the NIT and get ready to cheer SDS to a championship.

Kimball

Basketball Honors

The SPVA Conference coaches got together this past Monday in Ogallala to select this year’s All Conference Basketball members and Kimball senior Kate Reader made the first team while junior Carli Wurdeman and sophomore Sydney Biesecker were given honorable mention. Senior Izaak Reuter was

Kimball’s lone selection for the boys and was honorable mention.

Meanwhile, the 2018-19 Western Trails All Conference boys and girls basketball selections were announced this week with Kimball having 4 girls and 3 boys honored.

Senior Kate Reader and junior Carli Wurdeman both made the All Conference list while sophomores Sydney Biesecker and Megan Spicer were both given Honorable Mention.

For the boys, senior Izaac Reuter made the All Conference list with juniors Beau Hanks and Brayden Tyan both Honorable Mention. Senior Drake DeMasters of Bridgeport, was named the MVP for the boys and senior Keyana Wilfred of Mitchell was named the girl MVP.