One Win Season For Kimball High Football

The 2019 Kimball High Football season did not turn out like it was forecast as the Longhorns won only 1 game and lost 7, due in large part to injuries to key personnel and lack of numbers.

The Horns won over Southwest on the road in their second game of the season 42-0, but were outscored badly in the other 7 losses and ended up getting outscored 424 to 180 overall while averaging 22.5 points to the opponents 53 a game. As can be expected, they were dominated in almost all categories of both offense and defense.

In a look back at the season, Kimball lost to Garden County 62-20, got the win over Southwest 40-0, lost to Dundy County 72-26, Hemingford 55-12, Perkins County 46-32, Morrill 48-6, Sutherland 80-18 and Bayard 61-24.

The roster at the start of the season listed 22 players which is not a very large number even for the 8-man game. Because of injuries and dropouts, by season end the Kimball coaches were trying to plot their game strategy with about 14 or 15 able bodies. As mentioned earlier, there were high hopes because of a talented senior class of 10 at the most, next season is quite suspect to say the least. There are 5 talented juniors back for their senior season, at least hopefully, but only 1 sophomore and 4 freshman listed on the final program.

Christian Allen-Van Pelt is one of those talented juniors who will be back and his stats were good, including leading the Kimball scoring with 62 points. Junior Javon Coyle will return and he scored 14 points, but the rest of the scoring will graduate, including Austin Lulf with 42 points, Brendan Walker 30, Beau Hanks 12, Jacob Withrow 8 and Brayden Tyan 6. Ethan Ratzlaff scored 6 , but the junior member left the team late in the season.

Allen-Van Pelt was top rusher with 467 yards on 89 carries for 5.2 yards per attempt. Tyan, who was hurt early in the season and was done, had 175 yards rushing, Brendan Walker 163, Javon Coyle 135, Ratzlaff 127 and Withrow 102.

The Horns will miss the passing of Walker, who completed 29 of 52 attempts for 574 yards for 9 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. The top 3 receivers are seniors with Lulf right at the top with 20 receptions for 373 yards and 5 touchdowns averaging 18.7 yards a catch and 46 yards a game. Withrow had 7 catches for 135 yards and 1 touchdown, Beau Hanks 5 catches for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns and Allen-VanPelt 2 for 50 yards and 1 touchdown.

The defense will hurt from graduation too as I list the top 10 defenders who finished in the double figures on tackles. Allen-Van Pelt is back after charting 33 tackles and 11 assists. Beau Hanks had 25 tackles and 18 assists, Arthur Laveran was 24 and 15, Austin Lulf 21-15, Javon Coyle 23-9, Stephen Bateman 18-10, Ethan Greenwood 18-6, Jacob Withrow 17-7, Brendan Walker 17-7 and Brayden Tyan 9-5.

Also graduating is several members of a very large offensive line including Stephen Bateman, Dakota Lewis, Ethan Greenwood and Blayne Rohde. It will be hard to replace these big guys.