Jock Talk

The 2017 version of the annual 2-person, Triple Play Golf Tournament is now in the books and was termed a success by Four Winds Pro Chad Wise. A total of 22 teams participated in the event that Chad initiated as a memorial to his father and this tournament is simply a lot of fun, along with some very nice prizes, many offered up out of the personal pocket of Mr. Wise.

The winning team this year was Brandon Stark and Joe Wilson with a handicap score of 64.2. Randy Bohac and Kevin Thomas finished runner up with 69.4 and edged out the team of Royce Crossman and Terry Lovesee who finished in third place with 69.8. Kenny and Jeff Greenwood were fourth with 71.2 and the fifth place team was Mark Scholthauer and Craig Schneider with 74.4.

The greens-keeping crew got to get in on the fun this year as well as they staked out some pin placements that were almost unheard of as they put the holes on the greens right on the verge of a hill meaning either you make the putt or maybe face another chip back on. Chad said “there were a lot of seven putt efforts on some of the greens.” None the less, the weather was great and everyone had a good time.

At the conclusion of play, a drawing was held to determine the winners from the raffle held to collect money to go towards helping with the maintenance of the Four Winds Golf Course. Rollie Hager won a set of Mizuno irons. Gary Haack a season golf pass, Jim Young a season pass to Chad Wise’s Golf Simulator and also won a season range pass. Steve Altmanshofer, and over-the- road truck driver out of Boise, Idaho, who plays the Four Winds. Jamie Soper won a season pass for cart storage.

Chad asked me to be sure and thank all the golfers who played and also to thank everyone who bought raffle tickets. I think we also need to thank Chad for all he does to promote our special prizes he furnished. I think this tournament pretty much is the organized final event of the season, but with that being said, there is still a lot of golf to be played and a lot of wonderful weather-wise days left. Get out and enjoy.

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Still on the subject of golf, the Kimball High girls are making progress with their games and senior Lila Moore had a new personal best round of 105 at the Mitchell tournament last week. Maddie Cook shot a good 116, Raven Johnson 142 and Leisha Casimiro 144. Keep up the good work ladies. I should mention that Miss Moore had a top ten medal group finish in 10th place at Mitchell.

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I took in the Kimball Invitational Cross Country meet this past Friday at the Four Winds Golf Course and had to laugh at all of the shirts being worn by Kimball cross country fans that said, “Finally they have found a good reason for golf courses.” Me, being an avid golfer, I think there are two good reasons for having golf courses, as it does work well for cross country too.

It was nice to see a good turnout of fans and believe me, cross country is truly colorful with all of the bright team uniforms, and runners and spectators spread out all over the course. Kimball had their bright spots and none brighter than in the junior high girl’s division where Chantel Malson was the winner in the 33-runner field with a time of 11:08 over the 3K course and teammate Caelyn Long finishing 2nd in 11:23. Kimball has five junior high girls competing and this has to be exciting for coaches Tiffany Johnson and Laurie Janicek. They also have seven junior high boys and the top two in the division for Kimball saw Thomas Muldoon finish in the top ten in the number 6 spot in 10:49 and Matthew Johnson ran 11th in 11:29.

No top ten finishes for Kimball in the High School races.

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Congrats to coach Kari Gifford and the Banner County High runners as Devin Sullivan ran 10th for a top ten medal in the boy’s high school race, finishing in 19:45 over the K run. In the girl’s race Cheyenne Knisley ran 15th in the field of 50 runners with a time of 25:10 and Courtney Knisley was 17th in 25:17.

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I got to see the Longhorn football team for the first time this season Friday when they hosted Mitchell and despite losing 50-14, I was impressed with the effort of the Kimball boys right to the final play.

The Kimball program is hurting for numbers, have some key injuries, and we have had some key players who moved away, but this group has some young men that really play with a lot of heart, and I think the coaches have them running a good offense suited to what they have to work with.

It hurts that junior quarterback Izaac Reuter is hampered with a knee injury that occurred during a summer camp and is pretty much not able to play right now. He re-injured it after throwing a touchdown pass to Zane Anthony at Gordon. He sat out three quarters against Mitchell Friday night, checked in for 3 or 4 plays in the fourth quarter and hurt it again. Isaac’s dad, Mike, told me, “The specialists say it is nothing that requires surgery and he can go when he feels he can, but it just isn’t healing up like he wishes it would.”

Colton Mielke, his junior teammate, handled the quarterbacking Friday and did a very good job. He had a 28-yard scoring pass to teammate Zane Anthony and ran for several yards. Jake Jenkins, another speedy junior, ran the ball well and had a 50+ yard touchdown, but suffered leg cramps late in the game that hampered his cause.

The line play is good and a lot of very young kids are stepping up out of necessity with the low numbers. Zane Anthony is back after sitting out last year as a result of a serious knee injury, returning a kickoff in his freshman year and boy this young man is talented and although listed at just 140 pounds, a good share of that has to be all heart as he plays tough and talented. He gets open and he catches the ball, has good quickness after the catch and also plays good defense.

Senior Andrew McCloud is back out again this year and helping the cause. Kole Bush, Corey Travis, Paycen Harroun and Jaden Mohr are other upper classmen who are doing the job and doing it quite well as leaders to all of the young players.

It may be tough for the Horns to win this season with the tough schedule the state has given them, but none-the-less, they are fun to watch and they need our support.

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I noticed a lot of good sportsmanship Friday night with opposing players helping each other up after knocking each other down, but the highlight of the night, in this department, came at the conclusion of the contest when Mitchell’s Riley Reisig saw Kimball’s Jake Jenkins struggling to get up and walk, and came over to the Kimball sideline and helped him until other Kimball players got there to lend a hand. That folks, is what it’s all about. Sportsmanship!

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A look at the schedule. The junior varsity football game with Sidney was cancelled due to the lack of numbers for Kimball. Today, Thursday, volleyball at Pine Bluffs with frosh, JV and varsity matches beginning at 4 p.m. Junior High volleyball at Leyton today at 5 p.m. The Kimball High football team travels to Chase County Friday night with kickoff at 7 p.m. and the cross country team is at Alliance Saturday with race time at 9 a.m. JV football on the schedule at Bridgeport Monday at 6 p.m. But that remains to be seen if it will happen. On Tuesday, Sept. 19, girl’s golf at Ogallala, a full slate of high school volleyball at home with Hershey starting at 4 p.m. and junior high volleyball at Mitchell.