Jock Talk

Another real tough night for the Kimball Football Team as they entertained the North Platte St. Pats Irish at Friday night’s Homecoming game. The visitors won out 56-7 and the Longhorns got their lone touchdown with 2:43 left in the contest with the reserves of both clubs finishing out. Sophomore Brendan Walker connected with sophomore Austin Lulf for a 21 yard TD and Kole Bush kicked the PAT.

As you might expect, the stats were dominated by the winners but as always there were some highlights for the Horns. Ethan Ratzlaff, a freshman, led the rushing with 44 yards on eight carries. He also led the tackle charts with five solo stops and five assists and was in on a stop for loss yardage. Andrew McCloud had three tackles and seven assists and a tackle for lost yardage. Kole Bush was two and four, Corey Travis three and one, Paycen Harroun two and two, Zane Anthony two and one, Jaden Mohr one and two.

The Irish never punted all game while Kimball punted nine times and freshman Christian Allen-Van Pelt did a good job once again averaging 27.9 yards. Anthony averaged 17.8 yards on four kick returns, and Colton Mielke 15.8 yards on four returns. Lulf had one return for 16 yards.

The Horns will close out the season Friday night with a long trip to Valentine to face the number seventh ranked Badgers team in the state There will be an early kickoff time of 5 p.m. to help get our team and fans home at a better time.

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As reported last week, the Kimball High Football program will have a different look next season. It will be on an 8-man look rather than the 11-man look they have had forever. After the Kimball Administration held an open meeting for anyone concerned to explain the thinking behind this move, there was no negative comments about this move and the Board then voted to proceed at their next meeting.

Kimball High Activities Director, Ken Smith, said “We feel were are doing the right thing for our kids at this time. With the numbers we have, it is hard to justify remaining with the 11-man game. We have 18 or 19 kids practicing and this includes our freshmen and sophomores. We had to cancel our junior varsity schedule. This means that our young players have to compete against the teams on our schedule and play against their upper classmen. By going to an 8-man game we can once again have a JV schedule” Smith said.

For the 2018 season Kimball will not be eligible for the state playoff system as it looks like the Kimball boy count for grades 9-11 will be 54 and to be eligible for the state playoff, this boy count needs to be at 47 or lower. The 2019 boy count for grades 9-11 appears to be 46.

The state will still set the schedule for the Horns and it will be an 8 game regular season. A good chance the travel distance will be shorter too with the teams such as Perkins County, Garden County, Crawford, Maxwell, Morrill, Sutherland, Dundy County-Stratton, Leyton, and I hear Bayard is also looking at making the move to 8-man as well. It is not just Kimball facing lower student numbers, but many of the area schools. Look at our neighbors, Potter-Dix and Banner County. With out a doubt, this will be a good move for Kimball, and the 8-man game is an exciting game. It is a firm deal and it is going to happen come next fall.

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Best golf shot of the week goes to Dennis Hoffman for his Hole-in-One this past week on hole number 12 at the Four Winds Golf Course. Denny was playing with Charlie Carlson and Royce Crossman when he scored the ace. Nothing new for Denny as this was his second hole in one at the Four Winds.

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Congrats to the Kimball Team for winning this year’s Mayor Cup competition between Kimball and Sidney with the play this year at the Sidney Hillside Golf Course. The Kimball team won with five and a half points to Sidney’s three and a half. The competition took place this past Sunday.