Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Just a few days into the new year and several minutes after securing a 51-46 road win over Pine Bluffs, Kimball girls center Tori Reader barely managed a smile. The game had swayed for the longest time in a sweltering gym. And Kimball had already suffered through several disappointing “almosts” throughout December. “It was probably our best win of the season,” she said, adding “I was extremely worried.” She needn’t have been. Kimball romped through the rest of January on their way to a WTC titl...
Fall did not start well for Kimball. Both North Platte St. Patrick’s and Hershey stymied the Longhorns offense, big Jake Reader--tagged as quarterback to begin the season--went down with an injury and Cambridge planted 56 on the board...all before Kimball managed to score its first points of the season. This moment came in the fourth quarter of the third game, when Trent Rutledge sacked Trojans quarterback Taylor Kubik in the end zone for a safety. But Jonathon Withrow tacked on a touchdown, f...
January of 2012 began with local squads struggling. Last season, after all, was a rebuilding year for both Kimball and Banner County, despite some impressive outings. The Wildcats’ David Gifford captured podiums, as did Kimball’s Lance Winters. Then freshman Rowdy Keller, Jonathon Withrow and Tatum Morgan ended the 2011-2012 year above the .500 mark. Kimball, as a team, finished at 104-126 in head to head matches. At districts, Winters struggled, ending the year with an 15-11 record. Keller won two matches but also dropped a pair. Tristan Car...
Four local runners emerged from the district cross country meet with trips to Kearney. Kimball’s Laura Flores and Amanda Harrison of Banner County had relatively comfortable times, completing the Pheasant Run course outside Grant in 5th and 9th places, respectively. For Longhorns boys team leaders Ryan Muneio and Mitchell Shields, the outcome was a little more dicey. Muneio jumped out to an early lead and held on for almost a mile. At the top end of the blistery course, Paxton’s Garrett Perlinge...
That Kimball’s golfers would advance to Kearney was never in serious doubt. Entering the 2012 golf schedule the Longhorns had appeared in nine consecutive state tournaments. To win their third straight district crown required a little fortitude, however. “I didn’t expect to win after the last few weeks,” admitted coach Aaron Delhay, referencing some uncharacteristically inconsistent play from his top golfers in recent invites. Kimball fended off a charge by runner-up Valentine at the West Wind G...
From the very beginning, Kimball expected to battle Bridgeport for a place at state. Also from the first swing, Brooke Hager figured on another trip to Columbus. Right on both counts. The opening rounds of golf also gave Aaron Delhay’s squad some hope for knocking off their rivals by the time districts rolled around. The result—trailing Bridgeport 426 to 488 on Bayard’s Chimney Rock course, with Hager placing fourth on the leader board—earned an approving nod from Delhay and almost every L...
On the surface, Kimball appears little different now than a year ago. The farms and ranches still bear the scars of a long and drought-parched season, but the buildings, homes and roads are almost unchanged. Patches of blackened grass will recover from the summer’s wildfires. The controversial fence around Kimball’s old high school is still just a row of skeletal posts. A clean up promised for the former Corner Bar lot has yet to be fulfilled. Although Pamida left, Shopko filled the void sea...
Elisha Hunt Rhodes kept a diary during his time in America’s Civil War. It was later published under the title “All for the Union.” As a graduate student studying military history, I thumbed through a modern edition of the book rather perfunctorily--until, that is, I came across one passage. “Dec. 31/62—Well, the year 1862 is drawing to a close. As I look back I am bewildered when I think of the hundreds of miles I have tramped, the thousands of dead and wounded that I have seen, and the many strange sights that I have witnessed. I can truly th...
Sashimi in Cheyenne, good Southern-style fried catfish in the heart of downtown Fort Collins, even an all-American burger in a joint once praised by Buffalo Bill Cody--it has been another interesting year dining across the region. Over the course of 2012, I visited everything from Thai restaurants to everyday mom and pops. Here is what stood out during my culinary travels over the past 12 months: Best Dining Destination: Bridgeport The little community--it is smaller than Kimball--supports...
Some people really, truly want to splurge on New Year’s Eve. Whether they’ve won a chunk of change in some 50-50 fundraiser or cashed out their bank account in anticipation of a Mayan apocalypse, they have money to burn and vintage French Champagne on their party menu. Of course, the greatness of vintage Champagne often eludes novices. The wines are natural and intricate, capturing the essence of terrain, weather and even the hand responsible for fermentation. Armand de Brignac’s Brut Gold is a whisper of wind on the nose, carrying with it fa...
David Gifford waited out the first round of last week’s Western Trails Conference tournament with a bye. His first face to face match at 220 came in the second turn, and he dropped Banner County teammate T.J. Grubbs in 11 seconds. A lunch break followed. Over five hours of round robin wrestling, he had worked less than a minute. “It’s a nice, light day,” he joked. In the afternoon, however, he pinned three competitors in succession to capture the WTC title. “That was a good way to end the first...
I’ve had some clever ideas in my time. For instance, it once occurred to me that figure skating would reap a much larger television market share if patches of thin ice were hidden around the rink. Just imagine the potential for excitement: “She’s attempting a double axel with a—uh oh! Her chance at a gold medal just disappeared into freezing water.” Similar logic could be applied to other lagging small screen genres. Imagine women’s daytime talk shows hosted by those guys from Duck Dynasty or morning news panels demanding nuanced, balanced an...
(Reviews Resume In January 3 Issue) Every year as Christmas approaches, vendors set up at busy street corners across Prague. They sell live carp to families eager to follow the Czech Christmas tradition of boney fish and potato salad. Some city residents even sacrifice showers to keep their holiday carp alive in the bathtub for several days before Christmas—or so I’ve been told. I never stooped to pry into neighbors’ tubs, or to try the country’s most typical celebratory meal. For some reason an...
Champagne and other sparkling wines are synonymous with celebration. Of course, that means many people sort through the catalogue of regions and vaguely understood words--”brut,” “sec,” “blanc de blancs,” “cuvee”--only during the holidays, turning the selection process into a kind of coin toss. High end labels from France, such as Dom Perignon, carry with them a certain mystique, as well as a hefty price tag. It’s possible, however, to find sparklers from other regions, such as Spain, New Mexico and Italy that add life to a celebration without...
One question was answered during pre-game warm ups on Saturday. “I found it, so it’s fine,” Darbi Klinkhammer said of her number 1 jersey. The previous evening in Hershey she took the floor in number 13 after misplacing her usual kit. Kimball answered the second question—how would they respond to a loss?—within a few ticks after the opening tip off. Klinkhammer secured the ball, lined up from three point range and drained the opening shot. A minute later she fired a kick out pass on a clothesli...
The Longhorns survived on Saturday, besting Bayard 51-42. But for a time Kimball’s final December contest looked like an upset in the making. Bayard entered the day with a 2-3 record while Bruce Tjosvold’s side swept the home tournament and two more games in fine style. So the outcome may have seemed inevitable. But the visitors jumped out to a 4-0 advantage and held on despite a flurry of Caleb Reuter power moves to claim an 8-8 draw at the end of one. “We overlooked them,” Zach Rockhol...
“I thought I had a pretty good day,” said Jonathon Withrow after spending the morning and afternoon at Sidney’s Invitational. It was a bit of an understatement. Kimball’s 145 pound wrestler took first place in his class after pinning Chase County’s Michael May in round two and finishing off yet another unfortunate competitor for the title. He was one of three Longhorns to place at the varsity level. Javi Figueroa rounded out an adventurous day with silver at 152 and Rowdy Keller took home thir...
Darbi Klinkhammer may have walked under a ladder or shattered her favorite mirror--that’s conjecture. We do know, however, that before Friday night’s trip to Hershey, the Longhorns’ senior point guard misplaced her familiar number 1 jersey and was forced to don the unlucky number 13 instead. The result? Multiple Kimball turnovers and a 47-25 thrashing at the hands of the state’s second ranked squad. “It’s not the jersey, it’s the player,” Klinkhammer insisted after the team’s first loss of the...
Hershey humbled the Longhorns 55-37 in last season’s district finals. The blowout loss left a stain on an otherwise glorious 20 win campaign and knocked Kimball from state contention. After Friday night’s 51-38 win on the Panthers’ home court, Kimball’s Jordon Berger expressed the complex feelings of redemption in one word. “Payback,” he said with a smile. The Longhorns never trailed in the contest. Zach Rockhold-O’Brien and Caleb Reuter staked them to a 6-0 lead from the opening whistle. Hers...
Kimball finally wrestled at full strength Thursday night in Ogallala: seven against 12. Four Longhorns won their matches and the small squad fell just shy of an improbable team victory. But as fate would have it, the home side was open at 126, forcing both Tatum Morgan and Justin Mohr to step up one weight level. Paired against experienced, heavier wrestlers they were dispatched quickly. Down two matches, head coach Wade Brashear sent 145-pounder Jonathon Withrow onto the mat against...
Recently a photojournalist came under fire for snapping pictures. R. Umar Abbasi happened to be in a New York subway station when one man pushed another onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train following a brief argument. In the wake of the event, to quell hostility directed at him for failing to jump in and help, Abbasi claimed he clicked the shutter repeatedly hoping the flash would alert the train’s driver. More likely, his journalistic instincts kicked in. News photographers cover their share of tragedies. Someone must document d...
Brian Evertson recalls the moment his mother came to Kimball High School during lunch and handed him a letter. “I opened it and the top part said something like ‘thank you for your interest,’” the senior student said. Evertson assumed--for a moment--that after a series of applications and interviews, he had not been put forward for entry into one of America’s military service academies. Instead, he learned that both Senator Ben Nelson and representative Adrian Smith nominated him to the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy. “It’s kin...
I find it a tad bit disconcerting to open a menu and see “onion rings” on the first page, when its cover promised fine Mexican cooking—like buying a ticket to see Killer Mike in concert and discovering Justin Bieber is the opening act. Other anomalies dot El Torito’s glossy list, as well. But the spot on Scottsbluff’s 27th Street strip is something of an anomaly in itself. The Panhandle’s “metro area” hosts a number of mom and pop Mexican joints serving as authentic street style tacos, menudo or...
It occurs to me that, for the approaching holidays, a specific regional wine might be in order. That’s right, something from near the Sea of Galilee, where (if a certain Good Book is consulted) water runs like sweet red vintage stuff. Yes, wine has been native to that part of the world since before Biblical times. For much of the modern era, though, varietals from France, Italy and Germany dominated even the table wine category. But ever since the emergence of New World labels in the 1990s, aficionados have been willing to branch out. And y...
Kimball took home two second place medals while the Wildcats finished with a couple of thirds at the Banner County Tournament. Over some nine hours and 275 matches between wrestlers from 14 teams on Saturday, however, a few things more important than overall standings were apparent. First, early season conditioning can vault some to the top while knocking others into consolation rounds. “I tried to outmuscle him and spent all my energy in the first period,” Kimball’s Tristan Carruthers admit...