Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Jock Talk

News from Four Winds Golf Pro Chad Wise is “Come out and enjoy some beautiful Fall golf.” Jeremy Williams and his crew have recently sanded plugged the greens and they are in pretty nice shape again and getting better each and every day. Right now, there are discounted green fees and lots of open golf.

This year’s Open Stroke Tournament was not held due to lack of entries, but a new format is in the plans for next year and it is expected to attract more golfers.  The Men’s combined year-end scramble will be held this Sunday (September 25), with a start time of 1 p.m.  Any and all golfers from the Thursday Men’s League and the Four Winds Men’s League are invited to sign up and play. Deadline for signups is tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 23).

Another tournament still on the agenda is the annual Triple Play Fund Raiser, a real fun format for all.  The exact date is still a bit undecided, but will probably be the first, or second weekend of October.  For all the details, contact the Four Winds Pro Shop.

I know the Thurday Men’s League championship match is still to be played between the teams of Randy Bohac/Steve Linn and Keith Staehr/Gary Hall.  I had a request from one league member, a former Superintendent of Potter-Dix Schools, to see if I could find out who set the league brackets?  Does anyone out there know?

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I finally got to see the Kimball High Volleyball Team paly this past week when they hosted Pine Bluffs and I got to see the Lady Longhorns at their best so far this season. They were up against a very talented and well coached Lady Hornet Team with the match going the full five sets before the Lady Longhorns won out.

Kimball took the first set 25-20, Pine won set two 25-19, Kimball won set three 27-25, Pine set four 25-23, and Kimball emerged the winners in set five 15-11!  It was good high school volleyball. The student bodies were very supportive and having fun.  The crowd got into it and it was quite entertaining.

Pine won the freshman match 25-22 and 25-20 and took the JV match 25-21,  27-25 so more exciting volleyball from the warmup matches, as well.

A tough schedule this week for Kimball as they were to go up against Alliance on the road this past Tuesday, and then face Gering and Sidney at Gering tonight(Thursday).  Three strong Class B schools and that’s a lot to ask of a C-2 school, but it will give the girls a chance to test themselves against the larger schools.  The JV girls are at Banner County this coming Tuesday.

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In regards to showing support to the Kimball athletes, I was proud of the Kimball students and fans Friday night as they cheered for their Kimball Longhorn Football Team that was completely humbled by visiting Chase County with the score 49-0 at half time, as the visitors went on to win 49-8 with a running clock the entire second half.  The fans stayed strong with their support and believe me, the Horns needed it.  I’ll say this though that coach Nick Kuxhausen and his staff are working hard with a squad that is mostly made up of frosh and sophomores and this young group is working hard and show promise.  The Horns are winless and the remaining schedule is tough.

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How about the Potter-Dix Volleyball teams?  They are state ranked in the Top Ten of D-2 and they certainly should be!

For example, they beat some of the better C teams, in winning the championship of the recent Gordon team.  The list includes Mitchell, Hemingford, Gordon-Rushville and they also have a win over Kimball earlier.  This team can make a serious run at State honors!

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A salute to Kimball High’s Brandon Barker and Zachery Wagner for their top ten finishes this past week at the Alliance Cross Country meet.  Barker ran 5th in the boys varsity race with a time of 18:11.61 and Wagner was 9th in 18:33.05.  They are both returning state qualifiers for coach Tiffany Johnson from last year and both are lowering their times on a weekly basis and zeroing in on repeat conference and state honors again.  Kimball runs at Ogallala this afternoon (Thursday), with a 4 p.m. start time.