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

On The Road Again

I traveled to North Platte on Saturday to take in the final day of this year’s SPVA Conference Basketball Tournament held at the Mid Plains Community College site and got to witness both Kimball teams secure wins after dropping their first round games earlier in the week.

It was a nice basketball atmosphere at the Mid Plains gym and a nice crowd from Kimball showed up to cheer the Longhorns to victory. Be sure and see the stories in this week’s sports.

WyoBraska Basketball

Also on Saturday, right here in Kimball, there was a lot of basketball being played as Kimball hosted the WyoBraska girls youth tournament for grades 4-5-6. Kimball had three teams entered with one in each grade level and there were 13 teams from out of town. Chad Miller, the man in charge this year, estimated there were probably around 500 or more people journeyed to Kimball for this event. Chad also thanked all of the good people who volunteered to help by officiating, helping with concessions, keeping score and running the clocks, etc. Also a thank you to local business owners who donated goods and to the school for their help in making the facilities available.

Some names you readers will recognize are stepping in to coach these young players include Chad Miller 3rd grade girls, Andrew Bohac 4-5 grade girls, and Michele Daum 6th grade girls.

Kimball also has four boys teams and they will be in action in the WyoBraska Tournament play this Saturday at Yoder, Wyoming. Mitch Brown and Caitlyn Tabor coach the 3rd grade boys, Adrian Foos and Craig Markum 4th grade boys, Jason Hickman 5th grade boys, and Chad Miller 6th grade boys.

Coach Miller says, “It is hard finding gym times for everyone to practice, and there is some financial obstacles as well.” A salute to everyone involved in working with these young players as this is the future of Kimball basketball.

You can see photos of three of these fine Kimball teams on Page B8.

SPVA Tournament

Also, a salute to the winners of this year’s SPVA Tournament play. Chase County emerged the girls champion winning over Bridgeport 51-37 and St Pats took 3rd place with a 51-40 win over Hershey. Kimball was 5th defeating Perkins County 41-36.

In the boys division Hershey was crowned champions with a 48-41 win over Bridgeport. St Pats won over Chase County 55-44 for 3rd. Kimball won over Sutherland 55-43 for 5th place.

Looking Ahead

Basketball in Kimball tomorrow (Friday) night with Kimball hosting Sutherland with game time for the JV games at 3:30 followed by girls varsity and boys varsity. There will also be a Knights of Columbus Feed. On Saturday, Kimball goes back to North Platte to play the St Pats Irish. JV game time is 1 p.m. followed by the varsity girls and then boys.

Our Kimball High Wrestlers will be at Mitchell this Saturday as their season is fast drawing to a close with only the conference and District tournaments remaining along with State.