Fall Sports 2012

FALL SPORTS PREVIEWD2 FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2012 THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH

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Matt Schartz (10) begins to throw as defenders Jobie Loving (42) and Austin Nesvara (83) rush him during NorthPlatte’s annual scrimmage.

Mark Obermeier / The North Platte Telegraph

Lady Bulldogs look for breakout seasonBy MARK OBERMEIER

[email protected]

For the North Platte HighSchool volleyball squad, 2012could be a breakout year. Withonly two lost to graduation,coach Laura Miller has highhopes for her Lady Bulldogs.

“I am really excited with thefact that we have a bunch of re-turning seniors,” Miller said.“We lost two good players fromlast year [Breezy Jahnke andKenzie Michaels] but we havethe rest of the crew comingback.

“We also have a lot of gooddepth coming into the programas well. So I’m really excited thatwe’re going to be competingevery day in practice, as well asin our games for positions andfor the W’s.”

Miller looks to improve on twoareas of concern that have

seemed to plague the Lady Bull-dogs, that finished with a 13-19record in 2011.

“Traditionally the blockingand the defense haven’t neces-sarily been there for our teamslately so we’re really going to fo-cus again on those two things,”said the coach. “Blocking is thefirst line of defense, so if we canat least get some touches, it givesour defense more of a chance toget the ball dug up.”

Work throughout the summershould return some benefits fora squad looking to provide con-sistency throughout the season.

“We did a lot this summer,”Miller said. “The unfortunatething is I never had everybodyin the same gym, or at camp, atthe same time. That was unfor-tunate but we got a lot of touch-es on the ball and did a lot of im-proving from the beginning tothe end of the summer.”

Miller also said she would goback to an offensive attack sheexperimented with a year ago.

“Throughout the summer wereally worked hard on running a6-2,” said Miller. “I’m lookingforward to that with the depththat we have. We have a lot ofhitters, so I’m going to look toutilize as many of those kids as Ican.

“It should put up a biggerblock for us defensively andhopefully we can do a little bitmore specializing with runningthe 6-2. That should help us be abetter, stronger team.”

Five seniors return from 2011that will be expected to give theNorth Platte squad plenty ofleadership.

“Anna [Allberry] is going to beour rock this year,” Miller said.“She led in hitting efficiencylast year and was just a few shyin leading us in kills, so we’re

going to look for her to lead ouroffense, attacking wise.

“Kylie [Wroot] is coming back.This will be her third year onvarsity and she’s done an excel-lent job on the right side for us.

“Jackie Paloucek got strongerand stronger throughout herjunior year. I’m looking forwardto her contributing this year as asenior and Allexis Menghini is ago-getter all the way around.She’s athletic and going to becompeting for a position.

“Abby Bradley will also be asenior we will look to for leader-ship.”

Miller said the girls have setsome team goals and are focusedto change recent patterns withseveral teams.

“The girls have already setgoals to beat Ogallala, Kearneyand Grand Island,” Miller said.“Those seem to be three teamsthat we go up against and strug-

gle. Ogallala is always good.Kearney has a new coach thisyear, and Grand Island is alwayssolid as well. I think we shouldbe able to compete really wellwith them.”

As always, the conference anddistrict competition will be apriority for the Lady Bulldogs.

“Conference should be up forgrabs,” said the coach. “Itshould be anybody’s tourna-ment this year. That’s going tobe a huge goal for us to comeaway as conference champs.

“And it is just awesome that ifyou finish in the top seven youcan host a district. For us itwould be just one more benefitnot having to travel and obvious-ly making some of those teamsfrom the Eastern part of thestate travel out here. It just givesus a little bit of an edge andwould be so neat for us to host adistrict.”

North Platte volleyball team brings lots of experience to the court

North Plattebuilds withhard workBulldogs football coachconcerned with depthBy MARK OBERMEIER

[email protected]

Although the numbersmight not be as high asNorth Platte High Schoolfootball coach BernieMadison would like, hestill reflects a positive atti-tude toward the Bulldogsoutlook for 2012.

“I think it is good,” saidMadison of the practicesto date. “The kids we havehere are working hard.

“Our concern is, and hasbeen since I have beenhere, is the depth andnumbers we’re getting out.But they’re working hardand trying to learn the sys-tem. The kids are reallywith us — I think.”

With summertime vaca-tion gone, Madison saidthe work done by the ath-letes during the schoolbreak is very important.

“Some of them were inthe weight room and wentthrough conditioning,” thecoach said. We went tosome camps like everyoneelse does. And we had apass league here at NorthPlatte High with some oth-er teams.

“If you’re not, you’reputting yourself at a disad-vantage right away.”

Madison’s spread of-fense will stay the same in2012, but improving its ex-ecution will be important.

“We’re just trying to per-fect the stuff we’re doing,”Madison said. “This is thethird year into the actualsystem we’re using andwith Dylan Mlady [at quar-terback], it is comingalong quite a ways.

“I think all our quarter-backs, Matt Shartz andShane Mauch — they’regetting the progressions.They’re starting to learnthe actual progressions —why we’re doing them andreading their pre-snap cov-erage. Find where thegrass is at, and we’re try-ing to hunt that grass.

On the other side of theball, things might look alittle different from recentyears, as the Bulldogs planto implement a 4-2 defense.

“We’re going to be a lit-tle more basic,” Madisonsaid.

“We got hurt a couple

times with broken cover-ages last year and we hadsome speed concerns.Hopefully what we’re do-ing — we’re doing correct-ly.

“Then flight to the foot-ball. I think our speed isgoing to be good for us.

“And the big guys upfront. We’re tweaking thatas far as being more ag-gressive.

“Hopefully with thosethree switches we canmake things happen a lit-tle better.”

With 20 seniors leadingthe way, the Bulldogsshould have plenty of lead-ership they haven’t had inthe recent past.

“It’s been kind of nice,”said the fourth year Bull-dog coach. “That’s themost seniors I have hadsince I’ve been here.

“We’re going to hangour hat on our leaders, and[Luke] Wright is definitelyone of them — by exampleand as a positive, get’emready to go, push the kidskind of guy.

“Drew Beyer has beenoutstanding, he’s fullthrottle all the time.

“Dylan is gathering thesystem as far as offense,and getting people lined upand getting the most ofthem.

“Just the whole seniorgroup in general has beena nice breath of fresh air.”

With the Class A dis-tricts being assigned in aserpentine fashion, Madi-son said the competitionwill be stiff.

“District is going to betough,” said Madison. “Wewill have Grand Island andKearney. We had one or theother the last few years,but we have them both thisyear.

“ North Star is solid asusual. Our district is justgoing to be pretty tough.

“Our opening game iswith Norfolk at home. Wehave yet to beat them sinceI’ve been here.

“The first one is alwaysbig — the momentum, andto get a positive attitudewith the kids. They’re a lit-tle happier in the hallways[after a win], so that’s go-ing to be a big one.”

North Platte running back Jobie Loving (42) rushes as blocker Alek Morales (63) looks to block defender ColtonWalker (74) during the Bulldogs annual scrimmage game last week.


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Wyatt McGuire, of North Platte,, was 12th in the StateCross Country Meet last fall, finishing in 16:37.4.

Telegraph file photo

Juniors pace North PlatteMcGuire, Burrows lead cross country teamsBy MARK [email protected]

North Platte cross coun-try coach Dennis Fornan-der feels it will be impor-tant for both the boys andgirls squads to develop aconsistent, top seven tonine runners, and then de-velop the depth behindthem. One thing Fornan-der won’t have to concernhimself with in 2012, arethe individuals he willrely on to lead their re-spective teams.

Juniors Wyatt McGuireand Libby Burrows eachqualified for the state meetas individuals in 2011, andwill be counted upon heav-ily this fall.

“Wyatt placed 12th as afreshman and had a roughyear last year with someinjuries,” said Fornander.“But he came back by theend of the season and stillgot 12th again, which wasquite an accomplishmentconsidering what he hadbeen through.

“He seems to be in goodshape now, so we’re head-ing into the season with

high hopes for him.”Wyatt could have some

company at state this yearif the team’s misfortunesof a year ago can changearound.

“We had a chance lastyear at districts to maybequalify the whole team butwe had a few things hap-pen. A few injuries downthe stretch that hurt us,”Fornander said. “But wehave a strong group backwith seniors Joe Godfrey,Ace Haws, and MarcusMiller, and junior GilbertSeck and sophomoreChristian Bradley. Wehave some younger kidsthat I think are going tostep up and provide someleadership for us also.Hopefully we’ll be a solidteam.”

Summer time can be anexcellent developingground for a distance run-ner. Fornander has mixedreviews when it comes tothe 20 boys on the teamutilizing this time to thefullest.

“Some of the kids put ina lot of miles and did agood job,” the coach said.

“We maybe didn’t havequite the summer weneeded to have, so we’ll seehow that works out.

“We have a good enthu-siastic young bunch andquite a few new freshmen.Hopefully we’ll see someof those step up into posi-tions for a spot.”

With just 15 girlschecked out for crosscountry, Fornander hopesthe beginning of theschool year will help solvethis problem.

“We’re still a little shorton numbers, but a littlebetter than last year,” saidFornander. “We have somegood young girls that looklike they’re going to con-tribute for us and we getback some of the ones thatwere injured last year.Hopefully we’ll have somefreshmen join us onceschool begins.

“The girls we have are agood bunch and they’reworking hard. Thereshould be a lot of competi-tion for spots.”

Along with Burrowsproviding some leader-ship, Fornander said sev-

eral others will be lookedto for help.

“Ricki Drews is a re-turning senior and a let-terman from last year.”Fornander said. “She pro-vides good leadershipalong with [fellow senior]Kathryn Schwartzkopf.

“Then a couple sopho-mores, Kalynn Stoner andMariah Wilcox ran varsitylast year. McKenna Miller,a junior, is one of our lead-ers on the team — so wehave some solid girls thereto build a team around.”

As the Bulldogs andLady Bulldogs prepare forthe meat of their season,Fornander said the compe-tition will be as rugged asusual.

“Both our conferenceand our district are verytough, so team wise it’ll betough clear through,” For-nander said. “We havekids that are going to com-pete well in those meets.

“As we go through theseason we’ll just have tosee how people improveand move forward, andlook for some good thingsto happen.”

By MARK [email protected]

There is excitement in the air out at the DowhowerSoftball Complex. The North Platte Lady Bulldogssoftball team has begun their practices with expecta-tion of the upcoming 2012 season.

North Platte coach B.J. Songster returns all herplayers from a season ago, and is confident the LadyBulldogs will have a successful season.

“We’re all pretty excited — we have everybody com-ing back,” Songster said. “So we’re confident and Ithink they want to come out, win, and try to take it toeverybody.”

Many of the 26 girls on the team have been playingsoftball right up to the beginning of the high schoolseason. North Platte hosted the 2012 Class A 16UNorthern Nationals Fastpitch Softball Tournamentthat finished on Sunday, Aug. 5, in which three NorthPlatte teams participated.

“Yes they have some game experience, but I guessthat is kind of a concern of ours also,” said Songster.“They all love softball, but they’ve been playing allsummer up until the start of our season. Hopefullythey still have the heart, desire and passion to keepgoing forward.

“I guess what is really exciting is we have all of ourdifferent softball groups coming together to representNorth Platte. So hopefully that is a positive — it canwork both ways.

“I think, them playing together and working togeth-er, is going to overcome them being burned out. Beingthe North Platte Lady Bulldogs is exciting for the girlsrather than being three or four different teams.”

With all members returning from 2011, Songsterwill look toward senior leadership to direct her still-young team.

“We have four returning seniors,” said the coach.“I’m pretty positive about them, but we’re still prettyyoung with 14 sophomores. We’re still in our buildingyears, but they’re all very athletic, very dedicated,and they love softball. They’re out here ready to playball.

“One of the biggest strengths is Ashten [Hernan-dez] returning as a senior pitcher,” Songster contin-ued. “She’s been out there a couple years, with the ex-pectations, and knowing she needs to set the tone ofthe game.

“That’s a very big strength.“Sid [Standage], a senior third baseman, is just a

great ballplayer and positive leader.“We also have a lot of speedy girls in our lineup,

from freshman to our seniors. Hopefully we can putsome pressure on our opponents defenses.”

It was the year 2004, the last time the Lady Bulldogsmade the trip to Omaha for the Nebraska State Soft-ball Tournament. If Songster has anything to sayabout it, the Lady Bulldogs might be making plans fora return trip.

“I’m confident we should be the team everybodyelse is looking to beat in conference,” Songster said.“We finished second to Kearney last year but I thinkwe have the strongest team with everybody returning.

“I think they are just really hungry to come out andget those titles [conference and district].”

Lady Bulldogsreturn everyplayer for 2012North Platte ready for big year

North Platte girls golf coach Jim Orcutt watches as members of the team practice putting at a recent practice at IronEagle Golf Course in North Platte.


By MARK OBERMEIER

[email protected]

The North Platte LadyBulldogs golf squad willlook different from a yearago as they head into the2012 season. Gone will bestate medalist KarissaMoreland, and graduateKarli Montgomery. Buthead coach Jim Orcuttsaid they [Karissa andKarli] are heading on tobigger and better things,and his North Platte teammight have to find otherways to be successful.

“Losing Karissa andKarli from last year tograduation will put a bigdent in our squad thisyear,” Orcutt said. But thegirls that were juniors lastyear [and seniors now]have worked pretty hardover the summer — mostof them.

“So I would guess thatour strength will lie in ourbalance this year. “We

may, or may not, have alow, low, low score likeKarissa was able to pro-vide, but we may have fourdecent scores at a particu-lar invite. And I think thatis where our strength isgoing to reside this year.”

Orcutt, beginning his29th year of coaching inNorth Platte, said age andexperience should be anadvantage for his club.Three seniors Orcutt willlook to for leadership willbe Jordyn Pearson, TessaBurford and Jenae States.

“There are quite a fewseniors on the team andthey have had some expe-rience over the last fewyears,” the coach said.“They do not lack in tour-nament experience, atleast at the high school lev-el. Mentally, since some ofthe girls have had some ex-perience with high schoolplay, I think that should bea strong point for us.They’re not going to go

into the meets intimidat-ed, I hope anyway, becausethey have had that valu-able experience.

“I kind of wish some ofthem would have played alittle bit more in the sum-mer — taking advantage ofthose months. But overallI’m pleased with theamount of participationin the summer golf pro-gram.”

Looking over the courseof the entire season, theveteran coach has his sitesset on things his team canimprove on.

“I think the biggestthing we need to work onright now is consistency,both in striking the balland scoring,” Orcutt said.“But I think if we takecare of the consistency ofstriking the ball, the scor-ing will take care of itself.

“And the short game. Ialways stress that becausethat’s where a player cansave a lot of strokes from

around the greens. “Ballstriking — consistency —and short game.”

The Lady Bulldogs be-gan their season today atthe Kearney Invitational.With the entire fieldloaded with Class A com-petition, Orcutt knew thechallenges it would pro-vide. North Platte willhost Lexington at Iron Ea-gle Golf Course on Tues-day and the North PlatteInvitational at River’sEdge Golf Course on Sat-urday.

“There are nine teamsin the Invite from WesternNebraska,” Orcutt said.“McCook returns somevery good players fromlast year and Gering doesas well.

“So again we’re going tolook for balanced scoringto help us out in the teamrace. I look for this team toget better and more confi-dent with each meet.”

Lady Bulldogs seeking balanceConsistent play key for North Platte girls golf team

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The North Platte boystennis squad will be undernew leadership for the2012 season. Taking thehelm for the Bulldogs willbe Dale Hall, new to thetennis program, but cer-tainly not new to theNorth Platte school sys-tem. Hall has directed theBulldogs wrestling pro-gram since 2009.

With the departure offormer coach JohnLehmer, Hall is preparinghis troops for the upcom-ing season.

“Actually we’re justworking on fundamentals,working on serving, fore-hands, and backhands —just trying to get better atthose,” Hall said. “We’regoing to work as hard aswe can and do the best wecan.”

Hall will have the for-tune of two returning sen-ior varsity starters to helplead the Bulldogs tennisteam. Both of whom Hallsaid should be good lead-

ers for the rest of the teamto follow.

“Cameron [Bargell] hasreally been working hard,”Hall said. “He has been toall the practices and has agreat attitude. Skill wise, Ithink he’s pretty solid.

“Michael [Odle] is an-other one that has varsityexperience. It sounds likehe has done quite a bitduring the summer to im-prove his game, but Ihaven’t seen that yet be-cause he has been out withan injury.”

If Hall does have a con-cern for the 2012 season, itmight be the number ofathletes that have reportedfor practice. At the time ofthis interview, 13 boys hadsigned up to play, but forvarious reasons Hall hasyet to have them all atpractice.

“Right now in our jun-ior and senior class, wehave some good numbers,”said Hall. “I think we havefour or five seniors and sixjuniors. However, ourfreshmen and sophomoreclasses, we’re kind of light

on those numbers.“Any freshman or soph-

omores that would be in-terested in going out — wewould sure like to havethem.

“The way we’re going tobe able to build a programis by getting the under-classmen out as freshmenand sophomores and hav-ing them here for three orfour years.”

Hall is looking forwardto the season and he feelseach meet will be a learn-ing experience.

“I believe all of our com-petitions will be importantthroughout the season tohelp us find our strengthsand weaknesses,” thecoach said. “The Confer-ence meet will be very im-portant because it canhelp us set the tone for theState Tournament in Oma-ha.”

North Platte opens theirseason on Saturday at thePapillion LaVista SouthInvitational and then trav-el to the Kearney DoublesInvitational on Sept. 1.

Cameron Bargell returns a shot during tennis practice recently at Cody Park in NorthPlatte. Bargell is one of several seniors on the tennis team this season.


New coach for BulldogsHall coaching boys tennis for North Platte

Lady Knightsenjoy chemistryNPCC features many volleyballplayers from around the areaBy MARK OBERMEIER

[email protected]

As North Platte Community Collegevolleyball coach Sally Thalken begins her32nd year directing the Lady Knights, youcan sense an air of optimism on campus.Thalken returns only four sophomoresfrom the 2011 team that finished 17-21, af-ter two successive trips to the NationalTournament in 2009-10.

But with nine incoming freshmen,Thalken has a good mixture of area ath-letes.

“Of the 12 kids we have, 11 of them arefrom western Nebraska, the panhandle,and just across the boarder into Coloradoat Brush,” Thalken said. “These kidshave a pretty good work ethic. They’vestepped in here very excited and en-thused about playing and they’re willingto put their toe on the line and workhard.”

Returning to the squad this season aresophomores Whitney Smith of Wallace,Mersades Klein from Mitchell, EbonieDavis of Killeen, Texas and Brooke Hen-ry from Loup City.

“We have four sophomores that webrought back. Some of them have consid-erable playing time and some of themhave a little sketchy playing time,”Thalken said.

“They all knew they were going to haveto work hard and they accepted that chal-lenge.

“It’s going to be a different year for usjust because we have so many girls thatare pretty talented, and can play a coupledifferent spots.

“It’s going to take us a little time forthings to shake out. I don’t know if thingswill ever shake out because these kids aregoing to be battling every day in practice.They can’t come to practice and afford toslack off any because somebody will bebreathing down their neck.”

Besides having a set of twins on theteam, (Sabrina and Sandrina Hallahan ofBrush, Colo.), Thalken will have severalgirls whose parent or coach played in thesystem.

Other incoming freshmen includeShannon Liewer of Imperial, MaggieBurke from Brady, Nicole Houston ofMitchell, Ogallala’s Savannah Welsh,Jacee Kershaw of Culbertson and LauraBeckman of Julesburg, Colo.

“We have an interesting mix of kids,”Thalken said.

“Hopefully we have kids that take asmuch pride in North Platte CommunityCollege/Mid Plains Community Collegeas some of their coaches had when they

played here — or their parents had whenthey played here.

“We just want to carry that traditionforward.

“Our kids talked this entire week aboutthe chemistry that we have. How well welike one another and enjoy one another.

“I know it’s just the first week andsometimes kids are a little bit plastic atfirst, but that’s really a cool thing to hearfrom the kids. That you know you’re atleast starting with pretty good chem-istry.”

The Lady Knights won’t have long toprepare for their opening season match-es. With such a young squad and girlswho have never played together before,Thalken doesn’t have long to get her teammatch-ready.

“Some kids come in in better conditionthan the others. We try to do a little bit ofconditioning, but it is so, so important atthis level to concentrate on play,” Thalkensaid.

“High schools are completely different,four-year colleges are completely differ-ent. But at this level, it is so important toget kids on the floor and touching theball. Becoming more familiar with oneanother on the floor — that is the criticalthing, probably more important than con-ditioning right now. Especially when wehave the Subway Tournament comingsoon.”

The Lady Knights will begin their sea-son today in the Subway Tournament at4:30 p.m., and action continues at 9 a.m.on Saturday.

Thalken welcomes the beginning of theseason.

“We are excited and like our SubwayTournament,” the longtime coach said.“It’s nice to not have to travel. It’s nice tostart off our season with a lot of familyand friends supporting us.

Five teams are joining the LadyKnights for the opening tourney.

“Williston State brings back a prettyseasoned team this year,” Thalken said.“Eastern Wyoming — you just can neverpredict him.

“They’re always going to be competi-tors and, JC, they’re D1 and Internationaland you know you’re going to find greatcompetition.

“Colby is the same, D1 and Internation-al and with McCook, Natalie has broughtin some International kids and beefed upher roster.

“It’s going to be very competitive. “Probably of all six teams, we are the

least experienced, so it truly is going to bea measuring stick for us.”

Whitney Smith, one of four sophomores on North Platte Community College’s volley-ball roster for the 2012 season, hits during a scrimmage at the college last week. TheLady Knights open the season hosting the Subway Invitational at NPCC today and Sat-urday.


FALL SPORTS PREVIEW FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2012 D5THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH•

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Anna O'Malley (75) and Mandy O'Malley (right) finshed the girls Class D State CrossCountry race in 12th and 13th respectively at the Kearney Country Club last fall.


Unfinished businessBy ROGER [email protected]

There is some unfinished business atSt. Pat’s and it involves the cross countryteam.

The Lady Irish qualified for the StateCross Country Meet a year ago and fellshort of where they wanted to as a team.The goal for the squad, which returnsmost of its runners from a season ago, isto return to state and finish much higher.

“We have a little bit of a chip on theshoulder,” said St. Pat’s head coach MarieBrosius. “We have some unfinished busi-ness .

“We weren’t quite ready for the statemeet. It’s a different race and we neededto prepare a little differently.”

To help the girls prepare, the LadyIrish attended a summer camp at the Uni-versity of Nebraska-Kearney where theygot some instruction on how to prepare.

“We learned a lot,” Brosius said. “Oneof the things we learned was how not torun too fast early in the race because ofnervous energy.”

The Lady Irish return core runnersMaggie Vinton, Mandy O’Malley andAnna O’Malley. Joining them are return-

ers Jodecci Torrez, Julia Flores andJamie Smith. St. Pat’s also added Lexi Al-lison, who ran distance races in track forSt. Pat’s, but recently decided to runcross country this season.

“We have a strong girls’ team,” Brosiussaid. “It will be a fun season, but we wantto get back to the state meet and have abetter showing.”

On the boys’ side, Joe O’Malley returnsfor the Irish after qualifying for the statemeet a year ago.

“I expect Joe to return to state thisyear,” Brosius said. “We also have TylerElsten, who has shown promise.

“I believe the boys will develop as theseason moves ahead. I’m not sure howthey will come together as a team, but Ibelieve we can make strides and hopeful-ly improve week to week.”

St. Pat’s begins the cross country sea-son at the Cambridge Meet on Aug. 31.

“We’ll see where we are and what weneed to get better,” Brosius said. “One ofour challenges is to make sure we pushourselves.

“We don’t want to just run in a pack,which is easy to do. We want to push eachother and ourselves to run as hard as wecan each time we go out.”

Lady Irish want state meet redemption

St. Pat’s looking to replace several offensive starters

Lady Irish wantto look to futureVolleyball team not talking about 2011By ROGER [email protected]

The Lady Irish volleyball season hada successful 2011 campaign, right?

St. Pat’s finished the season 24-8 andadvanced to the State Volleyball Tour-nament. Yet, this team with five return-ing starters remains hungry.

“We aren’t talking about it,” saidLady Irish head coach Shelly Byrnwhen asked about last season. “We haveto get things ready to get through atough season this year.”

What the Lady Irish aren’t discussingis reaching the state tournament andthen not playing their best in a first-round loss. So, with 11 letter winners re-turning, including six seniors, it’s im-portant to improve on last season,right?

“We’re not talking about it,” Byrnsaid. “We’ve set our goals and we knowwe have a strong schedule, which willbe a challenge throughout the season.

“Plus, Hershey has dropped down toC2 and is in our sub-district. So, with allthat, we aren’t worried about last year.”

The Lady Irish return SamanthaByrn, Bree Saner, Jenna Torres, ShelbyAllberry, Kari Slattery, BrittanyLawrence and Natalie Mackley. St. Pat’salso has Brooke Boucher, who trans-ferred from Maxwell to St. Pat’s for hersenior season.

“Brooke was a setter for Maxwell andwe have our setter, Kari, back,” Byrn

said. “So, we’re working them both atsetter and also trying a few things.

“They might be on the court at thesame time.”

The Lady Irish also have the trio ofSam Byrn, Lawrence and Allberryback. The three front-court players areready to take the next step, especiallyLawrence.

“Brittany has grown so much overthe summer,” Byrn said of her 6-feet, 3-inch middle hitter. “She played softballwith us all summer [with the Jr. Belles]and it helped her mature being in somany tight softball games.

“She’s ready to take that next step forus.”

Byrn believes her tough schedule andconference matchups will get the LadyIrish ready for another deep postseasonrun.

“Conference is always tough,” thecoach said. “Plus, we have a schedulethat is full of tough opponents. Everygame is tough competition.

“Our goals are the same. We want toimprove each week, work on what weneed to work on and make another post-season run.”

Just don’t ask how far or what thegoals are for sure.

“We’re not talking about it,” she said.“But the girls have a goal in mind, butthey’re keeping it to themselves.”

St. Pat’s opens the season on Aug. 30at Perkins County.

St. Pat’s front line player Shelby Allberry goes up for a block last season. Allberryis one of several Lady Irish players returning for 2012.


By ROGER BLUHM

[email protected]

Back-to-back deep runsin the playoffs. Check.

Watching a senior groupthat includes your quar-terback, two runningbacks and top receivergraduate. Check.

Filling those holes andexcited about a new year?Check.

This is Kevin Dodson,who, despite watchingseniors like MatthewJensen, Thatcher Vap, An-drew Vinton and SeanRyan graduate, is excitedabout another football sea-

son as head coach of theSt. Pat’s Irish.

“It is exciting,” Dodsonsaid. “We’ve got some goodkids, who have waitedtheir turn, and are readyto shine beginning Fridaynight at Kimball.”

Not only is Dodson re-placing several membersof back-to-back semifinalteams, he’s doing soagainst a team that quali-fied for the playoffs a yearago in Class C1.

“We haven’t looked atKimball much,” Dodsonadmitted. “We’ve beenworried about St. Pat’sand what St. Pat’s can do.

“We’ve been getting our-selves ready for this sea-son and making sureeveryone is on the samepage.”

The Irish will have SeanKeenan taking over asquarterback.

“Sean’s exhibited greatleadership,” Dodson said.“He makes good decisionsand has good speed.”

The running backs willrotate, with BrandonNiesen being the leader ofa group of four that in-cludes MatthewBuhrman, Collin Pieperand Chase Kimberling.

“We have four guys

there that are progress-ing,” Dodson said. “Oneguy, Niesen, has steppedup as the leader. He’s alsoour kicker and safety, sohe won’t get off the field.”

Two guys Dodson iscounting on this seasonare starting offensive tack-les Joseph Clinch and Pe-dro Martinez.

“Those two guys, alongwith tight end Henry Auf-denkamp, will solidify andlead the offensive line,”Dodson said. “We will leanon them early until thenew members of the linecatch up to what we wantto do.”

Defensively the Irishwill strive to do whatthey’ve always done.

“We want 11 men at theball,” Dodson said. “We al-ways want 11 men at theball each time.

“Now, that doesn’t meanwe don’t have assignmentsto do, but we also want tobe aggressive.”

St. Pat’s opens the sea-son at Kimball today andhas a schedule with newopponents this year. TheIrish will host Bridgeporton Aug. 31 and will alsoplay Wood River andRavenna this season, drop-ping off Sutherland and

Morrill. St. Pat’s will fin-ish the regular season byhosting rival Hershey onOct. 18.

“We have some greatseniors leading the wayfor us this year,” Dodsonsaid. “We have guys eagerto play, eager to get to thatnext step.

“That’s why each year isexciting. You have newkids who step up and be-come leaders.

“We will go out, play ourhardest, do our best, getbetter each day and, whenwe make the playoffs, en-joy that icing on the cake.”

Coach excited about players, ready to open football season at Kimball in tough test

Coaches: Please call the Telegraph with your results at (308) 532-6000


New coach takes over at BradyFormer Wildcat now head coach for Eagles football

Brady eyes return to stateLady Eagles have plenty of volleyball experienceBy MARK [email protected]

In three appearances at the Ne-braska State High School Volley-ball Tournament, the Brady LadyEagles have a combined 4-3 record.Their most recent trip to state wasa year ago when they placed third,losing a tough 5-setter to eventualstate champion Howells in the sec-ond round before rebounding to de-feat Stuart in the third-place game.

Lady Eagles head coach LynneJohnson thinks the state tourna-ment experience and a host of re-turning veterans will lead to anoth-er successful season.

“Our experience at state lastyear was amazing for the girls,”Johnson said. “It will definitelyhelp out in the confidence level andjust being more relaxed in a biggame.”

One athlete returning to help theBrady cause is junior Carissa Ray-burn. The only question is — whatposition will she play?

“Carissa is one of the leaders onour team, along with all the sen-iors,” Johnson said. “She couldpossibly be our setter, but it is verydifficult to give up her passing abil-ity. So she will most likely stay atlibero. She is a very hard workerand is open to do what ever job sheneeds to.”

Senior Dakota Terry is anotherLady Eagle Johnson will lean heav-ily on during the season.

“Dakota, who played an outsidehitter last year, will be taking onthe right side for now,” the coachsaid. “She has played there in clubball and is doing a great job.”

Johnson will have the luxury oftwo returning middles in seniorMolly Hannon and sophomore

Josie Palmer.“They both had a lot of time last

year,” Johnson said. “They sharedthe position part of the year andboth started when [Megan] Poltwas injured.”

Another strength for the LadyEagles will be the outside hittingposition, where they have juniorValerie Most returning along withthe addition of Madison Elliot, atransfer from Maxwell. Elliot start-ed for the Lady Wildcats in 2011.

“We have four to five other verycapable people to fill spots and begreat contributors this season,”Johnson said. “The girls are veryexcited for the season to get startedand are expecting they should dowell.

“It is a great group of kids, theyhave lots of fun and get along verywell. Our experience will be astrength and they love to play.”

The 2011 Brady Lady Eagles celebrate a District title win last season, which put the team into the State VolleyballTournament. The Lady Eagles are returning several players from last season and hope a repeat trip to the statemeet will happen this season.


Wallace wantsto build on 2011

playoff berthWildcats loaded for 2012 runBy ROGER BLUHM

[email protected]

Does a taste of successdrive a team to succeedagain and again?

Wallace may be able toanswer that question ofeveryone this season.

The Wildcats made theClass D2 playoffs a seasonago, despite finishing theyear with a 3-6 record.This year, coach GaryHager hopes his Wallacesquad goes into the post-season with a winningrecord.

“We’d like to be 5-3 or 6-2going into the playoffs thisseason,” Hager said. “Wewant to avoid those top-seeded teams in the firstround of the playoffs if wecan.”

The Wildcats made theplayoffs in 2011 despiteplaying a sophomore-dom-inated lineup. Now thoseplayers are juniors andHager believes the taste ofsuccess will drive histroops to more success.

“We were young, but wetasted the playoffs,” Hagersaid.

“We are definitely a jun-ior-dominated team, butthat taste of the playoffsand the experience we gotlast year should help ussucceed this year.”

The Wildcats return sixstarters on defense andfive on offense.

The standout is MarkJameson, an offensive and

defensive lineman.“He has a fast motor and

a great nose for the ball,”Hager said. “He is impossi-ble to block one-on-one.”

The Wildcats open theseason today by hostingSouth Platte, but will takeon district opponents laterin the season.

“We have a chance tostart out right and buildeach week,” Hager said.“It’s important, as toughas our district is, to be-come as good as we can be-fore starting district play.”

Wallace believes Medi-cine Valley is once againthe team to beat in the dis-trict, but also feels histeam can challenge theRaiders.

“Medicine Valley lost alot of seniors,” Hager said.“Of course, they found alot of success last seasonand that will make themwant it even more now.”

Hager said his team’sbiggest foe will be Paxton,a squad which made theD1 playoffs a year ago.

“We’ll get a true test ofwhere we are and wherewe’re headed with Pax-ton,” Hager said. “Theyare by far the biggest, bad-dest team we’ll play thisseason.

“If we can play withthem, we’ve got a shot tobe a very good team thisyear. Let’s see if we canbuild on last season’s suc-cess.”

By ROGER BLUHM

[email protected]

There is a change at thetop for Wallace volleyball.

The Lady Wildcats havebeen coached for many aseason by Kody Rhode.However, Rhode steppeddown as head coach to con-centrate on his duties asathletic director and leftthe team in the hands oflongtime assistant coachElizabeth Strand.

“I’ve been the assistantcoach, so it’s not like it’s anew voice,” Strand said.“I’ve been here andworked with them foryears, so it’s not a bigchange.”

But, there is change.Strand has mixed thingsup at practice, doing differ-ent drills at differenttimes.

“The girls are havingfun and it’s enjoyable,”said Strand of thechanges. “We’re on theright track as far as wherewe’re going.”

Unlike some Lady Wild-cats squads of season past,this year’s team isn’t thebiggest in the area. Wal-lace has several girls be-tween 5 feet, 6 inches and6-0.

“We don’t have that dom-inant middle hitter thatwe’ve had in the past,”Strand said. “We’re goingto have to county on ourdefense to win games.

“Ideally, we’d like to beknown for our defense.”

Starters returning forthe Lady Wildcats includeKatelyn Melton, Sara Hub-bard, Chelsea Sowle andAnna Griffiths. Strandsaid some members of theteam worked over the sum-mer to improve and thatevery starting positionwas up for grabs.

“We have competitionfor all of the starting posi-tions,” Strand said. “Wehave to find some leader-ship. There are a few girlswilling to take the role, soit will work out, but weneed leaders.”

After an 11-11 season ayear ago, the Lady Wild-cats would like to get backto the level they had a fewseasons ago when theywent to the state tourna-ment.

“This team is capable ofplaying at a high level,”Strand said. “We’ll justhave to work throughsome changes as the sea-son progresses.”

Strand, whose team be-gins the season on Aug. 30at Wauneta-Palisade, be-lieves she’ll have a bettergauge of her team on Sept.4 when Wallace joinsHitchcock County atPerkins County for a trian-gular.

“We’ll see where we’reat,” Strand said. “That’s atough triangular early inthe season.”

Strand replaceslongtime ’Cats

head coachFew changes for Wallace

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By MARK OBERMEIER

[email protected]

A former Wildcat will be takingover the reigns as the head BradyEagles football coach for 2012. Afterspending four years in the UnitedStates Marine Corp, then attendingBlack Hills State University wherehe was a two-time all-conferencedefensive end, Andy Seamann willnow lead the Eagles. Before comingto Brady as the assistant footballcoach and activities director in2011, Seamann also coached line-backers at Wayne State College.

Seamann likes what he has seenduring practice, but the Eagles willneed to fill some holes due to grad-uation.

“The main challenge will be re-

placing a very talented and experi-enced senior class,” Seamann said.“Another challenge is like manysmall schools, the lack of depth onthe front lines. Finding leaders willalso be very important.

“Practices have been going verywell, the kids have really steppedup their work ethic. “We have someyoung kids really stepping up andsome new kids who have beenpleasant surprises.”

Michael Neiman is a returningstarter on both sides of the ball forthe Eagles — someone Seamannwill need as the season progresses.Neiman averaged seven yards percarry a year ago with nine touch-downs and another three TDs re-ceiving. He also collected 60 tackleswith eight sacks on defense.

“Michael has brought to the tablesome much needed leadership thisfall for our young and new runningbacks.” Seamann said. “He bringshis lunch pail to practice everydayto work.”

Speed will be an Eagle asset, oneSeamann will look to exploit.

“We plan on using some differentpackages to utilize the various in-dividuals available to us that havespeed,” the coach said. “We plan oninsuring that they are all fresh andat full speed throughout the game.”

When all is said-and-done, theEagles will have one goal in sight— a fourth straight trip to the play-offs.

“We are looking to continue ourstreak at making the playoffs,” saidSeamann.


Good Luck Panthers!

Hershey State BankBankers You Can Bank On

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HOUSINGLENDER

By MARK OBERMEIER

[email protected]

The Sutherland LadySailors have made two suc-cessive trips to the Nebras-ka State Volleyball Tour-nament, both resulting infirst round losses. Exeter-Milligan downed the LadySailors in 2010 and BDSdefeated Sutherland a yearago in four hard-foughtsets, 25-23, 25-27, 20-25 and22-25. Sutherland endedthe year with a stellar 21-12 record.

With the loss of fourseniors, head coach Va-lerie Kershner is lookingto put another competitiveteam on the court.

“We are returning sev-eral players with varsityexperience and will be anaggressive and powerfulteam,” Kershner said. “Wehave a lot of athletic play-ers who are able to playvarious positions so weare excited to find our bestfit.”

Leading the LadySailors charges this year

will be 6-foot middle hitterSam Kennedy. Kennedyled Sutherland into thestate tournament with ateam leading 273 kills in2011 and also contributed70 blocks

“Sam is a great playerwho will make a big im-pact both offensively anddefensively,” the coachsaid.

“She will definitelybring a spark to the teamthat will be nicely comple-mented by our other hit-ters, primarily JalyneSchuster and Kelsey Dil-lenburg.

“We will be looking toSam for her positive lead-ership both on and off thecourt. The exciting thingis that Sam has yet toreach her peak.”

Schuster was second toKennedy with 183 regularseason kills a year ago andJoli Hopping led the teamin assists with 505.

“Jalyne is a great ath-lete and competitor who isa pleasure to watch andcoach,” said Kershner.

“She brings a lot of ag-gressiveness and power tothe outside position. Welook for Jalyne to play aneven bigger role this yearas she continues to im-prove and grow as a player.

“Joli is an experiencedsetter who has great ballsense and sees the courtwell. Joli can be trusted tomake smart choices on thecourt and put the ball inthe right position for ourhitters. She is also a greathustler and never gives upon the ball.”

Dillenburg finished the2011 regular season thirdin kills with 95.

Kershner is happy withthe Lady Sailors statetournament appearancethe previous two years,but said her team has vi-sions of more.

“It’s always a great ac-complishment to qualifyfor the state tournamentand is definitely some-thing to be proud of as westrive for a three-peat ap-pearance,” Kershner said.“However, our girls will

not be satisfied with justan appearance at state thisyear. We are a motivatedand driven team that islooking to have success inGrand Island.”

Although Sutherland’spupil numbers placesthem in a D1 classifica-tion, their extremely diffi-cult schedule may just pre-pare them for a run atstate in 2012.

“We play a tough sched-ule consisting mostly ofschools in larger classifi-cations, although we playsome tough smallerschools too,” said Kershn-er. “We look at everymatch for what it is — an-other opportunity to playour best and improve as ateam.

“We have been able tokeep our focus throughoutthe season in previousyears and managed topeak at the right times. Wewill need to continue to dothat again this year as welook to do some damage atthe state tournament.”

Lady Sailors hope to keep rollingDespite losing 4 seniors, Sutherland eyes return to state event

By MARK [email protected]

Two things, for sure,will look different for theSutherland football squadas they take the field thisseason. One, the playingfield will be smaller thanthe past, and two, therewill be fewer athletes onthat field. The Sailors willbe moving to 8-man foot-ball in 2012, and headcoach Joe Kaup said thebiggest challenge theyface will have nothing todo with fewer players onthe field.

“Our biggest challengeis having a team made upof 50 percent freshmen,”said Kaup. “They all willhave to make significantcontributions for us tomake it through the sea-son.

“A big advantage ofmoving down [a class] is Iwill likely only have tostart three or four fresh-men, instead of five or six

if we were playing 11-man.“Unfortunately for

them, our freshmen don’thave the opportunity toplay, develop and learnlike freshmen. They areforced into much biggerroles due to our depth andteam make-up.

“I’ve been preaching tothem since last Decemberthat they better develop re-ally short memories. Get-ting trucked by bigger, old-er athletes, mistakes aregoing to happen so theybetter learn to move on tothe next play reallyquick.”

With the loss of theirtop three defensive backsand wide receivers tograduation, Kaup said hisathletes are aware of howchallenging the year willbe.

“The kids know this isgoing to be a rebuildingyear to say the least,” thecoach said. “That beingsaid, they are definitelyfor the move [to 8-man].”

One athlete Kaup willrely on to lead his youngtroops in the upcomingseason will be junior widereceiver and defensiveback Collin Fleecs.

“Collin’s biggest asset tothe team is his work eth-ic,” Kaup said. “He’s a qui-et captain and all his lead-ing is by example. He al-ways works hard and al-ways does the right thing.He’s not the ‘Rah Rah’type of guy.

“Collin is the only re-turnee at wide receiver, sohe will need to step up dueto our other skill guys be-ing so young. He needs tobecome our primary tar-get.”

With such a youngsquad set to begin theirfirst season in a newleague, Kaup said thereare far greater things hewill need from his veter-ans than statistics on thefield.

“Given that our one sen-ior hasn’t played fullback

before, our three captainsLucas [French], Collin andZach [Blake], and our re-turning quarterbackTyler [Fear] had better bedoing some teaching to theyoung kids,” Kaup said.“They better also do agreat job of picking themup when they are down,because that is going tohappen when they getsmacked in the mouth byreally good junior and sen-ior players.

“The other major thingwould be to rememberthat when they were fresh-men, they weren’t in a po-sition to be forced intosuch big roles. They hadolder guys ahead of themand they could learn andfill in as a role-player.

“That will be importantwhen the young mistakescome out and they want tojump all over them. That’swhen we’ll find out trulywhat kind of captains andleaders they are.”

Sutherlandbuilds depth incross country

Sailors have more runnersBy MARK [email protected]

The Sutherland cross country squad will havemore depth as they head into the 2012 high schoolseason. There will be eight boys and three girls run-ning the roads, pastures, and golf courses of LincolnCounty.

Fourth-year head coach Jessica Saner heads intothe upcoming season with optimism.

“We have a larger group of kids running this yearthan we have had in the past few years, with a lot ofupperclassmen,” Saner said. “They have all beenworking hard in practice to motivate each other torun hard.

“I like the competition that has developed this yeardue to a few new runners. They are all going to pushhard to be the best at practice and meets every day.

“I expect to bring home several medals after ourfirst meet in Cambridge. This will only motivate therunners to work harder to improve their times forthe rest of the season.”

As the season progresses, Saner will look to a jun-ior and a sophomore to lead her team — both ofwhich Saner said put forth a lot of effort during thesummer months.

Junior Jayson Rezek is back for the boys squad,while Josie Burke, a sophomore, will be expected tohead up the girls team.

“Jayson placed high in several meets last year,”Saner said. “He is a hard worker and was a good run-ner this summer.

“Josie has been working very hard this summerand had a good track season this past spring, so I amexpecting a lot from her in cross country.”

Other returning starters for the Sailors are TuckerBinegar, Alex Parker and Michael Hafer for the boys.The girls do not have any varsity starters returning.

Work during the summer months should help theSailors and Lady Sailors meet their goals.

“I had about five kids that ran pretty consistentlyall summer,” the coach said. “We had organizedmeeting times where kids were encouraged to run to-gether and we had a pretty good turnout most of thetime. Josie and Jayson really took charge of the sum-mer runs and helped decide workouts and lead theother runners.”

Saner is encouraged with her teams work ethic,with several weeks of practice in the books.

“The first week of practice was so nice with thecool weather. The kids were working really hard andthat has carried over into the hotter weather of thisweek.

“They all understand they will most likely be run-ning meets on days like this and keep pushing them-selves even when their bodies are hurting. They havestarted the year with a lot of heart and dedication.”

And what does Saner hope to see during the earlyseason competitions?

“Since we have several new runners, we are reallylooking forward to our first meet so they can get abetter idea of what cross country is all about,” Sanersaid. “Once they get into a race situation they will getup at the front of the pack and fight to stay there thewhole race.”

Sailors drop to 8-man footballSutherland to field team with plenty of freshmen playing

A Sutherland player bumps the ball during the District final match last season. The Lady Sailors lost four seniors tograduation after last season, but head coach Valerie Kershner believes there are enough returning players to perhapsget Sutherland to a third straight State Volleyball Tournament.


SOFTBALL CAPSULES

t

North PlatteClass ANICKNAME: BulldogsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: AHEAD COACH: BJ SongsterPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: All starter returning/team speedTEAM WEAKNESSPOSSIBLE STARTERS: Pitchers – Ashten Hernandez, Kaite Franzen, Jenny Keck;

1st base – Kaite Franzen, Hernandez; 2nd base – Cheyenne Craghead, Selena Parra;3rd base – Sydney Standage; Shortstop – Sally Hengen; catcher – Mackenzie Wise-man; outfield – Hannah Hays, Rachel Kosmacek, Christina Yoshida, Karli Flanders.

Class BLexingtonNICKNAME: MinutemaidsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Chris MroczekPLAYER TO WATCH: Halle Gyderson – IF; Halle has been a three year starter and

provides great team leadership through her actions and work ethic. Her goals are highfor this team and she is the glue that keeps everyone levelheaded.

TEAM STRENGTH: Great senior leadership. Overall team speed. Return fivestarters.

TEAM WEAKNESS: Play a competitive schedule. How fast some girls step up andcompete for open positions

SEASON OUTLOOK: The girls had a great summer and worked extremely hard inthe weight room. We have the type of group that can put pressure on teams defensive-ly with our team speed. Expectations are high and the girls have set very good goals forthe season.

KEY GAME: McCook – District opponent. Holdrege and Gothenburg – rivalry.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Pitchers – Aly Leger, Katelin Schultzer; 1st base – Macken-

zie McKeone; 2nd base – Molly Woockman; 3rd base – Aly Leger, Katelin Schultze,Tracy Reynoso; short stop – Halle Gydesen; catcher – Leesa Gierhan, Tracy Reynoso;right field – Skylar Speer; Center Field – Casey Schuger, Mackenzie McKeone; LeftField _ Tracy Reynoso, Aly Leger

Class CGothenburgNICKNAME: SwedesCONFERENE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: CHEAD COACH: Roger NeujahrPLAYER TO WATCH: Shay Wear – 2b/OF – She provides a lot of leadership for us;

her summer experience with the Belles has helped her become a better player.TEAM STRENGTH: ExperienceTEAM WEAKNESS: Need more pitching. SEASON OUTLOOK: Try to improve our pitching, offense, and defense as the sea-

son progresses.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Amanda Barkmeier – Pitcher; Emily Franzen – First Base;

Shay Wear – Second Base; Taylor Wolf – Third Base; Hanna Wolf – Shortstop; BritMunster – Catcher

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Class ANorth PlatteNICKNAME: BulldogsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: AHEAD COACH: Dennis FornanderPLAYER TO WATCH: Boys: Wyatt

McGuire; Girls: Libby Burrows – Returningstate qualifiers. Wyatt placed 12th both as afreshman and sophomore.

TEAM STRENGTH: Junior and Seniorleadership.

TEAM WEAKNESS: Need to develop aconsistent top 7-9 runners in varsity and de-velop depth behind them.

SEASON OUTLOOK: Boys should be asolid team and the girls should be muchdeeper than last year.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: BOYS: Christ-

ian Bradley, Joe Godfrey, Ace Haws, Char-lie Hokanson, Wyatt McGuire, Gilbert Seck.GIRLS: Libby Burrows, Rikki Drews,McKenna Miller, Deion Oliver, Kathryn

Schwartzkof, and Mariah Wilcox.

Class BLexingtonNICKNAME: Minutemen & MinutemaidsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Sam JilkaPLAYER TO WATCH: BOYS: Daniel

Nguyen – senior leadership. John MarkShields – young talent. GIRLS: Odaliz San-toyo – Leadership, quality athlete. VenessaAmbriz – quality athlete.

TEAM STRENGTH: BOYS: Larger teamnumbers, enthusiasm to improve. GIRLS:All girls return from last year’s team that gotthird at state. Venessa Ambriz (3rdrd) andOdaliz Santoyo (class b champion) return.

TEAM WEAKNESS: BOYS: Young, in-experienced – We’ll rely heavily on fresh-man to help our team. GIRLS: We need astronger performance out of our third andfourth runners.

SEASON OUTLOOK: BOYS: It will be a

rebuilding process, gaining experience ear-ly in the season. We need younger kids tostep up. GIRLS: Exciting opportunities butwe have to be willing to work hard. Eachyear is new, we can’t focus on last years re-sults but establish a new drive and enthusi-asm for what we will achieve this year.

KEY GAME: Districts and State. POSSIBLE STARTERS:

Class CCozadNICKNAME: HaymakersCONFERENCE: SWC CLASSIFICATION: CHEAD COACH: Dustin FavingerPLAYER TO WATCH: BOYS – Garrit

Geiger, returning state qualifier, AndresPelayo, all conference runners, JesusEstrada, all conference runners. GIRLS –Riley Sigler, state qualifier, Sandra Pelayo,state qualifier, Samantha Carlson, stateplacer, Elizabeth Vazquez, state qualifier,Janice Garcia, all conference runner.

TEAM STRENGTH: The boys will bene-fit by having a trio of potential state medal-ists up front with the ability to pack run andscore well in competitive meets. The girlshave qualified their team for the state meetthe past two years and will draw upon thatexperience of success to be competitiveonce again. Our top four girls will be medalcontenders in nearly every meet we enter.

TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: The boys and

girls are looking to repeat their performanc-es of both winning our conference meetagain this year. The girls have the potentialto qualify as a team for the third consecutiveyear while the boys are geared up to earntheir first team birth to the state meet. Bothteams have the potential to be very compet-itive and score well by pack running.

KEY MEET: POSSIBLE STARTERS:

GothenburgNICKNAME: SwedesCONFERENCE: SWC CLASSIFICATION: CHEAD COACH: Steve ReevesPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: KEY MEET: POSSIBLE STARTERS: BOYS – Aaron

Collins, Alex Spencer, Seth Eggleston;GIRLS – Morgan Kowalewski, CarlieStevens, Abbie Mazour, Holly Hudson,Amanda Kowalewski

OgallalaNICKNAME: IndiansCONFERENCE: SWC CLASSIFICATION: CHEAD COACH: Shane FruitPLAYER TO WATCH: BOYS – Dillon

McKeag, Derek Rosas – Both should bestate medalists. Both are two time state

medalists. GIRLS – Kelsey Crymble – Ninthlast year.

TEAM STRENGTH: Good senior lead-ership.

TEAM WEAKNESS: BOYS - Lack ofdepth, only 10 boys out. GIRLS – eight lastyears at state. Everyone returns.

SEASON OUTLOOK: KEY GAME: UNKPOSSIBLE STARTERS:

Class DCambridgeNICKNAME: TrojansCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Janice HowellPLAYER TO WATCH: Kiel Howell – Kiel

missed qualifying for state by 6/10 of a sec-ond last year and has a fire for finishing hissenior year with success.

TEAM STRENGTH: The two we haveout are very dedicated.

TEAM WEAKNESS: We don’t have afull team and need more underclassmen tostep in and build the team up.

SEASON OUTLOOK: I think we’ll dowell. Our runners are seniors. They knowthe ropes and can compete well.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Kiel Howell,

Seth Cope.

Eustis-Farnam/Medicine ValleyNICKNAME: Knights

CONFERENCE: RPAC/FKC CLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Barry MrazPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEA-

SON OUTLOOK: The E-F/MV CrossCountry team is looking to continue andbuild-on the success of last year’s crosscountry season.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: BOYS: Tanner

Mickelson, Connor Russell, Rodger Farr,Tate Hodson. GIRLS – Bryn Bellamy, KatieJack, Savannah Willis, Pam Felix.

HersheyNICKNAME: PanthersCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Jessica RasbyPLAYER TO WATCH: Aliesha DethlefsTEAM STRENGTH: Hard workingTEAM WEAKNESS: We are young, not

in terms of class, but we only have one sen-ior and one freshman that have ever runcross-country

SEASON OUTLOOK: We have fivegirls, so we will look to make personal goalsand achieve them with each meet.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS:


GOOD LUCKLONGHORNS!!

t

Class ANorth PlatteNICKNAME: BulldogsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: AHEAD COACH: Bernie MadisonPLAYER TO WATCH: Luke Wright – DE/OT. Very technically sound, strong, and football

savvy!TEAM STRENGTH: O-Line, bigger than we have been. Senior leadership is very impor-

tant.TEAM WEAKNESS: DepthSEASON OUTLOOK: We will be better. The kids are working hard and getting better

everyday.KEY GAME: Getting that first game is big. Then every game after that.POSSIBLE STARTERS:

Class BMcCookNICKNAME: BisonCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Jeff GrossPLAYER TO WATCH: Jake Schlager – Jake suffered a season ending injury and has bat-

tled back and is ready for his senior campaign.TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: McCook returns 11 player with

starting experience, 6 of which started both ways. 9 starters return on the defensive side ofthe ball. 9 starters return o the offensive side of the ball. This should be a very experiencedand well-rounded version of bison football.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Jake Schlager, Javier Beltran, Vince Lyons, Colton Sis, Cade Hi-

att, Gavin Harsh, Kolton Stone, Trevor Matson, Trent Bruntz, Ian Pearson, Austin Cherry, Za-yne Gillen, Cody Wudtke, Jacob Reimann, Bryce Lyons, Peyton Stagmeyer, Mitch Collicott,Matt Collicott, Trevor Gleason, Manny Rodriguez, Kyle Stewart, Colton McConnell, SethKoetter and Clayton Skolout.

Class C-1Broken BowNICKNAME: IndiansCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: C-1HEAD COACH: Mike GarnerPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/TEAM WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: We will be young again

this year, but a lot of our incoming juniors will be returning starters. We really struggled withinjuries last year, but the up side of that is that a lot of kids got starting experienced; we didn’tstart the same line-up two weeks in a row last fall. We are able to keep kid’s attitudes up andwe have a great group of seniors that we are hoping will lead us back into the play-offs. Lastfall was the only the third time in the last 12 years that we haven’t mad the play-offs. We havea new district, but we are still playing some of the old Southwest conference schools likeOgallala, Gothenburg, and Cozad, so we are excited about our new schedule as well

KEY GAME: RETURNING STARTERS: OL/DE/K – Tanner Johnson; WR/EB – Hunter Campbell;

RB/DL – Nate Evans; RB/LB – Chad Christensen; RB/LB Jordan Anderson.

Chase CountyNICKNAME: LonghornsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Dan LennersPLAYER TO WATCH: Kale Gockley – QB/DB – A leader!TEAM STRENGTH: Work well together.TEAM WEAKNESS: DepthSEASON OUTLOOK: OptimisticKEY GAME: Chadron, Cozad, Gothenburg, Kearney Catholic and Minden. All new

schools on schedule this year. We haven’t played any of these schools in the last two years.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Kale Gockley – QB/DB; Dan Sullivan – RB/CB; Michael May –

RB/SS; Justin German – FB/LB; Justin Wallin – FB/LB; Hunter Spady – WR; Spencer Hart-man – OT; Brian Bell – OG/DE; Callin Ledall – C/DE; Isaac Sorenson – LB; David Almanza –P; David Alanza – K.

CozadNICKNAME: HaymakersCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: C1-9HEAD COACH: Ron BubakPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/TEAM WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: We are still a somewhat

young Football team but I think we will also be very athletic with excellent speed. We are anexperienced squad, as many Sophomores & Juniors played a lot of Varsity Football last sea-son, as well as good depth.

SEASON OUTLOOK: We feel our schedule will be challenging throughout the seasonespecially our opening game with 2011 Class B Semi-Finalist Hastings Adam Central. I be-lieve we can be very competitive this season and I feel we can improve on our 4-5 recordslast season.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: SB/LB – Clay Trejo; SE/CB – Nate Bubak; SB/LB – Colin We-

tovick; RB/CB – Jake Paulson; FB/SS – Jacob Rush; FB/LB – Alex Boryca; C/LB – TannerEvertson; OT/DT – Simon Rangel; OT/DT – Jacob Stallbaumer; SE/SS – Ty Werner; TE/DE– Rhett Montgomery; TE/DE – Blaine Petersen

GothenburgNICKNAME: SwedesCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: C1-9HEAD COACH: Craig HaakePLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: Swedes will be very inexperi-

enced coming off a quarterfinal run in the playoffs last year. Return only two starters on of-fense and three on defense. Injuries last year forced some younger players into varsity roles-now they will have to step up again into leadership and starting roles. We will have a littlemore speed than last year but need to replace complete starting offensive and defensiveline. Competition for those spots will drive the team.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Logan Sheets – RB/LB; Logan Koehler – TE; Blake Ristine –

DB; Trent Long – DB.

OgallalaNICKNAME: IndiansCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Jeff McBridePLAYER TO WATCH: Pat Knott – Leader with a chance to be dominantTEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: This group will be the youngest

team I have ever put on the field. With a great of- season and kids ready to step up it couldmake for a good year. We are ready to defend the district championship. This should be andexciting year with two new opponents in the regular season.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Pat Knott – RB/LB; Dylan Folchert – WR/S; Luke Tinnon – LB;

Brady Cleveland – LB; Jose Garcia – K

ValentineNICKNAME: BadgersCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Craig SchemeckpeperPLAYER TO WATCH: Trent Osnes – FB/MLB – Led C1 in tackles last season. Two-time

all-district (C1-9). Great leader. Honorable mention All-State.TEAM STRENGTH: Our skill positions are talented. Special teams, kicker and punter.TEAM WEAKNESS: Depth in the line and replacing LB and DB’s.SEASON OUTLOOK: We will have some youth and inexperienced players, but we feel

that our core positions from last year are solid. Baring and injuries, we feel we should have asolid team.

KEY GAME: Broken BowPOSSIBLE STARTERS: Jessie Owen – QB/K; Kolton Brown – RB/CB/P; Trent Osnes –

FB/LB; Dillon Eklund – WR/SS; Marcus Nelson – WR/LB; Taylor Monroe – TE/LB; AnthonyFasthorse – TE; Matt Kluender – OT/DE; Gunner Hitchcock – OT; Jake Fulton – OG/DE;Donald McCleary – OG/LB; Cory Assarsson C/DE; Tristan Eklund – LB; Jacob Hand - CB

Class C-2Perkins CountyNICKNAME: PlaimsmenCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C2HEAD COACH: Chip KayPLAYER TO WATCH: Vinny Ross – will be a key factor on the offensive and defensive

lines.TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: Good mix of returning skill play-

ers and lineman on offense. Defensively we return solid core of defensive lineman and out-side linebackers. Roster will be heavy with juniors and seniors.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Alex Johnston - RB/LB; Elliot Carlson - RB/LB (Will move to QB

this season); Tyrone Summers – OL; Vinny Ross – OL/DL; Blake Poppe - DL

St. Pat’sNICKNAME: IrishCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C2HEAD COACH: Kevin DodsonPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: Strong senior class with talented underclassmenTEAM WEAKNESS: DepthSEASON OUTLOOK: Hope to be competitive by season end. Need to develop depth and

stay injury free.

KEY GAME: All of themPOSSIBLE STARTERS: QB – Sean Keenan, Alex Harms; RB – Brandon Niesen,

Matthew Buhrman, Colin Pieper; FB – Chase Kimberling; WR – Adam Pasquinelly, Drew Mc-Clellen; TE – Henry Aufenkamp, Mark Mayfield, Zach Mendenhall; OT – Joseph Clinch, Pe-dro Martinez; OG – Thomas Campbell, Joel Melton; C – Seth Lynes; DE – Alex Harms, MarkMayfield, Zach Mendenhall, Joel Melton; LB – Henry Aufenkamp, Mathew Buhram, AdamPasquinelly, Chase Kimberling; CB Sean Keenan, Drew McClellen; FS – Brandon Niesen;Punter – Joseph Clinch; Kicker – Brandon Niesen.

Class D-1MaxwellNICKNAME: WildcatsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Ryan JonesPLAYER TO WATCH: Dylan Gage – OL/LB – Great leader. Anchors our offensive line.

Smart linebacker on defense, has a nose for the ball.TEAM STRENGTH: 7 returning starters on defense. Return our interior linemen on of-

fense, experienced up front.TEAM WEAKNESS: Breaking in a new QB and a new offense.SEASON OUTLOOK: We should be tough and physical but will lack team speed. Very

coachable group that should improve as the season continues.KEY GAME: Brady! Tough non-district opponents in Arapahoe & Elm Creek. District fa-

vorites are Hemingford & Paxton. Two new opponents with new 8-man teams, Sutherland &Morrill.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Taylor McKeeman - QB/P; Drew Riggs – QB/FS; Jaylon Sturdi-vant – RB/DE; Jordan Biere – RB; Brandon Groseth – FB/DE; Tanner Vedder – FB; BrandonFletcher – TE/LB/K; Wyatt Strickland – TE/LB; Dylan Gage – OG/LB; Jared Cox – OG;Charley Kesterson – OG; Jeremiah Keith – C; Marcus Miller – C; Lane Miller – DE/DL; BradyRosenblad – DE/DL; Ethan Lunkwitz – LB.

PaxtonNICKNAME: TigersCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Mike MorlandPLAYER TO WATCH: Kyle Storer – OT/DT – Kyle is healthy this year. He is moving great.

Want to see if he can dominate a game 6’4”, 260lbsTEAM STRENGTH: Experience and good depthTEAM WEAKNESS: QB and TE’s lost to graduation, we believe we have kids that can

step I and contribute significally.SEASON OUTLOOK: We want to compete each and every game to our potential. New

District does not know much about opponents.KEY GAME: Hayes Center last game of the year. Year in and year out they are in the play-

offs. Want to see if we belong.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Carrick Perlinger - QB/LB, Zach Blackwell – QB/SS, Tyler Schi-

monitz – RB, Zach Morland – FB/LB/P/K, Jack Bobbitt – TE, Cam O’Conner – TE, Kyle Stor-er – OG/DE. Merritt O’Conner – OG/DE, Drake Luedke – C, Austin Wheeler – DE, Alec Fox– DE, Colby Quinn – DE, Zach Blackwell – SS

South LoupNICKNAME: BobcatsCONFERENCE: LVC CLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Andy SchwarzPLAYER TO WATCH: Garret Dockweiler – Great work ethic, four-year starter.TEAM STRENGTH: We have good speed and good skill players.TEAM WEAKNESS: DepthSEASON OUTLOOK: We hope to be competitive with the teams we play.KEY GAME: Every game is tough and presents a unique challenge.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Brady Weinman – QB/DB; Garret Dockweiler – OL/LB; Levi Lop-

er – OL/LB; Eamon Schwarz – QB/LB; Derek Hildebrant – RB/DB; Haden Geiser – RB/DB;Kyle Pierce - OL/LB; Kaden Ellis – OL/DL; Carson Badgley – OL; Taylor Hyde – OL/DL;Charlie Blowers – OL/DL; Colter Glendy – RB/DB

SutherlandNICKNAME: SailorsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Joe KaupPLAYER TO WATCH: Collin Fleecs - WR/DB – After losing the other three DB/WR’s to

graduation, Collin is the only returners at the WR. He will need to step up due to our otherskill guys being so young. He needs to become our primary target.

TEAM STRENGTH: Two experienced linemen, at returning QB.TEAM WEAKNESS: We are very young and inexperienced (8 of 17 freshman). Depth.

Back-up QB development. Staying healthy.SEASON OUTLOOK: Being so young and having a few upperclassmen that didn’t play

last year, our goal is first and foremost to be competitive. Gaining experience and develop-ing the young guys for the future is a necessity.

KEY MEET: Dropping down from 11-man to 8-man creates a unique experience for us.Each game is a first time opponent that we don’t know much about.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Tyler Fear – QB/SS/P; Collin Fleecs – WR/CB; Lucas French –OG/DE/K; Zach Blake – OG/DE

Class D-2Anselmo-MernaNICKNAME: CoyotesCONFERENCE: LVC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Matt McGinnPLAYER TO WATCH: Trey Gilligan – FB/DB – Grey is a great leader, a hard working kid,

and a senior the young kids look up to.TEAM STRENGTH: We have good leadership from our seniors, and a group of young

kids ready to step up to the challenge.TEAM WEAKNESS: DepthSEASON OUTLOOK: We are looking forward to a great season. The kids are excited as

song as we stay healthy.KEY GAME: All of our games are key for us this year,POSSIBLE STARTERS: Dusty Chandler – QB/SS/P; Trent Geiser – RB/CB; Trey Gilligan

– FB/CB/K; Kylen Thompson – WR/DE; Tyler McGown – TE/LB; Jake Wells – OG/DE; TylerChandler – OG/DE; Clinton Fales – C; Justin Wells - DE

BradyNICKNAME: EaglesCONFERENCE: Sandhills CLASSIFICATION: D-2HEAD COACH: Andy SeamanPLAYER TO WATCH: Michael Neiman LB/RB – Michael is a returning starter on both

sides of the ball. Averaged over 7-yards per carry last year with 9 touchdowns. Also had 3touchdowns receiving. Had 60 tackles and 8 sacks on defense.

TEAM STRENGTH: Our strength’s are in the backfield, we return our starting OB and LB.We also have great depth at the skill positions with various players having great speed.

TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: We are looking to continue our streak at making the playoffsKEY GAME: Maxwell – Rivalry; Bertrand – toughest opponent; Med. Valley – District rival

and tough opponentPOSSIBLE STARTERS: QB – Zach Mann; RB/FB – Michael Neiman; OG - Datton

Simants; C – Matt Litzenberger; LB – Michael Neiman; SS – Zach Mann

ElwoodNICKNAME: PiratesCONFERENCE: Fort Kearney CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Kevin MahlbergPLAYER TO WATCH: Spencer Gydesen – B/LB –362 yards rushing, 13 sec. 115yrds,

three year starter, 97 tackles, second team all-district.TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: We will be young with eleven

sophomores out. Will be faster because we could not get slower. Only returnees, threestarters but letter winners returning are going to be good players. Have decent size and hopea few players add some weight to them. Will be switching some player’s positions so we canget our best athletes on the field. I believe we are going to be a good football team.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Spencer Gydesen – B/LB, Aaron Weismann – QB/C, Branden

Grafton – LB, Jacob Schmeeckle

Eustis-FarnamNICKNAME: KnightsCONFERENCE: FKC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Paul PistulkaPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: The knights come off a difficult

season having finished 1-7. However, only losing two heavily contributing seniors meanthere is a lot of game experience on this team. This will prove to be a positive for our team.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Tyler Green – TE/DE; William Jack – OL/DE; Hunter Ringenberg

– RB/LB; Jordan Wetovick – QB/DB; Dustin Koch – DE/TE; Garhett Nielsen – OL/DE; AaronHueftle – RB/DB; Collin Thompson – RB/DL; Chris Werth – RB/DB; Austin Boller – OL/DL;Marcus Wilcox – OL/DL; Mitch Rieker – TE/LB; Tanner Redenbaug – RB/LB.

Hayes CenterNICKNAME: CardinalsCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Dusty GastonPLAYER TO WATCH: Seth Gohl – RB/LB/P – Seth is a junior and has been a starter

since his freshman year. He is a leader on and off the field.TEAM STRENGTH: We have young athletes that are ready to step up and be contribu-

tors.TEAM WEAKNESS: Replacing eight seniors we are a very young team.SEASON OUTLOOK: With a new coach and young players we are going to have to work

hard but I expect good things out of this team.KEY GAME: District games against Wallace, Brady, Medicine Valley and new comers

Hitchcock County.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Tristan Johnson – QB/SS; Seth Gohl – RB/LB/P; Austin Meyers

– TE/CB/K; Kasey Schwenk – FB/DE; Branson Rawlings – TE/CB; Erick Rodriguez –OG/DT; Taylor Walker – OG/DE; Morgan Harouff – C/DT

HersheyNICKNAME: PanthersCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C2HEAD COACH: Ryan SmithPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: Players focus on improvement each day. Very competitive practices.TEAM WEAKNESS: Developing depth and overall lack of starting experience.SEASON OUTLOOK: If we stay healthy, we could be a very solid football teamKEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS:

Hitchcock CountyNICKNAME: FalconsCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Clark BennePLAYER TO WATCH: Tanner Bauer – The team has leaned on him for leadership.TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: Last year HCHS played 6-man

and lost in the state championship game to Arthur. We are working at making the transitionform 6-man to 8-man and don’t feel we will know how we are doing until we play somegames.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Anna Fischer, Darbe Dodson, Brittney Esslinger; MH –

Abby Werkmeister, Brooke Moore; SETTERS – Tess Whitman

Medicine ValleyNICKNAME: RaidersCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Scott JohnsonPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: We have a good core of seniors

returning that should be a solid foundation for our team. It will be very important for our un-derclassmen to fill key roles. Hopefully the success from last years season can help us withconfidence at the start of the season and try to build on that.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Riley Garey – QB/S; Lucas Gleisberg – REC/CB; Rulon Taylor

– OL/LB; Brendan Johnsen – OL; Keith Towne - DE

MullenNICKNAME: BroncosCONFERENCE: LVC/Sandhills CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Mike BrownPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: To improve each week and stay

healthy.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Riley Rice, Matt Furrow, Josh Vinton, Tye Spies, Kory Phillips,

Waylon Carpenter, Dalton Zimmerman, Hunter Spurlin, Bailey McMillin, Garrett Cox, MichaelStichke, Britt McIntosh, and Adam Starr.

SMCNICKNAME: CyclonesCONFERENCE: SandhillsCLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Bill CranstonPLAYER TO WATCH: Levi Peterson – Levi provides both leadership and experience to

our team.TEAM STRENGTH: Speed and senior leadership. New system and staff.TEAM WEAKNESS: Youth at many areas on both sides of the ball.SEASON OUTLOOK: Vast improvement is expected with a new coaching staff and new

attitude. Senior leadership is key to the success of the cyclones in 2012.KEY GAME: First game of the season at Overton.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Austin Starr – QB/R; Trevor Hanna – RB/LB; Levi Peterson –

FB/LB/P/K; Luke Walz – TE/DE; Ross Johnson – TE/DE/K; Clancey Barnum – OG; TannerDonohoe – OG; Clay Seifer – C/DE; Ty Waits – C; Ross Johnson – DE; Issac Ascheryl – DE;Mitch Linn – DE; Colt Lewis – DE; Logan Paben – CB; Jesse Paxton – CB; Mason Amweg –R;

South PlatteNICKNAME: Blue KnightsCONFERENCE: MAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Ken BartelsPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: Switching to 8-man will be and

adjustment, but I feel our kids will be better suited for 8-man, as we will have some size anddecent speed. We will be working hard to end a two-year losing streak!

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Tyson Campbell – G, Sky Waychoff – E, Blake Odenbaugh – B,

Andre Plaser – G, Laine Waterman – C, Kris Kopetzky, B

WallaceNICKNAME: WildcatsCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Gary HagerPLAYER TO WATCH: Mark Jameson – OT/DT – Three-year starter. Has a fast motor and

great nose for the ball. Impossible to block one-on-one TEAM STRENGTH: Experience, six starters return on defense and five on offense.TEAM WEAKNESS: Depth in the backfield.SEASON OUTLOOK: Should be able to play with anyone on our schedule. Try to make

a strong push towards the playoffs.KEY GAME: Medicine ValleyPOSSIBLE STARTERS: John Marquardt – QB/CB; Landon Swedberg – RB/CB; Taylor

Doell – TE/SS; Mark Jameson – OG/DE; Shane Anders – DE; Kody Funk - FS

Six-manArthur CountyNICKNAME: WolvesCONFERENCE: Western CLASSIFICATION: 6-manHEAD COACH: Joe KupperPLAYER TO WATCH: Logan Lewis – E/DE – Logan is our only senior this year and will

have to carry much of the leadership roll. Logan was 2nd team all-state DE last year.TEAM STRENGTH: We have a fast and athletic group of players this year who react well

and can cover the field quickly. Our kids work very hard and always have great attitudesabout the game.

TEAM WEAKNESS: We are young this year and somewhat inexperienced. We will makesome mistakes early in the season and will need to improve.

SEASON OUTLOOK: I believe that our young kids will learn and develop quickly. The ju-nior’s and sophomores have gained some good experience last year. I look for us to be verycompetitive again this year.

KEY GAME: Hyannis vs. Arthur is a rivalry game that is always played very tough. Weknow they will come at us and the game very well could set the tone for the rest of our sea-son. The most important game is always the next one though, so we are not looking pastMaywood to anyone else.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Gunner Walker – QB/LB; Seth Compton – RB/SS; AustinHelmer – FB/LB; Logan Lewis – E/DE; Lane Vasa – E/DE; Walter Carr – C/NG; Ben Miles –C/NG.

HyannisNICKNAME: LonghornsCONFERENCE: Western CLASSIFICATION: 6-manHEAD COACH: Chris KrausPLAYER TO WATCH: Travis Hoover – Was our main player last season.TEAM STRENGTH: We should be a little better suited for the six-man game. We will

have a little better team speed.TEAM WEAKNESS: Lack of experience will be a factor early on. There is always the mat-

ter of injuries to key personnel.SEASON OUTLOOK: Even though we will be inexperienced, I feel we will improve on

last years season.KEY GAME: Arthur is still the team to beat. New 6-man teams bring in some very good tal-

ent. Sioux County and Minatare both have some very talented players. I feel every game willbe tough for us.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Travis Hoover – QB/FS; Austin Anthony - QB/FS; Cody Clark –QB/FS; Payden Ayer – RB/LB; Gabe Haney – RB/LB; Ty Grimes – FB/DE; Jeremy Davis –WR/CB; Triston Nielson – WR/CB; Zachary Ash – WR/CB; Dave Saforik – TE/DE; TannerHolthus – TE/DE; Wyatt Rowe – TE/DE; Joe Hebbert OG/NG; Blake Johnson – OG/NG; Em-mitt Hoover – C/NG

MaywoodNICKNAME: TigersCONFERENCE: Western CLASSIFICATION: 6-manHEAD COACH: Charles JonesPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK: We will be a young team with

only five returning letter winners. There will be some young kids that will have to grow up in ahurry and play right away. We have a good core of kids returning that have varsity experi-ence, we need to find some depth and role players to fill the void of losing six seniors.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Aaron Doxon - WR/DB; Justin Strobel – DL/E; Jacob Dibbern –

QB/DB; Dalton Littell – E/LB; Austin Phillips – WR/E

FOOTBALL CAPSULES

CROSS COUNTRY CAPSULESt

Please see CCRROOSSSS, Page D9


GGoooodd LLuucckk ttoo AAllll AArreeaaSScchhoooollss

BRULE, GRANT, ELSIE, WALLACE,SUTHERLAND, ROSCOE

800-308-6096

GOOD LUCKSAILORS!!

VOLLEYBALL CAPSULESt

Class ANorth PlatteNICKNAME: BulldogsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: AHEAD COACH: Laura MillerPLAYER TO WATCH: Anna Allberry – OH, Returning kills

214, leading attack percentage, 200, 181 digs, serve aver-age 2.04 leader.

TEAM STRENGTH: We only lost two players off of lastyear’s team. We have a lot of depth; will make for lots ofcompeting for positions.

TEAM WEAKNESS: Blocking and Defense.SEASON OUTLOOK: Girls are motivated wanting to

beat Ogallala, Kearney and Grand Island! Should be Con-ference Champions! Want to host districts here in NP and gothe State!!

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Anna Allberry – OH, Abby Brad-

ly – MH, Allexis Menghini – MH, Allison Sawyer – setter,Kylie Wroot, R/O.

Class C1Broken BowNICKNAME: IndiansCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Ashley WarrenPLAYER TO WATCH: Kelsie Myers – setter – she is al-

ways working even when she is tired, or no one is watching.She is a good leader and will help us be successful.

TEAM STRENGTH: Good leadership. Work Hard.TEAM WEAKNESS: Consistency and finish gamesSEASON OUTLOOK: We have a lot of girls coming back

that played last year and five great senior leaders. We willcontinue to build a strong team with these girls. They have alot of potential and I’m excited for the year.

KEY GAME: All conference games are key and any dis-trict match.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH- Halie Jones

Chase CountyNICKNAME: LonghornsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Jodie SchullerPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: Team chemistryTEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: Going to work hard and have

some fun, great bunch of kids.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Kristen Jussel, Makeena

Ketter; MH – Paige Spady, Mindy Castle; SETTERS –Bethany Sorensen; LIBERO – Morgan Fisher.

CozadNICKNAME: HaymakersCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Darrel FrancieseritoPLAYER TO WATCH: Molly Thramer – OH – Started as

a sophomore and Junior.TEAM STRENGTH: Five SeniorsTEAM WEAKNESS: Ball handling. Haven’t won many

games last 2 years.SEASON OUTLOOK: Hoping to get some confidence

early before going into a real tough schedule. Improvingfrom game to game.

KEY GAME: GothenburgPOSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Molly Thramer, Morgan Al-

twine, Kendra Finnell, Payden Knudsen; MH – Haley Mont-gomery, Shelby Ferrell, Haley Montgomery; Setters – SaraWeber, Molly Cornelius; Lebero – Amanda German.

GothenburgNICKNAME: SwedesCONFERENCE: SWC CLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Mary ClarkPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK:

Gothenburg will be a competitive team; they have a goodcore of returning starters.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Jacey Wiggins – RS; Maddy

Costerllo Setnior – DS; Regan Geiken – MH; TaylorMroczek –OS; Aryn Meisinger – OS/S; Tiani Reeves – M;

OgallalaNICKNAME: IndiansCONFERENCE: SWC CLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Steve MorganPLAYER TO WATCH: Kendall Schroer – MH – Excellent

middle hitter and blocker. Team player and handles pressurewell

TEAM STRENGTH: experience and balanceTEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: Positive, Ogallala volleyball

should be competitive if we simply play as a team.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Morgan Reed, Jess

Palovcek; MH – Kendall Schroer, Sidney Mell; SETTERS –Brooke Robertson; LIBERO – Carley Kay

Class C2HersheyNICKNAME: PanthersCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C2HEAD COACH: Amy BeyerPLAYER TO WATCH: Anna Allberry – OH, Returning kills

214, leading attack percentage, 200, 181 digs, serve aver-age 2.04 leader.

TEAM STRENGTH: We will return experience and someathleticism.

TEAM WEAKNESS: Ball handling and blocking (size),communication and unity

SEASON OUTLOOK: We have the tools to be a compet-itive team, but we will need to commit to daily improvementand some kids will need to step up to fill key spots.

KEY GAME: St. Pat’s will be solidPOSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Daynlee Miller, Megan Hi-

att, Jonna Young, Brooke Munsen; MH – Maddie Seamann,Brooke Munsen; Setter – Jenna Young

St. Pat’sNICKNAME: IrishCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C2HEAD COACH: Shelly ByrnPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: 11 returning letter winners, 5 return-

ing starters and 6 seniors.TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: Have a very competitive schedule

with a group of kids that have some unfinished business.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Samantha Byrn, Bree

Saner, Natalie Mackley and Jenna Torres. MH – Shelby All-berry, Brittany Lawrence. SETTERS – Kari Slattery, BrookBoucher.

Perkins CountyNICKNAME: PlainsmenCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: C2HEAD COACH: Penny HiteSEASON OUTLOOK: We will be young and inexperi-

enced this year losing six seniors last year. We will look tothe senior leadership from Shania Metcalf, Michi Prante (re-turning starters) as well as Jessie Woodmancy to lead thisteam. Other Letter winners that will be seeing varsity timethis year will be juniors: Courtney McClenahan, and CarlieWaitley. We are very optimistic with the newcomers this yearand look forward to what they will bring to the team.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Shania Metcalf – MH; Michi

Prante – L; Jessie Woodmancy – OH/S; Courtney McClena-han – OH/S; Carlie Waitley – OH.

Class D1CambridgeNICKNAME: TrojansCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Katie Van WestenPLAYER TO WATCH: Jordin Wasson – Began starting

last year and has steadily improved. She plays with a verypositive attitude and a strong competitive attitude. Incrediblejumper who will provide us with a strong block and attack

this yearTEAM STRENGTH: Very positive and are showing a

strong drive to win. We have a little more height than typical,so hope to be strong blockers. Quick defensively.

TEAM WEAKNESS: Serve receive is always a concern,tough I think we are becoming more consistent. We are a lit-tle inexperienced. A couple of major positions will be byplayers with little prior experience, so hopefully we cancome out confident.

SEASON OUTLOOK: Excited for the season – attitudesare positive, work ethic is high. We had a very young start-ing lineup last year, so hope to benefit from our young re-turners. This group is ready for some wins and are very ca-pable of doing well. We will be quick and hopefully scrappy,so I think we will be surprising a few teams this year.

KEY GAME: Obviously, districts will be important for us,as the teams will match up well. But, I think conference willtell us a lot about our team with a lot of competitive teams.Hopefully, we can use it to propel us into the last part of theseason.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Jordin Wasson, Rachelle Car-penter, Emily Whipple, Sloan Johnson, Kadee Long, Mikay-la Kent, Taylor Cross, Breanna Eubanks.

ElwoodNICKNAME: PiratesCONFERENCE: FKC CLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Condina SchutzPLAYER TO WATCH: Rachel Mahlberg – OH – Four-

year starter, great leader, works very hard in off-season.Leader in all stats, first team FKC

TEAM STRENGTH: We will return all of our starters fromlast year. Most being 2,3 and 4-year starters.

TEAM WEAKNESS: We need our teammates/players topush each other harder so we will all get better.

SEASON OUTLOOK: I look for us to be very competitivewith the experience we will bring back this year.

KEY GAME: I look for Overton and Axtell to be ourtougher competition.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Rachel Mahlberg, DesiraiGrassmeyer; MB – Ryan Fiene, Anna Eggers; SETTERS –Sheridan Banzhaf, Lexie Remmenga; LIEBRO – SarahRahjes

MaxwellNICKNAME: LadycatsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Lori MauPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: Work ethic and attitude! The girls re-

ally get along and work as a team.TEAM WEAKNESS: ExperienceSEASON OUTLOOK: We are excited to see how we do.

With hard work, good attitudes and the desire to be the bestwe can, I look for tons of improvements throughout the sea-son.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: I am unsure of any starters at

this point and we are not focused on individual achieve-ments or glory, but in team cohesiveness and unity for suc-cess this season.

PaxtonNICKNAME: TigersCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Jody RhodesPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: Fundamentally sound. Passing.TEAM WEAKNESS: Blocking.SEASON OUTLOOK: Sutherland is our biggest rival and

has a great team, as does St. Pat’sKEY GAME: Sutherland is our biggest rival and has a

great team as does St. Pat’sPOSSIBLE STARTERS: Bailee Schow, Stephanie

Hornyak, Gabby Perlinger, Mary Vasquez – OH, BrekkanMartinowsky, Austin Hackney – MH, Taylor Holzfaster – Set-ter.

SMCNICKNAME: CyclonesCONFERENCE: Sandhills CLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Kami FloreaPLAYER TO WATCH: Middle Blockers – Torie Opela and

Sammy Riedel – These girls bring a lot of leadership to thetable. They also have a lot of experience.

TEAM STRENGTH: Depth – we have a lot of girls outand a strong young group coming up.

TEAM WEAKNESS: We are lacking experienced girls atour setter’s position.

SEASON OUTLOOK: I look forward to this season. Weshould be very competitive and hopefully our younger girlswill break out of their shells.

KEY GAME: Strong conference with Mullen,Sandhills/Thedford and Brady.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Alyssia Johnson, Savan-nah Donohoe, Ashley Starr; MH – Torie Opela, SammyRiedel; SETTERS – Kayla Klosen, Kandace Ward.

SutherlandNICKNAME: SailorsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: D1HEAD COACH: Valerie KershnerPLAYER TO WATCH: Sam Kennedy – MB, 6’ middle

who will make a big impact offensively and defensively.TEAM STRENGTH: Several player with varsity experi-

ence returning, good leadership from our seniors, we will bean aggressive and powerful team in many areas.

TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH-Jalyne Schuster – 5’8” Ju-

nior – will bring a lot of athleticism and aggressiveness tothe outside position, MH - Kelsey Dillenburg – 5’10” Junior,S - Joli Hopping – 5’4” Senior – experienced setter whomakes smart choices and will be a team leader, L – KaleyStokey – 5’0” Sophomore – athletic player who will hustle tothe ball and will be a play maker.

Class D2Anselmo-MernaNICKNAME: CoyotesCONFERENCE: LVC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Kindle ArnoldPLAYER TO WATCH: Janae Hostick – S/RS – Athletic

ability both as setter and a hitter. All around player and ex-cellent leadership.

TEAM STRENGTH/WEEKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK:Tough season as far a conference teams. We didn’t lose anystarters last year though so the girls know what kind of com-petition they are up against.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Hannah Kirkpatrick, Victo-

ria Downey, Mackenzie Myers, Kassie Russell; MH – KatieKirkpatrick, Heather Davis; SETTERS – Janae Hostick,Megan Max; LIBERO – Elise Crouch.

Arthur CountyNICKNAME: WolvesCONFERENCE: Sandhills CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Heather KramerPLAYER TO WATCH: Taylor Vasa – MH – Taylor has the

attitude to take her anywhere she wants to go. She has putin the hours in the weight room this summer and we expectgreat things from her in the coming years.

TEAM STRENGTH: Five returning starters.TEAM WEAKNESS: Throwing freshman immediately

into varsity action.SEASON OUTLOOK: Looking to improve on our record

from last year, and compete at a higher level than ever be-fore.

KEY MEET: We always look forward to playing Hyannis.They will have a strong team this year. With that being oursecond game of the season, we will soon see how we canmatch up with tough teams

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Kenzie Walker – S/OH; Char-mane Macomber – S; Taylor Vasa – MH, Emily Vinton –S/OH; Morgan Peterson – MH.

BradyNICKNAME: EaglesCONFERENCE: Sandhills CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Lynne JohnsonPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK:

We are working to replace right side, which is coming alongreally well. We are pretty deep and have a lot of options.Carissa Rayburn will stay at libero for now, as she is a phe-nomenal passer. Have lots of experience coming back andshould do well.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Anna Fischer, Darbe Dod-

son, Brittney Esslinger; MH – Abby Werkmeister, BrookeMoore; SETTERS – Tess Whitman

Eustis-FarnamNICKNAME: KnightsCONFERENCE: FKC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: JoHanna Utterback & Corrine Muen-

chauPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK:

With five returning starters, six returning letter winners, andtwo enthusiastic coaches, the Laky Knights volleyball teamhas high expectation this season. The team worked hard inthe off-season by attending open gym. lifting weights and at-tending camps. Corrine Muenchau joins JoHanna Utterbackas co-coaches of the team. Together, they have ten years ofcoaching experience between them. Alex Pleschourt andPreston Rieker will be key players and leaders for the teamagain this year. Anyone on the team is capable of playingany position at any moment. This has created enthusiasmand healthy competition amongst the team. The team looksto be very competitive throughout the season.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Brittany Wolf, Melanie

Johnson; MH – Preston Rieker; SETTER – Alex Pleschourt,Kain Jones, Melissa Johnson.

MaywoodNICKNAME: TigersCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Janice ArentPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: Young, willing to learn.TEAM WEAKNESS: Young, lack of experience.SEASON OUTLOOK: We will get better as the season

progresses and we get more experience.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Anna Fischer, Darbe Dod-

son, Brittney Esslinger; MH – Abby Werkmeister, BrookeMoore; SETTERS – Tess Whitman

Medicine ValleyNICKNAME: RaidersCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Teresa RuppertPLAYER TO WATCH: Taylor Sandoe – High VB IQ, can

play any position, is a good athlete.TEAM STRENGTH: Experience, all starters return,

played together a long time.TEAM WEAKNESS: Depth, heightSEASON OUTLOOK: Very positive.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Taylor Sandoe, Starla

Henderson; MH – Sierra Schmidt, Grayce Jorgensen; SET-TERS – Shaylee Schroeder, Kylee Heinzle; LIBERO – Re-gan Garey

MullenNICKNAME: BroncosCONFERENCE: LVC/Sandhills CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Belinda CoblePLAYER TO WATCH: All of them, we will be a very dy-

namic team this year with everyone on the court contribut-ing. Madison Tomlinson received Honorable Mention All-State last year.

TEAM STRENGTH: TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: KEY GAME: In LVC, Twin Loup and Sandhills/Thedford.

In SHC, Brady and Sandhills/Thedford.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Madison Tomlinson, Rachel

Hoesing, Amber Wright, Mikayla Daniels, Clara Vinton, Cas-sidy Daly, Hailey Storer, Jessica Lovitt and Haley Gracey.

Hayes Center NICKNAME: CardinalsCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Rachel PeterPLAYER TO WATCH: Whitney Rosno – OH – She brings

a very spirited, intense, fun attitude to the court. Last yearshe started as a freshman and led the team in nearly everycategory.

TEAM STRENGTH: Competitive attitude. The teambrings intensity and a fire to win every single day.

TEAM WEAKNESS: Young and inexperienced. Only re-turning three letter winners and starters form last year.

SEASON OUTLOOK: We’ll have some bumps along theway with our youth but once we figure things out and gainsome confidence I think we should be very successful andfun to watch. I’m excited to see what this team can become

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH – Whitney Rosno, Kerbie

Large; MH – Colby Cox, Megan Christner; SETTER - SarahCox, Andrea Wach; LIBERO – Taylor Cooper, KaitlinHoward

Sandhills-ThedfordNICKNAME: KnightsCONFERENCE: LVC & Sandhills CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Katie HoblynPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEASON OUTLOOK:

We lost three seniors last year and with that a lot of leader-ship. This will create the opportunity for younger kids to stepup and fill those roles. We will focus on playing as a teamand persistence. The key to a good season is to remain in-jury free.

KEY MEET: POSSIBLE STARTERS: RH – Taylor Marten, Shaina Si-

monson; MH – Chantelle Milleson, Jacy Spencer, KelseyHiggins; SETTER – Kaitlin Marten, Frankie Sierks; LIBERO– Sarah Miles

WallaceNICKNAME: WildcatsCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: D2HEAD COACH: Elizabeth StrandPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: These girls work well together and

are excited for the upcoming season. Some of them reallyworked over the summer to improve. We have some return-ing starters and we’ll have competition for all of the startingpositions.

TEAM WEAKNESS: We have to find our leadership – Ithink there are a few girls willing to take the role of leadersso it will work out just fine. Every year is a new group of girls,so getting used to each other will be a part of our develop-ment too.

SEASON OUTLOOK: We hope to show improvementthroughout the season. This team is capable of playing at ahigh level; we just have to work through some changes asthe season goes, which is the same as every other team.

KEY GAME: RPAC is always tough. Perkins County Tri-angular (Perkins County, Hitchcock County and Wallace)will let us see where we’re at- its Sept. 4.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: OH - Katelyn Melton, Sara Hub-bard, Rachel Marquardt, And Abby Rohde. MH – ChelseaSowle, Christina Daniels, SETTERS – Anna Griffiths, AlexLundvall. LIBERO – Mickayla Sheets

BOYS TENNISCAPSULES

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Class ANorth PlatteNICKNAME: BulldogsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: AHEAD COACH: Dale HallPLAYER TO WATCH: Cameron Bargell and Michael Odle – Cameron and Michael

are both returning varsity players and should be good leaders for the rest of the team tofollow

TEAM STRENGTH: We have some upper classmen with returning varsity experi-ence. Good number of tennis players in out Junior/Senior classes and all should providegood competition during practices.

TEAM WEAKNESS: We need to get more 9th and 10th graders out to help withoverall team depth

SEASON OUTLOOK: KEY GAME: I believe all of our competitions will be important throughout the season

to help us find our strengths and weaknesses. The conference meet is important be-cause it came help us set the tone for the State Tournament in Omaha

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Cameron Bargell, Michael Odle

Class B LexingtonNICKNAME: MinutemenCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Ben KleinPLAYER TO WATCH: Brody Lauby, Justen Gutierrez – Saw moderate success last

year. He has put in a lot of extra work over the summer.TEAM STRENGTH: We return four starters and I expect them to be starters again

this season. Also, this team, as a whole, is really a bunch of good hard workers.TEAM WEAKNESS: Talent level. This is not the most gifted team I’ve coached, but

as I stated they are hard workers. I think they will rise to the challenge.SEASON OUTLOOK: Conservatively, I’d like to see us at .500. Optimistically I think

we can win 3/4th’s of our duals. Invites, I’d like to see us finish in the top half of everymeet.

KEY MEET: Obvious Conference is one of the toughest meets we go to all year. Wesee four class A schools that are always very good,

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Justen Gutierrez, Brody Lauby, Coleman Evans, Elliot Ma-gaire, Kevin Hua, Eduardo Teela.

McCookNICKNAME: BisonCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Matt WiemersPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: We return four letter winners from last years team.TEAM WEAKNESS: Developing doubles teamsSEASON OUTLOOK: We have the talent and experience to be competitive. The

players are optimistic about our upcoming season.KEY GAME: Kearney – conference favorite. Elkhorn South – Favored to win state.

Skutt – Will also contend.POSSIBLE STARTERS:

Girls GolfClass ANorth PlatteNICKNAME: BulldogsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: AHEAD COACH: Jim OrcuttPLAYER TO WATCH: Jordyn Pearson – vastly improved over last season; Tessa

Burford – also worked hard and improved; Jenae States – Tough competitor.TEAM STRENGTH: 1. Depth 2. High School meet experienceTEAM WEAKNESS: Who will be the players to establish themselves as a leaderSEASON OUTLOOK: I look for this team to get better and more confident with each

meetKEY MEET: NP Invite at River’s Edge and Districts at Lake MaloneyPOSSIBLE STARTERS: Jordyn Pearson, Tessa Burford, Jenae States, and Erin

Green

Class BBroken BowNICKNAME: IndiansCONFERENCE: SWC CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Amy Taylor and Sara MyersPLAYER TO WATCH: Kaleigh Page – Kaleigh is very excited and wants to dedicate

herself to improving her game. We want to see her medal this year.TEAM STRENGTH: We are very encouraging to each other as a team. Each player

tries to support and assist others.TEAM WEAKNESS: We do not have many players, so we need to make sure every-

one is ready to play for each meet.SEASON OUTLOOK: We are hoping to see some of our players medal and become

more confident golfers.KEY MEET: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Jessica Littlejohn, Kaleigh Page, Jill Oatman, Alexzandria

and Taya Klein.

CozadNICKNAME: HaymakersCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Stan MackowskiPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Hannah Gilg, Autym Malcom, Emily Ratkovec, Andrea Neil,

Taza Weinmaster, Alyson Smock and Jordyn Worrell

LexingtonNICKNAME: MinutemaidsCONFERENCE: GNAC CLASSIFICATION: BHEAD COACH: Lauren DaberkowPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH: TEAM WEAKNESS: SEASON OUTLOOK: We are starting this season with several girls returning from

last year and have added some new players. The season starts off again with sometough courses, which most of the girls have not played. We will have to be patience andlook for improvement as the season progreses. I think we will be competitive by districts,but we again are in a district with two of the top teams in the state.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Morgan McFadden, Chloe Gonzales, Sheridan Fieke, and

Elena Virgilio

Class CGothenburgNICKNAME: Lady SwedesCONFERENCE: SWC CLASSIFICATION: C1HEAD COACH: Tara FosterPLAYER TO WATCH: Heidi Teahon – Heidi is an upcoming senior who possesses

great leadership skill and portrays a positive attitude on the course. She had an out-standing performance at the district meet last year that led her to the State Tourney inColumbus.

TEAM STRENGTH: Great work ethic, very team oriented, always looking to improvetheir game.

TEAM WEAKNESS: Tough competition to come.SEASON OUTLOOK: Hoping to take individuals to the state tourney, better yet mak-

ing it as a team. Continue to work on our short game.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Senior – Heidi Teahon; Juniors – Courtney Brown, Kelsey

Kuhlman, Sydney Sell; Sophomores – Taylour Marshall, McKinley Harm.

HersheyNICKNAME: PanthersCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: CHEAD COACH: Teresa RotertPLAYER TO WATCH: Samantha Miller – Ashlie Walters: We will be looking to our

two returning letter winners for leadership. However, all five of our varsity players willlend strength to the team. Newcomer Kelsey Sides is a great addition to the team,Courtney Laubner and Kaelyn Klaasmeyer have moved up from jr. varsity to round outour young, but enthusiastic team.

TEAM STRENGTH: TEAM WEAKNESS: No seniors, young, inexperienced but four new players that are

also working hard to learn and improve.SEASON OUTLOOK: I believe we will steadily improve, with hopes of doing well at

meets and possibly qualify some for state.KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Samantha Miller, Ashlie Walters.

MullenNICKNAME: BroncosCONFERENCE: LVC & SHC CLASSIFICATION: CHEAD COACH: Kyle HoytPLAYER TO WATCH: Jayna Egle – Has the capability to shoot in the low 80’s.TEAM STRENGTH: Positive OutlookTEAM WEAKNESS: Low numbers.SEASON OUTLOOK: Improvement week to week.KEY GAME: District meet in Ogallala

GIRLS GOLFCAPSULES

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Please see GGOOLLFF, Page D11

MaxwellNICKNAME: WildcatsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Jared MeinheitPLAYER TO WATCH: GIRLS – Brook Orr

– Brooke had a really good season last year.I look for her to continue that this year. BOYS– Jon Assels – Jon was a first year cross-country runner last year. He is back and hasshown a lot of enthusiasm and improvement.

TEAM STRENGTH: Team has a solidwork ethic. They have continued to meet ex-pectations, and still have room to grow. Wedon’t have numbers, but they push each oth-er.

TEAM WEAKNESS: We don’t have a lotof numbers, varies from year to year. Thisyear we have three runners, numbers help inbeing competitive in practice.

SEASON OUTLOOK: The first meet ofthe year is always a hurdle. Lots of nervesgoing into it. If things continue I see lots of

growth over course of the season. We haveto stay positive and hope to beak by SPVAand Districts.

KEY GAME: McCook, SPVA and DistrictsPOSSIBLE STARTERS: Brooke Orr, Jon

Assels, and D’Laince Otoseth.

MaywoodNICKNAME: TigersCONFERENCE: RPAC CLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Thompson HermanPLAYER TO WATCH: GIRLS: Justine

Stone, BOYS: Quinton Phillips – both havestate meet experience

TEAM STRENGTH: 1. Experience. 2. Fa-miliarity with coach, routines

TEAM WEAKNESS: 1. Toughness. 2.New training system/how will it impact therunners?

SEASON OUTLOOK: Very small team soinjuries could be devastating… must avoid in-juries, must avoid illness…work ethic is good,but toughness to handle the hard workoutsmust improve.

KEY GAME: DistrictsPOSSIBLE STARTERS: BOYS: Quinton

Phillips, GIRLS: Justine Stone, SannaErverastnag

PaxtonNICKNAME: TigersCONFERENCE: RPACCLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Dale SchroederPLAYER TO WATCH: BOYS - Garrett

Perlinger – Garrett placed at state last year.GIRLS – Mary Vasquez – Mary is in her firstyear as a senior.

TEAM STRENGTH: BOYS – Good num-bers and experience. GIRLS – Good kidswho want to run.

TEAM WEAKNESS: noneSEASON OUTLOOK: BOYS – Hope to

continue where we left off last season.GIRLS – small in numbers, big in heart.

KEY GAME: POSSIBLE STARTERS: BOYS – Tayler

Cassell, Connor Merrill, and Garrett Per-linger. GIRLS – Brandi Kumm

Perkins CountyNICKNAME: PlainsmenCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Paula WurstPLAYER TO WATCH: TEAM STRENGTH/WEAKNESS/SEA-

SON OUTLOOK: Last year, our girls team

finished 10th at state. We have four of ourgirls returning from that team. NewcomersMelissa Price and Emily Kemling should adddepth to this already talented group. Theboys have a lot of experience. Seniors Bren-don Barry and Mark Hanson have come intothe season in excellent shape, providingstrong senior leadership.

KEY MEET: POSSIBLE STARTERS: Brendon Barry,

Mark Hanson Jessi Hoffert, Jake Sexson,Robert Engel, Courtney Lyon, Dalton Mc-Cormick, Mariah Curtis, Kendra Hoffert.

SutherlandNICKNAME: SailorsCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: DHEAD COACH: Jessica SanerPLAYER TO WATCH: BOYS: Jayson

Rezek- Placed high in several meets lastyear. Hard worker. Good runner this summer.GIRLS: Josie Burke – Has been workingvery hard this summer. Had a good trackseason this past spring, so expecting a lotfrom her in Cross Country.

CROSSfrom Page D8

Please see CCRROOSSSS, Page D11


225 McNeel LaneNorth Platte, NE 69103-1088

Phone: (308) 534-9892 or 1-800-458-9892Fax: (308) 534-9803

[email protected]

302 Center AvenueP.O. Box 151Curtis, NE 69025

Phone: (308) 367-5540Fax: (308) 367-5542

nphlawoffices.com

GOOD LUCKINDIANS!! Good Luck

Area Sports Teams411 S. Dewey • North Platte

534-4800

By ROGER [email protected]

There was some doubt when school opened at Hershey.The doubt surrounded the school’s cross country sea-

son. At first there were three girls planning to run, butthe school wanted a full team of five girls or, like last sea-son, it would cancel the season.

“I’m not sure how it all happened, but we have fivegirls,” said Lady Panthers’ head coach Jessica Rasby. “Iguess some of these girls really wanted a season thisyear.”

Aliesha Dethlefs appears to be the leader of the team— and perhaps in recruiting.

“Aliesha really wanted to run this year as a senior,”said Rasby. “She ran as a sophomore and she didn’t wantthe season cancelled like last year, so she might havesomething to do with the other girls running.”

The other four members of the team are KrystaySchufeldt, Ariel Clemens, Jessica Hicks and LaurelHuebner. Clemens and Hicks are seniors, Schufeldt is ajunior and Huebner is a freshman.

“Laurel is the only other runner with experience,”Rasby said. “She ran for the team as a seventh gradertwo years ago.”

Rasby said despite her team’s lack of experience, she’sbeen pleased with them in practice.

“Honestly, I’ve been surprised and happy with theirdedication,” the coach said. “They get along really welland they are hard working.

“I don’t think we’ll have any problem through the sea-son.”

Instead of setting team goals, Rasby said the focus ofthe squad will be in setting personal bests each week andtrying to get stronger as the year progresses.

“These girls all get along and push each other at prac-tice,” Rasby said. “I’m sure they will lift each other upand support one another at each meet, so we will striveto get better each meet.”

The Lady Panthers start the season on Aug. 31 at theCambridge Meet.

“We’ll see where we are,” Rasby said. “From there,we’ll just keep running and trying to get better.

“The girls get along great. I’m sure it will be a fun sea-son.”

By ROGER BLUHM

[email protected]

Youth brings hope. Youth brings enthusiasm. Youthalso means learning as you go.

Hence, the challenge to Hershey girls golf coach Tere-sa Rotert who has no seniors on a golf team filled withyouth.

“We won’t start with a lot of razzle dazzle,” Rotert said.“We will look to show steady improvement and hope weimprove each time we go out.”

The Lady Panthers are led by Samantha Miller andAshlie Walters, two returning letter winners. They willbe joined on varsity by Kelsey Sides, Courtney Laubnerand Kaelyn Klaasmeyer.

“We’re young and the girls will have to be steady,”Rotert said. “If we have problems, we’ll just go back tobasics and work on their games.

“These girls are all hard working and I don’t see toomuch of a problem.”

While the team has been enthusiastic at practice andget along with each other, Rotert knows youth can alsobring frustration.

“I don’t think it will be a problem, but these areteenage girls,” the coach said. “So, if we get frustrated,we will go back to basics, working on things we know wecan trust and work through it.”

Rotert believes the fact the girls all get along will makethe season fun.

“If they all show steady improvement and have fun, itmakes for a better season,” the coach said. “We willstrive to get better each time out and hopefully get a cou-ple of girls at least into the state meet.”

One change for the Lady Panthers involves the post-season. Hershey has been moved east for this year’sClass C District Tournament, playing at Wild Horse GolfCourse in Gothenburg after playing in Ogallala the pastfew seasons.

“Ogallala moved down to Class C, so they put them inthat district,” Rotert said. “It’s a change and our new dis-trict has some good golf programs like Kearney Catholicand Minden.

“But, instead of worrying about it, we just need to fo-cus on our games and things will work out. It’s going tobe a fun season with these girls.”

Hershey opens the season today at McCook. The LadyPanthers will host Perkins County on Sept. 4 and hostthe Hershey Invite on Sept. 25.

By ROGER [email protected]

The worst-case scenario hit Her-shey football last season. The Pan-thers struggled through a 5-4 sea-son with a ton of injuries thatbrought a team many thought wasready for a postseason run, down toearth.

Fortunately for the Panthers theother side of that coin is that manyof the players who are stepping inthis season have experience fromlast year to fall back on.

“I guess in the heat of the mo-ment, I didn’t realize,” said Her-shey head coach Ryan Smith. “But,with the injuries we had, we used alot of kids last season that we did-n’t think would be ready until thisseason.

“So, one thing that surprised me

is the depth we have. We only have33 kids out for football, but a lot ofthem have experience after lastyear.”

In other words, last year hurt,but there is a silver lining.

“Despite losing some really goodseniors,” Smith said, “we havegood experience up front and wegot some guys developed nicely.”

The Panthers will have new play-ers in the backfield.

“I’m pretty comfortable withTyler Brown and Josh Margritzand Gaige Marshall,” Smith said.“They came through and playedwell last year and in fall practice.”

One of the biggest changes forthe Panthers is the schedule. Nolonger is Sutherland on the sched-ule as the Sailors have dropped toD1 this season.

“It’s a little strange not having

them on the schedule,” Smith said.“We’ve got a schedule where wehave five non-district games tostart the season and finish withour three district rivals.”

Those district rivals are DundyCounty-Stratton, St. Pat’s and Cam-bridge.

“It’s nice that the district gamesare at the end of the season,” Smithsaid.

“We get to work on our team,work on getting better before wetackle districts.

“If we’re going to advance, we’regoing to earn it. Thankfully wehave experience and depth that,without the injuries last year, wewouldn’t have.”

Hershey opens the season onAug. 31 at Kimball. The Panthersfirst home game of the season willbe Sept. 14 against Perkins County.

Hershey’s Daynlee Miller digs a ball during a volleyball game at Hershey last season. Miller is one of several sen-iors for the Lady Panthers this season.


Unexpected benefits

Making a major moveLady Panthers drop to C2 for volleyball this seasonBy ROGER [email protected]

That last two seasons for Her-shey’s volleyball team has endedwith a sub-district loss to Ogallala.That won’t be the case this season,but it still won’t be an easy road forthe Lady Panthers.

Hershey drops from C1 to C2 forvolleyball this season. The dropmeans no more Lady Indians in thesub-district.

“We just couldn’t get past Ogal-lala,” said Lady Panthers headcoach Amy Beyer. “At this point,I’m not sure it wasn’t as much men-tal as anything else.

“They have so much tradition, itmight be good getting away fromthem.”

Instead, the Lady Panthers willhave Perkins County and St. Pat’sas sub-district foes this season.

“We get away from Ogallala, butthere are two tough programs wait-ing for us,” Beyer said. “I’ve always

believed if you’re going to reach thestate tournament, you should earnit.

“If we get there, we will earn it.”Hershey returns four starters

this season from a 16-11 team a yearago. Despite the experience, Beyerbelieves her team will have to makesome adjustments and growthroughout the season.

“The biggest hole we have to fillis a ball handler,” the coach said.“We have to do better with passingand setting as we lost that to gradu-ation.

“We have several girls that canhit for us, but we need some pri-mary passers.”

The Lady Panthers return Dayn-lee Miller, Maegan Hiatt, JennaYoung and Brooke Munson as out-side hitters and Maddie Seamannas a middle hitter.

Young will see work as a setterthis season after being the team’slibero last year.

“Plus, we have Brooke Freder-

ick,” Beyer said. “Although comingback from her leg injury, she’s outfor a little while. She played softballall summer, but in the two weeks ofvolleyball practice, it’s the firstjumping she’s done and I think it’smade her a little sore.”

As Beyer’s squad adjusts to newroles and learns new skills, it willtake patience on everyone’s part toimprove.

“We’re not going to be great offthe bat,” Beyer said. “A lot of teamshad great summers and are readyto go.

“The difference is, we have atremendous amount of room forimprovement. We have to have ourseniors step up and take leadershiproles and we have to have girls will-ing to adapt. But we can get betterand we have so much room forgrowth.”

Hershey opens the volleyball sea-son at the Lexington Invite on Sept.1.

Injuries last season has Hershey loaded with experience

Cross countrymakes returnat Hershey

Lady Panthers field girls team

Hershey girlsgolf needs timeto grow, matureLady Panthers feature youngplayers just learning the links

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By ROGER BLUHM

[email protected]

Maxwell made a deeprun in the postseason afew years ago by runningthe ball with a “groundand pound” offense. TheWildcats are going back tothat offense in 2012.

With three returning of-fensive linemen, the Wild-cats will use that experi-ence up front to become apower running attackonce more.

“It fits what we have re-turning,” said Maxwellhead coach Ryan Jones.“We have some big guysup front and, with a newquarterback, it seemed tofit even better.

“Our strength is our of-fensive line. We’re going topractice ball control andrun it right at you.”

One of those returningstarters on the offensiveline is Dylan Gage, whoalso plays linebacker ondefense.

“Dylan is a greatleader,” Jones said. “Heanchors our offensive lineand he’s a smart line-backer with a nose for theball.”

According to Jones,Drew Riggs won a fallpractice battle with TaylorMcKeeman to becomequarterback for the Wild-cats.

“Riggs won a close bat-tle,” Jones said. “Taylor

will play quite a bit and forus to be successful, bothwill need to play well forus.”

Jaylon Sturdivant, Jor-dan Biere and BrandonGroseth will be in thebackfield for the Wildcats.Groseth will be the full-back.

“Jaylon is a strong run-ning back,” Jones said.“He’s really good and usesgood technique.”

Defensively the Wildcatsreturn seven starters.

“We should be prettygood defensively,” Jonessaid. “We’re going to betested all season long, butwe should get better eachand every week.”

The Wildcats have a

tough schedule ahead ofthem. Maxwell opens theseason today hosting arch-rival Brady before playingArapahoe, Elm Creek,Paxton, Sutherland, Mor-rill, SMC and Hemingford.

“We have a very toughnon-district schedule,”Jones said. “We have ourwork cut out for us thisseason.

“But, this is the way youshould schedule your pro-gram. If we expect to be inthe playoffs every year,and I believe we’re at thatpoint right now, then youneed a tough schedule.

“It may not produce aperfect record, but it willmake your team playoffready.”

By ROGER BLUHM

[email protected]

Back in the early 1970s the MiamiDolphins won back-to-back SuperBowls with the No-Name defense.

The concept was that a bunch ofno-name players banded together tobecome a great defense, a greatteam. Maxwell volleyball coach LoriMau is hoping that approach can beused to build a winning squad forthe Lady Wildcats.

“We have a lot of new girls and wedon’t have a lot of experience,” Mausaid. “So, rather than highlight anyplayers, we’re taking the approachthat we are one team.

“It’s us, not I.”For Mau, this means several

things.

“It doesn’t matter who is playing,”the coach said. “We have jobs to do,things that have to be done and weall are accountable.

“We’ve lost several players and wehave to regroup together and im-prove throughout the season.”

Mau is taking the Lady Wildcatsback to basics.

“We are using a lot of fundamen-tals,” the coach said. “We work to getbetter and better. We’re going to getlosses, but most kids, if they workextremely hard, will improve, havefun and enjoy themselves.

“We want to work hard and im-prove day by day, game by game.”

Mau said her team is young andinexperienced, but coming togetheras one unit, one team.

“It’s what we have to do,” the

coach said. “We have to get them toband together as one unit and workas a unit to get better each day.

“As high school coaches, youcoach whatever players are thereeach year. We have a group of girlswho are fun, who are learning andwho want to be here in Maxwell. Weneed to get better each and everypractice, every game, every week.We will take small steps.

“It’s not going to happenovernight. We have one senior onthe team. It’s not how you start, it’show you finish. We’ll take somelumps early, but we want to be ateam no one wants to face at the endof the season and peak at districts.”

Maxwell opens the season atBrady on Aug. 30.

Wildcats plan ground and poundReturning linemen have Maxwell going back to power game

Lady ’Cats working on team unityYoung, inexperienced team trying to come together for season

Two Maxwell defenders take down a Brady ball carrier in the annual contest between the two arch-rivals last season.The two schools will once again play each other to open the season. Brady is at Maxwell today.


’Cats runnersare few, butgetting betterThree out for cross countryBy ROGER BLUHM

[email protected]

In sports, sometimes its not the size of the team,but the size of the team’s heart.

Maxwell enters the cross country season withthree runners, two boys and a girl. Despite not hav-ing large numbers, cross country head coach JarodMeinheit believes his squad will have a good year.

“We’ve never had big numbers,” Meinheit said ofthe program. “Numbers breed competition, so mybiggest concern is that these three all push each oth-er.”

Brooke Orr returns as the Lady Wildcats’ lone en-try this season.

“Brooke had a really good season last year,” Mein-heit said. “I look for her to continue that this year.”

On the boys side, Jon Assels returns and D’LaineeGroseth joins.

“Jon was a first-year runner last year,” Meinheitsaid.

“He’s pretty dedicated and has set goals for thisseason.

“He’s matured and works to push himself and theothers in practice.”

The team, and the coach, held several fund raisersover the summer to help offset the cost of the crosscountry program. Despite the small numbers, Mein-heit said his team is getting stronger.

“This group has a solid work ethic,” the coach said.“They have met expectations and continue to haveroom to grow and improve.”

Maxwell begins the season on Aug. 30 at the CozadInvite.

“The first meet of the year is always a hurdle,”Meinheit said.

“There are lots of nerves going into it.“If things continue as practice has, I see lots of

growth over the year. “We have to stay positive and hope to peak by the

SPVA and district meets.”

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Jayna Egle and Aubrea Kruse

Perkins CountyNICKNAME: PlainsmenCONFERENCE: SPVACLASSIFICATION: CHEAD COACH: Troy KemlingPLAYER TO WATCH: Carra Johnson – She provides leadership to the team and is

willing to help out the younger players. Carra has an optimistic attitude.TEAM STRENGTH: Varsity experience, coachable girls, encourages and support

each other.TEAM WEAKNESS: Lack of summer preparation. The girls didn’t play this summer

like I had hoped they would. We also have more competition for varsity positions thisyear. I hope the girls decide to rise to the challenge and focus on improving their gameeveryday.

SEASON OUTLOOK: We have some tough teams in our district that we will see toopen up the season at Bayard. Whatever the gap is at Bayard, between us andChadron, Dundy County, and Ogallala. Our goal is to close the gap by the end of theseason. Our younger players are going to challenge for a varsity spot, which shouldonly make us better.

KEY GAME: Ogallala Meet. We will have districts there later. It will show the ladieshow far we have improved and how fare we still have to go.

POSSIBLE STARTERS: Carra Johnson, Shania Stickley, Hailey Sletten, Capri Mey-er, and Amanda Reichert

ValentineNICKNAME: BadgersCONFERENCE: Southwest CLASSIFICATION: HEAD COACH: Devin MuirheadPLAYER TO WATCH: Caitlyn Burgess – She never gives up. She always gives her

best for the team.TEAM STRENGTH: We learned to grow close as a team, which helps us to be re-

laxed because we know we have our teammates behind us. TEAM WEAKNESS: Having a solid fifth person that has experience and confidence

to do well for the team.SEASON OUTLOOK: We’re going to go out and be as strong or close to strong as

our team was last year.KEY GAME: Districts. We are in a different district so we are going to have to pre-

pare to different schools.POSSIBLE STARTERS: Shawna Wheeler, Michelle Running, and Caitlyn Burgess.

GOLFfrom Page D9

TEAM STRENGTH: Good leader’s for boys and girls.TEAM WEAKNESS: Have a lot of new runners this year, so with that come inexpe-

rience.SEASON OUTLOOK: We have higher numbers than we have had in the past and I

see several athletes competing very well by the end of the season for both the boysand girls.

KEY GAME: Conference – SPVA and District meets.POSSIBLE STARTERS: BOYS: Jayson Rezek, Greg McKain, Chandler Tyan, Tuck-

er Binegar, Alex Parker, Michael Hafer. GIRLS: Josie Burke, Kaylynn Lantis, AlexisScott.

CROSSfrom Page D9

Coaches: Please call in your scores. We can be reached at

(308) 532-6000, at [email protected] or byfax to (308) 532-9268.

8/24/12High School FootballNorfolk at North PlatteLexington at ScottsbluffMcCook at AuroraGothenburg at OgallalaCambridge at BayardSt. Pat’s at KimballAnselmo-Merna at South LoupBrady at MaxwellPaxton at Hayes CenterSMC at OvertonSouthwest at Hitchcock CountySouth Platte at WallaceSandhills/Thedford at StuartArthur County at MaywoodCody-Kilgore at Wauneta-PalisadeHigh School Girls GolfKearney Invite (North Platte)High School Boys TennisMcCook at (Kearney Catholic, Kearney)College VolleyballNPCC Subway Invite (Eastern

Wyoming, Williston State, Colby, McCook,Northeastern)

8/25/12High School SoftballLPS Tournament in Lincoln (North Plat-

te)Holdrege Invite (Cozad, McCook)Lexington Invite (Gothenburg)High School Boys TennisNorth Platte at Papillion South InviteMcCook Invite (McCook)College VolleyballNPCC Subway Invite (Eastern

Wyoming, Williston State, Colby, McCook,Northeastern)

8/28/12High School SoftballLexington at North PlatteCozad at McCookChase County at Holyoke, Co.High School Girls GolfLexington at North PlatteBroken Bow at Minden TriangularCozad at Kearney Catholic

8/29/12College VolleyballNPCC at Hastings JV

8/30/12High School VolleyballSidney Tri (North Platte, Ogallala, Sid-

ney)St. Pat’s at Perkins CountyMinden at LexingtonHastings at McCookBroken Bow at GothenburgCozad at Southern ValleyAinsworth Tri (Valentine, Ainsworth,

Winner, S.D.)Cambridge Tri (Cambridge, Alma,

Bertrand)Elwood Tri (Elwood, Wilcox-Hildreth,

SEM)Dundy County-Stratton Tri (Hitchcock

County, DCS, Arapahoe)Maxwell at BradyPaxton at SutherlandHyannis Tri (SMC, Hyannis, Cody-Kil-

gore)South Loup at MullenTwin Loup Tri (Anselmo-Merna, Twin

Loup, Ansley-Litchfield)Axtell Tri (Eustis-Farnam, Axtell, Elm

Creek)Maywood Tri (Maywood, Rawlins

County, Kans., Southwest)South Platte at Sedgwick CountyWallace at Wauneta-PalisadeChase County at Haxtun, Co.Hay Springs at Arthur CountyHigh School SoftballNorth Platte at Kearney (Lincoln

High/Lincoln East)Cozad Tri (Minden, Adams Central)Lexington at GothenburgSouthern Valley at Chase CountyMcCook at HoldregeHigh School Cross CountryCozad Invite (North Platte JV, Cozad,

Gothenburg, Maxwell)Perkins County at Goodland, KSHigh School Girls GolfBroken Bow at GICC InviteHigh School Boys TennisMcCook at Hastings

8/31/12High School FootballNorth Platte at Lincoln Pius XLexington at YorkScottsbluff at McCookOgallala at Broken BowValentine at Chamberlain, S.D.Chase County at Gordon-RushvilleCozad at Adams CentralGothenburg at MitchellCambridge at Oberlin, Kan.Hershey at KimballBridgeport at St. Pat’sPerkins County at Dundy County-Strat-

tonSouth Loup at BurwellMaxwell at ArapahoeOverton at SutherlandMedicine Valley at ElwoodHayes Center at Eustis-FarnamBertrand at BradyHitchcock County at Cheylin, Kan.Wallace at Creek ValleyTwin Loup at MullenNorth Central at Sandhills/ThedfordSouth Platte at LeytonHyannis at Arthur CountyMaywood at Sioux CountyWauneta-Palisade at MinatareHigh School VolleyballMedicine Valley at ElwoodGarden County at PaxtonHyannis at Arthur CountyHayes Center at Eustis-Farnam)Maywood at Sioux CountyMedicine Valley at ElwoodNorth Central at Sandhills/Thedford Wauneta-Palisade at MinatareMaxwell at ArapahoeBeatrice Invite (Ogallala)Twin Loup at MullenHigh School Girls GolfNorth Platte Invite (Gothenburg, Cozad)High School Girls SoftballPerry, Okla. At Chase CountyHigh School Cross CountryNorth Platte at Cheyenne Mt. Stam-

pede, Colorado Springs Co.Cambridge Invite (Eustis-Farnam/Medi-

cine Valley, St. Pat’s)College VolleyballNPCC at Colby Tourney

9/01/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at Lincoln SW Quad (Lin-

coln North Star, Lincoln SW)Lexington Invite (Lexington, McCook,

Cozad, Hershey, Broken Bow, ChaseCounty)

Minden Invite (Valentine)Hay Springs at Arthur CountyBeatrice Invite (Ogallala)High School SoftballMcCook Invite (North Platte, McCook,

Cozad, Gothenburg)High School Boys TennisKearney Invite (North Platte)College VolleyballNPCC at Colby Tourney

9/04/12High School VolleyballSt. Pat’s Tri (Cambridge, St. Pat’s,

DCS)Gothenburg Tri (Gothenburg, Suther-

land, Southwest)O’Neill Tri (Valentine, O’Neill, West

Holt)Perkins County Tri (Perkins County,

Wallace, Hitchcock County)Brady Tri (Paxton, Brady, SMC)Anselmo-Merna Tri (Anselmo-Merna,

Ansley-Litchfield, Pleasanton)Arthur County at Creek ValleyCody-Kilgore at North CentralCheylin-Brewster Tri (Hayes Center,

Cheylin-Brewster, Wallace County)Hyannis Tri (Hyannis, Sandhills/Thed-

ford, Mullen)Arapahoe Tri (Maywood, Arapahoe,

Loomis)Chase County at Wray, Co.High School SoftballGrand Island at North PlatteHastings Tri (Cozad, Hastings, Aurora)McCook at LexingtonHigh School Boys TennisNorth Platte at Capital City InviteHigh School Cross Country

Lexington Invite (Gothenburg, Lexing-ton)

High School Girls GolfBroken Bow at Centura QuadCozad Tri

9/5/12College VolleyballNPCC at McCook

9/06/12High School FootballSutherland at SouthwestHigh School VolleyballAurora at North PlatteBroken Bow Tri (St. Pat’s, Cozad, Bro-

ken Bow)Holdrege at McCookOverton at CambridgeBertrand at ElwoodMaywood at MaxwellSouth Loup at Sandhills/Thedford Sutherland at SidneyWauneta-Palisade at St. Francis, Kans.High School SoftballLincoln Southeast at North PlatteHigh School Girls GolfNorth Platte at McCookBroken Bow Invite (Gothenburg)High School Cross CountryChase County Invite (St. Pat’s, Perkins

County)

9/07/12High School FootballLincoln East at North PlatteGering at LexingtonNorthwest at McCookBroken Bow at GothenburgGordon-Rushville at ValentineSidney at Chase CountyMitchell at CozadGibbon at OgallalaKimball at CambridgeHershey at Southern ValleyBayard at St. Pat’sHolyoke, Colo. at Perkins CountyOverton at South LoupElm Creek at MaxwellPaxton at WallaceMullen at SMCSandhills/Thedford at Anselmo-MernaHayes Center at ElwoodEustis-Farnam at Medicine ValleyAmherst at BradyHitchcock County at South PlatteArthur County at Cody-KilgoreWauneta-Palisade at HyannisMinatare at MaywoodHigh School VolleyballPaxton at WallaceMullen at SMCArthur County at Cody-KilgoreAmherst at BradyEustis-Farnam at Medicine ValleyMinatare at MaywoodHolyoke, Colo. at Perkins CountyHigh School SoftballScottsbluff Invite (Gothenburg)High School Girls GolfLexington Invite (North Platte, Lexing-

ton, Gothenburg, Broken Bow, Cozad)High School Cross CountryKearney Invite (North Platte)Broken Bow Invite (Eustis-

Farnam/Medicine Valley)High School Boys TennisScottsbluff/Alliance at North PlatteMcCook at York Invite

9/08/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at Gering Tri (Alliance, Ger-

ing)GICC Invite (Lexington)Southwest Conference at Ogallala

(Cozad, Ogallala, Gothenburg, Valentine,Broken Bow)

Elm Creek Tournament (Hershey, ElmCreek, Cambridge)

Loomis Tournament (Elwood, Loomis,Eustis-Farnam, Maxwell)

Hitchcock County Invite (HitchcockCounty, Hayes Center, Wauneta-Palisade)

Seven Valleys Tournament at Callaway(South Loup, Anselmo-Merna, Brady,Sandhills/Thedford, Medicine Valley)

Garden County Round Robin Tourna-ment (South Platte)

High School SoftballCozad Invite (Lexington)Scottsbluff Invite (Gothenburg)High School Cross CountryNorth Platte at Cheyenne MTN Stam-

pede at Colo. SpringsLexington at Lincoln PiusBroken Bow Invite (Gothenburg)High School Boys TennisNorth Platte InviteCollege SoftballNPCC at McCook

9/10/12High School Boys TennisMcCook at (Kearney Catholic, GICC)High School Cross CountryAlma Invite (Eustis-Farnam/Med Valley

9/11/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at OgallalaGothenburg at St. Pat’sCozad Tri (Cozad, Alma, Arapahoe)Elwood at CambridgeHitchcock County at MaywoodLeyton at PaxtonSMC Tri (SMC, Hyannis,

Sandhills/Thedford)South Loup Tri (South Loup, Medicine

Valley, Brady)Arthur County Tri (Arthur County, Gar-

den County, Mullen)Eustis-Farnam Tri (Eustis-Farnam,

Amherst, SEM)Hayes Center Tri (Hayes Center, Wal-

lace, DCS)South Platte at Banner CountyWauneta-Palisade at SouthwestElm Creek at MaxwellHolyoke, Co. at Chase CountyHigh School SoftballNorth Platte at KearneyLexington at CozadHastings at McCookChase County at GeringHigh School Girls GolfGothenburg Invite (North Platte,

Gothenburg, Broken Bow, Cozad)High School Boys TennisNorth Platte at KearneyLexington at McCookCollege VolleyballNPCC at Northeastern Co.

9/13/12High School VolleyballSt. Pat’s Tri (Ainsworth, Ogallala, St.

Pat’s)Lexington Tri (Lexington, Broken Bow,

Ravenna)McCook at Phillipsburg, Kans.Chase County at Wauneta-PalisadeBennett County of Martin, S.D. at

ValentineSouth Platte Tri (Perkins County, South

Platte, Paxton)Loomis Tri (Elwood, Loomis, Axtell)Hitchcock County at MaywoodSEM at South LoupSpalding/Spalding Academy at Ansel-

mo-MernaHigh School SoftballCozad at NorthwestSt. Paul at LexingtonHoldrege at GothenburgHigh School Girls GolfHastings Invite (North Platte, Broken

Bow)High School Cross CountryMcCook Invite (North Platte, McCook,

St. Pat’s, Perkins County)Lexington at Central CityFillmore Central Invite (Gothenburg)College VolleyballCentral CC at NPCC

9/14/12High School FootballNorth Platte at Bellevue EastLexington at NorthwestMcCook at GeringCozad at Broken BowWinner, S.D. at ValentineChase County at ChadronOgallala at Kearney CatholicSouthern Valley at CambridgePerkins County at HersheySt. Pat’s at RavennaSouth Loup at Elm CreekLeyton at MaxwellSMC at Sandhills/ThedfordArapahoe at Sutherland

Anselmo-Merna at MullenElwood at AlmaAmherst at Eustis-FarnamBrady at SEMSouthwest at Hayes CenterBertrand at Hitchcock CountyMedicine Valley at AxtellWallace at LoomisWauneta-Palisade at Arthur CountyCody-Kilgore at MinatareSioux County at HyannisHigh School VolleyballNorth Platte at LPS Classic SMC at Sandhills/ThedfordAnselmo-Merna at MullenWauneta-Palisade at Arthur CountyBrady at SEMCody-Kilgore at MinatareHigh School SoftballChadron at Chase CountyHigh School Girls GolfDawson County Invite (Gothenburg,

Cozad)High School Cross CountryArapahoe Invite (Eustis-Farnam/Med

Valley)College VolleyballNPCC at Northeastern

9/15/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at Lincoln SE/SW Tourna-

mentNPCC Tournament (St. Pat’s, Hershey,

Paxton, SMC, Eustis-Farnam, Maxwell)McCook Invite (McCook, Cambridge,

Chase County)Bridgeport Tournament (Perkins Coun-

ty)Hemingford Tourney (Hyannis)Gering at OgallalaHigh School SoftballNorth Platte Classic (North Platte, Lex-

ington)Northwest Invite (Gothenburg)Hastings Invite (McCook)High School Boys TennisMcCook at Lexington InviteCollege SoftballNPCC at Western Nebraska

9/17/12High School VolleyballMaywood Invitational (Elwood, May-

wood, Arthur County, South Platte)High School SoftballHoldrege at CozadHigh School Girls GolfOgallala Invite (North Platte, Ogallala,

Cozad)High School Boys TennisNorth Platte at Papillion–LaVista Invite

9/18/12High School VolleyballKearney at North PlatteSt. Pat’s at SMCCozad Tri (Lexington, Cozad, Ogallala)Hastings Tri (McCook, Hastings, Crete)Chase County at SidneyGothenburg Tri (Gothenburg, Minden,

Axtell)Sutherland Tri (Perkins County, Suther-

land, Creek Valley)Southern Valley at ElwoodPaxton Invite (Paxton, Wallace, Waune-

ta-Palisade)South Loup Tri (South Loup, Anselmo-

Merna, Elm Creek)Arthur County Tri (Arthur County, Hyan-

nis, Mullen)Pleasanton Tri (Eustis-Farnam,

Pleasanton, Wilcox-Hildreth)Maxwell at Medicine ValleySioux County at HyannisHigh School SoftballMcCook at North PlatteCozad at Chase CountyLexington at Minden (Gothenburg)High School Boys TennisNorth Platte at McCookHigh School Girls GolfLoup City at Broken BowCollege VolleyballNPCC at Eastern Wyoming

9/20/12High School VolleyballBroken Bow at RavennaCozad at SutherlandOgallala at Perkins CountyValentine at BurwellHershey at SouthwestCambridge Tri (Cambridge, Hitchcock

County, Arapahoe)Amherst Tri (Elwood, Amherst, Over-

ton)Paxton at South PlatteWauneta-Palisade at Hayes CenterMullen at Sandhills/ThedfordChase County at St. Francis, KS

(Dundy County-Stratton)High School SoftballNorth Platte at LexingtonCozad at Scottsbluff (Gering)High School Girls GolfGothenburg at North PlatteHigh School Cross CountryGrand Island Invite (North Platte)Dundy County Invite (St. Pat’s)Hershey at CozadPerkins County at OgallalaHigh School Boys TennisHoldrege at McCookCollege VolleyballNPCC at Southeast CC

9/21/12High School FootballFremont at North PlatteAlliance at LexingtonSidney at McCookBroken Bow at ValentineChase County at CozadGothenburg at MindenCambridge at Perkins CountyBridgeport at HersheyWood River at St. Pat’sSouth Loup at Loup CityMaxwell at PaxtonMorrill at SMCSutherland at HemingfordSEM at Anselmo-MernaElwood at BertrandEustis-Farnam at LoomisBrady at Medicine ValleyHayes Center at WallaceMullen at Sandhills/ThedfordGarden County at South PlatteMaywood at Cody-KilgoreHyannis at MinatareSioux County at Wauneta-PalisadeHigh School VolleyballMaywood at Cody-KilgoreHayes Center at WallaceHyannis at MinatareHigh School Boys TennisNorth Platte at HastingsCollege VolleyballNPCC at Johnson Co. CC

9/22/12High School VolleyballSutherland Tournament (St. Pat’s,

Sutherland, Broken Bow, Chase County)Northwest Invite (Lexington)Holdrege Invite (McCook, Holdrege)Hershey Invite (Hershey, Gothenburg)Brady Tournament (SMC, Brady, South

Loup, Anselmo-Merna, Eustis-Farnam,Wauneta-Palisade, Maxwell)

Ansley Tournament (Sandhills/Thed-ford)

High School SoftballLincoln SE Tournament (North Platte,

McCook)Crete Invite (Lexington)Gothenburg Invite High School Boys TennisNorth Platte at Hastings InviteHigh School Cross CountryRim Rock Classic, Lawrence, KS (Lex-

ington)Minden Invite (Gothenburg, Eustis-Far-

nam/Med Valley)High School Girls GolfBroken Bow at Holdrege InviteCollege SoftballMcCook at NPCCCollege VolleyballNPCC at Johnson Co. CC

9/24/12High School Girls GolfNorth Platte at KearneyHoldrege Invite (Gothenburg, High School Cross CountryUNK Invite (North Platte, Lexington,

Gothenburg, Eustis Farnam/Med Valley,Perkins County)

9/25/12High School VolleyballLexington at North PlatteMullen at St. Pat’sMcCook Tri (McCook, Cozad, Cam-

bridge)Perkins County Tri (Chase County,

Perkins County, Gothenburg)Valentine Tri (Valentine, Hyannis, North

Central)Wauneta-Palisade at Hitchcock CountyPaxton Tri (Maxwell, Paxton, Hayes

Center)Anselmo-Merna Tri (Anselmo-Merna,

Sandhills/Thedford, Twin Loup)Wallace Tri (Brady, Wallace, Maywood)South Platte at Potter-DixHigh School SoftballGothenburg at North PlatteCozad Tri (Centennial, Southern)High School Boys TennisLexington at North PlatteHigh School Girls GolfCozad Tri (Broken Bow, Gothenburg)

9/27/12High School FootballHemingford at SMCHigh School VolleyballHoldrege at Broken BowHershey at ValentineElm Creek Tri (Elwood, Elm Creek,

Pleasanton)Medicine Valley Tri (Paxton, Medicine

Valley, Arapahoe)Twin Loup Tri (South Loup, Twin Loup,

Spalding/Spalding Academy)Garden County at HyannisChase County Tri (Maxwell, Chase

County, Sutherland)High School SoftballCozad at GothenburgLexington at HastingsHoldrege Tri (Chase County,

GICC/Doniphan-Trumbull)McCook at KearneyHigh School Cross CountryGothenburg Invite (Gothenburg, North

Platte JV, Lexington, Eustis-Farnam/MedValley, St. Pat’s)

High School Girls GolfSWC at GothenburgCollege VolleyballHastings JV at NPCC

9/28/12High School FootballNorth Platte at Lincoln North StarSidney at LexingtonMcCook at AllianceBroken Bow at St. PaulValentine at OrdMitchell at Chase CountyCozad at GothenburgChadron at OgallalaHershey at BayardAnsley-Litchfield at South LoupSutherland at MaxwellPaxton at MorrillAnselmo-Merna at Eustis-FarnamSEM at ElwoodWallace at BradyMedicine Valley at Hitchcock CountyMullen at Hay SpringsSandhills/Thedford at Garden CountySouth Platte at Creek ValleyArthur County at Sioux CountyCody-Kilgore at HyannisMaywood at Wauneta-PalisadeHigh School VolleyballTwin Cities Tournament (Lexington, Mc-

Cook)SEM at ElwoodAnsley-Litchfield at South LoupAnselmo-Merna at Eustis-FarnamArthur County at Sioux CountyWallace at BradyMullen at Hay SpringsTwin Cities Tourney at Scottsbluff

(Ogallala)High School Girls GolfGNAC (North Platte, Lexington, Mc-

Cook)SWC at Gothenburg (Gothenburg,

Cozad, Broken Bow)

9/29/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at Columbus InviteTwin Cities Tournament (Lexington, Mc-

Cook)Gothenburg Invite (Gothenburg,

Perkins County)West Holt Tri (Valentine, West Holt, Bat-

tle Creek)Dundy County-Stratton Tournament

(Hitchcock County, DCS, Hayes Center,Maywood, Medicine Valley)

Four Corners Tournament at Thedford(SMC, Sandhills/Thedford)

High School SoftballGNAC at Scottsbluff (North Platte, Lex-

ington, McCook)Cozad at Yutan-Mead Invite at YutanHigh School Boys TennisGNAC at Norfolk (North Platte, Lexing-

ton, McCook)

10/01/12High School Girls GolfNorth Platte at DistrictsGothenburg at DistrictsBroken Bow at Districts

10/02/12High School VolleyballOgallala at North PlatteSt. Pat’s Tri (Chase County, Southwest)Cozad at HersheyCambridge at Southern ValleyHitchcock County at Rawlins County

QuadPaxton at Dundy County-StrattonSMC at South LoupAnselmo-Merna at Arcadia-Loup CityArthur County at South PlatteMedicine Valley Tri (Brady, Medicine

Valley, Maywood)Centura Tri (Broken Bow, Centura,

Hastings St. Cecilia)High School SoftballHoldrege at LexingtonHigh School Girls GolfNorth Platte at DistrictsHigh School Boys TennisMcCook at Scottsbluff/Alliance

10/3/12College VolleyballMcCook at NPCC

10/04/12High School FootballSouthwest at Medicine ValleyHigh School VolleyballSt. Pat’s at BradyGothenburg Tri (Lexington, Gothen-

burg, McCook)Broken Bow Tri (Broken Bow, Ogallala,

Minden)Perkins County at Chase CountyHoldrege at CozadSutherland at HersheySouthwest at CambridgeArapahoe at ElwoodSouth Loup Tri (Maxwell, South Loup,

Sandhills/Thedford)Overton Tri (Eustis-Farnam, Overton,

Loomis)Wauneta-Palisade Tri (Maywood,

Wauneta-Palisade, DCS)South Platte at WallaceHigh School SoftballNorth Platte at DistrictsHigh School Boys TennisMcCook at North PlatteHigh School Cross CountrySPVA at Perkins County (St. Pat’s,

Perkins County)SWC at Valentine (Gothenburg)RPAC at Alma (Eustis-Farnam/Med

Valley)

10/05/12High School FootballLincoln High at North PlatteLexington at HoldregeMcCook at HastingsOrd at Broken BowO’Neill at ValentineGothenburg at Chase CountyKearney Catholic at CozadOgallala at MitchellSt. Pat’s at CambridgeDundy County-Stratton at HersheyPerkins County at Oberlin, Kan.Maxwell at MorrillHemingford at PaxtonSMC at SutherlandBertrand at Anselmo-MernaElwood at LoomisEustis-Farnam at SEM

Brady at Hayes CenterHitchcock County at WallaceGarden County at MullenCreek Valley at Sandhills/ThedfordPotter-Dix at South PlatteMinatare at Arthur CountySioux County at Cody-KilgoreHyannis at MaywoodHigh School VolleyballHitchcock County at WallaceSMC at SutherlandBertrand at Anselmo-MernaMinatare at Arthur CountyBrady at Hayes CenterHyannis at MaywoodPotter-Dix at South PlatteHigh School SoftballNorth Platte at DistrictsHigh School Cross CountryGNAC at Scottsbluff (North Platte, Lex-

ington, McCook)College VolleyballNortheastern JC at NPCC

10/06/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at Kearney (Lincoln

SE/Lincoln NE)St. Pat’s Tri (Hershey, St. Pat’s,

Maxwell)St. Francis Quad (Hayes Center)High School Cross CountryGNAC, Scottsbluff (North Platte, Lex-

ington)

10/7/12College VolleyballNPCC at Doane College Quad

10/08/12High School VolleyballMinden at CozadFort Kearny Tournament at SEM (El-

wood, Eustis-Farnam)Arthur County at BradyGarden County Tri (Wallace, Garden

County, Potter-Dix)High School Girls GolfClass A State at NorfolkClass C State at Columbus

10/09/12High School VolleyballMcCook at SouthwestValentine at Todd County, S.D.Dundy County-Stratton Tri (Hershey,

Perkins County, DCS)Cambridge at Hitchcock CountyPaxton at Creek ValleyMaywood at SutherlandMedicine Valley at Wauneta-PalisadeBroken Bow at AinsworthHigh School Girls GolfClass A State at NorfolkClass C State at Columbus

10/10/12High School SoftballState at TBACollege VolleyballSoutheast CC at NPCC

10/11/12High School VolleyballMcCook at North PlatteSPVA Tournament at Imperial (St. Pat’s,

Maxwell, Hershey, Sutherland, ChaseCounty, Perkins County)

Kearney at LexingtonSouthwest at GothenburgGordon-Rushville Tri (Valentine, Gor-

don-Rushville, Alliance)SMC at Hayes CenterLoup Valley Tournament (South Loup,

Anselmo-Merna, Sandhills/Thedford)Hyannis Tri (Arthur County, Hyannis,

South Platte)Ainsworth Tri (Cody-Kilgore, Ainsworth,

Stuart)Shelton at Broken BowArapahoe at Medicine ValleyHigh School SoftballState at TBAHigh School Cross CountryNorth Platte at Districts, Pioneer Park,

LincolnLexington at Districts, OgallalaHigh School Boys TennisClass A State in Omaha (North Platte)Class B State in Lincoln (Lexington,

McCook)

10/12/12High School FootballNorth Platte at Grand IslandHastings at LexingtonHoldrege at McCookBroken Bow at O’NeillValentine at AinsworthChase County at Kearney CatholicCozad at MindenOrd at GothenburgGordon-Rushville at OgallalaCambridge at HersheySt. Pat’s at Dundy County-StrattonBayard at Perkins CountySouth Loup at PalmerSMC at MaxwellSutherland at PaxtonAnselmo-Merna at LoomisEustis-Farnam at ElwoodHayes Center at Hitchcock CountyWallace at Medicine ValleyMullen at Creek ValleySandhills/Thedford at South PlatteArthur County at St. EdwardCody-Kilgore at WalthillHyannis at SanteeMaywood at Silver LakeWauneta-Palisade at Elba-North Loup-

ScotiaHigh School VolleyballHayes Center at Hitchcock CountyLoup Valley Tournament (South Loup,

Anselmo-Merna, Sandhills/Thedford)Wallace at Medicine ValleyHigh School SoftballState at TBAHigh School Boys TennisClass A State in Omaha (North Platte)Class B State in Lincoln (Lexington,

McCook)College VolleyballNPCC at Jimmy John Invite (Colum-

bus)

10/13/12High School VolleyballSPVA Tournament at Imperial (St. Pat’s,

Maxwell, Hershey, Sutherland, ChaseCounty, Perkins County)

Scottsbluff Tri (McCook, Ogallala,Scottsbluff)

Valentine Invite (Valentine, Cozad)Loup Valley Tournament (South Loup,

Anselmo-Merna, Sandhills/Thedford)MAC Conference Tournament at Potter-

Dix (South Platte)College VolleyballNPCC at Jimmy John Invite (Colum-

bus)

10/15/12High School VolleyballRPAC Tournament (Cambridge, Hitch-

cock County, Paxton, Hayes Center, May-wood, Wallace, Wauneta-Palisade, Medi-cine Valley)

College VolleyballEastern Wyoming at NPCC

10/16/12High School VolleyballSutherland at St. Pat’sLexington at HoldregeChase County at Hershey

Cozad at HastingsBroken Bow Invite (Gothenburg, Bro-

ken Bow, Valentine)Kimball at Perkins CountyElwood at MaxwellRPAC Tournament (Cambridge, Hitch-

cock County, Paxton, Hayes Center, May-wood, Wallace, Wauneta-Palisade, Bro-ken Bow, Medicine Valley)

Sandhills Conference Tournament(SMC, Arthur County, Brady,Sandhills/Thedford)

L Club Tournament at Litchfield (Ansel-mo-Merna, South Loup)

10/17/12College VolleyballNPCC at Central CC

10/18/12High School FootballHitchcock County at BradyMedicine Valley at Hayes CenterSouth Platte at MullenSt. Edward at MaywoodKearney Catholic at GothenburgElwood at Anselmo-MernaHigh School VolleyballNorth Platte at ScottsbluffNorfolk Tri (Lexington, Norfolk, Hast-

ings)Cambridge Tri (Cambridge, Kearney

Catholic, Holdrege)Hitchcock County at BradySandhills Conference Tournament

(SMC, Arthur County, Brady,Sandhills/Thedford)

Medicine Valley at Hayes CenterCreek Valley Tri (South Platte, Garden

County, Creek Valley)College VolleyballConcordia JV at NPCC

10/19/12High School FootballKearney at North PlatteMcCook at LexingtonAinsworth at Broken BowValentine at ChadronMinden at Chase CountyOgallala at CozadKearney Catholic at GothenburgDundy County-Stratton at CambridgeHershey at St. Pat’sPerkins County at BridgeportTwin Loup at South LoupHemingford at MaxwellPaxton at SMCMorrill at SutherlandElwood at Anselmo-MernaBertrand at Eustis-FarnamWalthill at Arthur CountySantee at Cody-KilgoreElkhorn Valley at HyannisSilver Lake at Wauneta-PalisadeHigh School VolleyballWalthill at Arthur CountyTwin Loup at South LoupHigh School Cross CountryClass A StateClass B StateClass C StateClass D State

10/20/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at Kearney Tri (Kearney,

Grand Island)Southern Valley Tournament (St. Pat’s)Cozad Invite (Cozad, Gothenburg,

Valentine, Perkins County, Cambridge)Axtell Tournament (Elwood, Axtell)Sandhills Conference Tournament

(SMC, Arthur County, Brady,Sandhills/Thedford)

Wood River Tourney (Broken Bow)Alliance Invite (Ogallala)

10/22/12High School VolleyballMaxwell at Eustis-Farnam

10/23/12High School VolleyballGrand Island at North PlatteSt. Pat’s at PaxtonMcCook at Chase CountyKearney Catholic Tri (Broken Bow, Her-

shey, Kearney Catholic)Gothenburg at CozadCambridge Tri (Cambridge, Sutherland,

Elm Creek)Eustis-Farnam at ElwoodMaywood Tri (Hitchcock County, May-

wood, Hayes Center)Bertrand at MaxwellSMC Tri (SMC, Cody-Kilgore, Arthur

County)Anselmo-Merna Tri (South Loup, Ansel-

mo-Merna, Mullen)Ansley-Litchfield Tri (Brady,

Sandhills/Thedford, Ansley-Litchfield)Leyton Tournament (South Platte)Wauneta-Palisade at WallaceAinsworth at HyannisDundy County-Stratton Tri (Southwest,

Medicine Valley)

10/25/12College VolleyballNJCAA Region IX at North Platte

10/26/12High School VolleyballOgallala Tri (Gothenburg, Ogallala,

Valentine)Perkins County Tri (Perkins County, Ba-

yard, Garden County)Little Wound Tri (Cody-Kilgore, Hay

Springs, Little Wound)Broken Bow at CenturaCollege VolleyballNJCAA Region IX at North Platte

10/27/12High School VolleyballGNAC at Columbus (North Platte, Lex-

ington, McCook)College VolleyballNJCAA Region IX at North Platte

10/31/12High School VolleyballNorth Platte at District (TBA)

11/2/12College VolleyballDistrict G Playoff

11/3/12College VolleyballDistrict G Playoff

11/08/12High School VolleyballState Tournament in Grand Island



11/15/12College VolleyballNJCAA National



THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPHD12 FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW

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