Stories from Wednesday, March 11, 2020

LINCOLN, Neb. — Southern Valley’s fan appeal has gone beyond Lincoln and even Class D-1 state basketball foe Osmond this week. Because barely 10 miles north of the Tigers’ hometown is a community and rivalry Eagles coach Tylor Fincher knows all too well...

McCOOK, Neb. — Colby Community College downed McCook Community College in baseball Tuesday at the Jaycees Sports Complex in a nine-inning game 4-2. The Trojans scored on a leadoff homerun in the first inning. MCC countered in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff double by freshman Trey Taliaferro (Coconut Creek, Fla.) and a two-out single by Caleb Eiguren (freshman, Westminster, Colo.) to tie the game...

LINCOLN, Neb. — Southwest Nebraska proved worthy of two spots among the Lincoln Journal-Star’s final Class D-1 girls basketball Top 10 released this week. The Dundy Count-Stratton Tigers (18-7 record) claimed a No. 8 spot after making another state appearance last week after playing in three of those last five D-1 title games...

McCOOK, Neb. — Going up-up-up was how coach Joe Imus viewed the McCook Bison boys’ basketball performance during 2019-20. “We blew away last year’s stats,” he remarked about the 12-11 boys who took second place among all Southwest Conference tourney teams this season...

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook American Legion Post 203 baseball teams will be conducting try-outs for their 2020 season on March 21-22. Both the McCook National Bank Seniors for 17-18 year-olds and First Central Bank Juniors for 15-16 year-olds will begin these try-outs at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 21 in the Jaycees Complex...

Because of the weather forecast for Sunday, the McCook Community College softball and baseball teams are abandoning plans for home games Sunday. MCC softball’s doubleheader with Western Nebraska has been moved up to Thursday (March 12). The Lady Indians and Cougars will play a pair of games at the Jaycees Sports Complex at noon and 2 p.m...

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook Community College softball team came up with a pair of walk-off wins Tuesday at the Jaycees Sports Complex over the Midland College Chaparrals (Texas) by the final scores of 11-10 and 1-0. Down 10-6 in Game 1, the Lady Indians pushed across five seventh-inning runs ending with a two-run walk-off double by freshman Camryn Laird, (Pueblo, Colo.)...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Michael Gonzales, Executive Director for the Ed Thomas YMCA, has annouced his retirement as of March 27, 2020. Mike has served at the Ed Thomas YMCA association for a total of 45 years. “We are thankful to have Mike serve this YMCA and community since he began as Program Director in 1975, said Jeremy Shaw, YMCA past president and board member...

McCOOK, Neb. — Weather permitting, work on US-83 is scheduled to begin March 16 north and south of Frasier Creek, from Reference Post 35.00 to Reference Post 44.75, according to the Nebraska Department of Transportation.  This will be the first of six projects that will be part of the US-83 Super 2...

McCOOK, Neb. -- First responders deal with stress and traumatic events on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. That’s the nature of the job. We count on them to handle catastrophic incidents with skill and professionalism. And while much of what they see and do throughout their careers would overwhelm many of us, first responders are expected to shake it off and return to the line of duty the next day to do all over again...

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Interviewed on Topeka television station WIBW, Mitch Gross, long-time director of Kansas’ Sunflower State Games, announced he had accepted the position of executive director and CEO of the McCook, Neb., YMCA. The brother of McCook High School principal and football coach Jeff Gross, Mitch has been director of the Sunflower Games for 14 years...

McCOOK, Neb —The McCook School Board unanimously approved the school calendar for the 2020-21 school year, at its regular meeting Monday night. There was a request from one staff member to lengthen the Christmas break, Superintendent Grant Norgaard told the board. Norgaad said he felt a 16-day Christmas break was too long and so the request was not incorporated into the calendar...

Nebraska reported its fifth confirmed case of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and many more are sure to follow. The virus is certainly something to be taken seriously. As one virologist noted, the virus is sufficiently different, contagious and its full effects so unknown, that people should do whatever they can to avoid it...