Stories from Friday, January 29, 2021

McCOOK, Neb. — McCook High officials announce assistant football coach and teacher Joe Vetrovsky will be the Bison football team's new head coach. Vetrovsky has assisted with the program for seven seasons after graduating from Doane College in Crete with his Master's Degree in K-12 Special Eduation. The 2009 McCook High grad lettered three seasons on Doane College's football team...

KEARNEY, Neb. — McCook High's boys loved a late Friday night in the big Kearney High arena as they trounced Gothenburg, 54-34, in their Southwest Conference semifinal contest. The Bison (9-9 record) have won four of five and featured four double-figure scorers...

BENKELMAN, Neb. — The Dundy County-Stratton Tigers and Southern Valley Eagles both dominated their RPAC division finals Friday night to set up Saturday's championship game at Cambridge High. Defending champ DC-S (14-2 record) dominated Paxton for the West title while Southern Valley (13-2) took a 55-33 East final from Medicine Valley...

GOTHENBURG, Neb. — Put it No. 1 on “Plays Of The Night” across Nebraska without any doubt. Senior Tiara Matson’s amazing reverse layup, over-the-shoulder shot with time expiring did more than give McCook a 51-49 victory over Minden Thursday night. The winning moment showed again how four years of work and commitment really can make every Bison fan proud...

65th birthday The family of Gene Goodenberger of McCook is requesting a card shower in honor of his 65th birthday on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. His family includes wife, Deb Goodenberger of McCook; children, Wade (McKinsey) Goodenberger of Rochester, Minn., Carli (Ross) Oberg of Minden, Neb., Hannah (Dylan) Ash of McCook; and 5 grandchildren, Huntley, Gentry, Griffin, Edith, and Arthur Gene. Cards of congratulations will reach him at 70681 Road 387, McCook, NE 69001...

Korbin Shepherd Peterson Tristan and Wyatt Peterson of Denver, Colo., announce the birth of their son, Korbin Shepherd Peterson, who was born Dec. 17, 2020 at Rose Medical Center in Denver. He weighed 9 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 21.5 inches long. ...

Imagine that you live during a time that there are no TVs, phones or radios. Where do you get your news? Newspapers! McCook was lucky to have newspapers and they sprang to life almost immediately when the town was born. Many issues of the Weekly McCook Tribune from 1883 are available to research online at www.chroniclingamerica.gov...

McCOOK, Neb. - Because the state legislature is holding all-day hearings this year in an effort to get through that phase of proposed legislation as quickly as possible, there has been “slow news” coming from the legislature, according to State Sen. Dan Hughes. He spoke to a group of constituents via Zoom on Thursday morning...

McCOOK, Neb. — Parking concerns on a city street first brought to the McCook City Council’s attention by a city councilman will be addressed Monday night at the regular council meeting, 5:30 p.m. at city council chambers in the Municipal Building. In July of this year, McCook City Councilman Jerry Calvin discussed his concerns about parking and traffic on West H, just off of North U.S. ...

Culbertson, Neb. -- The Hitchcock County Republican Party plans an emergency meeting Saturday, Feb. 6, to consider a resolution of censure against Sen. Ben Sasse. The meeting is set for 2 p.m. at the Culbertson ambulance barn, three blocks south of U.S. Highways 6-34 on Highway 17, on the east side of the street...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Red Willow County Commissioners will conduct interviews and consider candidates to replace County Treasurer Sue Wesch, who has announced her resignation. Meeting at 9 a.m. Monday, the board will interview candidates and, following an executive session, is slated to make a selection. Three candidates submitted applications to fill the post...

McCOOK, Neb. — Free drive-through COVID-19 testing has been scheduled for February at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds merchants building. Tests are set for Monday, Feb 1, 1 - 3:45 pm Monday, Feb. 8, 1-3:45 pm, Wednesday, Feb. 10 10 am-noon, Monday, Feb. 15, 1 - 3:45 pm, Monday, Feb. 22, 1 - 3:45 pm Wednesday, Feb. 24 10:00 am-noon...

As this whole Covid thing unfolded in March of last year, I began looking for silver linings to the dark clouds ahead of us. At the time, my hope was that it would force us to make progress in the utilization of remote learning, which is a net-plus for rural Nebraska. ...

While we should have come to expect such an approach by now, like most other Nebraska educators, I was still surprised by the late January remarks of Gov. Pete Ricketts. When asked whether he would sign a proclamation celebrating Public Schools Week, Ricketts said no, that education-related proclamations issued by his office focus on “excellence and choice.”...

McCOOK, Neb. —The Hillcrest Board of Trustees approved about $66,000 to upgrade the facility’s HVAC system, at the regular meeting Wednesday morning. Out of the six bids submitted by Parde Electric Heating and Cooling LLC, the board decided to prioritize three. ...

ENKELMAN, Neb. — The Dundy County-Stratton Tigers were happy to be Wednesday night warriors, fighting off tough Maxwell 60-56 in RPAC West boys’ semifinal action. Junior Mark Nelms’ 19 points powered the 14-2 Tigers as they aim to repeat their 2020 RPAC championship...

A glance at the remaining RPAC basketball tournament schedule for today: RPAC West boys at Benkelman ALL TIMES MST Consolation games — Hitchcock County vs. Maywood-Hayes Center, 4:15 p.m.; Maxwell vs. Wallace, 6 p.m. Championship: Dundy County-Stratton vs. Paxton, 7:45 p.m...

OXFORD, Neb. — Sophomore Bailey Truksa’s 16 points and 15 points with 15 rebounds from Caylin Barnett fueled a 39-31 Southwest win over Arapahoe on Thursday. The Roughriders (7-10 record) finished RPAC touranment play with momentum. Arapahoe (3-14) continues to improve after beating Bertrand on Tuesday...

HOLDREGE, Neb. — The McCook Junior High eighth-grade “A” boys scored a 45-37 road win over Holdrege Thursday evening. The Dusters edged McCook’s “B” boys, 32-30, and also won a C basketball game. No other details were obtained.

NORTH PLATTE — The McCook area doubles teams of Shonda Jacob and Bryan Smotherman, as well the duo of Roemello Grier and Eric Skeen came up just short of advancing to the American Poolplayers Association’s (APA) 8-Ball Doubles Championship in Las Vegas after falling in their semi-finals matches of the 8-Ball Doubles tournament held recently...

McCOOK, Neb. — The Mac Attack featured another tourney field filled with youth basketball teams and distancing themselves while playing at various sites throughout McCook. Results from each division: Boys-7th and 8th grade Champions: McCook War Dogs (3-0 record). They won 64-19 over Rawlins County, Kan., Buffs, 52-19 over DC-S Tigers and 47-32 over McCook 7th...

BENKELMAN, Neb. — Senior Jaycee Widener caught fire for a season-best 30 points in Maywood-Hayes Center’s 58-38 win over Wauneta-Palisade Thursday night. The RPAC West champion Wolves (17-1) blaze into Saturday’s league title game against Alma at Cambridge High Saturday evening...

McCOOK, Neb. — Not even Class A No. 2 North Platte could stop McCook’s mightiest trio of wrestlers from going unbeaten at home on Thursday. The N.P. Bulldogs went 5-0 in duals to claim their team title. Yet McCook seniors Alec Langan, Talyn Campbell and sophomore Alex Anthony all finished 5-0 to power the Bison into fourth place among eight teams...

NORTH PLATTE - The North Platte/McCook swim and dive dual is the most unique meet of the swim season. For starters, all swimmers must do in-water starts, rather than from the traditional starting blocks. That in turn makes times not as traditionally fast as other meets, so swimmers try events they would not normally do if they are being truly competitive. ...