The Kimball High boy’s basketball team had another outstanding season finishing with17 wins and only 5 losses, and when you look at the losses, it makes the Longhorn seasoneven more impressive.The Horns repeated as Western Trails Conference regular season and Conference Tournamentchampions, but they came up short in their bid for a district title and a trip to the State Tournament.Chadron, the top Class C-l team the entire season who took an undefeated record into the state tourney before losingby 3 points in the championship game, just happens to be in the same sub-district as Kimball.Two of the season losses were at the hands of the Chadron Cardinals including a 67-43 regular season loss and a 54-44 loss in thefinals of the sub-district contest. The second game was a tribute to the game plan of coach Bruce Tjosvold and his staff as theytook the Cards to the bitter end before losing. Chadron is blessed with some outstanding players including Division one prospect,6-feet 11-inch Elliott Eliason. Unfortunately for Kimball, the Cardinals return their top three players including Eliason. TheHorns need Chadron to get bigger, or Kimball to get smaller, to get out of the same class andsame sub-district. It won’t happen next year.Kimball’s other losses were all to class B teams occurring early in the season at the Western Conference tourney when

they fell to Sidney 61-50 and Alliance 53-40, and later, a loss to Scottsbluff to thetune of 65-43. Scottsbluff and Sidney were both Class B State qualifiers who won first round games at stateand ended up battling each other for consolation honors with Sidney taking 3rd place in the Class B division, and

both were ranked in the final top ten standings.Chadron, by the way, ended up No. 2 in the C-l final rankings and was listed all year in the allclass top ten!In all of the remaining regular season contests, Kimball prevailed, and when ever there was a two game pairingbetween schools, the Horns always improved greatly in the second encounter,once again, a testament to the coaching game plans of Tjosvold and his staff.The Horns had six seniors on this year’s club and they will be greatly missed.Charles Ferguson, ColtonDaum, and Brad Weisbrookwere all starters, withFerguson being named theConference Most ValuablePlayer of the Year along withbeing placed on the All ConferenceFirst Team. ColtonDaum was also an All ConferenceFirst Team selectionand Brad Weisbrook andTyler Weisbrook were bothHonorable mention all conference.Ferguson has been recruitedby college coaches andwill certainly be given thechance to take his game tothe next level.Looking at some of the accomplishmentsFerguson hasachieved this past season andduring his illustrious careerat Kimball High. He endedup with 828 total careerpoints, the 7th best all timeon the school top ten list. Hescored 344 points his senioryear to move into the 9thspot all time. His 62 assistsin the 2006-07 season holdsthe No.7 spot and his 96 assiststhis year is now the No.4 best. His 118 assists as ajunior in 2007-08 holds theNo. 2 spot and his career totalof 276 assists is also 2ndall time on the school charts.Chuck shot the ball well atthe free throw line going 59for 77 this year for 76.6 percentand is the 8th best everby a Longhorn. During hiscareer he was 137 for 188 for72.87 percent and the 137free throws is No. 8 all time.He played defense as well,and was consistent throughthe years with steals. In2006-07 he pirated 74 stealsto place him No. 4 on theseason charts, took over theNo. 2 spot in 2007-08 with78 steals and this year cameup with 77 steals for the No.3 best ever in a season andnow holds the No. 2-3-4spots. His total of 229 careersteals ties him for the No. 1spot! His fantastic abilitiesand his unselfish play willbe missed by not only thecoaching staff and his teammates, but also by the fans.Colton Daum was anotheroutstanding competitor whogave 110% every time hestepped on the court. WhenTjosvold had to stop a certainindividual in a crucialgame, Colton got the call,and Colton got the job done.He played in-your-face defenseas well as anyone inthe area.Coach Tjosvold said,“When I had to have Coltonfocus on defense, it tookaway from his offense, buthe was outstanding doingboth.”Colton’s 63 steals thisyear is the 7th best ever by aLonghorn and he ended with116 total for his career. Hescored 274 points his senioryear averaging 12.5 points agame and was top three pointshooter with 25.Brad Weisbrook was a lotlike Daum in that he was adefensive Hawk and a realplay-maker. He scored 76points this season averaging3.5 points and he dished out33 assists and pulled 48 rebounds.Tyler Weisbrook was mostoften the No. 6 man and firstoff the bench. He was toughinside with his defense andhis rebounding. He could puta body on someone and washard to move. He had 54 reboundsand 44 points.Dusty Huddleston playedonly two years of organizedbasketball but he caught onquick and was a valuableaddition to the Horns whenhe moved in from Texas.“Tex” loved to play and hecould rebound and shoot.He scored 63 points and had47 rebounds. He also nailed9 three pointers during theyear.Brady Baker was the tallestplayer on the Horn rosterat 6-feet-6-inches and heended up with 45 points and48 rebounds. Used as a roleplayer, he could check in andalmost always scored rightaway, or pulled an importantrebound.With Baker at 6-6,Charles Ferguson 6-4, TylerWeisbrook and DustyHuddleston at 6-3 each, andColton Daum at 6-1 andBrad Weisbrook at 6-0, thesize of these six seniors willcertainly be missed.The basketball cupboardwill not be empty howeverfor coach Tjosvold as he returnstwo starters, both sophomoreson this year’s teamwho were varsity players asfreshmen.Both Kendall Fergusonand Jake Daum were all conferencethis year showingthe respect opposing coacheshad for the young players.While Charles Fergusonled the team in scoring thisseason with his 344 points,younger brother Kendall wasonly 4 points back with 340averaging 15.5 a game. Hewas well ahead of everyonein rebounding with 215 averaging9.8 per game. He shota very good 47.8 percentfrom the field, tops amongthe regulars. He was 8 for 28on three point attempts.Jake is a true blue-collarworker who battles bigfor his 6-1 listing, but withKendall at 6-5, the Horns dohave at least two good insidepeople returning. This is importantas there is a lack ofsize returning from the juniorvarsity team.Jake scored 162 points averaging7.4 points. He alsopulled 96 rebounds and shot36 percent from the field and68 percent at the line. Nextyear’s team will be builtaround these two.Sophomores Brady Land,with 24 points, and WoodrowParsons, with 19, will playa bigger role in the varsitygames and from there, thecoaches will have to dip intothe freshman ranks of thisyear’s team. It appears thatsophomore Taylor Brown,who has a lot of skills andwho scored 8 varsity pointsthis year, may be lost becauseof medical reasons.Freshmen Jeff Greenwood,Todd O’Hare and DaltonLockwood , all scored in varsitycompetition this year.Despite the loss of thesix seniors and the loss ofthe size of these six, coachTjosvold is optimistic aboutnext year. “I think we canbe a real good team againnext year and I think we canbattle for conference honorsagain. We will be young, butwe have some athleticism returningand our younger kidsare going to have to step upand show they can play,” hesaid.In three years as headcoach, Tjosvold has had threewinning seasons and there isno reason to doubt that nextyear will be any different.Congrats to this year’sLonghorns and best wishesto next year’s club. Listedare the compiled stats fromthis year’s season.