The 2009-2010 Kimball High girl’s basketball season was a very good season with the varsity unit winning 17 games while losing only 6. The Lady Longhorns won the regular season Western Trails Conference championship, were champions of the Perkins County Holiday Tournament, and finished 3rd at the conference tournament. The junior varsity team wound up 13-1, and the freshman team went 5-3 and won the Potter-Dix freshman/sophomore tournament. Girl’s basketball at Kimball High appears to be in good shape.

Kimball failed to make it back to the state tournament, but to finish 17-6 after graduating 4 senior starters from the 2008-09 team, was quite an accomplishment for coach Ken Smith and his staff.

Coach Smith said, “To go 17-6 was a great accomplishment for this year’s team that returned only one starter from last year’s team.

We had only two other players with extended varsity experience” said Smith.

Coach Smith went on to point out that this year’s three seniors, all starters, had a great four years of basketball going 67-26 in that time frame.

Smith said, “These three seniors will be missed next year, not only for their basketball skills, but also for their leadership and attitudes.”

In commenting more on this year’s season, Smith said, “I am proud of this year’s team for their work ethic, team work, and dedication. We played a very tough schedule as the panhandle has some of the best girls teams in the state and our conference was loaded with outstanding teams and players. We went to battle every night and to come away with 17 wins says a lot about this team. Our losses were by 3 points, 10 points, and 1 point in overtime to Class B teams. Our other 3 losses were by 3, 5, and 5 points and two of these losses were to state ranked teams.”

“The 2009-10 team never gave up whenever they were down. They would always find a way to make a come back, and were never out of any game. Over all I think this team played a great defense and this was our team’s strength. The season ended a little sooner than we had hoped, but none the less, it was a year with a lot of great memories. The future will remain bright for Kimball girls basketball as we have a number of good players returning and a solid group of 8th graders coming into the program next year,” said Smith.

Only three seniors on this year’s team, but those three seniors played a huge role in the success the Lady Longhorns accomplished. Kimball scored 1,220 points for the season with the three seniors accounting for 794 of those points. This means that right at two-thirds of the scoring is graduating! It also means that a good share of the rebounding, assists, steals, and defense also graduates.

Kayli Rageth will leave the program after four years of displaying extra ordinary skills. She has already signed to take her game to the next level as a recruit of the Hastings College women’s basketball program. Miss Rageth may be the best four-year player to ever wear the Kimball High uniform. Her school records will back this claim. She set a new career scoring record of 1386 points which also puts her into the top 100 all class list for Nebraska at the #86 spot.

She scored 498 points this season to better her own school record of 436 she set last year as a Junior. She averaged 21.6 points a game this season and had some outstanding scoring nights that were in the school top ten bracket, and went to the bench early in most of these games to allow the reserves to finish out. She holds the #2 spot in points scored in a game at 37. She also holds six more top ten, single game scoring games of 4th-34, 6th-30, 7th-39 (twice), 9th-27, and 10th-26. She could score inside or out and had 35 three pointers this season to rank 8th all time. She made her free throws shooting 77% while making 135/176 attempts. Rageth played solid defense with her 94 steals now 3rd all time on the school records for a season and her 280 career steals is 2nd all time. Did I mention her 68 career three point field goals holds down the #4 spot?

For the 2009-2010 season, Rageth led the team in scoring, average per game, field goal percentage from 2 point range of 46%, and three point shots 34%, free throw shooting 77%, 94 steals, 56 assists and was 2nd in rebounding with 107. She was a repeat first team

All Conference player and a repeat Most Valuable Player of the Western Trails Conference. Rageth will be missed, and will be remembered, for as long as Kimball High girls basketball is discussed.

Cierra Pedersen is another senior who was a repeat all conference selection. Cierra was second in scoring this year for Kimball with 218 points averaging 9.5 points. She shot 33% from the field two point attempts and 25% on three pointers making 31. She was a 51% free throw shooter scoring 35 points at the line, had 94 rebounds, 90 steals, and tied with Rageth in assists with 56.

Jenifer Gompert was the third senior starter who have her all each and every week. She played tough defense and hit the boards hard. She scored 78 points averaging 3.3 points, pulled 100 rebounds, had 45 steals, and 31 assists. She was the ultimate team player who jumped up every time she got knocked down. While Pedersen moved into the top ten on school records to hold down the #5 spot in steals in a season at 90, and the #9 spot in three point baskets in a season with her 31, Gompert didn’t move into the top ten lists, but she simply did a lot of things right and she came ready to play every night.

Coach Smith has a lot of work ahead of him to find replacements for the three seniors, but as mentioned, he has a lot of talent returning. Starting point guard, Kelby Dickerson, a junior, will be back after a 100 point scoring season averaging 4.5 points. She knocked down 13 three pointers this season, is a 70% free throw shooter, had 55 rebounds, 45 steals, and 38 assists.

Whitney Lockwood; junior, was the defense specialist and was assigned the opponents top player most of the time. Lockwood scored 64 points, led the team in rebounds with 108 averaging 4.7, had 55 steals, and 26 assists.



Tori Reader, a Sophomore, has good size and good rebounding abilities. She scored 104 points for the varsity and was a top contributor for the Junior varsity as well. Despite not being a starter, she ended up with 98 rebounds, had 30 steals, and 7 assists. Her future is bright and she has the potential to become an outstanding player in her two remaining seasons at Kimball High.

Hannah Stull is a three point specialist who scored 63 points for the varsity including 12 treys. She had 18 rebounds and 22 steals. Stull is a junior who is ready to assume a starting role.

Junior team mate Austyn Pedersen is another three point shooter who knocked down 9 treys for the varsity while scoring 49 points. She charted 24 rebounds, 11 steals and 10 assists. Kaitlin Moritz is yet another junior who has great jumping ability and the knack for positioning for rebounds. She scored 14 varsity points had 34 rebounds, and 6 steals.

Annie McCloud is a sophomore who also shows lots of promise. She scored 15 varsity points and was 7/8 at the foul line for 88%.