It’s Thursday, Dec. 2, and this is the night you basketball fans have been waiting for. It’s high school basketball time! The Kimball High varsity basketball teams will take to the hard woods this evening to open the 2010-2011 season, and they will open on the home court this year hosting Sidney in first round pairings of the highly touted Western Conference tournament.

Now don’t get this tournament confused with the Western Trails Conference as we are talking two different conferences. Kimball is actually a member of the Western Trails Conference, and simply a guest of this early season Western Conference tournament made up of teams like Scottsbluff, Gering, Alliance, Sidney, etc.

Other teams involved in the early Western Conference tourney are Chadron, Douglas, and Torrington. Both girls and boys have an eight team bracket and all teams will play three games, win or lose.

First round games are being played at selected home courts and then the Friday and Saturday game action moves to the Gering and Scottsbluff gymnasium sites. As mentioned, Kimball will host the Sidney girls and boys this evening with the girls game to tip off at 5:30 and the boys to follow at 7 p.m.

With Kimball certainly the smallest school in the tourney, it makes for a real tough opening act for the Longhorn squads, and winning can become real important in regards to earning wild card points which could lead to a wild card berth into the state tournament at the end of the season. You might say Kimball plays the toughest part of their schedule in the opening weekend.

Kimball boys coach, Bruce Tjosvold, said, “We would sure like to win at least a couple of these games as it would mean so much to our program with the wild card points.”

Coach Tjosvold has perhaps his most talented group since taking over the program, but he has some health and injury problems already. All Conference returning senior forward Jake Daum is battling a case of mono and his availability is very questionable. Senior starter Woodrow Parsons sprained an ankle in practice last week and he is also a question mark. Senior Kendall Ferguson, the Western Trails Most Valuable Player of last year, has been doctoring for a back problem suffered during the football season, but it looks like he may be close to 100 percent.

Tjosvold has a lot of depth and a lot of experience on this year’s squad, and did I mention a lot of talent as well? He plans to pick his squad from 15 players who have stood out in pre season practice.

The five returning senior starters are Ferguson, Daum, Parsons, Brady Land and Taylor Brown. Five juniors who saw lots of varsity playing time last year include Jeff Greenwood, Daniel Valdez, Trevan Hinton, Dalton Lockwood, and Brent Bussinger. Bernie Bridge and Zach Rockhold-O’Brien are sophomores as is Caleb Reuter, and a pair of freshmen are also destined to see varsity playing time as Mike Daum and Jake Reader are exceptional young players with size.

“We have a lot of depth and I have really been happy with the effort of the guys in practice. We are going to have to rotate a lot of players this year, especially early. We are doing some good things. I only wish we were healthier,” said Tjosvold.

Lady Longhorn coach Ken Smith doesn’t have the luxury that coach Tjosvold has of an entire returning starting lineup. Smith graduated three senior starters last spring and he will have a difficult time of replacing the likes of Kayli Rageth, Cierra Pedersen, and Jennifer Gompert. He does have a pair of returning senior starters in Whitney Lockwood and Kelby Dickerson, both all conference honorable mention last year.

Coach Smith said on Monday that he honestly has not decided on a starting lineup for tonight but he plans on suiting this group for the opening week. Along with Lockwood and Dickerson, other seniors who return as letter winners are Tori Hager, Hannah Stull, and Austyn Pedersen, along with Sam Long who is back after sitting out last year while recuperating from a major knee surgery. Tori Reader and Annie McCloud are juniors and are the only juniors on the squad. Sophomores Darbi Klinkhammer and Taylor Wismer are varsity material as is freshman Shelby Vogel.

Coach Smith said, “I have been happy with the way the girls have been working hard in practice. Our defense has been looking real good and we are going to pressure other teams, and be up-tempo. We will use lots more bodies this season.” Like the boys, misfortune has hit the Lady Longhorn squad as well, as senior Kaitlin Moritz, a for-sure starter, is out for the season after suffering a severe knee injury that will require surgery. Not only will she miss her senior year of basketball, but probably her senior year of track and field as well. Her loss takes a toll on the rebounding and inside game of the Kimball ladies.

This is a preview of what to expect this evening, and this weekend, as Kimball High opens up the round ball season. Come early this evening and partake of the Booster Club feed in the student center with serving to begin at 4:45.