Sports

Whether it was stated by his college cross country and track coach or himself, Corbin Hansen, a 2016 graduate of Sandy Creek High School, is “that classic Class C kid that was a multi-sport athlete in high school and came into the University of Nebraska-Kearney cross country and track programs with nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

His coach, over the past four years at UNK, Brady Bonsall knows the feeling of being that small class kid hitting the big stage at the next level, as Bonsall was a standout runner at Burwell High School and went on to star at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“Corbin, in my mind, battled through some injuries in his career here, but he did exactly that, he battled,” Bonsall said.

“Corbin is just a competitor that doesn’t like to lose, and that really propelled him in his career. He has worked hard to get where he got and truly became a leader for our programs on many levels,” shared Bonsall.

Passion and drive. Those two words might not be the words of choice that Sutton Head Football Coach Steve Ramer would use to describe himself as a player and a coach, but when you talk football with Ramer, that is what comes out, his passion and drive.

“It seems that I’ve always been a part of a rebuild of sorts,” Ramer shared. “In high school, at Southeast Consolidated in Stella when I stepped in as a freshman, and played, our school was on like a 60-game losing streak or something like that, but we had new coaches that came in and changed the culture and the kids that were freshman and sophomores really bought into changing the culture, and we did.”

Ramer, once he stepped into the coaching world after graduating from Peru State, spent a few years as an assistant coach at Maryville High School in Missouri, helping with the Spoofhounds football program before taking the reigns as a head coach in 1998 at Sentral High School in Fenton, IA.

The 2020 academic all-state honors totaled 20 student-athletes from Clay County, as released by the Nebraska School Activities Association last week.

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Sutton junior Joe Hinrichs, was recently honored by the wrestling website NEWrestle.com for his successes on the mats this past season.

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Matt Swartzendrueber, or Swartz, as he is know by his boys basketball players and students at Sandy Creek High school lives and breathes the game of basketball.

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Sutton junior Kylie Baumert joined four others as first-team all-conference selections following the 2019-20 basketball season.

Baumert is joined by Superior’s Kaylynn Meyer, Fillmore Central’s Macy Scott, Milford’s Jayla Policky and Centennial’s Kate Hirschfeld as first-team picks by the Southern Nebraska Conference coaches.

Xytlaly Bautista earned third-team honors for her play during the Fillies season, and is joined by Shayla Meyer of Superior, Lexi Theis of Fillmore Central, Nevaeh Stauffer of Milford and Lauren Vandenburg of David City.

Second-team honors went to Halle Theis of Fillmore Central, Sydny Havel of Thayer Central, Sara Huss of Fairbury, Hannah Kepler of Milford and Hunter Hartshorn of Centennial.

Sandy Creek junior Jaden Claycamp and Sutton junior Dayvie Perrien were both tabbed as SNC honorable mention selections for the recent basketball season.

A total of 13 Clay County basketball players were honored this past weekend by the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal-Star with all-state honors.

Sutton’s junior pointguard, Cade Wiseman, led the post-season honors list as a first-team member of the World-Herald’s All Class C-2 team, while in the Journal-Star, Wiseman was tabbed as a second-team selection.

Three other Sutton players for the boys were tabbed as honorable mention selections by both papers, including senior Jacob Haight, and juniors Quenton Jones and Tyler Baldwin. Sandy Creek’s Wyatt Mach, Josh Shaw and Micah Biltoft were named honorable mention selections by both daily papers, as were Harvard players Noah and Ben Okraska.

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EDITORS NOTE: This is the first in a series of stories that the Clay County News will be producing in the light of the school year and spring sports season in jeopardy of taking place, thanks to the invasion of COVID-19 around the world. We’ll be sharing stories of educators, administrators and staff members at our Clay County school districts in the coming weeks related to their high school and college athletic careers in a series we’re calling, “Did You Know?”

For Brandy Thompson, Sutton High School Principal, and Nora Ohrt, the Technology Coordinator at SPS, track and field was, and still is, ingrained deep within their DNA, but it almost didn’t happen.

Both noted that their lives on the track and in the field that became life to each wouldn’t have happened without a spark to even get them involved in the sport.

A total of six Clay County basketball players have been honored by the Southern Nebraska Conference boys coaches for their play during the 2019-20 season.

Sandy Creek senior Wyatt Mach and Sutton junior Cade Wiseman lead the list of county players honored, as both were tabbed as firstteam selections.

Sutton senior Jacob Haight was named to the SNC second team, while Sutton junior Quenton Jones has been selected as a member of the third team this season. Sutton junior Tyler Baldwin, along with Sandy Creek sophomore Josh Shaw were both tabbed as honorable mention selections by the SNC coaches.

The full list of those hon ored are as follows:

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