LUSK: In a winter that saw both Niobrara County High School basketball teams have successful seasons, each squad landed four players on the 1A Southeast quad All-Conference teams.

Tessa Manning earned her third honor on the list in leading the Lady Tigers in assists, steals and offensive rebounds this year.  Fellow seniors Hannah Krein, Paige Potter and Gracie ZumBrunnen were also named to the post season roster. ZumBrunnen led Lusk in scoring, rebounds and tied with Potter from the three point stripe for the team lead. Krein was second on the team in rebounding and third in assists. The foursome combined for 307 varsity games played over their careers.

Senior Tigers Ridge Kupe and Jackson Smith, along with juniors Corbin Matthews and Nathan Miller were named to the 1A Southeast quad All Conference team. It is the second award for Kupke (2024) and Miller (2023) while Smith and Matthews earned their first honor.

Kupke led Lusk in scoring, assists and tied with Miller for the team lead in steals. Miller also was the team leader in offensive, defensive and total rebounds. Matthews led the team in three pointers made and spent most of the season in the conference top ten in several categories.

Lusk had one player named to each of the 1A All State teams with ZumBrunnen and Kupke being honored for the first time.

It was a new experience for this aging sportswriter with NCHS changing classifications for the first time in 45 years. I had several questions about past games with Cokeville and Little Snake River, and the answer for each was most likely never outside of a possible summer camp game. For the first time since the 2006-07 season, NCHS qualified both teams for the state tournament together. That was my first season back, so it was different managing a blizzard and two teams to chase. Spending the first day at the Ford Wyoming Center and playing the semifinals at “The Swede” was reverse in venues going back a few decades, but I managed to see many old friends and meet a few new ones.