By CAYDEN SANDERS
Tiger Media Network
Last week, Hoisington High School was scheduled to host the 22nd annual Hoisington Winter Jam. But with Mother Nature sending inches of snow across west central Kansas, the Winter Jam’s final games were canceled, except for two extra games scheduled for four teams, with no clear winner.
“It was definitely a challenge to get through the week. However, all the schools worked with us to come up with the best-case scenarios, to get everyone their games for the week,” Hoisington Athletic Director Craig Fletchall said.
On the boys’ side of the bracket, the 4A No. 4 Pratt Greenbacks went 2-0 and were set to play either the Victoria Knights or Ellsworth Bearcats in the finals.
On the girls’ side, the 2A No. 5 Ellinwood Eagles found themselves in a similar situation, awaiting the winner of Hoisington and Ellsworth in the championship.
Fletchall said the week and the weather were hard to deal with, but future changes might help keep the tournament going during winter weather.
“We have a board policy that states our school can’t play on Wednesdays. Thus, in the future, our only bet is to reschedule to the following Monday,” Fletchall said. “Some tournaments have moved their final day back to January 31, but we have wrestling taking up the athletic center. To make things better, we will have to secure another site, which may be difficult.”
For the Hoisington girls’ team, the weather wasn’t the only problem they faced. Other scheduling problems arose when the eighth team competing backed out before the tournament started to join an athletic conference mid-season tournament. Hoisington could not find a team to fill the vacant spot and claimed a bye to the championship semi-final round against Ellsworth.
On Thursday Night, Ellsworth decided not to bring their teams to Hoisington, and no other school wanted to play on Friday, resulting in Hoisington not playing any games during the tournament.
“It has been frustrating this week to lose out on three home games. We have been talking about controlling your controllables. All of this has been out of our control,” Hoisington Head Coach Trina Lutters said. “This has definitely been a learning experience. Sometimes this is an ‘easier said than done’ feeling, like we just can’t seem to catch a break. We continue to stay focused. I know we will be ready to play next week.”
The lack of games also has postseason implications for Hoisington. The Kansas State High School Activities Association has moved to a win percentage system for postseason play. The Lady Cardinals are No. 8 in the 3A Larned sub-state, but could possibly be higher. Hoisington has played 10 games, the fewest of the teams in the Larned sub-state, while Goodland has played 15. The average number of games at this point in the season is 12.
“It’s very frustrating. We are now down to a 19-game count instead of [the] 23 that was originally planned. We keep focusing on the win percentage factor,” Lutters said. “We have also talked a lot about mental toughness. The margins of victory will come down to our toughness and every week we have had a little bit of a setback that allows us to train ourselves to stay hungry, stay focused, stay positive and appreciate every game day. Getting to play should never be taken for granted. We just have to keep the faith that all these obstacles are preparing us for the future.”
Fletchall said scheduling issues with the school’s gyms also played a factor in the issues over the weekend.
“It would have been better had we had eight teams in the girls’ bracket,” Fletchall said. “It could have also been better if we had an auxiliary gym. We are only able to use the middle school in the daytime on Saturdays. Once Ellsworth pulled out, our semi-final brackets were in shambles.”
On Monday evening, Hoisington will make up a game against Plainville from the Keady Classic at the Larned Tournament, which was scheduled for December 13. Hoisington won the game 76-48.
Fletchall also found an additional game for the Lady Cardinals on February 5, a home game against Rock Hills/Mankato.
For all the issues the Hoisington girls had, the boys were able to play all three games during the weekend.
In the opening-round game, Hosington lost to a Reno County homeschool team 60-57. The Cardinals were scoreless for the first four minutes of the game, and were down 11-0 before scoring their first point at the free throw line.
“We were unable to get some shots early, and when we saw that we were down we had to fight and claw to come back,” Head Coach Kyle Haxton said.” When we tried to do that, we used up all of our energy, so we need to find a way to leave room in the tank for that final push in games like this one.”
The Cardinals tried to come back behind senior guard Mason Martin’s 26 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals.
In the consolation semi-final on Thursday, Hoisington defeated Minneapolis 62-50. Martin led all scorers with 33 points, to go along with 7 rebounds, and 4 steals to help the Cardinals to victory.
Both Hoisington and 1A-D2 No. 6 Victoria wanted to get a third game in, and decided to play the final game of the weekend before the weather became untraversable.
“Our guys are coming off a little rest, and I thought they played great against another state-ranked team,” Haxton said. “We were able to push the pace and create some opportunities, and played as a team.”
Hoisington and Victoria went back and forth until the late second quarter, where the Cardinals started pulling away. In the second half, Hoisington kept the pace fast and Victoria could not keep up as Hoisington defeated Victoria 56-41.
“Coming into a home tournament, you want to go 3-0. We could not do that because we could not create shots, but I liked how our boys were able to bounce back and play great the last two games,” Haxton said.
Both Hoisington teams will travel to Phillipsburg tonight to face the Panthers.