Northern Valley Schools USD 212

Hey guys!! Here is our Weekly Agenda! We kick off HS Forensics this week and Have the HS Snowball Dance on Saturday! Have a great week Huskies!

Northern Valley vs Wheatland/Grinnell - January 17, 2025 Coach Cole; JUNIOR VARSITY - The Husky pups faced the Thunderhawks in a 3-Quarter junior varsity game and it was a nail biter the entire 24 minutes of action. The JV would start out in full court man pressure once again, forcing a few steals in the opening quarter. Tait Thalheim would score 10 of the 12 in the first quarter, as Ayden Keith would put in his first basket of the season. The first quarter score was 12 - 16 in favor of Wheatland. In the second, the Huskies would put up a 16 point quarter of their own as Lucas Hansen ran the point and distribute the ball to multiple Huskies. Griffin McKinney led with 6, Zane Brown with 5, Lucas Hansen with 3, and Caden Lowry with 2. The Huskies would lead 28 - 25. In the final quarter, the Thunderhawks would continue to play man to man, and the Huskies would switch back from man to zone. It was a grudge match the last quarter as the Huskies would dive for loose balls and be on the receiving end of many foul calls. The Huskies would find themselves down by 1 with 30 seconds left, Lucas and Griffin set up the pick and roll, as Griffin would make a nice jump shot off of the assists from Lucas and put the Huskies up by 1 with 12 seconds left. In the final possession from Wheatland, #12 Goetz would fire a 3-Pointer, miss it, get his own rebound, and put it back in to score. The Huskies would get a final shot attempt off from Tait Thalheim, but it would be long, and the Huskies JV would lose by 1 point. 33 - 34. All the JV team needed was a rebound to win, and they came up short. VARSITY - The Huskies varsity team would come out with an intensity I hadn’t seen since the first game we had vs Tri-Plains/Brewster. We would end up scoring 18 in the first quarter, but that would be the end of our hot spell. The Huskies would let the Thunderhawks go on a run of their own for more than 15 minutes of play. The game was within 9 points for a long time, but we could not run offense and get good shots. The final score was 37 - 48. The Huskies would shoot 12/55 from the field. This is a game that I personally wanted to win very badly. My team understands my passion for winning and I hold them to a high standard, because I know they can handle being pushed past their limitations. They have to understand that all five players on the court contribute to winning, and all five players produce in different ways. We will get better. Tait Thalheim led in scoring with 15 points. Griffin McKinney led in rebounds with 13.

Northern Valley vs Oberlin Red Devils - January 14, 2025 Coach Cole; JUNIOR VARSITY - The Husky JV team shot tremendously during the first quarter of a two quarter game last Tuesday, as the team put up 20 points. Led by Tait Thalheim’s 11. The Husky junior varsity put on a full court press with pressure defense and ran the floor well on offense. They also ran Flex well as we hit Lucas Hansen on a flex cut for a score. The score was 20 - 8 at the end of one, as the Huskies put the game out of reach from Oberlin. The final score was 29 - 21 as the Red Devils made a comeback, but the Husky Pups would close the game strong. VARSITY - The Huskies varsity team would have to overcome inconsistent officiating, as the Huskies totaled 21 fouls and the Red Devils 22 fouls in the game, as lots of players had to sit on the bench and watch the action. The Huskies would once again have shooting woes, going 17/53 from the field and getting scoring from Hammond and T. Thalheim. Oberlin would shoot 45% as most of their buckets would come inside. The Huskies put up a fight and would score 49 points, which is more than usual. Our half court man to man defense is looking better, but still needs repetition. Tait Thalheim would score 29 points in the contest going 8/13 from the FT line, 3/8 from Three-Point, and 6/16 from Two-Point. This is the most points scored by a freshman in Northern Valley history. Most freshmen dream of getting 24 shot attempts and 13 free throw attempts, but this is needed from Tait under the circumstances of Gavin Thalheim’s injury. Shooting confidence is needed from the other Huskies role players… they will get more comfortable eventually.

Hey guys!! Here is the weekly agenda for 1.20.25 The next two weeks are jam packed in the Valley!! Let us know if you have any questions. Have a great week Huskies!!

Northern Valley vs Hill City Ringnecks - January 13, 2025 Coach Cole; JUNIOR VARSITY - The Huskies JV team had their roughest game of the season yesterday as the team totaled 13 personal fouls, Hill City had 21 personal fouls. Hill City annihilated the young Huskies on rebounding, and that’s how they won the game, on second chance points. In the second half, NV would run a 2-3 zone defense and give the Ringnecks fits as we would make a 7-0 run in the fourth quarter getting within 7 points, but couldn’t keep it going. Tait Thalheim led the JV in scoring with 13, Zane Brown with 7, Griffin McKinney with 6, and Conner David with 4. The Ringnecks would win 42 - 30. VARSITY - The Huskies varsity struggled from the beginning as we could not break the press. Hill City collapsed on our middle man, and were quick enough to get a strong trap on us as soon as we passed half court. Owen Hammond was able to get through the press 1 on 1 a few times and drew three blocking fouls. But the Husky freshmen starters could not make good passes around the long Hill City team. Hill City also crashed the boards hard and had many offensive and defensive rebounds. The varsity would lose 27 - 73. Owen Hammond had 14 points, Tait Thalheim 10 points, Griffin McKinney 2, and Lucas Hansen 1. Time is on our side as I like to start 4 freshmen. We are getting experience, learning in practice, and making small improvements. It was a very tough and frustrating game, but there is greener grass ahead.

Hey Huskies!! Here is the weekly agenda. Have a great week

Hey guys!! I am having trouble getting this to post in Facebook... I am pretty sure this is operator error!! Let's try again. Here is the weekly agenda for 1.13.25. Have a great week Huskies!

Hey Huskies!! Here is the weekly agenda. Have a great week!

Hey guys!! Here is the information for a meal/fundraiser that will be held in Hill City on Monday night at the HS BB Games. Go Big Green!

Hey guys!! I hope you are enjoying your snow day!! Here is our Weekly Agenda for the week of 1.6.25. Let me know if you have any questions! Stay warm and enjoy the winter wonderland!

Northern Valley vs Thunder Ridge - December 21, 2024 Coach Cole; JUNIOR VARSITY - The JV boys played another solid game on Saturday afternoon as they faced their first outstanding shooting team in Thunder Ridge. The Huskies JV team had given up only seven 3-pointers in the first three games they’ve played, but Thunder Ridge would put in six 3-poitners in this game alone, as freshmen guard Tate Foreman would make four 3’s and score 19 points for the Longhorns. Thunder Ridge would play man to man the entire game, and this was perfect for the Huskies JV, as they have been improving in their man offense as of late. Griffin would lead all scorers in the 1st quarter with 6 points as the game would be tied 10 - 10 at the end of one. In the second quarter, Lucas would lead the pack scoring 6 of his own on strong takes to the basket, and Zane Brown would add two to the mix, but the Huskies would trail 18 - 20 at half. Northern Valley had an outbreak in scoring, putting up 18 points in the 3rd as they would utilize the corners on their flex offense and look at the posts to score. Tait would score 7, Zane had 6, Conner 3, and Maverick 2, for the Huskies 18. Thunder Ridge would combat this with 13 of their own, as the third quarter ended 36 - 33. The Husky freshmen of Tait, Lucas, Zane, and Griffin would be your scorers in the 4th as NV would put up 11 points to TR’s 5. I have found a good rotation with the Junior Varsity games so far this season, as I had Griffin play 1st quarter, Lucas 2nd quarter, and Tait 3rd quarter. This way if we are down in the 4th quarter, I am able to play all three of them in order to secure a victory. I am proud of the JV’s effort and play before Christmas break, as they have had four close games. The JV consists of 5 freshmen, 1 sophomore, 3 juniors, and 1 senior. VARSITY - The varsity matchup with Thunder Ridge would be a tale of fouls and losing composure on our side of the ball. Northern Valley would start out with a strong first quarter going up 13 - 10, lead by Tait Thalheim with 7 points, Owen 4, and Gavin 2. The Huskies would rebound the ball well early, but they could not hold off Evan Slavik or Conner Engelke the whole night. In the second quarter, a nightmare scenario would occur as Owen and Gavin would be on the bench next to me at the same time. This would limit the Huskies scoring output to 5 points, on 3 free throws and 1 layup, and the Huskies would trail going into halftime 18 - 22. The Huskies and Longhorns would tie in the 3rd quarter 11 - 11, as the Huskies worked the offense through Owen Hammond on the block. He would score 6 points, Lucas Hansen 3, and Tait Thalheim 2. Slavik would put in 4 points of his own. NV would fight back and have an excellent fourth quarter, as they executed their offense well lead by Gavin Thalheim with 6 points, and Owen Hammond with 3 points as the Huskies would do their dirty work down low versus the two 6’4” trees underneath. Gavin Thalheim would force overtime at the end of the game with a driving floater, and Thunder Ridge would miss the full court shot. In overtime the Huskies would be without Owen Hammond as he fouled out in the 4th quarter, and Gavin Thalheim would foul out early in the overtime, as the game would be out of reach in the end. Tait would score 5 points, and Maverick Rogers 1 point in OT, but the Longhorns would score 11 points as the Huskies did not have any height to stop Slavik or Engelke down low. The Huskies lost 45 - 50. Overall, I always expect the team to play as hard as they can, there is no doubt about it, but the reason why we lost that game was foul trouble and not keeping our composure when things got rough. If we want to win games versus Cheylin, Wheatland, Stockton, Western Plains, Golden Plains, and Greeley County, then we need to have our 5 best players on the court at all times. The teams that I just listed off will be games exactly like this one. These games will be win or lose, but in order to win, everyone has to play their best games.

Northern Valley vs Weskan - December 20, 2024 Coach Cole; JUNIOR VARSITY - Our junior varsity team picked up another win on Friday night versus a big and strong Weskan team. The first quarter score was 7 - 4 as Tait and Caden put up points for the Huskies as they ran zone offense against the Coyotes 2-3 zone defense. The second quarter would be a low scoring one for the Huskies as they would put up 5 points coming from Lucas and Zane, but the team played excellent defense holding the Coyotes to 4 points. The first half score was 12 - 8. In the second half, the Huskies would put in three 3-pointers from Clay and Maverick, and Griffin put in two strong baskets for the Huskies 13 point quarter. The Coyotes would score 9, as the Huskies would lead 25 - 17. In the fourth quarter, the Coyotes would play some of their better players in an attempt to win the game, but the young Huskies would not let this fly. On the backs of our freshman; Tait, Lucas, Griffin, and Zane combined for 13 points in the quarter running Man to Man offense and would close out the game. Griffin McKinney made one free throw to go up by 2 points, and blocked a shot to solidify the JV win vs Weskan. I was very happy with the JV’s performance, as they handled pressure defense well and kept their composure as two of Weskan’s players fouled out. VARSITY - The Huskies varsity team would have a rough shooting game once again as they were forced to take tough shots versus the 6-Man State Champion Weskan Coyotes. Gavin and Tait would score 8 points a piece, and Owen would put in 7 points for the Huskies total 23 points in the game. Northern Valley would hold Weskan to 52 points, which is the lowest scoring game for them this season. Weskan Forward, Trey Allen would meet his average and score 31, but the rest of the Coyotes would be held to single digit scoring. The Huskies ran their 1-3-1 defense well, but would give up a number of offensive rebounds. Gavin Thalheim lead in rebounds (10), assists (3), and steals (4) and would get lots of deflections and did a good job boxing out. Griffin had 8 rebounds, Owen and Tait both had 6 rebounds. The Huskies would end the game with 23 turnovers.

Hello everyone, The FFA had some extra things that came from fundraisers, and we are now offering them to the public. Everything is for sale at $20. We have lots to choose from. Give the High School Office a call 785-669-2445 and see what we have left for sale. Thank you all for your support this year! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Northern Valley vs Arapahoe Warriors - December 17, 2024 Coach Cole; The Huskies traveled to Arapahoe on Tuesday and faced off against the 0 - 5 Warriors, in their brand new school which I had not seen before. It was very nice! JV GAME - The night started with a full Junior Varsity game as the Huskies suited up 9 players to Arapahoe’s 7. The Warriors would run a 2-3 zone and the Huskies a 1-3-1 zone. The Huskies first quarter group would run Swing & Overload and would score 2 points coming from Zane Brown. Arapahoe would lead 8 - 2 at the end of the quarter. The 2nd quarter group would score 16 points behind Conner, Zane, and Griffin’s output as the Huskies continued to move the ball around well and find the post. The 3rd quarter the Huskies would struggle again with the extended 2-3 zone of the Warriors as they would not score this quarter going 0/10 from the field. The Huskies would still lead 18 - 16. The 4th quarter would see scoring from Conner, Tait, Lucas, and Griffin and the Huskies would end the game running as they win their first JV game, 33 - 23. Griffin McKinney would bring down 13 rebounds in 2 quarters of play, and Conner David with 10. VARSITY GAME - In the varsity game the Huskies would start Tait, Lucas, Gavin, Owen, and Griffin. The varsity teams ran the same defenses, Arapahoe 2-3 and Northern Valley 1-3-1. The Warriors would change things up with full court 1 on 1 pressure and would extend the zone fairly far up. The Huskies would run Swing & Overload for three quarters of play. In the 1st, NV would score 12 points on all 3-pointers coming from Tait, Gavin, and Lucas. In the second quarter the Huskies would run the floor and penetrate some open lanes in the Warriors zone and would go up 25 - 13 at half, putting some pressure on Arapahoe to respond. The Huskies came out of halftime running a high/low zone offense to conserve some energy and would end up scoring 16 in the quarter. Of the 16 points, 12 would come from 2-point range. In the final quarter of play, Arapahoe would switch to a man defense, and the Huskies got some reps running their “14” and “12” offense. This was the best we had run our man offense so far this season, and would get some wide open shots. The Huskies would score 12 in the 4th, and won their 3rd game of the year 53 - 29. OVERALL THOUGHTS - I was very happy with the defensive effort once again. We run a 1-3-1 every

Hello everyone, The FFA had some extra things that came from fundraisers, and we are now offering them to the public. Everything is for sale at $20. We have lots to choose from. Give the High School Office a call 785-669-2445 and see what we have left for sale. Thank you all for your support this year! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, The FFA had some extra things that came from fundraisers, and we are now offering them to the public. Everything is for sale at $20. We have lots to choose from. Give the High School Office a call 785-669-2445 and see what we have left for sale. Thank you all for your support this year! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hey all!! Here is the information letter for the last week of 1st semester!! There are still a ton of things happening this week!! It is our privilege to honor and recognize the Back-to-Back State Cheer Champions at Friday night's HS BB game against Weskan!! Bring your family out and celebrate the Cheer Squad!! Have an amazing Christmas Break!!! We will see you back on Jan. 2nd.

Northern Valley vs Hoxie Indians - December 14, 2024 - Purple & Gold Consolation Championship (5th Place) Coach Cole; Northern Valley would play their third and final game of the Purple & Gold versus the 1A DI State Champion Football team, the Hoxie Indians. The Huskies first half of play would surprise the Indians, but the second half spelled tragedy for us as we would not run offense to save our lives. In the first quarter the Huskies would switch between their flex offense and a 4-out offense and would put up 10 points, as Hoxie would also score 10 points in the quarter. Gavin Thalheim would hit 2 three pointers in the quarter to jump start the team, Griffin McKinney would have 2, and Tait Thalheim would make a pair of free throws for the other 2. Defensively, the Huskies would play their usually zone, and would have trouble boxing out the strong Hoxie team, and also had trouble keeping them out of the lane driving to the basket. The Huskies did not give up a three in the first quarter. In the second, Northern Valley would score 9 to Hoxie’s 16. Gavin Thalheim would hit another 3, Tait found Griffin for an easy 2, and Owen and Tait both hit one jumper for the scoring. Hoxie would continue to run a 1-2-1-1 press and give the Huskies fits, as most of their points came off turnovers this quarter. The second half was a disaster for the Huskies as we would score 8 points, throw the ball away, not run offense, and give up offensive rebounds. Hoxie would win the game 58 - 27. The Huskies ended with 23 turnovers. Games like these are hard to play as the negatives keep piling up, but they remind the team that they cannot win them all, and they cannot win the game by themselves. We have to trust each other, do our job (defensively and offensively) to the best of our ability, and play when we are down. This will not be the last time we struggle against good teams. I dislike the excuse, “We are a young team,” but it is true, we are a young team. We simply need to be willing to get better. This will help the team in the future.

Northern Valley vs Osborne Bulldogs - December 12, 2024 Coach Cole; The Huskies third game, and second in the Purple & Gold Tournament was versus the Osborne Bulldogs. Osborne would play a 2-3 zone against the Huskies in the first half as they started 3 small guards, 1 big man, and 1 senior guard who was their best player. In the first half the Huskies would score 27 points, lead by Gavin Thalheim with 12 coming off of 4 three pointers. Northern Valley would use their 2-2-1 press in the first quarter, but would get in foul trouble early, as Lucas Hansen got 3 in the first and had to sit the whole second quarter. Tait Thalheim would also pick up 3 fouls in the first half trying to cut off Osborne’s best player on the sideline. In the second half, I put Tait and Lucas on the front of the press with Gavin and Owen in the middle and this worked a little better. Griffin would get a couple steals protecting the sideline passes in the back. Osborne would go Box-and-1 on Gavin in the second half and would keep him to 2 points. NV would go 4 out with Gavin at the free throw line setting screens for his teammates to score. Griffin McKinney would lead the Huskies in scoring with 19 points and would have an ungodly, 10 offensive rebounds. I was very happy with his effort on the glass, as this has been an emphasis in practice as of late as our team is at a height disadvantage. Gavin Thalheim would end with 14 points, Tait Thalheim with 10 points on all 2 pointers, and Lucas Hansen would add 10 of his own. That is 4 Huskies in double figure scoring. The Huskies would win 65 - 35 and get their second win of the season.

Northern Valley Huskies vs Hodgeman County - December 9, 2024 (Game 2) Coach Cole, OVERALL THOUGHTS: The Northern Valley boys faced the Hodgeman County Longhorns in the first game of the Purple & Gold Tournament. In the first quarter, the Huskies would show their 3/4 court press defense, dropping back to their 1-3-1, and ran their rotation perfectly. NV would only give up two 3-pointers the entire game. The Huskies lacked in height compared to Hodgeman as the Longhorns would combat the zone with many offensive rebounds. The Huskies would only total 20 rebounds, as it felt like Hodgeman had 40 rebounds or more. Northern Valley would miss many shots, going in and out, as the first quarter score was 6 - 17, and the first have was 8 - 35. The Huskies would score 11 points in the second half, went into their press defense again, and would play some man to man. There would be no answer for the long, athletic, Longhorn team as the final score was 19 - 64. Hodgeman County ran man to man defense all but one minute of the game, and would pressure the Huskies relentlessly as soon as they passed half court. They will be a winning team this year for sure. The Huskies next matchup will be against the Osborne Bulldogs on December 12, at 4:30 p.m. STATS BELOW #5 - Gavin Thalheim - 4 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 5 steals, 1 block, 7 TO #11 - Tait Thalheim - 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 6 TO #12 - Caden Lowry - 0 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 TO #13 - Zane Brown - 0 points, 1 rebound #15 - Owen Hammond - 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 1 block, 4 TO #24 - Lucas Hansen - 6 points, 2 rebounds, 3 TO #33 - Griffin McKinney - 0 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 TO