Kearney Recreation Spring Sports Leagues Now Open

Spring sports leagues are now open at the Kearney Parks and Recreation Department. These programs emphasize safe, fun, and instructional recreation. Four leagues and one clinic are now available to the public.

Youth Recreation Baseball League

The Parks and Recreation Department offers a recreational baseball league that is open to boys ages 8-14 of all skill levels. The league will provide a jersey, hat, and end of the season medals. Players will need their own glove and helmet.

Kearney Parks and Recreation partners with Smithville Parks and Recreation and Platte City Parks and Recreation for games. The location and day of games for each division will be based on the number of teams that make up the division. Some travel to Smithville and Platte City will be involved.

Youth Recreation Softball League

Kearney Parks and Recreation also offers a recreational softball league open to girls ages 8-14 of all skill levels.

Like youth baseball, the league will provide a jersey, hat, and end of the season medals. Players will need their own glove and helmet.

Kearney also partners with Smithville and Platte City Parks and Recreation for games.

Youth Recreation T-Ball League

This recreational T-Ball league is open to children aged ages 8-14 of all skill levels. Kearney Parks and Recreation will provide a jersey, hat, and end of the season medals; parents will provide a glove and recommended helmet.

Youth Soccer League

Kearney Parks and Recreation is offering a Recreation Youth Soccer League. This league is designed to get kids familiarized and involved in soccer through fun and engaging activities and games. This league is a great way for kids to develop motor and social skills while having a blast.

To find more information, enroll kids in leagues or be a volunteer coach, go to KearneyParks.com. Scholarships available for those in need. Complete confidentiality is maintained throughout the process. Contact Ryan Marcotte at 816-903-4730 for more information.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story

Kearney Parks, Challenger Sports offer Soccer Camps

Kearney Parks and Recreation is partnering with Challenger Sports to offer Soccer Skills Camps. With coaches from all over the world, kids get international camp experience without leaving Kearney! The camp will run July 14-18 at Jesse James Park.

Tiny Tykes: Ages 2-5

This is a fun introduction to soccer influenced by the very popular year-round Tiny Tykes curriculum. Camp includes games, activities, and adventures to introduce and develop coordination, balance, running, stopping, turning, kicking, dribbling, throwing & catching. Camp also includes access to an online library of at home videos, motivating young players to continue learning after the session.

Half Day: Ages 6-14

This camp is held Monday to Friday for three hours per day, delivered by professional and international staff. Complete technical player development featuring practices from around the world is part of the international camp curriculum. Players will enjoy the World Cup small-sided game element added to the daily camp session. This camp includes access to a virtual coaching world, motivating young players to continue learning after the session.

Full Day: Ages 8-14

This camp includes personal skill development, character development, and cultural education 6 hour per day. This full day program builds on the half day experience, and has a perfect balance of those just for fun activities, larger sided games for more tactical knowledge, and individual skill elements such as freestyle. Emphasis is placed upon improving dribbling, passing, control and shooting. This camp includes access to a virtual coaching world, motivating young players to continue learning after the session.

To find more information or enroll kids in camps, go to KearneyParks.com.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story.

Bulldogs Crush Patriots after Extended Break

Eleven inches of snow fired up the Bulldog girls basketball team on Thursday, January 10. An extended winter break gave them the energy they needed to topple the Truman Patriots 64-23.

Ryleigh Van Emmerik scored 14 points on the night, including four 3-point shots.

The Bulldogs came out like a punch in the mouth with a pair of 3-point buckets by Brooke Paalhar and Ryleigh Van Emmerik. Truman’s Reagan Thomas answered back with a 3-point shot, but Paalhar, Van Emmerik and Maggie Lakin went on a 15-0 run to boost the Bulldogs’ lead. The first quarter came to an end quickly after a few points by Truman. The Bulldogs led, 21-9.

There was more of the same in the second quarter from Paalhar, Van Emmerik and Lakin. They ran up the score 36-13 with the help of Mallyrie Schwab-Wetzel, Jocelyn Lincoln, and Kennedi Casey.

“We prepared based on film a lot of 2-3 zone and they ran absolutely zero possessions of 2-3 zone,” said Coach Troy Resler after the game. “The positive is they ran a 3-2 [zone] which just changes our look on offense a little bit, but the concepts of getting paint touches, keeping the ball moving, all the keys we talked about, it's still there no matter what zone they ran.”

One of the keys to the Bulldogs’ offensive success was the constant ball movement and good defense leading to good offense. The Bulldogs were able to get good looks after skip-passes and playing in the zone.

Kearney dominated in the second half with offensive help from Addie Taylor, Morgan Pennington and Addi Smith. Ryleigh Van Emmerik and Kennedi Casey chipped in with big 3-point shots in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run and the defense held the Patriots to just 2 points in the quarter.

Kearney spread out the scoring: Brooke Paalhar led the Bulldogs with 20 points and Ryleigh Van Emmerik scored 14. Maggie Lakin and Kennedi Casey each made 8 points, Mallyrie Schwab-Wetzel scored 5, Jocelyn Lincoln had 3 and Addie Taylor, Addi Smith and Morgan Pennington each scored two.

This win brings the Bulldog girls’ record to 3-5 on the season.

The Bulldogs are back with boys and girls basketball all next week during the Kearney Classic basketball tournament. KPGZ will broadcast most of the games during the tournament. Watch KPGZ social media pages throughout the week for broadcast times.

KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story.

Boys Execute First Time Win over Park Hill South

The Kearney Bulldogs boys basketball team fought their winter break blues with a win over Class 6 Park Hill South Panthers on Friday, Jan. 3. It was an exciting game as the Bulldogs came back from a 7-point deficit to win, 61-53.

The Bulldogs have been 0-7 to this point against the Panthers. Park Hill South beat Kearney by 12 points here at home in 2015.

Tre Smith led the team with 23 points for the Bulldogs.

It was a tale of quarters as the Bulldogs held their own against Park Hill South and won the first quarter, 14-11. In the second quarter, the Panthers started chipping away at the Bulldog lead and late in the quarter went on a 9-0 run.

Park Hill South owned the third quarter, scoring 20 points in the quarter. The Bulldogs came back in the fourth quarter and scored 21 points thanks to Tre Smith's relentless defense on Park Hill South guards as he had multiple runouts late in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers went in and out from zone to man-to-man defense enough times that it confused the Bulldogs for a little bit, but Kearney was able to get some defensive rebounds in that second-half that weren't there in the first half. Aden Sallee, Drew Wilson and Ty Smith did a fantastic job on the defensive glass in the second half and kept Park Hill South from getting second opportunities.

The Bulldogs had an amazing scoring night. Tre Smith led the team with 23 points. Drew Wilson hit his season average and scored 13. Brad Doll made the scorebook with 10 points and was especially effective with big free-throws down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Aden Sallee scored 9 points and Brock Scott, Ty Smith and Carter Brock each made two.

This brings the Bulldogs’ record to 6-3 on the season. Their next home game will be during the Kearney Classic Tournament, January 13-17.

KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story.

Major Winter Storm Takes Aim at NW Missouri

The National Weather Service expects ice, sleet, and heavy snow accumulation this weekend. Meteorologists are expecting as much as 13 inches of snow to fall in Northwest Missouri.

The National Weather Service has now issued a Winter Storm Warning from 6 pm Saturday, January 4, to 3 am Monday, January 6. Areas included in this storm warning include portions of east central and northeast Kansas and central, north central, northeast, northwest, and west central Missouri.

On Saturday, our area could see freezing rain and sleet, and then on Sunday, January 5, it will changeover to very heavy snow. Thunderstorms with snow are possible which could increase snowfall rates to 2" per hour at times. There will also be wind gusting up to 35 mph at times with this storm causing blowing and drifting of the snow Sunday into Monday. 

Heavy mixed precipitation expected. The National Weather Service expects total snow and sleet accumulations between 6 and 13 inches and ice accumulations up to two tenths of an inch.

This amount of snow and ice can cause complications for roads and homes. Homeowners should be prepared for tree damage and branches to fall, damage to power lines and power poles, and power outages.

The Missouri Department of Transportation and the City of Kearney have announced that they will be treating roads in the area and will continue to monitor street conditions throughout the weekend. The City of Kearney asks vehicle owners not to park on the streets if possible, to allow public works trucks and plows to be more effective.

Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative staff met this week to review emergency action plans and procedures and to ensure they are prepared to respond to any service disruptions resulting from the winter storm.

Travel is discouraged during this storm, but if you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food, and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency.

KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story.