The Chadron Cardinals fall sports campaign wrapped up this past Friday Night with the football team losing to Sidney in the quarterfinals of the Class C-1 playoffs. It was a very successful fall with the Cardinals combining for 40 wins. The Cardinals were even more successful in Chadron, combining to finish 12-8 at home.
The girls golf team had a great season with the highlights being winning the Chadron Invite and qualifying as a team for the state tournament by virtue of winning the district C-5 tournament by 28 shots. Taegan Bach in her third and final state tournament appearance shot a 197 to finish in a tie for 43rd. Elliana Uhuing was right behind her with a 198 to finish 45th. Emmerson Landreth shot a 203 to finish tied for 55th, Reese Ritterbush shot a 218 to finish tied for 78th, Gillian Conway shot a 250 to finish 90th. Both Bach and Uhing will not be returning with both set to graduate in May.
The cross country team was very young with only one senior on both the girls and boys rosters. The team improved immensely throughout the season and at the district meet in Ogallala the girls team saw Jentsyn Fuller miss out on a spot in the state meet by one position. Head coach Willie Uhing called the C-5 meet the toughest in the state and two of his boy athletes, both freshman, missed out on a spot in Kearney by under a minute. The team will return all but two runners of the 18 on the roster. Brayden Landreth for the boys and Sidney Schmidt for the girls.
Softball battled through injuries with three expected starters missing the season, but still managed to finish with a 13-15 record. That included going undefeated vs Alliance in seven games. They also did not lose to Chase County in any of the three matchups. They managed to go on a five game winning streak in the middle part of the season. They will return over half the starting lineup with four seniors graduating in May.
The volleyball team showed a lot of potential with a young roster that shows a lot of promise for fall 2025 and the future. The team will return its entire starting lineup that featured four juniors, two sophomores and freshman. The team started off strong going 6-4 in their first 10 matches. They did hit a few rough patches during the middle part of the season but capped it off by winning nine straight matches. They ended the season with a loss to Chase County in the semi-finals of the sub-district tournament. They went an astonishing 8-4 in matches that were best three out of five while going 4-3 at home with the fourth win being over a very talented Sidney team that proved that the future is extremely bright for the Blakeless Hoffman coached team. Kiera Hagg was the lone senior on the team, she played in every match being a defensive specialist for the team.
The football team had a lot of question marks going into the season, they had a new starting quarterback and two new receivers. Well the team answered the question marks and more. Quinn Bailey ran for a school record and more as he rushed for over 2600 yards and 32 touchdowns while setting a new C-1 record in yards per game in a season with 243.1. The new quarterback Tobin Landen and wide receivers Braden and Bricen Wright proved that they have a bright future on the team that won seven straight games to open up the season. The team lost the last two games of the regular season after leading tackler Caden Buskirk suffered a broken leg but snuck into hosting a playoff game vs Lincoln Christian. The Cardinals made it look easy winning 42-18 to get the first playoff win in over 10 years. They matched up with Sidney 14 days after losing to the Red Raiders at home and lost despite having an early lead. The Cardinals finished with an 8-3 record. They will graduate 11 seniors including Quinn Bailey and the entire starting offensive line. But do return Landen, the Wright twins, Jayce Hoffman, Matt Lien, just to name a few who showed they had extremely bright futures.