Local historian and long-time Chadron Record sportswriter Con Marshall first prepared this recap in 2010 from records and stories from the past.
He has since updated it to include all trips to state except the current one.
Midgets/Juniors
1954. Coached by Verne Lewellen. Won the Area Tournament by beating Grant 12-2 and Oshkosh 21-4. During the State Tournament in Wymore, Chadron beat Plainview 4-3, but Deshler won 5-0 for the championship. Team members were John Chaney, Bob Crawford, Lawrence Denton, Loren Greenwalt, Dick Grimes, Don and Ron Jones, Ron Keal, Jim Konrath, Mick Megown, Eric Pokorny, Denny Weaver, Don Witte and Jim Zeman. Team’s final record not available.
1964. Coached by Bud Murray. Won three games at the District Tournament at Ainsworth and five games at Area Tournament in Oshkosh. The State Tournament was at Aurora, where Aurora beat Chadron 11-4. Team members included Bill Boeck, Bob Dotson, Arnie Fankhauser, David Huls, John Lliteras, Bill Morgan, John Novak, Howie Pine, Cactus Shumway and Charlie Wood. Finished with a 14-9 record with all eight regular season losses to Class A teams. Eight of the 14 victories were at the District and Area Tournaments.
1972. Coached by Maurice Horse. Beat Ainsworth 2-1 and Valentine 11-0 to win the District Tournament. Beat defending state champion Cozad 5-3 and Cambridge 8-3 to win the Area Tournament. The State Tournament was in St. Paul, where Aurora won, but the score was not reported. Team members were Dave Baker, Wayne Buckmaster, Benny Clarke, Junior Fischer, Ted Grant, Roger Haden, Steve Hoesing, Jim Regan, Dale Stahla and Rick Wineteer. Season record: 25-5.
1973. Coached by Roger Lauder. Won the District Tournament by beating Valentine 8-6 and Ainsworth 10-0. Won the Area Tournament at Gothenburg by beating Ogallala 5-2 and Lyman 6-4. The State Tournament was at Broken Bow, where Coleridge beat Chadron 8-1. Team members included Brent Alderman, Dave Baker, Greg Bartels, Steve Castle, Ted Grant, Fred Kruse, Bob Newblom, Jim Regan, Bill Ryan and Mike Watts. Season record: 16-8.
1974. Coached by Craig Matthesen. Won the Area Tournament in Grant by beating Gothenburg 14-4 and Kimball 8-2. The State Tournament was in Aurora, where Ord beat Chadron 8-3. Team members included Brent Alderman, Greg Bartels, Clay Beck, Dean Dewing, Brent Dierksen, Dave Fisher, Fred Kruse, Jim Regan, Tarry Schott, Gary Shanks and Marty Weander. Season record: 23-7, including 16 straight wins entering the state tourney.
1998. Coached by Justin Coupens. Won the Area Tournament by beating Alliance 11-7 and Sidney 14-4. The State Tournament was in St. Paul, where Elkhorn beat Chadron 15-3 in the first round. By now the tournaments were double-elimination. Chadron beat Waverly 5-3, but lost to Nebraska City 7-3. Team members included Mitch Barry, Mark Brown, Luke Ford, Mitch Pope, Cole Satchell and Kirk Semroska. Season record not available.
2005. Coached by Brennan Vogel. The District Tournament was in Chadron, where Chadron beat Sidney 13-4 and Ogallala 13-0 and 17-0. The State Tournament was in Omaha, where Omaha Skutt beat Chadron 15-0, Chadron beat Seward 7-1 and Blair 9-1. Omaha Skutt then beat Chadron 9-2 and Chadron finished third. Team members were: Jeff Alcorn, Aaron Bauer, Louie Brezina, J.C. Callahan, Casey Downs, A.J. Grant, Seth Grant, Bill Margrave, Joe, Jake and Jonn McLain, Riley Nemuth, Spencer Parish. Season record: 30-12.
2006. Coached by Brennan Vogel. Won the District Tournament by beating Gordon-Rushville 13-1, Alliance 11-0 and Alliance 8-0. The State Tournament was at Crete, where Chadron beat Crete 10-1 and Central City 3-2, but lost to Beatrice 3-2 and Wayne 6-4 to finish third. Team members included Ben Bauer, Louie Brezina, Daniel Cisneros, A.J. Grant, Joe Bob Haas, Jake Kress, Casey Kuhnel, Derek Ray, Cody Roes, Jake and Jonn McLain and Riley Nemuth. Season record: 41-10-1.
2010. Coached by Jake and Jonn McLain. Won the District Tournament in Ogallala by beating Gering 21-2, Sidney 10-0 and Alliance 17-4. The State Tournament was at O’Neill, where Chadron beat Gretna 7-4, lost to Seward 5-4, beat Blair 4-3, beat Seward 9-5, beat Beatrice 3-1 and lost to Beatrice 11-3 to finish second. Team members: Nate Abegglen, Chance Bila, Wyatt Blome, Austin Brown, Tait Earney, Braxtyn Hespe, Trevor Hinn, Slade Hunn, Zach Lurz, Riley Stack, Kenny Swift Bird and Logan Walker. Season record: 20-8.
2013–Coached by Jake and Jonn McLain. Chadron hosted the state tournament despite its 3-24 final record. Lost to Crete 12-2 and Lincoln Lutheran 16-6 during the tournament
2014—Coached by Jonn McLain and Brandon Ratcliff. The state tourney was in Aurora, where Beatrice won 8-1 and Blair won 5-2 over the Junior Nationals. The team’s final record was 19-15. Jayden Stack led the team with a .544 batting average (49-90). Andrew Smith hit .421 (45-107), Colby Ellis .375 (33-88), Michael Gieseler .329 and Braden Honstein .312. Stack, Ellis and Gieseler were the primary pitchers, combining for a 11-6 record.
2015—Coached by Jonn McLain and Brandon Ratcliff. This team put together a 12-game winning streak late in the season and won its first three games during the Area Tournament in Gering by a cumulative 31-3 margin. It also defeated Ogallala 15-7 in the championship game. It opened the state tournament in Bennington by edging Syracuse 4-3 on a run in the bottom of the ninth inning. But Chadron committed nine errors in the second game while losing to host Bennington 17-5 and was blanked 5-0 by Crete in the elimination game. The team’s final record was 22-10. Leaders included Jayden Stack, who had a .565 batting average and a .674 on base percentage. He walked 18 times and never struck out in 87 trips to the plate, stole 15 bases and was never thrown out. Stack also was 4-1 on the mound and had a 1.28 ERA. Coy Bila hit .425 and had a 7-2 pitching record and a 2.00 ERA. Michael Gieseler hit .365, Marcus Fernandez .362 and Trevyn Waldron .362. All five also played in a majority of the Seniors’ games.
+++++++++++++++++++
Juniors/Seniors
1964. Coached by Mack Peyton, also the CSC basketball and baseball coach. Played in Class A, because the roster included Willie Garnier from Pine Ridge and Rick Hessler from Hay Springs. During the Area Tournament in Alliance, Scottsbluff beat Chadron 8-6 in first game, but Chadron beat McCook, 5-2, North Platte 4-2, Scottsbluff 3-1 and North Platte 7-5 to win the title. At the State Tournament in Omaha, Omaha Markels beat Chadron 6-0 in opener, but Chadron beat the Lincoln Gerrys 5-4 and the Omaha Walkers 6-4 before the Omaha Markels eliminated Chadron 4-1. Team members included Larry Baumann, Bob Boeck, Willie Garnier, John Heiser, Rick Hessler, Chuck Lecher, John McDowell, Skip and Gay Thompson and Skip Umshler. Larry Gold was a member of the team during the regular season, but missed the state tournament while playing in the Shrine Game (football). Season record: 26-8.
1965. Coached by Bud Murray, the Legion, or Seniors, were back in Class B. Chadron won the District Tournament at Ainsworth then went to the Regional Tournament in Chappell, where Willie Garnier threw two no-hitters. He blanked Hayes Center 7-0 in the first game and beat Cozad 9-0 in the second game. He struck out 14 and walked two in the second game. The State Tournament was in Grant, where Dodge beat Chadron 3-1. Garnier was the pitcher again and struck out 13. The only hit was for Dodge came on a bunt, but Garnier walked a couple of batters in the first inning, threw a wild pitch and Chadron committed a couple of errors that allowed Dodge to score three times. Willie finished the season with a 6-1 record. The Chadron Record reported that in 21 innings of post-season play he allowed three hits, walked four and struck out 43. Team members besides Garnier were Gay Thompson and Larry Wineteer, also holdovers from the ’64 team, along with Arnie Fankhauser, David Huls, Danny Hudson, Dayton Lyman, Howie Pine, Terry Sandstrom and Charlie Wood. Thompson had a 5-0 pitching record.
1971. Coached by Joe Ollendick. Won the Area Tournament in Grant by beating Cambridge 10-1, Bayard 4-3 and Gothenburg 2-0. At the the State Tournament in Aurora, St. Paul beat Chadron 3-2 in extra innings, Chadron edged Auburn 1-0 and Scribner beat Chadron 9-0. Team members were Bob Baker, Craig Clarke, Roy Fitzgibbon, Mark Grantham, Terry Hooker, Don Lliteras, Larry Schardt, Dave Smith, Scott Wieting and Steve Yantzi. Season record: 26-14.
1973. Coached by Mark Meka, also the CSC wrestling coach. Won the District Tournament by beating Rushville 11-1 and Valentine 7-0. Won the Area Tournament at Gothenburg by beating Hershey 8-4. Curtis-Maywood 6-2 and Kimball 2-0. The State Tournament was at Broken Bow, where Wakefield beat Chadron 5-1, Chadron beat Holdrege 6-1, but Broken Bow beat Chadron 4-1. Team members included Benny Clarke, Junior Fischer, Dale Grant, Cy Hartman, Steve Hoesing, Dale Stahla, Cecil Wasserburger, Mark Wieting and Lynn Zeman. Season record: Not available.
1996. Coached by Bruce Parish. After four years of preparations on Maurice Horse Field, Chadron hosted the Juniors (now Seniors) State Tournament. During the Area Tournament in Alliance, the hosts blanked Chadron 8-0 before Chadron won 14-6 over Sidney and 17-6 over Ogallala and Alliance edged Chadron 5-4 in the championship game on a controversial call when the third base umpire overruled the first base umpire on a play at first. In the State Tourney, Chadron opened with a 3-0 win over Dannebrog-Cairo-Boelus and nipped Alliance 6-5. Morse Bluff, which went on to win the title, then edged Chadron 4-3 in eight innings and Omaha Skutt beat Chadron 18-14. Final record: 17-16.
1999. Coached by Rob Stack. Won the Area Tournament by beating Ogallala 16-4, Sidney 6-4 and Ogallala 16-6. The State Tournament was in Seward, where Chadron beat Waverly 16-6, but lost to Omaha Roncalli 17-9 and to Nebraska City 5-1. Team members included Mitch Barry, Eddie Bissonette, Nick Haag, Craig Hoffman, Mike Hungerford, Charles and James Mann, Dawson Moody, Jeff Nemecek, Cole Satchell and Kirk Semroska. Season record: 29-15.
` 2001. Coached by Rob Stack. Won the Area Tournament by beating Alliance 12-2, Sidney 12-2, Gordon 3-1, losing to Gordon 9-7, then beating Gordon 14-4. The State Tournament was in York, where York beat Chadron 7-1, Chadron beat Central City 5-3 and Seward 7-5 before McCook beat Chadron 17-5. Team members included Nick Abegglen, Tye Bissonette, Erich Landen, Jason Orr, Charles Ryan, Micah Smith, and Brennan Vogel. Season record: 31-23.
2007. Coached by Rob Stack. Gering beat Chadron 6-5 in first game at District Tournament, but Chadron beat Ogallala 8-1, Alliance 5-3, Gering 10-9 and Sidney 11-0 and 4-1. The State Tournament was in Gretna, where Chadron beat Mead 3-2, lost to St. Paul 9-6, beat Gretna 6-4, beat previously undefeated Omaha Roncalli 9-4 before losing to Beatrice 11-3 to finish third. Team members: Ben Bauer, Louie Brezina, J.C. Callahan, Casey Downs, Ty Franklin, A.J. Grant, Charlie Hawk, Jake Kress, Casey Kuhnel, Jake McLain, Riley Nemuth, and Spencer Parish. Season record: 44-12.