Tiny town, big state dreams
Published on -10/29/2009, 12:04 PM
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By GAYLE WEBER
WESKAN -- If many residents are left here Friday, it will be because the weather cooperated.
Weskan High School's volleyball team qualified for the state tournament at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays for the second consecutive year, and Weskan Superintendent Dave Hale expects a good turnout.
"The only thing that is going to keep them here is if it actually dries out and the farmers can get in the field to pick corn," Hale said Wednesday.
Also contributing to the crowd likely will be Weskan's student body. Operating on a four-day school week, the district doesn't have class on Fridays, making it easier for students to travel to the tournament.
Of the 36 students at Weskan High School, only about 15 are girls, and 11 of those are on the volleyball team.
"I would be very surprised if it's not well attended," said Hale, whose daughter, Brynne, is a junior on the volleyball team.
Already this week, the school and bus the team will travel in have been decorated to support the team.
"The moms are making all kinds of signs," Hale said.
This afternoon, just before Weskan's home football game against Wheatland-Grinnell, the town will have a send-off for the volleyball team, which takes the floor at 8:30 a.m. Friday as the No. 7 seed in the 1A tournament.
Weskan will be joined in the 1A tournament by Hoxie, which is returning for its third straight tournament as the No. 8 seed.
Also competing at Gross Memorial Coliseum this weekend will be Oberlin, the No. 1 seed in the 2A tournament.
With Oberlin's first game at 3:30 p.m. Friday, school will dismiss at 11:30 a.m.
"It worked really nice this year with them playing at 3:30 that we can still have a half-day of school and our teachers can go and our students, too," Principal Charles Haag said.
With just one loss on the season, Haag said there's been excitement about the team's third trip to the state tournament in four years.
The school will be sending a bus of choir students who will sing the national anthem during the afternoon session of volleyball.
"We're hoping some other kids pile on and come down," Haag said.
