Myles Stallings, son of Russ and WindDee Stallings, was recently named first-team all conference for the outside linebacker position. Myles is a junior at Front Range Christian School and also received the Coaches Award for attitude and effort. The Stallings family lives in Highlands Ranch, Colo. Russ Stallings is a native of Norris City.
On January 16, the Norris City-Omaha-Enfield 5th/6th Grade basketball teams tipped off their 2016 campaign when they traveled to Carmi to play their White County rivals, the Carmi Bullpups. With Carmi already having a few games under their belts and numerous practices, NCOE knew they would have their work cut out for them this Saturday morning, but they were ready to give it their best effort.
The first game of the morning would be a 5th grade contest. Due to a large number of fifth graders taking part in basketball this year, the fifth grade team was split into two separate squads so each player would receive adequate playing time. Although the first game’s group of young players would improve from the start of the game to the completion, they would find a much more seasoned Bullpup team just a little bit too much. The young Cardinals played with much heart and battled to the end, but each shot they would launch fell short, and the Bullpups would go on to hand NCOE their first loss of the season.
The second game of the morning would be another fifth grade game. This contest would start out with both teams being very aggressive on the offensive end as well as the defensive end. Unfortunately, as the quarter ended, NCOE would find themselves on the short end of an 8-2 score. The second quarter found the rim being much more friendly for the young Cardinals when Preston Long and Cord Tucker combined for seven points to increase the team’s overall total to nine at the halftime break.
Following the short intermission, NCOE knew they had to step it up on the defensive end to alter the Bullpup shots. This is exactly what the Cardinals tried to do and somewhat succeeded, but the taller Carmi team was hard to stop down low. On the bright side, however, this third quarter would be the best thus far for NCOE as Jaden Simmons hit the scoring column along with Long and Tucker to post ten more points to their total. NCOE, now trailing by 19, was aware they had to put up an even better performance in the fourth and final quarter if they were to pull off the upset. The young Cardinals did this as they added eleven more points to the board, but their opponent would match this eleven with eleven of their own to defeat NCOE by the final score of 49-30.
Preston Long led the young Cardinals with 18 points followed by six from Cord Tucker, four from Erik Healy, and two from Jaden Simmons.
The final game of the day would pit the NCOE sixth graders against the Carmi sixth graders. This appeared to be a very evenly matched contest when the first quarter came to a close, with NCOE only trailing by a score of 6-2. This four point deficit would increase to fifteen in the second quarter as the Bullpup offense would get going as they forced the ball down low. Dealing with a significant height disadvantage, the sixth grade Cardinals would now trail 21-6 as they headed to the locker room.
Second half action would not lack for effort from the sixth grade squad, but the taller Bullpups were just too much to stop down low. NCOE would top their first half performance by five points, but that was just not enough as they fell to Carmi by the final of 45-17.
Aryon Jolley was the top scorer in the game for NCOE with nine points. Others scoring were Cole Roberson three, Colter Rister three, Will Thompson one, and Ray Darter one.
