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HASTINGS - The 48th Annual Sertoma Eight-Man Classic had a purple-flavor to it for the 2025 contest which annually pits the best of the east against the best of the west in eight-man football across Nebraska.
Hartington-Newcastle sent three coaches to the game including head coach, Rusty Fuller, defensive coordinator, Mike Johnson and their “eyes” in the press box, Corey Uldrich.
If that’s not purple enough, add in a player, Cole Heimes.
Heimes had a rough senior year at Hartington-Newcastle on the field, court and track stemming from an injury suffered in his final football game for the Wildcats.
“I really messed up my hamstring and after this game, I’m going to have surgery to fix it,” Heimes said. “It really has bothered me all year, but I knew if I had the surgery when it happened, I would have missed the year anyway. The doctors said I couldn’t damage it any further, so I just lived with it and did the best I could.”
Well, the “best he could” was pretty darn good.
He led his East Team and his coaches to a 14-8 victory in the game.
In fact, Heimes recorded a recordtying three interceptions in the game and was named the East Team defensive Most Valuable Player.
“Actually, during practice for the game, I strained my other hamstring going up for an interception,” said Heimes. “I talked with our trainer, Jake Reifenrath, and he said I probably should just sit out the rest of practices and just try to play in the game. I didn’t tell any of the coaches and I did what I had done all year, I just got through it as best as I could.”
To add insult to injury, literally, he tweaked the injury to his good leg early in the Sertoma game while making a tackle.
“I had both of my legs taped up really tight and just tried to manage the pain,” he said. “My good leg was bothering me more than my bad leg, but I just wanted to stay in the game.”
And he did just that. Heimes snared interceptions in the second, third and fourth quarters. His first one came with 7:22 left before halftime and he picked off a fourth-down pass in the end zone. His second was with 8:56 left in the third which set the East up at its own 25 then he swiped a jump ball at the West 36 to basically put the game on ice.
“The defense really came through, we were running the defense we ran here with Coach Johnson,” Heimes said. “I knew it like the back of my hand. I was really comfortable with it. I wanted them to keep throwing to the guy I was covering and I wanted them to run my way on every play. It was awesome.”
Fuller was making his second appearance on the sidelines in the game. He was an assistant coach back in 2014, but this was his first chance as the head coach.
“Coach Johnson and I had a great time all week and got collaborate with other coaches and bounce ideas off of each other,” said Fuller. “Our team was super smart and athletic. It makes it very easy for a coach when you have that kind of talent and great character kids.”
His assistant coach agreed. “It was a fun week and a tremendous honor to coach the kids in this game,” said HNS coach Mike Johnson. “The defensive side of our team was loaded with talent and each player did a great job all week.”
And the memory will be something Heimes can look back on as he recovers from his upcoming surgery.
“I can’t think of any way this could have turned out any better, I honestly wouldn’t change one thing,” he said. “I’ll remember this for the rest of my life, it was just unbelievable.”
