Hartington-Newcastle is NSAA cup runner-up
LINCOLN— Hartington-Newcastle boys activities and athletics competitors earned second-place in this year’s NSAA Cup Standings for Class D schools.
The HNS boys were the Class C NSAA Cup winners last year.
The NSAA Cup is awarded to recognize a school’s superior performances in both athletics and fine arts.
This is the third time the Hartington Wildcat boys have finished as one of the top two in the state in the NSAA Cup standings. They also won in 2013.
This year, Hartington-Newcastle garnered 212.5 points to finish just behind Archbishop Bergan of Fremont. Lyons-Decataur Northeast finished a distant third.
When the girls and boys activities were combined, Hartington-Newcastle ended up in a tie for third place with Humphrey High School.
Archbishop Bergan won that title, as well.
HNS earned the strong finish largely on its speech, one-act and track finishes this year.
The Wildcats earned 50 points in play production, and in speech, and 40 points in boys’ track. The school also earned 22.5 points for the boys basketball team, which qualified for State this year. The school garnered another five points in music.
The combined 100 points for play production and speech has almost become normal for the Wildcats. Supt. A.J. Johnson coaches both fine arts programs, and has created an atmosphere that is consistently competing for a state title.
“He is a tremendous drama and speech coach,” said HNS athletic director Blair Kalin. “He gets a lot out of the kids and gets them excited for participating.”
Kalin is also the boys’ track coach. Kalin says winning the NSAA Cup can be a great motivator for students to continue pushing forward the next school year.
“I think it gives the school and the participants a lot of confidence,” said Kalin. “Being able to compete with other schools regardless of classes hinges a lot on what your self esteem or motivation is. So this is a great motivator.”
Two other area schools, Wynot and Wausa, also fared well in the NSAA Cup standings.
Wausa finished second in the girls division, while Wynot was 10th in Class D, two spots behind the Hartington-Newcastle girls, who finished eighth.
According to a press release from the NSAA, “the NSAA Cup is presented to the winning schools in the four classes of the All-School Division, Girls Division and Boys Division during special ceremonies the following fall.”
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