IndexLegal Page..............2Legislative Notes ....2Social Side..............3Over The Hills .........3Happenings ............3Opinion Page..........4Comics....................4Odds & Ends ..........4Classified Page.......5School Activities .....6Knights Sports ........7Recipe ....................8

Notices• Marilyn J. SwisherEstate

• Thedford SchoolBoard Proceedings

• Notice Of OrganizationTriple G Redimix, LLC

School News• Upcoming Activities AtThedford & Sandhills

• Upcoming Menus AtThedford & Sandhills

• Thedford Food Drive

Nutter & Pokorny Commit

JAMIE TAYLOR PHOTOS

New ArrivalMurphy Marie Miller

Page 3

Inside This Issue

THOMAS COUNTY

THOMAS COUNTY, THEDFORD NEBRASKA 69166 (USPS 596-550) THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017 NO. 38

Cade Pokorny, front left, and Jacey Nutter, front right, are pictured withtheir parents, standing, l-r: Brad and Paula Pokorny and Linda Nutter, at theirsigning day Wednesday, February 1.

COURTESY PHOTO

NSAA State WrestlingResults. Page 7

Jacey Nutter gets a few extra yards against an oppo-nent during the 2016 NSAA State Football Playoffs.

Cade Pokorny tackles a runner behind the line ofscrimmage during the 2016 NSAA State FootballPlayoffs.

Two Knights footballplayers committed tocolleges on Wednes-day, February 1, whenthey signed their Na-tional Letters of In-tent.

Jacey Nutter, a sen-ior quarterbackprospect from Thed-ford will be headingto the University ofNebraska-Kearney.

Nutter had a careerhigh 5,928 passingyards, 103 passingtouchdowns and 400completions.

Nutter was also a de-fensive leader with439 tackles, 24 inter-ceptions and 383 in-terception yards.

Nutter scored 303points over the fouryears he helped leadthe Knights.

Nutter will graduatefrom Thedford HighSchool this spring.

Cade Pokorny wasamong 33 high schoolseniors that signedNational Letters of In-tent with the ChadronState Eagles.

Pokorny played line-backer and tight endfor the state playoffqualifying Knights.The senior at Thed-ford High School,ended his two seasonsat Sandhills-Thed-ford, with 259 tackles,four sacks, four inter-ceptions and causedfour fumbles. He hada total of 435 yardsand scored 56 points,as a leader for the2016 Knights.

Pokorny has accepted an offer to play linebacker for the Eagles.“Both guys deserve everything they’ve gotten this year, and the scholarships

they’ve earned with these two schools,” said Knights Head football coach, JoshDeines. “They’re hard working kids. I can’t say enough good things aboutthem.”

Other Knight players are also expected to play college football and will maketheir decisions at a later date.

Valentine Campusreceives $5,000 grant

Representatives from Farm Credit Services of America, David Leggott, MitchellKorf and Dave Lien, presented the Mid-Plains Community College Valentine Cam-pus with a $5,000 grant Monday morning. Pictured left to right are: Leggott, GailKnott, MPCC area director of outreach, Korf, Lien, Jennifer Nollette, Valentine cam-pus coordinator, and Dave Dent, Valentine City Councilman.

The Mid-Plains Commu-nity College ValentineCampus is one step closerto funding completionthanks to a $5,000 grantfrom Farm Credit Serv-ices of America. The grantwas provided through theFCSAmerica WorkingHere Fund designed toimpact agriculture educa-tion.

“At FCSAmerica, we ap-preciate the opportunityto support future genera-tions of ag producers,”said Logan Thomeczek, avice president of retail op-erations in FCSAmerica’sNorth Platte office.

He was among the repre-sentatives from FCSAmer-ica who presented a checkto college officials onMonday at the site of thenew campus, 715 E. High-way 20 - next to The Nio-

brara Lodge.MPCC has had a campus

presence in Valentinesince June of 2002. Thecollege offers online anddistance learning classesin a small building at 113N. Hall Street in additionto providing numerousdual credit coursesthrough local highschools.

However, increased de-mand for more localizedcareer and technical train-ing, including that inagribusiness, farm andland management andmechanized agriculture,led to the construction ofa larger facility.

In July, crews brokeground on a new, approx-imately 7,500 square footbuilding expected to becomplete in early spring.

It will provide students

in the Cherry County re-gion with localized, on-campus academictransfer related classes aswell as hands-on trainingin welding, farm equip-ment calibration and en-gine repair andmaintenance in a techni-cal shop.

“Five additional class-rooms will enable the col-lege to offer academiccourses and programs inmultiple areas, includingagricultural sciences,”said Bonnie Kruse, MPCCarea director of Institu-tional Advancement.

It is expected that thecollege will take posses-sion of the ValentineCampus sometime inMarch, and that there willbe a formal ribbon cut-ting this summer. Moredetails will be released asthey become available.

Former Husker, ScottShanle to speak at Thedford

Thedford Schools will be welcomingformer Husker, Scott Shanle, as a guestspeaker on Tuesday, March 7.

Scott will be speaking with all of thegrade school and high school studentsthat day. The focus of his talk will begoal setting, following your passion, andfollowing your passion to true happi-ness.

Scott is a highly-regarded guestspeaker through the Nebraska CoachesAssociation. His message will be onethat will be great for students to hear, es-pecially with spring on the way. Hismessage will encourage everyone tostrive to finish the 2016-17 school yearstrong.

Scott is a former American footballlinebacker in the National FootballLeague. He was originally selected withthe 37th pick of the seventh round ofthe 2003 NFL Draft from the Universityof Nebraska by the St. Louis Rams. Healso played for the Dallas Cowboys andNew Orleans Saints.

Shanle attended St. Edward HighSchool in St. Edward, Nebraska, wherehe played eight-man football as a run-ning back and defensive back. Whilethere, his team went 29-3 over his finalthree seasons and he earned All-Stateand Player of the Year honors. In trackhe ran the 100, 200 and 4x100 meterrelay. He set school records in both the100M and 200M with times of 10.67 and22.3 seconds. He also earned varsity let-ters in basketball.

Originally a walk-on at the Universityof Nebraska, he was a three-year starterand played in every game over four sea-sons. He earned a scholarship after heredshirted in the fall of 1998. He wasNebraska’s starter at the Sam linebackerposition for each of his last three sea-sons and finished fourth on the team intackles in 2002 with 71 stops andearned honorable-mention All-Big 12honors as well. In addition to his 71tackles he added five tackles for loss andtwo sacks and hurried opposing quar-terbacks six times. In 2001 he made 56tackles (eight for losses) and had eightpass breakups on the year to tie the line-backer record. Shanle played in alltwelve games with ten starts in 2000,and made 55 tackles, including 30 solos.He recorded four tackles for loss and asack. He was a backup Sam linebackerin 1999 and played in every game, pri-marily on special teams.

Shanle was selected in the seventh

round (251st overall) of the 2003 NFLDraft by the St. Louis Rams. He madehis NFL debut against the New York Gi-ants on September 7. As a rookie, heplayed mostly on special teams and wasdeclared inactive for the final threegames and the playoffs. He was waivedon December 12. He was named one ofthe best 50 draft picks in franchise his-tory by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch news-paper.

Shanle was claimed off waivers by theDallas Cowboys on December 13, 2003.In 2004, he ranked fourth on the Cow-boys roster with 15 special teams tacklesand was the starter at strongside line-backer in the final three games, register-ing 26 tackles. In 2005, he served as theCowboys' nickel middle linebacker forthe first weeks of the season. After in-juries forced Dat Nguyen into retire-ment, Shanle moved into the startinglineup. He battled injury setbacks in theseason's final games, but tied for sev-enth on the team with 50 tackles. OnAugust 23, 2006, he was traded to theNew Orleans Saints in exchange for sev-enth round pick.

In 2006, he became a starter at Willlinebacker, leading the team with 77solo tackles, he was second with 117total tackles, while registering foursacks, a forced fumble and two pass de-fensed. In 2007, he started in 14 games,recording 96 tackles (56 solo), a pass de-fensed, a forced fumble, a fumble recov-ery and a tackle for a loss. The next yearhe was named the Saints DefensiveMVP, after finishing with 145 tackles (79solo). In 2009, he was a starting outsidelinebacker on the Saints' Super Bowlchampionship team, making 106 tack-les (74 solo) and was the leading tacklerduring their playoff run.