Longhorn cross country moving to Class C this fall

    It wasn’t totally unexpected, but CCS Cross Country Coach Carl Zuege learned last week the Longhorns will move up to a bigger class of competition for 2019.
    The Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) released classifications for high school cross country, volleyball and softball last week.
    In those classes, Longhorn cross country has been moved up to Class C from D.
    In fact, Chase County Schools and Malcolm High School, both with 139 girls and boys in grades 9-11, are the smallest in Class C (for cross country) this coming school year.
    The largest Class C school is Aurora with 300 in those grades.
    Zuege said his teams have bounced back and forth between Class C and D over the past decade, but it’s likely just the third time they’ve been in the bigger class.
    It’ll mean some tougher district competition, he said.
    In Class D, when districts roll around, the Longhorns have come up against schools in its conference, like Perkins County, Hershey, Sutherland, Bayard and Bridgeport.
    Now it’ll mean much bigger schools to beat, like Holdrege, Ogallala and Broken Bow, to qualify for state.
    “You just see bigger teams and more depth. It’s just a tougher class to jump up to,” he said.
    As he looks to the start of practice in less than two weeks, Zuege is expecting 9-10 girls and 4-5 boys on the roster.
    The boys’ team will miss  a group of talented seniors who graduated earlier this year, he said. The team didn’t pick up any freshmen boys last year, but some upperclassmen will be out for cross country for the first time this fall, along with at least one freshman boy, Zuege said.
    Both of Chase County’s cross country teams qualified for state last year after the girls won districts and the boys were district runners-up.
    At the Class D state meet, the girls finished 13th and the boys were 15th.
    There will be a change in the cross country coaching staff this fall, too.
    CCS teacher Chris Bartels, who also serves as head boys’ basketball coach, will be the cross country assistant for both high school and junior high, Zuege said. He replaces Jonathan Beverly, who is now working in Boulder, Colorado.
Volleyball, softball
stay in same classes
    Chase County volleyball will remain in Class C1 and softball will stay in Class C this fall, according to the NSAA.
    Those are the same classes as last season.
    As the 32nd largest school in C1 volleyball, the Lady Longhorns are a little below the middle of 54 schools in C1 with 77 girls enrolled (grades 9-11). Largest is Adams Central with 116, and the smallest school in C1 is Ainsworth with 58.
    The softball team will stay in Class C another year, where they rank No. 22 largest among 40 Class C teams.
    Football classifications and schedules are set every two years by the NSAA. This year is the second of the two-year period with Chase County in Class C1.