High School Golf: Community volunteers, partnership key behind running state golf meets

About 75 volunteers, give or take a few individuals. 

They worked jobs that ranged from parking lot and golf range attendants, ball spotters on the course, scoring monitors and officials to announcers during the two-day Class B boys tournament at the Scotts Bluff Country Club May 21-May22. 

A number have been involved in all seven boys and girls state meets in Scottsbluff or the Monument Shadows Golf Course since the tournaments were first awarded to the area in 2019. The majority are members of or connected to the two golf courses in the area.

In addition, the Nebraska Golf Association supplies six individuals who are the rules officials for the meets, if there is any question or situation that a player has on the course. 

“For the volunteers who have been with us through seven championships, they’re really settled into their roles,” said Karla Niedan-Streeks, director of tourism in Gering and one of nine members of the Scottsbluff-Gering State Golf Host Committee. “We’ve been successful as a committee and a host committee based upon that volunteer core.”

That success led to the NSAA’s decision to extend the Class B tournaments stay in the area another four years, from 2025-28.

It’s a run that began with a question from Brock Ehler, Scottsbluff High School’s boys and girls golf coach. 

“He said, ‘Why don’t you think this couldn’t happen out here?’,” said Dave Hoxworth, Scottsbluff’s activities director and the chair of the host committee. “As I started thinking, ‘Yeah, why couldn’t it?’ It’s no secret that the bigger events like wrestling and basketball and those things are going to be in eastern Nebraska.

“But we have the facilities to host golf like anyone else in the state,” he said. “This was a great opportunity to throw our hat in the ring and try and compete for it”

It wasn’t a solo effort. 

“When I first started talking to the NSAA about this, I thought initially about doing it just a Scottsbluff (High School) event. taking it on myself,” Hoxworth said. “But after visiting with Karla and a few others, I quickly realized there was no way I was taking this animal on myself. 

“If we didn’t have a committee to make it happen, it wouldn’t happen,” he said. “Then I don’t know if it’s good to have just one school do it. It’s good to have the community partnership. You can’t pull off something like this without having everybody involved.”

That committee meets sporadically for about half the year, but picks up the frequency about seven months out from the boys or girls tournament leading into the start of the event. 

“There’s a lot of moving parts in the championships,” Niedan-Streeks said. “The first couple years we were pretty nervous about making sure that we hadn’t forgotten anything and doing every detail right. We’re somewhat in a groove now, but both on practice (round) days and definitely on both championship days, we are on alert.

“We are making sure we are were we need to be on the course and prepared for things that come up, be it with the weather or anything else.”

Niedan-Streeks said the committee takes a short break after each championship and then reconvenes to break down the event and plan for the future. 

“We’re always trying to think of more things we can do that can make the experience better (for the athletes),” she said. “We’re brainstorming, we’re planning and we’re reflecting on the most recent championship on what we would have liked to have done differently and how we can improve for the future.”