Last year, Kickapoo’s season ended on a near-buzzer-beater at archrival Nixa in the district championship game. Some have turned the page from Jaise Combs’s big shot. Chiefs senior Reese Kimrey has not.
“I think about it mostly every day,” said Reese. “I try to tell the guys we have a goal this year and we cannot come short this year. It’s war against them. Every time it’s going to be a good game, a great atmosphere. So we’re just trying to look forward to that game. It’s definitely stamped in our locker room.”
It ended any hope of the program making it back to a fifth final four in ten years. But the all-state point guard was named a starter as a sophomore. “It was definitely an honor,” Reese said.
And in his fourth year on varsity, he can get advice from several Chiefs legends before him on the challenge ahead of him. “Drew Akins, he’s just a grade above me,” Reese said. “And then we had Trae Oetting when I was a freshman. So definitely those guys, they definitely push me right away.”
Head coach Mitch McHenry says you name the former Chiefs player, and Reese belongs in the same breathe. “I mean, he’s an all-state player at the Class 6 level,” said McHenry. “And we haven’t had many of those. We’ve had a very special run at point guard for a long time and he has continued that. To be a three-year starter in our program is pretty impressive.”
This year Reese finds himself doing something new, sometimes guarding the other team’s center, with no teammates taller than 6’4″. But he won’t let the team’s smaller stature stop them from achieving their biggest goals. “We’re obviously trying to win the district championship,” Reese said. “The Final Four is our biggest goal. We’re trying to compete for a state championship. Obviously we’re smaller so it’s going to be harder for us this year.”
But with Reese at the point, they’ve always got a shot.
