By Milla Butler
One of the longest-standing traditions for Silver Lake is the Holiday Tournament. Since 1995, Silver Lake has hosted a tournament over the Winter Break at Silver Lake High School. After Central Community College-Hastings Lion Club decided to no longer host a tournament, Silver Lake coaches Keith Crowe and Eric Langhorst decided to approach the board with the possibility of hosting a tournament at our school. The school board approved the request, which is when the Silver Lake Holiday Classic was born. Over the years, multiple schools have journeyed to Roseland to compete. The first four teams to compete included Pleasanton, Amherst, and Guide Rock, which meant that former math teacher Stacie Heldt was one of the first competitors. Additional teams have been added over the years, but the competition has remained just as great. According to Mr. Sluka, the teams include Kearney JV, Nelson, Hildreth, Wilcox-Hildreth, Blue Hill, Thayer Central, Bruning-Davenport, Bruning-Davenport-Shickley (BDS), Alma, Parkview Christian, Shelton, Red Cloud, Exeter-Milligan, Exeter-Milligan-Friend (EMF), TriCounty Northeast and Silver Lake. Mr. Sluka also acknowledged that Silver Lake boys and girls have only earned the championship in the same year twice (1997 and 2003). The boys have won 4 times, and with the victory in the 29th Annual tournament, the girls earned their 13th championship plaque. Their first competitors were the Tri-County Northeast Wolfpack. The leading scorers against the Wolfpack were sophomores Sophie Schmidt and MaKenna Karr with 22 and 9 points. Senior Morgan Dinkler also contributed; she and Schmidt obtained two three-pointers a piece. Schmidt and Karr also led the team in defense with four rebounds, acquiring the most on the team. The Mustangs ended up overcoming the Wolfpack in the hard-fought match, the final score ending 56-42. For their next and final game in the tournament, the Mustangs took on the Exeter-Milligan/Friend Bobcats. Offensive leaders against the Bobcats included junior Emma Schmidt and sophomore Sophie Schmidt with 16 and 9 points, respectively. Also excelling in offense, junior Katy Soucek obtained the highest amount of three-pointers. Leading the team in defense were Emma Schmidt, Sophie Schmidt, and sophomore MaKenna Karr, each player acquiring three steals. Sophie Schmidt also received the most rebounds, leading the team with five. Speaking on the Mustangs’ championship win, Sophie Schmidt comments, “One thing our team has been working on is keeping our energy up and fighting throughout the whole game, especially when pressing for most of the game. We displayed good communication, knowing who had who and fixing what we needed to win the tournament.”