Edmonson Voice Sports:
The Edmonson County Middle School and High School Archery Teams competed in the NASP Kentucky State Tournament on Friday, March 17th. 

ECHS finished in the middle of the total list of schools but a good enough score to qualify to compete at the national level this May.

While the Middle School team did not have a nationals qualifying score, the team shot their second highest score of the year.  Archery coach Joy Curtis said they have grown tremendously as a team, as half of the middle school team are first-year archers.  

She also said the high school team has continued to improve throughout the season.

Edmonson Voice Sports:
The Edmonson County Middle School 8th Grade Volleyball team won the Green River Valley Conference Tournament last night at Hancock County, defeating St. Romuald Interparochial School (in Hardinsburg) in two sets.

The seventh grade team finished runner-up, falling to Breckinridge County in two sets.

The eighth grade team also won the tournament last year in the team's inaugural season, making this their second consecutive year to win the tournament.

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
After two wins earlier in the week to start the season, the Lady Cats fell last night to the Ohio County Lady Eagles at home in a 3-2 pitching duel where errors were the deciding factor on the scoreboard.

The Lady Cats jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when junior Kaylee Ann Sanders singled on a bunt with runners on first and second. Both runners scored on throwing errors by Ohio County that advanced Sanders to third.

Unfortunately for the Lady Cats, it was all the run support they would provide for Edmonson County pitcher Julie Norris, who pitched the 7-inning complete game. She gave up 5 hits, walked 3, and struck out 5 in the loss.

The Lady Eagles got on the board in the top of the third when the Lady Cats committed an error with a runner on second. The runner advanced and cut Edmonson's lead to 2-1.

The score remained the same until the top of the 6th when Ohio County doubled. The base runner then advanced to third on a pop up that was dropped by the Lady Cats. With runners on first and third, Ohio County hit a hard grounder that was bobbled by Edmonson for another error. Two runs scored for an Ohio County 3-2 lead.

While Edmonson County held the Lady Eagles for the rest of the game, they were unable to produce any more runs for their first loss of the season. The Lady Cats struck out 12 times against Ohio County pitcher Addyson Graves.

Sanders finished 1-3, Jolee Vincent went 1-3, and Brooklyn Wilson also went 1-3.

Edmonson County is 2-1 on the year after a win against Bowling Green on Monday and on Metcalfe County on Tuesday.

The Wildcat baseball team is also off to a 2-1 start as their season began this week as well. They defeated Russellville 18-3 in 5 innings, lost 1-4 to Allen County-Scottsville, and won over Metcalfe 14-3 last night.

Edmonson Voice Sports:
Kasey Webb, a junior at Edmonson County High School recently placed 2nd in the Kentucky Class A Indoor Track State Championship, held in Louisville, in the shot put competition.

Webb set a new school record with a shot put throw of 44 feet and 4 inches.

In addition to Webb, Seth Baker, also a junior at ECHS, competed in the shot put as well. He finished 38th overall.

ECHS Track Coach Brad Meredith said that while track season hasn't officially started, some have already been working on their own to prepare for the upcoming season; two of them had the opportunity to compete in Louisville over the weekend.

"Coach Michael Peger is our throws coach and he does a tremendous job with our kids," said Meredith "They have been working for over a month now and when he asked if he could take them to Louisville to compete I said absolutely. Both wanted to see where they were in competition since putting in the early work.  I knew they would do fine but didn't dream they both would throw as well as they did. I am very proud of them and shows that hard work pays off."

Coach Peger spoke on Webb's performance and described him as very coachable and a hard worker.

"He has not yet hit where he's going to go in the sport," said Coach Peger. "He competed against 54 throwers and three different flights and came in second in the state. I can't wait to see how well they do throughout the season. I'm very proud and very happy for him."

Kasey is the son of Todd and Michelle Webb of the Otter Gap community.

Darren Doyle, story: Madison Doyle, photos:
The 2023 Edmonson County Wildcat basketball season came to an end tonight with a 48-31 loss to the Owensboro Catholic Aces in the 3rd Region Tournament, held at the Owensboro Sportscenter, the home court of the Aces.

OC pressed the Wildcats on every single dead ball situation, which caused trouble for Edmonson County early. While turnovers weren't the main issue for the Wildcats, (7 at halftime), rushed and altered shots contributed to poor shooting in the first half, shooting 5 of 24 from the floor (21%)

The Wildcats were down 34-18 at the half. Edmonson County could never find any real offensive rhythm as Catholic continued their press. While the Aces were out-rebounded by the Cats, their offensive rebounding was extremely efficient as they scored double figures in second-chance points.

Edmonson County was led in scoring by Braden Wall with 10 points. He also pulled down 11 rebounds. Also scoring was Will Alexander with 6 points along with sophomore Joshua Decker (6pts), who started in place on the absent Braxton Highbaugh, who ECHS said was unavailable for tonight's game.

Tyler Anderson had 4 points, Zander Bass had 3, and Boden Bates added 2 points.

Coach Brad Johnson discussed the difficult night for the Wildcats.

"We had to shuffle everybody around a little bit but we made no excuses," he said. "They shot the ball better than us. Of course, it's their home gym...if we knock in some shots and we shoot a better percentage, then we're right in the game."

Johnson also paid respect to his seniors that took the floor for the last time in a Wildcat basketball jersey tonight that included Braden Wall, Tyler Anderson, Zander Bass, Boden Bates, Caden Mills, Braxton Highbaugh, Cam Campbell, and Tyler Vincent. He discussed each one and their contributions to the program over the years. He also said that he told them in the locker rooms that while this is the end of one part of their lives, it's the beginning of something else. He said he also told them that there are much worse things in life than losing a basketball games.

Edmonson County finishes their season with a record of 18-13. They brought home the first District 12 Championship since the 2017 team. It was the first time in school history that the boys and girls won the championships in the same season.

Edmonson Voice Sports:
The 2023 District 12 Champion Edmonson County Wildcats are scheduled to take on Owensboro Catholic tonight at approximately 7:35PM at the Owensboro Sportscenter in the boys' first round of the Region 3 Tournament.

As we stated last night during the Lady Cats' game, we are prohibited from carrying the live action on video; however, we are allowed to provide an audio stream of the game, due to Region 3 regulations.

We are providing a video stream on our YouTube Channel of the audio that will feature our broadcasters and a shot of the scoreboard. While we know this is not your preferred method of receiving game content, we feel it is better than simply offering our audio feed-only from the WildcatsLive page on EdmonsonVoice.com.

The response to this format was overwhelmingly positive last night, despite our Lady Cats falling short to Breckinridge County. We plan to call the game as normal on YouTube, but you will simply have our audio of the action, not the video itself.

Editor's Note: The reason for this is that a majority of Region 3 schools voted against video streaming of the tournament for fear that it would hurt attendance. We completely disagree. We have proven that we provide a service to hundreds, even thousands of fans that will not or cannot attend games in-person. There are many die-hard sports fans that have never attended a game in-person but they will watch all the games on TV or a stream. We have more viewers than ever and there were more basketball fans packed into ECHS last week for the District Tournament than we have ever seen for a basketball game. While we strongly disagree that streaming hurts attendance, it is our duty to cooperate with other schools and officials. We hope that more outlets like us are willing to speak in favor of their content and provide information that may change this stance in the future. --Darren Doyle