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On Saturday, the Lincoln Cardinals will play the biggest game in their football program’s brief eight-year history as they travel to Monroe City in the Class 1 semifinals.
A big reason for “Big Red’s” success is senior quarterback Boone Kroenke.
“He’s the best athlete I’ve ever coached,” said Danny Morrison who has coached the program since its beginning. “It’s just phenomenal to have a kid like that, and not only is he an exceptional athlete, but he’s a great leader. The kids listen to him. He’s going to get them fired up.”
Exceptional athlete would be an understatement. Boone will likely earn all-state honors on the gridiron this season before starting for the Cardinal basketball team where he averaged 18 points per game last season. The crazy part is, his best sport is golf, where he finished 5th in the state in Class 1 last year.
“I plan to play golf somewhere, and if I keep improving my scores like I have I’d like to win a Class 1 state championship, and then try to golf somewhere,” said Kroenke.
So he’s a star athlete in three different sports, yet his biggest claim to fame comes on a whole different field.
“Hunting and fishing is by far my favorite thing to do,” said Kroenke, who fought the urge to go hunting prior to Saturday’s 46-0 quarterfinal win over Cass-Midway.”
His passion is clearly outdoors and that all started well before high school.
The day was November 2, 2008. It was a warm day. Boone and his dad were working cattle and decided to go for a late afternoon hunt. What happened next is what made Boone famous in the small Benton County community.
“I’m sitting in between my dad’s legs. I’ve got steady sticks and he’s got binoculars. He could see a deer in the field and was abnormally nervous. His heart was racing and I was like ‘what’s the big deal’.
Boone’s dad thought it was two deer overlapping. Instead, it was a 212 inch, 19-point buck.
“The does ran out in the field and the buck chased after them. I shot him at about 75 yards. He ran about 50 yards, did a somersault, and was down right there. It was probably the best moment of my life.”
His pride was bursting at the seems.
“I said, ‘dad that’s probably bigger than any deer you’ve ever killed and he said, ‘you have no idea what you’ve done.”
Boone was an instant celebrity the next day at school. The buck was the second largest in the state of Missouri that year and the 9th largest in the nation; earning him special recognition by Boone and Crockett.
It was a memory for a lifetime, but on Saturday, Boone and his teammates are hoping to make another memory.
“I know we’ve got one more game in the way and it might top that 212 inch deer if we could do that because it’s something I can share with a larger family than what I shared with when I killed that deer.”
