Hanford Insider: Youth Empowerment, Miss Kings County Celebrations, and Hanford's Exciting Events!

Transcript

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On this episode of the Hanford, insider, kiria Martinez stops by to let us know about the upcoming Youth and Government Day.

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Then you'll get an update of Hanford news and the community calendar and I'll be back later with your sports report.

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This is the Hanford Insider Podcast, where we dive into what makes our community tick, from local stories and hidden gems to conversations with people shaping our neighborhood.

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We're here to celebrate, explore and connect.

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I'm your host, rob Bentley.

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Whether you're new to Hanford or longtime local, this is your source for everything happening in our town, from events and news to unique conversations with people who make Hanford such a unique community.

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I hope you enjoy the format.

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Let's take a look at this week's community news.

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On Saturday afternoon at the Miss Kings County competition, emily Carpenter was crowned as our next Miss Kings County and Bailey Quintero was crowned as our outstanding teen.

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Congratulations to both of these young ladies.

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The Hanford City Council will meet this Tuesday, february 18th.

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During the study session at 4 pm, they'll be hearing several reports, including the proposed ranking system for Measure H oversight community interviews.

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They'll also receive an update from the Hanford Civic Auditorium Centennial Celebration Committee and the annual report from the Hanford Police Department.

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During the regular session at 7 pm, they'll also hear about the draft active transportation plan as well as consider continuing partnership with Main Street Hanford for Falconer Services to keep crows out of downtown Hanford.

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It was great to see law enforcement honored on National School Resource Officer Appreciation Day.

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It was celebrated at most schools on Friday.

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These officers play a vital role in keeping our schools and students safe.

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Thank you for your service.

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Women with Visions Unlimited will be sponsoring a health forum at Coe Park on Saturday, and I had the chance to talk to our friend Paula Massey about the event.

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This is our second health fair that we're having and we're going to have many topics, so it's a health forum and slash fair.

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The forum consists of speakers in different health fields mental health, doula health, men's health so we're going to be talking about a lot of things, but then on the outside we're going to have all kind of vendor booths.

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We're going to have face painting for the children, and then I'm one that love to give books out so children will be able to pick up books and take home and put into their library.

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You know, it's just going to be a fun day.

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We're going to have somebody there doing finger sticks, checking your blood sugar and also checking your blood pressure, so we'll have that available for you.

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Like I said, there are going to be so many people out there.

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We're going to have people talking about mental health, like I said, and also about special needs with children, and it's just going to be a fun, very informative time.

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We have Dr Liskum, I believe.

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He's retired.

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He's going to be out there talking about men's health.

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That's very, very important.

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We want the men to show up and I have a very special gift for the first man that shows up and stays for the whole forum.

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Well, that's great.

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Thank you so much, paula.

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Once again.

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That's the Women with Visions Unlimited Health Forum on Saturday, february 22nd at Coe Park, which is located at 543 South Dowdy Street, and the fair is going to go from 10 am to 2 pm, and I hope you can join them.

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Here are some things coming up on our community calendar.

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On Friday, february 21st, there will be a character design class at the King's Art Center from 3.30 to 5 pm.

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Visit kingsartcenterorg for details.

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On Saturday, february 22nd, the First Presbyterian Church of Hanford will be holding a Hymns of Faith organ concert honoring Naomi Tagawa at 3 pm.

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Later that evening, the Hanford Educational Foundation Hall of Fame Gala will be held at the Hanford Civic Auditorium, beginning at 5 pm.

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Finally, on February 22nd, the Hanford Fox Theater will be showing the movie Reagan at 7 pm.

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Visit foxhanfordcom for details.

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The much-anticipated opening of the History of Kings County Agriculture display at the Carnegie Museum of Kings County opens Friday, february 28th.

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Visit carnegiemuseumofkingscountyorg for more information.

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If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together.

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Send your information to hanfordinsider at gmailcom.

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Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events we're happy to have with us Kyria Martinez, with the Kings County Administrative Office, and she's going to be telling us about the 2025 Kings County Youth and Government Day on Tuesday, march 18th.

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Welcome to the show, kyria.

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Hi there, how are you Doing great, kyria.

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So this is an exciting program for the county and I know it's a great way to expose young adults to the structure of the county.

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And what are all these offices that are located there?

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We drive by and we're not always sure we see the hospital that was renovated into the behavioral center, but the county government center is quite an operation in itself, separate from the city.

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So, if you could, could you give us a little bit of background about the county offices and what separates you from the actual city of Hanford?

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Yes, so we are a county.

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So we are.

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There is 58 counties in the state of California.

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Kings County is considered a rural county in California just because of the size of its population Our population is approximately 150,000, which classifies us as a rural county cities and so the county has a local governing body, which is the Board of Supervisors, and counties are a subdivision of basically a wing of the state of California, and so counties they provide services that are prescribed by law, for example, like jails, indigent burial.

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By law, for example, like jails, uh, indigent burial, ad commissioner, the juvenile detention, the assessor, the tax collector, auditor, controller.

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These are just to name a few.

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We have 22 departments the probation, the coroner, the public administrator, the district attorney, those are elections.

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Those are all functions within a county, as opposed to the cities.

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They provide, you know, different kind of services that are, you know, tailored just for the residents that live within the jurisdiction of a city.

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About 17% of Californians live in uncorporated areas, and so we do have various, again, various functions that a county provides, and we are governed by the Board of Supervisors, which are five elected officials that serve on four-year terms.

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So Kings County is a general law, which means that the county government structure is determined by the state constitution, and so, again, the Board of Supervisors is a governing body and may serve as special districts.

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So that's just a little bit of what a county does.

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A lot of individuals don't realize the services that county provides.

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For example, we provide behavioral health services.

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You know we do elections, and so Youth and County Government Day is our day to show the youth the types of jobs that counties offer, and so it's kind of our showcase day for the youth to come and participate and see what a county does.

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So we can inspire students to.

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You know, once they finish high school they can want to come to the county and start a career here.

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Know that there is lots of paths here that you know might not know that we actually have a job for might not know that we actually have a job.

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Yeah, it provides a lot of pathways for students to discover things that they may not have been aware of.

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I shared with you earlier that my daughter was actually involved in the Youth and Government Program and it's taken her to state and national levels, and so really a lot of respect for the leaders there at the county who put on this event.

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So let's get to the actual event.

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It's actually named of a friend of ours, les Collins, who passed away years ago, but he was a leader in the community and the program was very important to him and his family and it's so great to see that tradition carried on.

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So the event is on Tuesday, march 18th, from 8.30 to 1.30 pm, and can you walk us through the day and kind of what the participants can expect?

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So the participants.

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They arrive early morning, they get bused in from their schools, they come to our Board of Supervisors chambers where our Board of Supervisors meet and they all check in.

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And then we intentionally do it on a day of our board of supervisor board meeting so the youth can actually come and see a board of supervisor meeting.

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So they come in at 8 am, they sit in our audience and then they get assigned to a department.

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So they actually fill out a form during the registration process, the kind of areas they would like to explore, and so we really try to partner the youth with those departments that they have an interest in, and so all those department heads that help those departments actually come to the board supervisor meeting as well, and so we end up calling out each student and they go with their assigned department.

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Some actually end up staying assigned to the board of supervisors.

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So you also do see youth who are who end up staying with the board and they actually sit on a dais with the board.

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So that's actually really neat experience as well.

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So what kind of feedback have you had from former participants?

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Do they come back and participate, or what kind of feedback have you had from them?

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So it's so we actually have a really good story.

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In our office of administration we have a participant who is actually now a county employee.

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He works as an administrative analyst in our department and he, in high school, participated in this day and so he always said he had a passion for government.

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So to hear that now he's a county employee and he attended, he said it was a really good experience for him and he was able to really, you know, see what the board does, see what the county does, you know, understand local government a lot better.

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Understanding government a lot better.

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What a goal, right.

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Right.

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A lot of people come in and say, oh, I didn't know the county could do this at the county.

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I didn't know this was even something you could do.

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And we always kind of start off with saying hey, if you want to be an engineer, you want to be an attorney, you want to be a psychologist, a nurse, we probably have a job at the county that you can do with that career path.

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Yeah, lots of opportunities for sure.

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I know that when I visited with the elections department in a previous interview and the county superintendent of schools, just seeing everybody behind the scenes that kind of makes this all happen.

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That I think.

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No, I know people take for granted sometimes all the work that happens there and definitely appreciate that.

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So this event is open up to high schoolers and there's an application process, correct?

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Yes, so it is open up to all the high schools in Kings County and that also includes charter schools.

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So there is a high school but it also is a charter school.

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We've reached out to all the schools and their administration and so to really get the word out, the schools really are our help to getting these students to participate.

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Really get the word out, schools really are our help to getting these students to participate.

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We have a max capacity of 60 students and all the applications have to be submitted to the schools because the schools have to go through their process of obviously coordinating and getting the students on campus.

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So it is a big undertaking for the schools to help us get these students into this day.

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And these students aren't only coming from, uh, the hanford schools.

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They're coming from the other outlying schools stratford, avenel as well yes, they do.

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They come from all areas of keats county.

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You know, one year we actually had um it was the year of our floods that we had a school who couldn't make it because they couldn't, you know, get to the county campus.

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This year we actually hosted the Youth and County Government as a media press release.

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So you will see that in our new social media outlets because we also wanted to put the word to the community in case there are individual students who don't receive the word from the school they also have.

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Maybe parents see it and they say, hey, connect DOS for us.

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So this year we actually advertised it through our social media outlets and did a whole press release.

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Go to our website.

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You can view that press release as well.

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So we are looking forward to maybe getting a little bit more participation in the program.

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Well, that's wonderful.

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Kiria, I want to thank you for coming on the show and telling us about this Youth in Government program.

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It's an important program and, like you said, people need to know what goes on behind the scenes.

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They sometimes take it for granted.

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So thank you so much and the best of luck with your event.

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Thank you so much and the best of luck with your event.

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Thank you, and now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric.

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Bentley, it's playoff time.

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The brackets were released early last week and the first first-round action got underway on Thursday, friday and Saturday, and with many of our local basketball and soccer teams earning playoff spots, let's get you caught up on all the action.

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We'll start with an upset in boys' basketball where, after an 18-10 regular season, hanford High was looking to play spoiler as a 15 seed in the Division II playoffs and spoil they did, taking down second seeded San Luis Obispo 59-49 on Saturday in a game that the Bullpups never trailed in.

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Hanford High will hit the road as underdogs again this week as they travel to Porterville on Tuesday to take on the seven seed Panthers.

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The Sierra Pacific boys earned a four seed in the Division IV playoffs, which meant that they played host to 13-seed McFarland on Friday and the Golden Bears were able to make easy work of the Cougars winning 81-63.

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Sierra Pacific will stay at home for their next matchup as 12-seed Ridgeview comes to town on Wednesday.

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In girls basketball action, after an impressive 20-8 season and a first-place finish in the Tri-County Kings Canyon League, the Sierra Pacific girls earned a two-seed in the Division II playoff bracket, meaning home court advantage through the first three rounds of the playoffs, and the Golden Bears used that advantage well in round one, taking down 15-seed Redwoods 75-40 last Friday.

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Sierra Pacific will gear up for another home game on Tuesday as they host 10-seed Carrillo and the Hanford West.

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Girls were a 5-seed in the Division III bracket but fell in round one to Sierra 80-39.

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With much to be proud of, the Huskies end the year with a first-place finish in the Tri-County Sequo the year with a first-place finish in the Tri-County Sequoia League with a perfect 8-0 record and 18-8 overall.

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On to soccer, where five of Hanford's six teams earned playoff berths.

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We'll start with the Hanford High boys where, after a 13-6-3 regular season record, the Bullpups earned the two seed in the Division III playoff bracket and they got all that they could handle from 15-seed Garces Memorial in round one After time expired with no score.

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The game went to a shootout where Hanford High avoided the upset, advancing 3-2 on penalty kicks.

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The Bullpups will host seven-seed Torres on Tuesday.

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The Sierra Pacific boys also saw playoff action as the 13-seed in the Division 4 bracket as they headed on the road to take on Justin Garza but fell to the Guardians 1-0.

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On Friday.

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The Golden Bears end the season as Tri-County Sequoia League champions with a 6-0-2 league record.

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And on to girls soccer, where Hanford High's impressive regular season earned them a 7-seed in the Division I playoff bracket.

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Playing the best of the best, and unfortunately it was the 10-seed Buchanan who got the better of the Bullpups 3-1 on Friday, hanford High ends their season as WIL champions with a 9-1 league record, finishing 22-3 overall.

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With a 9-1 league record, finishing 22-3 overall For the Sierra Pacific girls, after a 4-1-3 second-place finish in the Tri-County Sequoia League, they were seeded 9th in the Division III playoff bracket but the Golden Bears saw their season come to a close in that 8-9 matchup as 8-seed Santa Ynez came away with a 4-0 victory and the Hanford West girls were a 5-seed in the Division 5 playoff bracket but were upset by the 12-seed Woodlake on Saturday by a score of 2-0.

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The Huskies finish their season 8-7-4.

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As always, we'd like to cover as many local sports as possible, so if you have a score report or a story idea, make sure to email hanfordinsider at gmailcom.

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I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

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That's all the time we have for this week's show.

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Have a great week.

Hanford Insider: Youth Empowerment, Miss Kings County Celebrations, and Hanford's Exciting Events!

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