Starting Over

It feels good to hop on Twitter and hit the old #nebpreps hashtag on a Friday night (or for a Thursday night of softball) and see what’s going on around the state. Limited “at the game” coverage from the team tonight as the Newsletter had a little family milestone on Friday (stay to the end).

Without further ado, let’s take our first trip around the state for a limited Friday night of football. We’ll also chat a little volleyball, as well as give our best shot at a cross country preview. Grab your favorite breakfast beverage and let’s have some fun.

Coming soon! Stay tuned to our social media channels today as we release Episode One of The Film Room.

Let’s Play Football

TOUGH GRIND: Omaha Creighton Prep’s brutal schedule to open the season (five ranked teams in the first five weeks) started with Bellevue West on Friday night. But, the young Jays gave the uber-talented T-Birds (three Husker commits, remember) all they could ask for.

Down 13-7 at the half, the Jays scored first in the second half to take a 14-13 lead. But BW countered on the ground getting two Charlie Gewinner touchdown runs in the second half to pull away for a closer-than-it-looked 27-14 win, as Prep had the ball down 20-14 with six minutes left.

CJ Gauff scored twice for West as they staked their halftime lead.

HELLO SENATOR: No. 8 Norris started quick — Blake Macklin returned the opening kick for a touchdown — and had No. 5 Blair on the ropes the whole game before winning, 42-21. Game thread

THE LATE SHOW: Class D-1, No. 1 North Platte St. Pat’s and Bridgeport delayed kick an hour for the heat. The Irish had no Jackson Roberts and the Bulldogs scored first. No matter. James Heirigs scored four times in a 48-12 win.

EXTRA: Hampton’s Jackson Bullis scored seven times on Friday night as the Hawks opened the season with a 55-32 win over Franklin. Not a bad start. Also, Crete scores late to down Omaha Westview.

ALL THE SCORES // 10-11 SPORTS OVERTIME

Running and Running

As we continue to through our season previews of each sport, we plug on with a cross country preview as the road to Kearney Country Club begins on Thursday. A full weekend next week with some big, early meets to get a gauge on the possible favorites.

Class A: Nine of the top-15 medalists return in the Class A boys race with the top-three medalists — Juan Gonzalez (Fremont), Max Myers (Lincoln Southwest) and Jack Witte (Millard West) — back for a return challenge at a gold medal.

Both defending champion Fremont and runner-up Millard West return three scoring runners from a season ago. Some other challengers with state experience are Lincoln Pius (fifth last year) with five returning scorers and Creighton Prep (seventh last year) with six returning runners from their 2023 team.

On the girls side, the top-four teams from a season ago have a load of returning experience and another late October race with Mia Murray, Stella Miner, Claire White and Kaitlyn Swarz might be just what the doctor ordered. Yes, four of the top-5 from a season ago are back.

The team race appears to be just as fun with Lincoln East (four returners), Omaha Westside (all seven), Millard West (four) and Papio South (six) ready to tussle again for the Class A title.

Class B: Returning champion Riley Boonstra of Norris will be back to defend his championship and the ongoing battle for team supremacy between Lexington and Omaha Skutt should continue to take center stage for the Class B boys this season.

Lexington (23) and Omaha Skutt (33) were nearly 60 points clear of third in the team race a season ago with Lexington bringing back three runners and Skutt four. Nine individual medalists return.

Defending champion Norris returns (gulp) their entire team from a season ago including medalists Atlee Wallman, Ellie Thomas and Kendall Zavala. But, their chasers a season ago, also bring back plenty as well with both Bennington and Elkhorn North bringing back four runners. They will meet next Saturday at the Norris Invite for an early test.

While champion Maddie Seiler is now running at Kennesaw State, ten medalists (and 20 of the top 25) from the 2022 meet return.

Class C: Paper tells us that the epic Gothenburg, Lincoln Christian title race from last season could emerge again in Kearney. Each team has all four point scorers returning, but the Crusaders also return two other runners. Elkhorn Mt. Michael — a 2022 Class B qualifier — has dropped down and could also be in the chase.

The two teams have the top two individual returners as well. Carter Hohlen (2nd to Carson Noecker last year) for Christian and Parker Graves of Gothenburg who was fourth a season ago.

On the girls side, defending champion Wayne returns three runners with runner-up Auburn maybe having an inside leg on the team title with all six runners back for 2023.

The individual race could be one of the best in all classes, with places 2-8 from the 2022 races — including Ogallala’s Lindee Henning, Lily Kenning of Milford and Sidney’s Talissa Tanquary — all returning.

Class D: With just seven returning medal winners on the Class D boys side, both the individual and teams races appear to be open for the taking. Last year, senior dominated Cornerstone Christian took the team race over North Platte St. Patrick’s, which does return defending champion Jarrett Miles.

The Irish do have two other returners which could make them the favorite in the Class D ‘count three’ format. Some other younger teams that bring back state experience include Franklin and McCool Junction.

While all eyes will be on Crofton senior Jordyn Arens pursuit of a fourth Class D gold medal, the team race will be equally intriguing.

Just 11 points separated team champion Hemingford (38) from fourth place Aquinas (49), with Ainsworth (40) and Crofton (41) in between. And, of the 19 runners on those four teams from 2022, 18 of them will return this season.

Throughout the season, we will partner with The Prep Running Nerd for photos and coverage of meets. They do the best work promoting running in the state, we’ll just tag along. Must follow if you love running, photos, high school sports.

Volleyball Is Coming

They will likely sell out a scrimmage in Lincoln later today and on Monday, the nebpreps Coaches Poll presented by Pinnacle Bank will be released for the preseason. Plenty of volleyball content coming to the Newsletter as the fall progresses.

Softball’s Hot Start

The start of the softball season this year has been mostly centered around the warm temperatures that have greeted the players. And, while we just have a few games in, the nebpreps Coaches Poll was released on Thursday.

LINKS: Season preview with Nebraska HS Softball and NebraksaTok. What’s new? An early thriller between Hastings and Northwest. All the scores.

Parting Shot: Hug ‘em Tight

C O L L E G E: Like the famous John Belushi sweatshirt from Animal House we’ll do our best to provide some content of Nebraska small-college (and the big schools, too). For now, we’ve been focused on the high school stuff and getting organized. That may change soon.

Speaking of college…..

LOPES UP: We’d have normally been out looking for a game to cover on Week Zero opening night. And a few were close enough, but we had a big day on Friday; moving our oldest Addison to Men’s Hall in Kearney. It goes quick, you know? She’s not a super big sports fan, but she knows the football calendar.

Born on September 3, 2004. Week One Friday. Moved to college yesterday. Week Zero Friday. The schedule sure has changed in 19 years, huh??

Have the best year, Addison. You too, Maddie. I mean if your dad’s both played 8-man football you know you had it pretty good growing up. We’ll be rooting for you.