Last week, we said we were near the end of the dog days of summer. LOL, oops. Sorry for the jinx there. It looks like we are going to be locked into some warm temperatures for a bit, save the weekend. Must be State Fair time (more State Fair stuff in a minute). Well, at any rate at least we have a start for the fall sports season.

We “think” (hope) the entire fall sports season will get rolling in earnest this week and so the Newsletter may get a bit longer (or we’ll try to roll out some stand alone content on the website). Either way, thanks for coming along.

Let’s dive in, just like Barrett Liebentritt playing fullback.

Volleyball: Hey, At Least It’s Inside

The NSAA volleyball season starts tomorrow with games across the state as teams will begin their trip to what they hope is a state tournament appearance in Lincoln. Is there a state that does a better job with volleyball than Nebraska? Loaded talent again this year.

The Newsletter will work with coaches from across the state to give you the volleyball coaches poll each week. On Monday, we released the preseason poll. Here’s is a quick preview on each class.

CLASS A: Defending champion Papillion-LaVista South gets to build around their returning All-Nebraska selection Lauryn Medeck as the Titans will shoot for a fourth title in five seasons and fifth straight state finals appearance. They will have plenty of chasers, including cross town mates Papillion-LaVista, Lincoln Southwest and Omaha Westside.

CLASS B: Coach Renee Saunders has clearly built a juggernaut at Omaha Skutt Catholic. Consider in their eight year run of state championships, they had not been pushed to a fifth set until last season when Elkhorn North forced a winner-take-all game with the Skyhawks.

Our coaches liked the Wolves to be the biggest threat again this season, with a preseason ranking of second, as they build around Northern Iowa commit Reese Booth. EN’s conference mates Norris, Bennington — with Nebraska libero commit Olivia Mauch — and Waverly could make for a mad scramble at the top of the class.

CLASS C-1: Likely the most balanced and competitive class in the state, the coaches tabbed Minden as their preseason favorite, but it was far from unanimous. On their heels will be Gothenburg and Kearney Catholic, but, in all, 15 teams received votes in the initial coaches poll.

Right behind the top-three is Douglas County West, which may have the classes top player in Nora Wurtz. Defending champion GICC, with Drake commit Carolyn Maser at setter, starts the season fifth.

CLASS C-2: The defending champions from Lincoln Lutheran have opted UP to Class C-2 after their enrollment cutoff for the season had them as one of the largest schools in Class D-1. The Warriors have won 47 matches in a row and back-to-back state titles with no losses to any Class C teams or below since 2020. Junior libero Keri Leimbach, like Mauch, is a Nebraska commit.

CLASS D-1: Four of the top-six teams in the initial coaches poll were not in the class last year and the 2022 finalists — Norfolk Catholic and Hartington Cedar Catholic — have moved up to Class C-2. That leaves Amherst, a C-2 qualifier last season, as the preseason favorite. Diller-Odell, a move up from D-2, with five returners is second, with Southwest (27-7) at third after dropping from Class C-2.

CLASS D-2: Returning third-team super-state selection JoLee Ryan leads the way for preseason No. 1 Overton, which finished 30-5 in 2023 and lost to Howells-Dodge in a five-set, state final thriller. The Jaguars are third, with Cambridge and Meridian (both D-1 qualifiers) starting at second and fourth, respectively.

The Newsletter can be found at the Nebraska State Fair on Saturday. Stop by and say hello. A loaded day of volleyball with the Bill Marshall Classic at the Heartland Events Center in Grand Island. Full schedule

THE STRIV MOVIE: Also, if you are a volleyball fan, mark your calendar for Thursday night to watch “Finish Strong,” a documentary on the 2022-23 Grand Island CC volleyball team. The Crusaders were Class C-1 state champions and their story — especially that of legendary coach Sharon Zavala — is one you won’t want to miss.

Little Bit of Everything

Let’s dive through some quick hitters in multiple sports from around the high school scene in our first week of live action.

START WITH SOFTBALL: We should have in a little more softball than we do — multiple games have been postponed on Monday and Tuesday because of the heat — but we did have some highlights over the opening weekend.

Seward took the Freeman Invitational over Wahoo 2-0 in the finals, with Class C, No. 2 Hastings St. Cecilia also going 2-1 (losing to Seward 5-4 in pool play). At the Bellevue East Invite, top Class A contenders Gretna and Lincoln East met in the finals with the Dragons getting a 3-1 win in the championship game.

PRACTICE PREVIEWS: Over at nebpreps, Mike Sautter rounded out his daily pre-season practice reports. Now it’s full send on the high school football season. Some quick takes: Millard North, Wahoo. FULL PRESEASON PLAYLIST

STATUS QUO: Only one top-ranked football team was in action last week and North Platte St. Patrick’s won handily over Bridgeport in their opener. That means no changes to the No. 1 teams in our nebpreps Coaches Poll. Still No. 1: Omaha Westside, Bennington, Boone Central, Ord, St. Pat’s, South Loup and Parkview Christian. See the whole list of our coaches picks here. 

BANKING: A new season means more Pinnacle Bank Game-of-the-Week action with Mike Sautter. His first voting game is up and you can still vote for your favorite football game that he will attend this week. We’ll also have full coverage of this game in our Saturday newsletter.

NERDING OUT: While we opted for some “brief” previews on the state cross country scene in our Saturday newsletter, you can get the “full Monty’s” from our friends at Prep Running Nerd. They have dropped four so far, which you can read at the links, and the Class C and D previews will be up as the week progresses. It’s your own fault if you don’t follow their running coverage.

They have also partnered with Nebraska Tok to discuss the season every other week, with the first show here.

PREVIEWS: Class A Boys / Class A Girls / Class B Boys / Class B Girls

Lincoln and Elsewhere

GIRL POWER: The Nebraska women’s soccer team is off to a 1-0-1 start — a win over Baylor and a 2-2 draw with Creighton — heading to a weekend road trip to face Eastern Washington and Gonzaga. Preview

AT THE NET: The fifth-ranked Nebraska volleyball team opens their season this weekend with a home slate against Utah State on Friday, Lipscomb on Saturday and SMU on Saturday afternoon. That opening practice was decent, no?

THE STANDARD: Almost forgot. You’ll need this in your life. Gosh, these are just fantastic from the Nebraska athletic creative team.

Nebraska Football. The Oath. I will hustle. I will show courage. I will know and do my job. I will care for my teammates.

SMALL COLLEGE RUNDOWN: NAIA preseason polls are out. In football, GPAC giants Northwestern (IA) and Morningside (check out the Nebraska kids on that roster) are ranked 1st and 4th. No Nebraska schools made the initial cut. The story is a little different for volleyball, where seven GPAC teams are ranked including No. 1 Jamestown (ND). Concordia is the top-ranked Nebraska team at fourth, while 17th-ranked Bellevue already has an upset for Jamestown.

Bellevue and Hastings College received votes in the preseason women’s soccer rankings with the HC men coming in at No. 22 in the men’s rating. In cross country, Doane and Concordia are the top men in the GPAC ranking with Concordia and Hastings topping the women’s side. National rankings for cross country will be released on Thursday.

Have a small college story idea or news tip? We’d love to hear from you. Send us an e-mail: [email protected].

Parting Shot: The Film Room

INSIDE LOOK: Our promise to you with Flatwater Sports is new and unique content that might give you a different look into sports in Nebraska — high school, small college, University stuff, you name it. In that vein, we released our first episode (of what we hope is many) on Saturday of The Film Room.

Our first crack came with Northwest football coach Kevin Stein and his son Joe, a Northern Illinois football commit. We chatted how they use Hudl and how it has changed coaching for Kevin since his start in 1995. On Friday, we travel to Ord for an inside look at the Class C-2, No. 1 Chanticleers.

UP NEXT: We get to recap high school football on Saturday morning. We hope can get you as many little recaps as possible in our mini trip around the state. As always, if you are enjoying the Newsletter share with a friend. We’d love to make your inbox a little happier.