There is probably very little argument that the volleyball version of the Devaney Center is the top facility in the nation. Today, the Nebraska athletic department will one up themselves with “Volleyball Day in Nebraska” in Memorial Stadium — 85,000 fans and then some.

The day has a chance to set an attendance record for the largest-ever to see a women’s sporting event. Not sure it can get much cooler than that. They even ordered up Chamber of Commerce weather — 87 and sunny in Lincoln. We’ll be following the media and social media surrounding this event in what will truly be a historical event for Nebraska; a perfect “kickoff” to the 100th year celebration of Memorial Stadium.

Let’s dive in to the mid-week Newsletter with as much zest as special teams coach Ed Foley; he’s got work to do this week, too.

hailvarsity

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The High School Roundup

A lot of things to do and get you caught up on for a Wednesday in high school sports. Let’s get you ready for the rest of the week and see what we missed.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW: You know, look, we are always going to miss some in the Saturday newsletter, so we found three Friday night football games we wanted to showcase for you in today’s letter (we might try to make this a habit).

Shelton 56, Stuart 53. In a battle of preseason ranked teams in Six-Man, Shelton came back from the dead to avoid an “upset.” The Bulldogs gave up a kickoff return, a punt return and fumble return for a touchdown. And, down 53-45 didn’t come up with an onside kick with 2:30 left. No worry. A three-and-out go the Dawg the ball back and quarterback Dylan Kenton, who threw for 320 yards and seven touchdowns, (four to Ashton Simmons and three to Ben Myers) connected on the game winner with a minute left.

EMF 58, Clarkson/Leigh 38. Returning all-stater Breckan Schluter ran for 222 yards on 31 carries with three touchdowns and Mikey Bartu added three scores to his 165-yard rushing night as Exeter-Milligan/Friend topped defending Class D-1 champion Clarkson/Leigh.

Schuyler 19, Omaha Concordia 13. Schuyler hasn’t made the state football playoffs since 2008. North Dakota State and NFL alum Kyle Emanuel was a junior. In his senior year, they finished 5-4. And, 4-5 in 2010. Since? And overall record of 5-106. But, Friday night, the Warriors made it 1-0 with a win over the Mustangs. Sophomore Raymond Zastera ran for 105 yards and a touchdown in the win. They go for 2-0 against O’Neill this week and we’ll be rooting for them.

RANK ‘EM: Still no huge changes to the nebpreps Coaches Poll for football presented by Pinnacle Bank. The preseason No. 1 teams are still the same after one (full) week: Omaha Westside, Bennington, Boone Central, Ord, North Platte St. Patrick’s, South Loup and Parkview Christian. See the whole list of our coaches picks here for August 27. 

BANKING: Our friend Mike Sautter informed us that there were over 220,000 votes for his first Pinnacle Bank Game-of-the-Week last week. So, we told him to go for the glory and list six games for you to choose from this week. What a great week of high school football we have ahead of us. You can still vote for your choice until noon today. 

FAIR GOER: We spent most of Saturday at the Bill Marshall Classic at the Heartland Events Center (and, yes, we hit Scoops for some ice cream). What did we learn? C-1 is going to be really, really good. We saw four ranked teams in the class: Gothenburg, Kearney Catholic, Grand Island CC and Malcolm, with the only loss of the group being the No. 2 Swedes topping No. 7 Malcolm.

We also saw Class C-2 defending champion Lincoln Lutheran sweep Class B, No. 10 Northwest. No. 9 St. Cecilia was 1-1 (loss to Kearney Catholic) and new No. 10 Thayer Central won two matches. UPDATED COACHES POLL

In the Metro, over on nebpreps Jacob Padilla has a recap of the Bellevue West Invitational final as Class A, No. 1 Papillion-LaVista South took a 2-1 win over Class B, No. 1 Omaha Skutt.

TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS: Papio South over Elkhorn South with Mike Sautter // Class C-1, No. 8 AC wins city battle

ALL THE SCORES // SEASON POWER POINTS // THE NEBRASKA VOLLEYBALL SHOW with Nebraska Tok

RUNNIN’ AND RUNNIN’: We are easing into the 2023 cross country season as many teams were out late last week with their opening meets, but we’ll have a much fuller schedule as we head past Labor Day. At any rate, we still have some great content from Prep Running Nerd including their preseason individual rankings. But, most importantly, the first NERDSLETTER of the fall.

STRESSFUL SOFTBALL: It was a brutal last week for softball in the state. Excessive heat postponed multiple games, then heavy rain on Friday night washed out the more games. So, we keep moving forward. Stay with us all season as we’ll partner with nebpreps.com and @nebraskahssb (loads of scores and updates over there) for our softball coverage. Maybe the biggest win we found this week was Millard South’s 16-0 win over Benson, which was the 700th in school history.

ALL THE SCORES // SEASON POWER POINTS

The Rear View Mirror

NEW AGE NEBRASKA: Often I think about the day Steve Pedersen hired Bill Callahan. Early January 2004. My wonderful bride and I were off to Omaha for our first doctors appointment for our first child during the press conference. We listened on the radio; I may have rolled my eyes a time or two.

Addison turns 19 next Sunday. She’s a freshman in college and she knows no nationally relevant Nebraska football team. It’s been a hot minute.

READ THE FULL REAR VIEW MIRROR FOR GAME WEEK HERE.

Parting Shot: Prepping You

BEFORE SCOTTY: It’s hard to be completely prepared for Volleyball Day in Nebraska, but here we are. There are loads of Twitter and Instagram accounts you are probably following. Now, we play the games. And, certainly, we know that John Cook and the Huskers are excited, but what Kearney and Wayne and Omaha? Once in a lifetime almost doesn’t describe it.

Former Omaha World-Herald sports writer Liz Merrill, now with ESPN, did a wonderful job of putting the state’s love for the sport in perspective. It’s worth a read as it gets to the heart of what volleyball means to Nebraska families, to Coach Cook, to former Husker Dani Busboom Kelly and current Huskers like Maisie Boesiger.

Woah, is right.