Seasons are ending and it’s the time of year when football guys are going to have to turn the lights on to get some extra work in. Maybe some long sleeves under their shoulder pads for the first time this year.

And, volleyball. Surely, the state’s marquee sport has it’s sights set on Lincoln this week for the NSAA State Volleyball Championships that will be contested at Pinnacle Bank Arena from Wednesday through Friday and then moved to the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday for the championship matches.

November is the best. Well, maybe October is. Who knows. Let’s dig in to a playoff edition of the Newsletter, as always, free to read thanks to our Friday Night Drive partner Tom Dinsdale Automotive in Grand Island.

The Friday 16

The towns — the schools, the student sections — came out for the round of 16 of the playoffs on Friday night and if you were looking for an upset, you didn’t find too many. A few, but not any of those wild 15-seed things.

What the Newsletter found, in journeying to Wood River to watch the Eagles defeat Doniphan-Trumbull 41-30, was the real mission of high school sports. Small town football that hadn’t happened in this town for a long, long time.

See, the Eagles were 1-8 last year. Two winning seasons since 2010 (and those were non-playoff qualifying 5-4 campaigns). But, something happened this fall. With this team. Yes, Wood River’s schedule included just two playoff teams. And, yes, the Eagles got a direct rematch with the one playoff team they beat — Doniphan-Trumbull — in week nine.

Now? Wood River is 9-1. By way of Kearney Catholic’s “upset” of Valentine on Friday night they will host another playoff game this Friday. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Wood River who won’t be there. The line to get in Friday night stretched well into the parking lot just 15 minutes to kick.

They hadn’t seen a playoff win in this town since 1996 until Friday. Hadn’t even seen a playoff GAME since they lost 14-6 to Grand Island Central Catholic in 2008 (and those were the old round-of-32 games).

So, you kind of want to root for the Eagles, you know? Beau Rohrich is a strong running back with speed (and up near 1, 700 yards now). Quarterback Madden Brabec can run, too (wouldn’t we love to see that on Saturdays?). And that line? They will lean on you.

“We have really good kids,” Wood River coach Austin Ruskamp said on Friday. “In the offseason say just decided… In every high school there is always a group of seniors that they have reached the finality point and said ‘this is it.’

“Our boys dedicated the time and effort (this summer). They got pulling in the same direction. It’s nothing that I did, it’s everything the boys have done. They are just great kids.”

And, in a town like Wood River they are bringing everyone with them.

CLASS A: No big upsets in Class A unless you count Papio’s 14-7 win over Omaha Central or Millard North’s 10-7 gem over Lincoln Southeast. The matchups add a little spice this week at Millard North will get Millard South. Bellevue West will travel to Kearney. Omaha North is at Elkhorn South and Papio gets a trip to defending champion Westside.

CLASS B: Bennington, Scottsbluff, Omaha Skutt and Seward will be your quarterfinal hosts in a round that saw Waverly survive Norris, 17-16 and second-seed Seward survive Lincoln Pius 21-20. The Bolts went for two late and were turned away. After that, the winners were pretty dominant; including defending champion Bennington who had Northwest down 27-0 without scoring a point on offense. Also included in Friday’s wins was Elkhorn North reversing the tables on Elkhorn. The get a trip to Scottsbluff. The Bearcats were dominant over Gretna, 55-27.

CLASS C-1: Zero upsets in Class C-1 and it gets really fun this week. Sidney, Chadron for the “out west” semifinal trip. Sidney won 14-0 in week nine. Central City (that offense!!) and Lakeview (that defense!!). How do these to miss each other in the regular season? Wahoo (really good!!) and Boys Town (very, very talented). Auburn with a chance to reverse their only loss of the season at Ashland-Greenwood.

CLASS C-2: There must be something about quarterfinal games in Norfolk, Wahoo and Battle Creek. Seems like some things never change, except maybe the class they are competing in. Conor Booth — still really good. Cedar Catholic a second half shutout.

CLASS D-1: In between all the top seeds winning on Friday night, Plainview took down unbeaten GACC and Lourdes Central Catholic traveled to Benkelman and upset Dundy County-Stratton. Those wins set up a 12 v. 13 matchup at Nebraska City High School on Friday night. Stanton will also host North Platte St. Pat’s and the other two quarterfinals are week two rematches. Sandy Creek hosts Shelby-Rising City (28-6 for SC in week two) and Crofton hosts Summerland (32-28 for Summerland).

CLASS D-2: If you click on nothing else in this newsletter, click on this thread of the fourth quarter and THREE OVERTIMES that saw BDS outlast Kenesaw 56-54. What a game. That win over BDS kept in chalky in Class D-2, setting up some great matchups for the quarterfinals.

SIX-MAN: Very chalky in six-man as well, save for Diller-Odell’s successful 794 round trip to play Leyton on Friday. The Griffins with a 54-26 win and they now get to host defending champion Sumner-Eddyville-Miller. Other quarterfinal hosts are Garden County, Stuart and Hay Springs.

Big Time Volleyball

Brackets are set for the 2024 NSAA state championships and we had some fantastic matches yesterday in the Class B - D2 district final round.

The Norfolk Daily News’ Dale Miller got really good at volleyball yesterday (hey, Dale, you missed the Huskers!!) by covering Pierce over Omaha Concordia, Norfolk Catholic over Homer and Hastings St. Cecilia over Humphrey/Lindsey Academy.

We will have a full state tournament preview on the NSAA website on Tuesday night. Here are the FULL BRACKETS for the tournament which begins on Wednesday morning with the Class B session, followed by C-1 and A.

Championship Season

PERFECT PARTNERS: The squad has been proud to partner with the Nebraska Schools Activities Association this fall to deliver previews and recaps of each of the fall championships so far. Cross country coming early next week. You can generally catch all of the these on the specific sports championship HQ page on the NSAA website.

GOLF: Omaha Marian, Omaha Duchesne and Wayne won team golf titles. Individual champions were Eden Larson (Lincoln Southwest), Whitney Dahir (Duchesne) and Kara Suchsland (Minden). Full state girls golf recap

SOFTBALL: Gretna, Beatrice and Bishop Neumann won softball titles last Monday in Omaha. In Class A, Gretna completed just the third undefeated season in Class A history. Full state softball recap

TENNIS: In dominant fashion, Lincoln East and Elkhorn Mt. Michael won state tennis titles. East had champs in all four brackets, while the Knights had three. Full state boys tennis recap

CROSS COUNTRY: Fremont’s Juan Gonzalez ran to history at the state cross country championships. Check out that story and a recap of each of the eight state races. Full state cross country recap

Playoff Weekend (In Pictures)