A slightly abbreviated Wednesday Newsletter (we lied, almost 1,600 words) as we try to get mentally prepared for a big rest of the week, while recapping the awesomeness that was the new look state softball finals.

Football brackets are coming!! The volleyball postseason will soon be upon us and the stretch run to Thanksgiving week is going to come quicker than we think.

As always, we’d love if you shared our content with your friends by forwarding this e-mail if you find the content to be worthy of the first few minutes of your day. We appreciate you being with us on this journey.

The High School Roundup

A lot of things to do and get you caught up on for a Wednesday in high school sports. We change it up on you a little this week and skip the football (we have way more of that coming your way soon) and dig right in to the state softball finals that were held on Monday at Omaha’s Connie Claussen Field.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW: We find it amazing that folks got on the Twitter machine for 24 hours (and counting) on Monday to express their DISAPPOINTMENT in the new NSAA format for the softball finals. Woof.

Is it perfect? Probably not yet. We hear parents getting seats was a tough ask and there likely isn’t a better man in the NSAA office in Lincoln than Ron Higdon who will make every little tweak he can for next year’s event to be even better.

But, man, the CROWDS. The kids getting to be on television for the first time ever. The players coming back to throw out first pitches and promote and grow girls (women’s) sports. I don’t know, if you want to waste your time thinking that Monday wasn’t “fair” or the “right way” to do softball, then, welp I don’t know what to say.

As a guy who has stayed at a winner-take-all game in Hastings at 4:43 on a Friday afternoon before high school football that night, I can tell you it sure never looked like this. Mike Sautter summed it up pretty well. 

Papillion-LaVista 10, Millard North 3. Both Papio and Millard North had to scratch and fight their way to the championship game on Monday in Hastings as both fought off elimination to set up the title contest. The Monarchs — who have NEVER MISSED the state tournament — used a 5-run fifth inning to earn their 17th state championship over the Mustangs. They got a complete game from Amanda Gibilisco and a pair of 3-for-4 outings from Presley Ivener and Avery Wolfe. CELEBRATION

Northwest 9, Blair 8. Ali, Frazier. Nebraska, Oklahoma 1971. This epic dual had it all. Five lead changes, two ties. Both teams had their aces run out of the circle after being hit hard. In the end, the Vikings had one more timely hit. Tied heading to the bottom of the seventh, Northwest got help from the bottom of their lineup to load the bases before Kyra Ray walked it off in dramatic fashion. The Vikings won their second consecutive Class B championship. RAY’S WALK OFF

Ashland-Greenwood 2, Bishop Neumann 0. As much timely hitting as their was in the Class B game, they were due. Because the opener was filled with timely defense and pitching from Bluejay ace Sofia Dill. Neumann left 14 on base while outhitting A-G, but the Jays got two timely plays and it was enough. Reese Fisher’s long single scored Joselyn Sargent after she reached on an error and Ellie Stein’s insurance home run in the seventh. It was the Jays first state title in a girls sport since 1983. COACH SPEAK

Again, why was this a bad idea?

Spartans, Wolves Take Tennis Crowns

CLASS A: Much like a season ago, there was little stopping Lincoln East from the Class A state team championship. The Spartans won every bracket and lost only one set at the state meet. East lost just a single match all season. Amazing stuff as they had Hunter Nelson (35-0) at No. 1 Singles, Joseph Bucknell (34-1) and No. 2 Singles, Caden Haar and Samarth Sajeesh (42-0) at No. 1 Doubles and Yakeb Islamov and Kayden Le (42-0) at No. 2 Doubles.

CLASS B: It was almost the opposite in Class B, as Elkhorn North snuck out a close win over Elkhorn Mt. Michael and Grand Island Central Catholic. The Wolves finished with 39 points, Mt. Michael with 37.25 and GICC with 36.75 with the team runner-up trophy being decided at No. 2 doubles. North won their title without an individual champion, but was the only school to have two finalists.

Champions were Aiden McDowell (Crete) at No. 1 singles, Moritz Kaufmann (Hastings) at No. 2 singles, Patrick Killeen and Noah Stricklett (Elkhorn Mt. Michael) at No. 1 doubles and Ben Mooss and Andrew Penrod (Lincoln Christian) at No. 2 doubles. Mooss and Penrod were the eighth-seed.

Eight-Man Playoff Headquarters

The qualifying round the NSAA Eight-Man football playoffs is Thursday, October 20. This opening round features 32 teams in each class (D-1 and D-2) with the 16 winners on Thursday advancing to a re-seeded brackets that will track to the state championship games at Memorial Stadium.

On this page, we’ll highlight all the games with game times and streaming information. Post game, we’ll update the scores and look for stories to share here as well. If you see that we miss any information on your team’s games, let us know at our Twitter page and we’ll do our best to get it updated. While your at the game, also have the NE ScoreFeed app available on your phone.

Stay up with all things 8-man football as well with the guy over at 8by80.com and their podcast. FULL HQ PAGE HERE

First Falcons

PERFECT FIRST — There will surely be a focus on Lancaster County cross country teams as the Nebraska state meet runs on Friday at Kearney Country Club.

The Lincoln East girls will try for their sixth consecutive state title in Class A and Norris will attempt to take a third straight Class B title with a team that’s filled with medal contenders. The Titans even defeated East at this year’s Platte River Rumble in September.

But there is another team making history on Friday with just very small intentions of a state championship. Last Wednesday at Overton Golf Club, the Lincoln Northwest girls team medaled three runners in the top-15 and finished third in the B-3 district.

FULL STORY ON LINCOLN NORTHWEST XC HERE

Quick Hitters

RANK ‘EM: As we head to the final week of the regular season, the nebpreps Coaches Poll for football presented by Pinnacle Bank still has five preseason No. 1 teams at the top: Omaha Westside, Bennington, Boone Central, North Platte St. Patrick’s and South Loup. The others are Norfolk Catholic (C-2) and SEM (Six-Man). Can they survive the playoffs to a title? We find out soon enough. See the whole list of our coaches picks here for October 15. 

VOLLEYBALL UPDATE: We close in on the postseason in volleyball as sub-district tournaments will be next week and the Metro and Heartland Athletic Conference are playing tournaments this week leading into postseason play. Those results will have an impact on our final regular season coaches poll next week. Here is where we stand this week. UPDATED COACHES POLL

A packed gym for Class B, No. 2 Norris’ 3-1 win over Class C-2, No. 1 Lincoln Lutheran on Tuesday night. Mike Sautter game thread // Christina Boesiger Post-Game

ALL THE SCORES // SEASON POWER POINTS 

RUNNIN’ TO KEARNEY: The hay is in the barn, so to speak for the state’s best cross country runners who have qualified for the state meet in Kearney on Friday. We’ll be there — to cheer, to cover, maybe some photos. We’ll do our best to bring you the story. The cell service stinks, so expect much of this to come Friday night and Saturday. We promise to do our best, but you also should do the Prep Running Nerd follow if you have not already done so. “It’s go time.”

Pre-State (Post-District??) Rankings // Class A Team // Class B Team // Class C Team // Class D Team

Parting Shot: In Pictures