Sure, last Wednesday was a big day for volleyball in the state of Nebraska. A dream day that saw over 92,000 fans pack Memorial Stadium for Volleyball Day in Nebraska. It was a true statement of Girl Power. Tonight, however, might be more important for the teams and coaches and seasons.

No. 4 Nebraska will host No. 16 Creighton for the first time in Lincoln since 2019 and the Bob is sold out. Game preview Down the interstate, fresh off an unbeaten weekend to start the season, Nebraska-Kearney is attempting to take back the NCAA Division II attendance record when they host Peru State. The Lopers had held the record for 26 years before Alaska-Anchorage topped it last season.

Let’s dive in to the mid-week Newsletter and see if the Lopers can get legend coach Rick Squiers to play the drums.

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: 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).

Sandy Creek 46, Riverside 14. You know, it’s kind of nice to have Sandy Creek (RV in our coaches poll) football back in our minds again. The Cougars are off to a 2-0 start after a little more dominating than expected win over Riverside on Friday afternoon. SC jumped to a 40-0 halftime lead on the Chargers. Quarterback Ethan Shaw — his dad is who you think it is — has put together a pair of good performances. Friday is the ultimate yardstick game as they host No. 4 Exeter-Milligan/Friend.

North Platte St. Pat’s 36, Hi-Line 32. One that could be a preview of a really, really important November game saw Class D-1, No. 1 St. Pat’s come back from down 32-21 to top No. 5 Hi-Line 36-32. Hi-Line quarterback Ryker Evans (and Air Force commit) had 193 yards passing and 97 yards rushing. No stats were available for North Platte St. Pat’s. Watch a full replay here.

Gretna East 63, Omaha Buena Vista 6. The history maker for the Griffins as they get their first win in school history. Ryan Armstrong ran for 110 yards and Mason Gunn carried four times for 93 yards with three touchdowns as GE scored 56 points in the first half. Many more to come for the Griffins is our guess.

RANK ‘EM: Our first shake up at the top came on Friday when Class C-2, No. 1 Ord was a 31-14 victim to No. 2 Norfolk Catholic. The Chants drop to No. 4 this week with the Knights now on top. The other six preseason No. 1 teams are still the same: Omaha Westside, Bennington, Boone Central, North Platte St. Patrick’s, South Loup and Parkview Christian. See the whole list of our coaches picks here for September 3. 

BANKING: In the last two weeks, everyone has shown Mike Sautter how much they love high school football. Over 500,000 votes in his Pinnacle Bank Game-of-the-Week poll. Four more good ones to get you going for this Friday! You can still vote for your choice until noon today. 

A LITTLE BIT AT A TIME: Over the next few weeks, the volleyball season will come into focus but so far, we have identified some standout teams that have their eyes on finishing their season in Lincoln.

Papio South looks the part in Class A. Omaha Skutt as well in Class B as they go for their ninth straight state championship. The Skyhawks went 3-3 over the weekend in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Tampa, FL. Their challengers will come in focus soon, but for Skutt it seems that Bennington and Nebraska commit Olivia Mauch may be inching closer.

Class C-1 appears to be set up for a load of fun. The top-six teams are currently unbeaten with Southwest Conference neighbors Minden and Gothenburg at the top with Douglas County West and then Centennial Conference foes Kearney Catholic and GICC unblemished, too. Platteview also receives high marks from our coaches.

Lincoln Lutheran has a full grasp on Class C-2. The defending champions still look the part, with Clarkson/Leigh, Oakland-Craig and Fremont Bergan nipping at their heels. Those four teams are in just two conferences. You might see them a few times before November.

It’s conference mates in Class D as well, as Amherst (5-0) leads D-1 and Overton (6-0) leads D-2. Both are in the Fort Kearney Conference and have plenty of chasers. These should be two very competitive classes as the season moves on.

ALL THE SCORES // SEASON POWER POINTS // UPDATED COACHES POLL

RUNNIN’ AND RUNNIN’: Nearly every team in the state has kicked off their cross country season by now and we’ll now see most every team in the state running once a week. One of the biggest new races in the state takes place this Friday as the Platte River Rumble is held at Mahoney State Park. There will be eight races during the day with the large school races starting the day at 8:30 (girls) and 9:10 (boys). The Prep Running Nerd team will have full coverage. Also, THE NERDSLETTER!!

More XC: The updated coaches team rankings: Class A. Class B. Class C. Class D, not available. INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS College kids: Two of our favorites — Berlyn Schutz (Nebraska) and Carson Noecker (South Dakota State) — were champions at the Augustana Twilight.

MILESTONE WIN: The heat — kind of — subsided and we were able to get in a full week of softball last week. Our most current Coaches Poll was released last Thursday. You can take a peek here, in case you missed it. The big event of the past weekend was the NFCA Katie Williams Memorial Classic, which featured 24 teams from four states. Still, it was the locals that shined as Papillion-LaVista got coach Mike Petersen his 500th win when they defeated Gretna 7-5 in the championship game. FULL TOURNAMENT RECAP

ALL THE SCORES // SEASON POWER POINTS // METRO CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

The Rear View Mirror: A Miss in Minnesota

DRIVING HOME FROM CROSS COUNTRY — The Nebraska football season kicked off at the end of a cross country meet on Thursday. It had turned into a decent little night to run especially as the sun went down.

And, then we turned the radio on. I love an old school radio broadcast for a Husker football game. Sometimes wish the football we executed was a good as Greg Sharpe and Damon Benning.

READ THE FULL REAR VIEW MIRROR FROM MINNESOTA HERE.

Parting Shot: Being Social

JOIN US: We’d love to have you hang out with us on social media and also follow our photographers as we take you to gyms and fields across the state. On the weekend you can see the Friday night trips from our Dante Boelhower and Andrew Placke. Make sure to click and follow them on Instagram. You can also follow Flatwater Sports on Twitter and TikTok as well. We think we are just getting started.

Our first fun venture was a Week One trip to Ord where we followed the No. 4 Chants in their football opener with Central City. Later this week, we’ll have some sights and sounds from our trip.