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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to watch the different football teams around Antelope County as they prepare for the 2016 season. The first thing that stood out to me when I thought back on what I’ve seen was how different each team is. While Neligh-Oakdale, Elgin Public/Pope John, Clearwater-Orchard and Elkhorn Valley are all successful eight-man football teams, they all go about practicing very differently.
That’s why I’ve decided to introduce the first edition of Antelope County superlatives. These are based off of my first thoughts of each team from watching either a practice or simply getting to know the teams. Now, without further ado: MOST LIKELY TO MAKE YOU NERVOUS WHEN THEY WALK OFF THE BUS: Elkhorn Valley Falcons. When you watch this team, the first thing you’ll notice is that they have some stout fellas on the field. The team has a fantastic weight program and it is clear that coach Brendan Dittmar has made sure his guys have taken advantage of it. For example, Dylan Wilkins, Koby Smith and Ezequiel Pena make up a line that passes the eye test as well as anyone in the county. MOST LIKELY TO CHUG ENERGY DRINKS BEFORE PRACTICE: Clearwater-Orchard Cyclones. Boy, does this team get you excited for football. They just seem to have so much fun out there. Part of that starts at the top, with head coach Jeff Shabram and assistant coach Dan Roeber. Those two are constantly talking with the players, keeping them motivated, in good spirits and keeping them on their toes. The players just never seem to get tired, either. They are constantly on the go, and they make plenty of noise while doing so. MOST LIKELY TO MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR GRABBING AT SMOKE: Neligh-Oakdale Warriors. These guys are quick. There aren’t many guys that will tower over you, height wise, but what they lack in height overall they make up for with speed. No player exemplifies that more than Grant White. His talent has been talked about over and over this offseason, but it’s truly something watching a kid like him get to work. Listed at 5’9”, he’s not going to make opposing linebackers nervous before the snap, but once the play gets going, many of them will struggle not to trip over themselves trying to keep up with him. MOST LIKELY TO REMIND THEIR COACH THAT HE GRADUATED COLLEGE BEFORE THEY WERE EVEN BORN: Elgin Public/Pope John Wolfpack. Now that’s not a shot a coach Randy Eisenhauer, who doesn’t qualify as old by any means. It’s more a fact that these guys are young. Very young. After losing 10 seniors from 2015, a young team was expected. Coach Eisenhauer will especially look to a strong sophomore class to help fill the losses on the depth chart, including likely starting quarterback Hunter Reestman. Now, on to this week’s game of the week. As there are no volleyball games this week, we will only be doing a football game for this week. I, along with much of the Antelope County News crew and News Channel Nebraska, will be on the sidelines as Creighton travels to Neligh-Oakdale Thursday evening to start the 2016 season. It should be a great match up, with both teams potential all-state players all over the field. Help us decide next week’s games of the week. Facebook us, e-mail me, or simply post in the comment section what game you think we should be at next week and why. We have both football and volleyball next week, so we will be picking one of both. I was scrolling through some articles in my hometown newspaper the other day and came across one that caught my eye. It was a surprise to me because it actually had relevance to our area, three hours away from where this paper is published.
The article was talking about the proposed reclassification rules for Nebraska high school football. The way it works now is the NSAA determines a school’s classification by their three-grade (ninth through twelfth grade) enrollment for boys and girls combined. But the proposed rule, which would go into effect in 2018 at the earliest if approved, would consider only male students. It would also include numerical cutoffs introduced to standardize the ratios in each class between the largest and smallest schools. What's being proposed is
What does this mean? The higher enrollment cutoff for playoff eligibility is potentially huge, as it could effect schools like Neligh-Oakdale. The Warriors are ineligible for this year’s playoffs because they had too many students in grades 9-11. The current cutoff is 83 students (again, that's girls and boys combined). Neligh-Oakdale is far from the only school that is dealing with this issue. As it stands right now, there are 11 schools in D1 that are not eligible for the playoffs because of enrollment. Many, like Neligh-Oakdale, chose to remain in D1 rather than move up to C2 because their number of players is so low. The Warriors' school enrollment shows they should be playing 11-man football, but they only have 18 on the team. 76 Percent Will Make Playoffs Think about this. Because so many Class D1 teams can't make the playoffs, that leaves only 42 teams competing for the 32 playoff spots. Seventy-six percent of teams will be in the playoffs, and that takes away a bit of the competitiveness in the playoffs, in my opinion. Why Play Down A Class? The No. 1 factor in this decision should be player safety. Forcing teams to play in 11-man despite not having enough players to do so is just asking to get a kid fatigued and hurt. No. 2 should be competitiveness. Numbers are going down in many areas of high school sports, and part of that can be attributed to the lack of competitiveness. If a team has a history of going out and get their tails kicked each week, kids often don’t want to be a part of that. The NSAA must do what it can to keep all teams in a fair position to compete. On that same note, if a team is ineligible for playoffs, potential players may not want to go out as they feel there isn’t much of a reason for them to play that sport if they can’t win anything. If the NSAA is maintaining limits that are unreasonable for a team to reach in order to play competitively, it will subsequently cause players to choose another sport. Many of Neligh-Oakdale's 18 players are freshman whose bodies were noticeably smaller than their older teammates. The current rules have Neligh-Oakdale banned from the playoffs because of the schools total enrollment, yet they can hardly field a team right now that is big enough to practice offense and defense at the same time, including the smaller freshman who would be competing against the top competition the area presents. That is simply not safe for any of the players involved. The new NSAA proposals are a step in the right direction to keep players safe and keep teams competitive. My only complaint is that it hasn't happened yet. Game of the Week I also have a special announcement for everyone. With this being my first year as the sports editor for the My Local County News team, I'm planning to cover a game of the week. I'll pick one football and one volleyball (and subsequently basketball and wrestling and so on) game each week out of the Antelope, Boone, Holt and Knox County to attend as our feature of the week. This gives me an opportunity to get out and see some of the top area teams, while at the same time hopefully meeting many of you readers. Don't worry, we'll still be at other games, too. All of the teams will get lots of coverage. No worries. Now, I said I wanted this to be fun for everyone. Meeting me may not be as exciting for you guys as it is for me, believe me. So, the fun part for you all is that I want you to help me choose the games each week. Comment on the story or on Facebook, e-mail me at [email protected] or simply stop into the office and tell me what games I should be at each week. But you have to tell me why I should be there. I am a fan of good athletes, and this area is full of them. So, help direct me to the best games. The game of the week will be announced each week when The Orchard News/Antelope County News is published. I'm looking forward to a great sports season and am excited to get your input.  Editor's Note: As the 2016-2017 school year approaches, many young athletes are preparing to step foot on the field, court or golf course. Many of those athletes have dreams of playing in college, but how does an athlete get to the next level? That’s the question that we look to answer in this series, X’s and O’s of the recruiting process. For the next four weeks, we will talk with people who have seen the recruiting process unfold from different angles during their careers. We will talk with a former recruiting department employee, coaches and players that have earned scholarships or walked on to a university team. While the focus will be primarily on football recruiting, the advice is still applicable to volleyball, basketball and track athletes as well. The process is nearly the same across all sports. While there may be slight variances in the way it is carried out, the idea is still the same. The biggest thing an athlete needs to do is get exposure. There are various ways to get that exposure to colleges and we will discuss that over the duration of the series. In the final part of our series, we speak with Neligh-Oakdale graduate and former Husker Tyler Legate, as well as Boone Central/Newman Grove graduate and current Husker Wyatt Mazour. Legate was a three-year starter at fullback for Nebraska while Mazour is a current redshirt freshman who looks to make his mark as a running back and kick returner in 2016. They told us their walk-on stories and offered advice for potential walk-ons.  While many young kids dream of earning an all-expenses paid trip to college to play the sport of their choice, the reality is that there are only a few scholarships available. For example, most division one football teams take approximately 25 scholarships athletes in any given recruiting class.
However, the lack of available scholarships does not mean the end of the road for aspiring athletes. Most colleges will take on many walk-ons as well, non-scholarship athletes that are still members of the team, but they are paying their own way through school. Nebraska is a state where the walk-on tradition is very prevalent. During the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ championship run in the 1990s, the walk-on program provided many athletes the chance to compete and contribute for the school. In 2015 against Rutgers, Nebraska listed 13 different walk-ons in their two-deep for the game, including five starters. Neligh-Oakdale graduate Tyler Legate and Boone Central/Newman Grove graduate Wyatt Mazour are two members of the Nebraska walk-on tradition. Legate walked on to Nebraska in 2007 before eventually earning the starting fullback job in his three years for the Huskers. Mazour is currently a redshirt freshman for Nebraska after choosing to walk-on over scholarship offers from various division two and NAIA schools. “It’s everybody’s dream and it was one of my dreams since I was a kid,” Mazour said of walking on at Nebraska. There are multiple ways to earn a spot on a team as a walk-on. Many teams will reach out to athletes after they have filled their scholarships and extend a preferred walk-on offer. Many of these kids exhibited the abilities or characteristics a coach wants in a player and the coaches believe they can help the team, despite not being a scholarship athlete. A preferred walk-on is guaranteed a spot on the team, like a scholarship athlete, but they must pay for their education in other ways. Mazour was considered a preferred walk-on. Other walk-ons, such as was the case for Legate, have to find another way to join the team. Often, that is done through a walk-on tryout. The coaches for a school will host one or two tryouts a year that are open to students to showcase their athletic talents in hopes of impressing the coaches. A strong agility or 40 yard dash time can help an athlete get a chance with the team. Once on the team, it is up to the walk-on to push themselves in order to earn playing time. “When I was on scholarship at South Dakota, if there was a walk-on, I got 10 chances to his one to do good,” explained Legate, who started his career at South Dakota before moving on to Nebraska. “As a walk-on for Nebraska, I got one to someone’s 10.” Not only does a walk-on have to work harder when they are on the team, they tend to have to put in extra work to get the attention to become a walk-on. A walk-on should market themselves just like any other player. Often, they might see a player post similar numbers to theirs, yet the other player gets more attention. “It’s frustrating,” said Mazour. “There’s a lot of luck involved.” Mazour said, regardless of how frustrating it gets, to not give up. He went to as many camps as he could during the offseason to gain exposure to various coaches. He also took the time to send game film to coaches and even mailed and e-mailed coaches to keep himself on their radar. “I truly believed I should be DI,” he said. That mentality is one that anyone, walk-on or scholarship, should maintain if they want to reach that level. That is why Legate chose to leave South Dakota for Nebraska. “I played in the Shrine Bowl with some kids that were actually playing a bit (at Nebraska) and I thought I paired up well with them,” he said. Oftentimes, a coaching change at a school can mean more opportunity for a walk-on to earn a spot. “When there’s a coaching change, guys get chances that they maybe wouldn’t have before,” said Legate, who joined the team after Bo Pelini took over as head coach. Mazour joined the team shortly after Mike Riley took over. For any player, luck and timing can mean a chance to play football. If a player has dreams of playing college sports, but they are not getting the scholarship offers they want, it is important to keep working. Hard work is a staple of walk-ons and coaches take notice of the hardest working athletes on a team. “Think about how much you really want it and how much you’re willing to sacrifice to be a collegiate athlete,” said Mazour. As with any potential recruit, and possibly more so, it is important for a potential walk-on to keep a clean academic and social record. When colleges are trying to fill their team with walk-ons, they will look towards players that won’t cause them problems first. They will contact high schools and family members to find out what kind of a person a player is. “Every day is a recruiting process,” said Legate. Legate and Mazour encourage any athlete that aims to play college football to not give up. It is a tough process and many kids can get overlooked because they don’t put in the effort. If a player wants to walk-on, many times a college will have a walk-on coordinator or liaison that they can contact.  Editor's Note: As the 2016-2017 school year approaches, many young athletes are preparing to step foot on the field, court or golf course. Many of those athletes have dreams of playing in college, but how does an athlete get to the next level? That’s the question that we look to answer in this series, X’s and O’s of the recruiting process. For the next four weeks, we will talk with people who have seen the recruiting process unfold from different angles during their careers. We will talk with a former recruiting department employee, coaches and players that have earned scholarships or walked on to a university team. While the focus will be primarily on football recruiting, the advice is still applicable to volleyball, basketball and track athletes as well. The process is nearly the same across all sports. While there may be slight variances in the way it is carried out, the idea is still the same. The biggest thing an athlete needs to do is get exposure. There are various ways to get that exposure to colleges and we will discuss that over the duration of the series. In part three of our series this week, we speak with former Husker and NFL wide receiver Brandon Kinnie. Kinnie is currently among the top 15 receivers in school history for receptions and his three touchdown performance against Oklahoma State in 2010 is tied for the best performance in school history. He spent time explaining his journey to college football and what lessons other athletes can learn from him.  Playing college sports can be a very rewarding experience for a player, but there are many things to consider when deciding where to go and how to get there.
Brandon Kinnie, originally a Kansas City, Mo. product, played wide receiver for the Nebraska Cornhuskers from 2009 to 2012 after transferring from Fort Scott Community College. After graduating, he went on to spend time in the National Football League with the Kansas City Chiefs before joining the Omaha Beef. Thanks to his journey from Kansas City to a top level football player, Kinnie has seen many highs and lows when trying to continue his career, particularly during the college recruiting process. An outstanding natural athlete, Kinnie teamed up with future professional quarterback Josh Freeman in high school, a combination that first helped him get college’s attention. He began hearing from colleges as a sophomore in high school. He was celebrated for his athletic ability so much so that he didn’t make the other part of “student-athlete” a priority. “I wasn’t as focused as I should have been in high school,” Kinnie admitted. That lack of focus lead to poor academics for him and, after initially committing to join Freeman at Kansas State, Kinnie was forced to attend Junior College to improve his grades. While he was still able to reach his goal of playing D1 football, it was a much more difficult route. Kinnie said he hopes his journey to correct his academics can be a lesson for young athletes looking to attend a top college. Aside from his academics, Kinnie’s biggest regret about the recruiting process is that he didn’t attend more camps to get his name out there more. “If I had to tell the young guys anything, it’d definitely be to go out to those camps and work out and get in front of the coaches,” he said. “I wish I would have went to more.” The one camp he did attend was a camp put on by scout.com in Iowa. His performance at that camp gave his recruitment a noticeable boost, one that many top athletes can get from attending camps. When he started talking with potential colleges, it was Kinnie’s high school coaches that helped him figure out what was important to look for. They determined he needed to find a place that his play would be appreciated, where he could get a good team atmosphere and a place he could simply enjoy the experiences of being a college athlete. He also made a point to ask potential coaches questions of his own. Kinnie said it is important to find out as much information as you can about a school, especially the information that is most important to you. Find out what the opportunities for playing time will be for yourself. Get a good idea of how easy the playbook will be for you to learn so you aren’t held off the field because of difficulties learning it. Also, find out about every day life at the school, including life off the field. It is important visit potential schools as well. Doing so gives an prospect the chance to see the campus, meet coaches and professors and get a feel for the atmosphere of the program. When looking at transfer schools after his time in junior college, Kinnie committed to Nebraska because of what he experienced on his visit. His mom joined him and enjoyed the school. He loved the atmosphere, particularly during the spring game. He also enjoyed the school because it was near his home, which allowed his mom more chances to watch him play. While Kinnie advised athletes to focus on their grades, attend camps and visit various schools, his final piece of advice is the most vital to him. “Most importantly, just have fun with the process,” he said. When people set large goals for themselves, they often work so hard at reaching their milestone that they forget to enjoy the process. Kinnie wants athletes to remember to enjoy the time practicing, training and playing football in high school. Learn the game and learn to enjoy it. Keep your body in shape and make memories doing so. Control what you can control on the field, and enjoy the game regardless of where it takes you.  Great news! Football season is just around the corner!
It may be a bit more delayed than we had anticipated - I’m looking at you, NFL grounds crew - but it is nearly here! Saturday, we get to watch Dallas take on Los Angeles. Hopefully we get to see plenty of number one overall draft pick Jared Goff and very little of Dallas’s darling Tony Romo. After that, we don’t have to deal with another football-less Sunday until February. The Huskers will kick off soon after, as they look to avoid the last-minute losses that plagued the 2015 season. If they can figure out a way around the inexperience along the defensive line, I think they may be in for a strong season this year. Here’s hoping they are able to bring home some real hardware this season. However, the real eye, at least for myself, will be on high school sports this year. I’ve always enjoyed a good Friday night football game. Watching my little brother play in his senior homecoming game a few years ago gave me a bout of nostalgia that resurfaces every year. Honestly though, outside of a few games of his, I’ve barely been to a high school game since I graduated myself. I’ve had little reason to really. If I heard about a stud athlete playing in town that week, I’d maybe head over to the stadium to watch, but that was only if I had nothing better to do. This year is different, though. Besides the fact that it’s what I get paid to do now, I’m back in northeast Nebraska, where a Friday night football game shuts down the town. The volleyball players, cross country runners and band members alike all show up to the field to cheer on the town’s team against the rival from 15 minutes away. Players parents are there cheering on their kid and their friends show up to support, socialize and kick off the weekend together. During a big game in particular, such as homecoming, you may even see some families outside with a grill, as if it was a Husker morning. The players that take the field in northeast Nebraska have a reputation for being not only some of the best athletes in Class C, D and six man, but some of the toughest. One can go to other parts of the state for a game, and I can guarantee you will hear someone mention how tough they were played by a team from this area at some point. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to watch the volleyball teams make their bid at a state championship and the cross country runners run distances in a single practice that I can’t run in a month, but there is just something about a Friday night football game in northeast Nebraska. Neligh-Oakdale boasts some of the top players in the state. Clearwater-Orchard has to face the challenge of topping their deep run in the playoffs in 2015. Up north, Creighton is considered one of the teams to beat in Class D1. Boone Central/Newman Grove is a perennial contender in Class C1. Riverside has won two straight state championships and boasts some of the most talented players in six-man football. Chambers/Wheeler Central returns players from the Class D2 runner-up team from last year that look to finish the job this year. All that starts in just a few short weeks. We get our football fix the next few weeks with pre-season football, and then it’s time to roll in week one. The players are getting anxious and have been waiting all summer to hit the gridiron again. They are excited. Trust me, I am too.  Editor's Note: As the 2016-2017 school year approaches, many young athletes are preparing to step foot on the field, court or golf course. Many of those athletes have dreams of playing in college, but how does an athlete get to the next level? That’s the question that we look to answer in this series, X’s and O’s of the recruiting process. For the next four weeks, we will talk with people who have seen the recruiting process unfold from different angles during their careers. We will talk with a former recruiting department employee, coaches and players that have earned scholarships or walked on to a university team. While the focus will be primarily on football recruiting, the advice is still applicable to volleyball, basketball and track athletes as well. The process is nearly the same across all sports. While there may be slight variances in the way it is carried out, the idea is still the same. The biggest thing an athlete needs to do is get exposure. There are various ways to get that exposure to colleges and we will discuss that over the duration of the series. In part two of our series this week, we learn about the recruiting process from a coach's point of view. We talked with Neligh-Oakdale coach Ron Beacom and former Boone Central/Newman Grove coach Arnie Johnson. The two have helped send various players on to play at every level of college football, including current Huskers Cole Conrad and Wyatt Mazour.  When a player decides he or she wants to play college sports, one of their first contacts is their high school coach.
Arnie Johnson, former head football coach for Boone Central/Newman Grove, and Ron Beacom, head football coach for Neligh-Oakdale, have combined for more than 60 years of coaching experience in Nebraska. The two coaches have sent players to nearly every level of college football, including multiple walk-ons at the University of Nebraska. Over their careers, Johnson and Beacom have had the chance to learn what a future college athlete looks like. Beacom said one of the biggest indicators is how motivated a player is on the field. “If they play with a high sense of urgency all the time, I think they have a chance to play at the next level,” he explained. Johnson noted that he has seen many kids with the ability to play in college, but they are missing another important quality. “Sometimes kids have a lot of ability,” he said. “But their heart isn’t into it.” Johnson made a practice during his time as a coach of inviting anyone that had a desire to play college football to visit with him. They would talk about a player’s goals, where they wanted to play and how they planned to get there. Early on in his career, that consisted of mostly seniors. However, in recent years, as the recruiting process sped up, juniors and even sophomores would often have to start considering their options for the future. One reason for the sped up recruiting process is due to services such as HUDL. Players for both coaches have used the service to create highlight films for themselves and sent them to college coaches in hopes of getting noticed. Johnson has noticed that the service has helped his players. “They (HUDL) gave a possibility to someone from our small towns to get recognized,” he said. Once a college has seen a player’s film, oftentimes they will set up meetings with that player. Beacom believes kids should use that meeting as an interview for their “potential full-time job” as a college athlete. “Don’t let them ask all the questions,” Beacom suggested. “Make sure to also ask questions that important to you.” While ultimately, it is the player’s decision where they want to go, both coaches have been happy to use the many connections they’ve made to get a player to their dream school. A coach with plenty of experience and a good reputation, such as both Beacom and Johnson, can be a huge asset to a player trying to get recognized by a specific school. “At the end of my career, if I’d have called and said ‘Hey this kid’s good’, they would say ‘We’re going to take a look at him,’” Johnson explained. With such a small amount of time to search through the many possible recruits, colleges are trying to efficiently find players that will be good for their system. If a player has a trusted coach that will vouch for them, it gives them a better chance at getting a chance at their school of choice. Besides the coaches talking with their connections, they are also to help a player market themselves by finding camps for the players to go to. Johnson believes a player must get out and show themselves off to the colleges they are interested in by attending their camps. The camps test athletic attributes of players such as speed, agility and quickness and gives athletes a chance to introduce themselves to coaches. Going to a camp in top physical condition can help a recruit pass the eye test of a coach as well. With so much competition, if a recruit shows up to a camp overweight or with poor conditioning, coaches may look at other prospects, regardless of how well the recruit tested. Besides taking care of yourself physically, Beacom stressed the importance of working hard in the classroom, also. “Make sure you look at all of the eligibility requirements,” he suggested. “Continue to do the best you can on the academic side of things.” Most colleges that are not considered “DI” level schools are not able to give full athletic scholarships. In many division two, three or NAIA schools, the athletic scholarships are often 33 percent or 50 percent scholarships. If a recruit has a good academic record, it allows the colleges to put together a stronger financial package for the player to help pay for their education while they play sports. Over the years, both Beacom and Johnson have had the fortune to see great athletes pass through their programs and go on to play college sports. Those athletes do not make it to the next level accidentally. “It’s not something that just happens,” Johnson said. “You have to show a commitment to what you want to do.” |
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