UNLimited Sports Magazine Fall 2021 Issue 2 by UNLimited Sports

‘21 winter ‘21 WINTER

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The Tip-off

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Photo by Jacob Osborn UNLimited_12.21

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Photo by Jessica Blum

UN L i m i t e d S p o rts WINTER 2021

Talk a walk down candy cane lane at the North Pole in Downtown Lincoln. Photo by Annie Walter

J O U R N A L I STS Justin Allen Hugh Anderson Abby Barmore Jessica Blum Jayden Brown Makayla Curtis Nolan Dorn Emma Hastings Samuel Jacobson Jason Kraus Peter Krenzer Sydney Long Matthew Ludwig Daniel Magnuson Jacob Miller Jacob Osborn Andrew Pfeifer Hugh Regester Chase Stubbs Annie Walter DESIGN Jessica Blum CO N TAC T U S: unlimitedsportsne@gmail.com O N T H E W E B: nebraskanewsservice.net/sports https://issuu.com/unlimitedsport3 The best stories in sports that you’ve never heard about before. @Unl_CoJMC‘s first online student-run sports publication.

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Photo by Annie Walter

UN Li m i t e d

Sports MAGAZINE

VOL. 03 | ISSUE 02

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Behind the scenes of Nebraska’s sports media student-athletes | MATTHEW LUDWIG & HUGH ANDERSON

Q&A: Indianapolis Colts guard, Chris Reed, back in the Midwest and thriving | PETER KRENZER

From lacrosse to Huskers football for NY’s Casey Rogers | JASON KRAUS

Where are all the Zebras? And I am not talking about the wild animal. | JAYDEN BROWN

A school-first for three female UNL broadcasting students | JACOB MILLER

Marcel Blackbird helps youth find hope through Nebraska’s Red Carpet Experience | CHASE STUBBS

If you can see it, you can be it: How volleyball in Nebraska created a cycle of greatness | ABBY BARMORE

Keonilei Akana: From Hawaii to Nebraska through volleyball | DANIEL MAGNUSON

As tough as they come: Addie Schiemann won’t let amputation slow her down in the pool | JUSTIN ALLEN

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Former Nebraska baseball coach, Darin Erstad, staying local in Lincoln and enjoying family time | JACOB MILLER

Back in Nebraska: How John Baylor reached his final destination after a long bumpy road | CHASE STUBBS

Overwhelmed outcry: Without an official outlet, club-athletes turn to each other | JESSICA BLUM

Beers, boys and babies: Amateur hockey goalie deals with the stresses of daily life, starting a family | NOLAN DORN

Recruiting trends: Why are some states recruited more than others? | EMMA HASTINGS

Taekwondo: The mind and body sport helps UNL sport club-athletes gain confidence, self-defense skills | ANNIE WALTER

What it means to be a Huskers sports videographer | DANIEL MAGNUSON

A Black graduate assistant looks to impact diversity in Nebraska’s athletics department | SYDNEY LONG

Despite a lack of recent success, the future looks bright for Nebraska track and field | HUGH REGESTER

Streaming video games: UNL female creates safe space for viewers | ANNIE WALTER

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The Tip-off

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CO N T’D

From breaking noses to breaking down plays, UNL broadcasting student combines wrestling with radio | ANDREW PFEIFER

Betting regulations changing in the Husker state | SAM JACOBSON & JASON KRAUS

Sigma Alpha Epsilon members live out their athletic passions through UNL intramural sports | MATTHEW LUDWIG & HUGH ANDERSON

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UNL student confronts addiction, learns to balance gaming and school | JACOB OSBORN

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Football student manager lives out his dream to be more than a Huskers fan | HUGH REGESTER

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A day in the life of a UNL sport club golfer: Hilton Head edition | SAM JACOBSON

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Female coach for UNL men’s rugby brings intensity, fresh perspective | JESSICA BLUM

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A day of fundraising for suicide prevention ends unexpectedly | PETER KRENZER

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Scan the QR code to HEAR the full story

TYLER MARTIN, A 6-FOOT 2, 185-POUND PITCHER FOR NEBRASKA, CELEBRATES AFTER STRIKING OUT A BATTER. HUSKERS.COM COURTesY PHOTO

SPORTS UTOPIA BEHIND THE SCENES OF Nebraska’s SPORTS MEDIA STUDENT-ATHLETES By Hugh Anderson & Matthew Ludwig

he University of Nebraska-Lincoln is known for its athletics and more Academic All-Americans than anyone

— 347. Out of more than 150 majors at UNL, one seems to stand out in the eyes of athletes across all 24 varsity sports: the sports media and communication major, which is the only major of its kind in the Midwest. UNL’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications attracts highly-recruited athletes from across the country and world who hold a passion for sports in their hearts. 12 UNLimited_12.21

“It’s [The sports Media Major] exploded. the first year, 2017, we had a fairly small incoming class size of about 17 or so, but now there’s over 250 students. It’s actually our second-largest major now, behind advertising and public relations.” - Andrea Gaghagen, Assistant director of advising

griffin everitt, A 6-FOOT, 210-POUND catcher FOR NEBRASKA, throws the baseball. HUSKERS.COM COURTesY PHOTO

Sports media and communication majors in action Makayla Curtis, A 5-FOOT-2 women’s gymnast FOR NEBRASKA, shows excitement in her competition. HUSKERS.COM COURTesY PHOTO

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Q&A: Indianapolis Colts guard, chris reed, back in the Midwest and thriving Words: Peter Krenzer

he pop and thud of 300-pound athletes colliding with one another can be heard from the seats of spectators and by television viewers. With each passing play, it becomes a war of attrition to see who can sustain dominance over their opponent, week-by-week for nearly six months. This is the life of a lineman in the NFL. For Indianapolis Colts guard, Chris Reed, 2021 marks his sixth year in the NFL, and his first with the Colts. The Colts signed Reed in the offseason as a backup role to one of the league’s best offensive linemen, Quenton Nelson. However, as the season progressed and injuries occurred, Reed seized an opportunity to fill in wherever he is needed. At the conclusion of Week 6 in mid-October, Reed played 138 pass-block snaps. Out of those snaps, Reed allowed zero sacks, three hits, five hurries, eight pressures and took zero penalties -- the best numbers of fellow linemen, Ryan Kelly, Eric Fisher and Mark Glowinski. His breakthrough season raised questions. Why has he not received more attention from the media? Especially in the Midwest where he has strong ties to Nebraska. UNLimited Sports Reporter, Peter Krenzer, spoke with Reed on Nov. 9 following a Thursday Night Football victory over the New York Jets about his path from Nebraska to the NFL, his NFL future, performances this season and playing behind one of the best guards in football. Things are trending up, and it may not be surprising for Chris Reed to be a household name in the coming years.

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Q: What has your sports journey looked like to this point? A: I was always an active kid and then I moved to Spirit Lake, Iowa. It’s a small community where we have a family cabin, so when we moved up there, I started doing a lot more sports because the schools were pretty small. You were able to do six sports just because they don’t overlap too badly. Then, when I moved to Omaha for my last two years of high school, I had to go down to two sports: track and field and football. I love track and field just as much as I love football, and when I went to a bigger school, I wasn’t really well known or anything, so I wasn’t heavily recruited coming out of high school. I had been successful in track and field, so I was actually being looked at for that more than football. I went on a couple of visits to UNL, got to go to some of the games, and track and field was trying to get me to walk on as well. Then Doane University in Crete, Nebraska, actually had come in with a track and field scholarship, so I was going to do that and then walk on the football team. I told my family I was going to do it. Then Minnesota State came down late because they had been in playoffs in football, and I met the offensive line coach and they really liked me. I was very fortunate to almost get a full ride in D-two, which is hard to do. I went up and redshirted my freshman year in football but didn’t in track. I knew I wanted to go to a school that let me do both. I was very successful with my track and field career in college, but football was ‘You had to either go for it or don’t. So around my sophomore or junior year is when I realized that I was getting looked at minorly by NFL scouts. My senior year, I had a lot of scouts out visiting and talking with me. I had to do the Wonderlic test (for cognitive ability and problem-solving aptitude)

Reed lines up for a snap in a preseason game against the minnesota vikings. colts wire courtesy photo

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and all that. I drove from Mankato up to Minneapolis every day for about two months and trained for my pro day. Jacksonville had signed me right away right after the draft. I was an undrafted free agent. I was on the practice squad my first year, which I kind of knew was going to happen. I had played tackle in college and moving to guard took a little longer as a transition, and so they had me on the practice squad there for the entire year. Then I made the team the next two years but didn’t play my greatest in the fourth year and got cut. I got put on the practice squad and then moved back to the active roster, so I got my fourth year there. Then in unrestricted free agency, I went to the Dolphins. My O-line coach from the Jaguars had moved and got a job there in Miami, so I followed him. The unfortunate thing was Miami fired him halfway through the camp, and it just didn’t turn out to be the year I’d wanted, and then I was cut in December and claimed off of waivers by Carolina. I was there for the end of that year, and the next year, I was with a whole new coaching staff and I got the starting job, which was really awesome and a great experience. One of my goals in the NFL was to earn a starting job, so that was one of the most fun years of my career. Obviously, things didn’t work out in free agency and I ended up with the Colts, and I’m really glad I did. It has been awesome so far. I’m definitely getting better and expanding my playing career doing a couple of different positions and just learning a lot about football.

that play in the NFL all have some characteristics in common. Any room you go, it’s just usually a close-knit group no matter who’s in there. It’s a really cool thing that I’ve noticed between each team I’ve been on, just that camaraderie. Some teams have it, some teams don’t. Difference-wise, gaining football knowledge is probably one of the biggest things I see every year that’s different. Everyone’s coaching is different so you have diversity in that aspect.

Q: Did you end up getting any scholarship offers from Nebraska given your last few years of high school football were played in Omaha?

A: I really like the room. The room is really cool. You have future Hall of Famers in there. You have a current Hall of Famer in there in Kevin Mawae, who played in

A: I only had the two: Minnesota State and Doane. I went into camp down there [Nebraska] and they offered a different guy the scholarship. I did well but they said I wasn’t aggressive enough, so I took that personally. I wouldn’t have gone too far from home anyway, so Mankato was the best choice, because between Doane and Minnesota State, there’s just a better competition. If I wanted to do big things in sports, the opportunity for D-two is way better. Q: What are some similarities and differences you have noticed between the teams you have played for in the NFL? A: I think a lot of O-line rooms are very similar. All guys

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Q: What are some of the most important things you have learned so far in the NFL? A: I think track and field, just being a dual-athlete in college, has helped the physical aspect of it. I have to train year-round with weight lifting. Physically, I think that helps me set that base to be an explosive player and be strong, because that’s one of my best attributes. Then just gaining knowledge and learning and being coachable. I’d say NFL players who are on the bubble or undrafted free agents, the ones that stick around, I think are extremely coachable and like to take in everything. Not everything will work for them, but they’ll figure out what they can use and different tools and techniques that they can pick up and different ways of looking at something. I think every year just adding to that is key to me being successful. Q: What have you enjoyed about Indianapolis to this point?

“I think this [Indy] is definitely a place i’d want to finish out my career.”

the NFL for 16 years and was the NFLPA president, so it’s cool to hear from another guy on not just the football aspect but the business side of it, too. It’s a really cool culture. It’s different. This culture is completely different from the other three teams I’ve been on. The other three teams have always tried to get to where these guys are, and to be a part of that is really cool. Obviously being around really great players, you get to see how they work and I think that you can incorporate. One of the things I’m learning this year is how to even be a better pro by guys like Quenton Nelson. I’m playing behind one of the best guards in football and not only does he work hard, but it’s really cool to talk to him about football and he asks my ideas. I ask his ideas and how should I look at this and so on and so forth. That whole aspect of it is probably my favorite. Q: What has it been like to take advantage of the opportunities presented to you this season? A: I’m very fortunate to get that opportunity because sometimes, if there’s a starter there, they will start the guy and that’s that. I wanted to take advantage of it obviously, and it’s a battle and it’s kind of a transition. I played left guard for most of my career, so switching over to the right side a little bit and rotating in there is like baby steps. My focus is just to get better every week. As long as I’m improving every week, I’m doing all right. It’s like a mountain, it goes up and down, so we’ll

Q: Could you see yourself staying in Indianapolis beyond your current one-year contract? A: I hope so. I think this is definitely a place I’d want to finish out my career. I don’t know exactly how that looks. I’m really hoping that this year transitions into a longer contract than a one-year and I can come back. That would be amazing. But I thought that was last year, too. It’s the NFL so anything can happen. Q: What are some life lessons you have learned through sports that you think you can take beyond your busy athletic years? A: I’ve learned so many different things about life. Some of the more traditional sayings, you hear them but until you experience things and go through stuff, they don’t really mean anything, like ‘controlling what you can control.’ I know a lot of people said that but it means a little more when you’ve gone through a lot of crap. It’s a stressful job and so on and so forth, but if you can just control what you can control, it’s a really good life lesson, too, not just in football, but in life. Also being a new father. The patience of it has really affected me this year. Having that family and playing for them hits a little deeper when you have a child. It’s a very unique experience and I’m glad I am playing still while being a father.

Reed and his wife, anna, at the gender reveal for their first child. photo courtesy of the reed family

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From lacrosse to Huskers football for NY’s Casey Rogers Words: Jason Kraus

ver since Casey Rogers was a kid, he knew college sports were in his future. He just didn’t know whether he would play football or lacrosse. Growing up in New York, Casey was exposed to the game of lacrosse, having been introduced in upstate New York in the 1860s and in the Baltimore area in the 1890s -- two areas that continue to be lacrosse hotbeds. Nowadays in the recruiting landscape of college lacrosse, schools commonly go after high school freshmen and sophomores. In Syracuse, playing Division I football wasn’t “a big thing for kids,” Casey said. “Growing up, lacrosse was always the thing that made sense to play in college,” he added. “My dad coached at Syracuse [University], so it just made sense.” Casey’s father, Lelan Rogers, was the defensive coordinator for the lacrosse team at Syracuse University

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Casey celebrates the defense getting off the field on third down against Wisconsin. Huskers courtesy photo

from 2008 to 2020. He was also the head coach of Major League Lacrosse’s (MLL) Chicago Machine during the summer of 2007. It’s safe to say lacrosse ran deep in the Rogers family. As a sophomore at Westhill High in Syracuse, Casey verbally committed to play lacrosse at Syracuse University. But he had a tough time wrapping his head around completely letting go of football. “Football is not something that you will always be able to play,” he said, “especially

at the position I play; football is only so long, and I could not pass up the opportunity to play Division I football.” After Casey graduated from high school, he decided to take a post-grad year at Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Conn. to continue both football and lacrosse. He visited different Division I programs across the nation during his post-grad year, including Ohio State and Alabama and also received offers from Temple, California-Berkeley, Rutgers, Pittsburg, Vanderbilt, Oregon State, Indiana and Virginia.

Casey playing lacrosse and football for Avon Old Farms Prep during his post-grad year. Avon Old Farms courtesy photos

In 2017, Casey visited the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and said he made a unique connection with Scott Frost and the coaching staff. Not even a day after his visit to Lincoln, Coach Frost and his staff went to Connecticut to visit Casey at his prep school. Shortly after that, Casey committed to Nebraska. Casey said he found a home in Lincoln and described the switch from upstate New York to Lincoln to be fairly easy. “The city of Lincoln reminds me of where I came from,” he said “It wasn’t very different. People are a bit nicer in Lincoln.” Casey redshirted his freshman season and played in four games that year. As a sophomore, he played in every game with one start. In fall camp before the 2021 season, he suffered a knee injury and missed the first five games of the season. “It was tough,” he said. “It was probably my best camp and I had high hopes for the fall. I had never really been injured like that before. It took a lot of dedication to rehab to overcome.” Casey finished out the 2021 season through

the last seven games racking in 17 total tackles and three tackles for loss. As a senior, he has two years of eligibility after the 2021 season since he red-shirted his freshman year and like most student-athletes received a COVID year. In the 14 games he played in his UNL career, he recorded 42 combined tackles with six tackles for loss. He also has tacked on two sacks and two pass deflections and a forced fumble. In the midst of preparing for football, the NCAA declared independence from NIL restrictions in July 2021, meaning studentathletes can make money off their name, image and likeness. Casey capitalized on this new regulation, partnering with companies like Honest Abe’s Burgers and Freedom and Athletes Branding Marketing (ABM). At Honest Abes, Casey has his own french fries -- the Bayou beatdown fries. “I think more and more businesses are starting to see the benefits of partnering with college athletes,” he said. “I am excited to create more relationships with brands and organizations throughout the next two years.” UNLimited_12.21

Where are all the Zebras? And I am not talking about the wild animal. Words: Jayden Brown

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magine. In the heat of the moment. On the court. Final seconds. Regulating the game. When the crowd is screaming the roof off the building to the point where you can’t hear yourself think, remember mechanics and rehearsing rules and violations in your head to make the right decision in any situation. Then, all of sudden, a dead silence made by the anticipation of the final signal from a certified male or female in black pants and a zebra-like top to end the game. You either hear cheers, complaints or a combination of both based on that final call. The Nebraska State Activities Association has a problem that can affect high school and college sports in the state. Problem? Finding and hiring new officials to aid returning officials, and treating them with respect and sportsmanship on and off the court, field or wherever. Robert Brown, Jr., who has been officiating for the NSAA for a combined 27 years, 15 years in basketball and 12 years in football, knows the importance of sports officials after getting involved as a way to give back to the kids “When I put on the official uniform, it is a manager of the basketball game. But then also I am the facilitator of the rules as far as communicating with the coaches, the players and indirectly with the fans,” he said. “As you play the game, if you know more rules of the game, you can play the game even better. And then also you can teach the game better. I wanted an opportunity to actually be out there with my children and also the opportunity that some day maybe they want to take up this vocation and officiate.” And that’s just what I did. Robert is my father, and I’m a young NSAA basketball

That experience for me was not pleasant at all, but in the end, I learned from it, and now I feel more comfortable with conflict management, whether if it is players, parents or coaches. - Jayden Brown (pictured above right with his father, Robert Brown, Jr.) UNLimited_12.21

official myself. Officiating seems to be an easier job than expected but, in reality, it is not all fun and games. Especially since I am a younger official who is still learning how to become a better official though I have the fundamentals down due to playing the sport I’m officiating. I’ve been officiating various sports where parents, coaches and even players question my credibility, try to belittle me and say outlandish and rude things to me to purposely get under my skin and won’t stop until the game clock is at zeros. Last summer, I was reffing an AAU tournament out in either Western or Eastern Nebraska, and I remember a team and coach that were giving me a hard time and a literal run for my money. It was a girls team with black jerseys and white numbers with a female coach. At the start of the game, everything was calm and the game was going smoothly. But as soon as I don’t agree with her on a call, she is coming for me, questioning my basketball knowledge of the game. And coming from a basketball player perspective, I found it disrespectful, and it turned into an argument. It was so bad to the point where my dad, who was my partner 22 UNLimited_12.21

at the time, had to switch sides of the court so I could recompose myself and continue officiating the game. That experience for me was not pleasant at all but in the end, I learned from it and now I feel more comfortable with conflict management whether if it is players, parents or coaches. Young officials like me and others who want to be NSAA officials should not have to prove themselves for the coaches or viewing audience who is there to cheer on their sons or daughters at their high school or college basketball, volleyball or whatever sport it is. Not to chastise and intimidate officials for doing their job to the best of their abilities. Parents, fans and the media should know that,

For more information about the official shortage involving the NSAA and others in the Nebraska area, scan this QR code:

besides the occasional miscalls, the majority of the losses athletes and teams take is not because of the officiating of the referees. I think once that is recognized, more will be interested and invested in becoming an NSAA sports official mainly if people give more sportsmanship to the facilitators of the game. I wouldn’t have gotten into officiating if I didn’t play and watch the game of basketball and know all of the rules and regulations of the game overall. Also, people have to keep in mind that we all make mistakes and we all are still learning no matter how old we are. But not all officiating experiences are bad. It feels good when you get done with a game and your partner or a player’s parent walks up and tells you that you did a great job. It gives you that good feeling inside. All in all, officiating can go both ways in terms of reactions you’ll receive from people. The working environment is not the only reason that sports officials are in a shortage and are in high demand. One obvious issue is that there are simply not enough female officials. As of January of last year, there are 917 total number of sports officials across the state and 28 officials are females -- three percent. As far as collegiate sports, there are 900 officials working top-tier Division I basketball in the 2019-2020 season, and one was a female -- Crystal Hogan. As of the 2020-2021 season, that number has doubled, thanks to Hogan’s influence to make female officiating a norm instead of a rarity. As far as female referees in professional sports, there are five in the NBA as well as the WNBA and two in the NFL. Also, females are getting more exposure because females can be as good as the men or even better. Audiences, players and coaches need to stop over looking it and acknowledge it. That is how this lack of diversity will be fixed. “Maybe for some women there is an

intimidation factor,” said MK McGee who has been a NSAA basketball official for 27 years. “You’re going to be competing with men who have predominantly been in the field. And I think part of the hurdle there is just realizing you can do it. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female; males and females can both do this job, so you have to get over the cultural barriers that you know we are still sort of working through to recognize that both men and women can do this job. “These are women who are demonstrating the fact that women can do that. They are given that opportunity because someone believed in them, somebody decided, you know what, they are just as good as the guys. That changes the cultural idea that it’s different for men than it is for women. It’s just that women need to be granted the same opportunities as the men.” With COVID still an issue, it should not be used as an excuse for acting out of character or treating officials like they are inferior and not keeping the concerns of safety on their mind while in the mix of the sporting event. “Due to the pandemic, a lot of officials decided to hang it up and also the sportsmanship side of it,” Robert said. “Parents seem to go overboard at times because it’s all about a win-win-win situation, and at the end of the day, is it all about winning? And sometimes they put winning such on a high level that they don’t really understand what good sportsmanship is. What that is, is respecting your opponents, respecting the competition that you are against because the old adage, in order to be the best you have to go against the best, and you may not always win when you go against the best but that is how you get better. But in all in all, we want to have a good experience in the game of competition and that’s the bottom line ultimately. That’s the goal.” UNLimited_12.21

From Left to right: Caroline Franke, Molly Robinson and Hailey Ryerson. Courtesy photos 24 UNLimited_12.21

A school-first for three female UNL broadcasting students Words: Jacob MIller

he roar of the Husker crowd fills Pinnacle Bank Arena in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska as three young college females fulfill their dreams and realize this moment is bigger than they

could have ever imagined. Caroline Franke, Molly Robinson and Hailey Ryerson hosted UNL’s first all-female sports broadcast on Dec. 7 when men’s basketball hosted Michigan. “It’s definitely a milestone and a step in the right direction,” Robinson said. “Even when I first worked with KRNU and I was on sports staff my first semester sophomore year, I was the only girl.” While these women have been calling a variety of different sports this past semester, never have their broadcast partners been all of the same sex.

“In this day of age, things are starting to take a turn so people that come to this college or specifically women come to this college and want to do exactly what me, Molly and Hailey are doing and seeing that we have done an all-female broadcast on the radio is something that can really attract them to this college,” Franke said. Franke, Robinson and Ryerson are enrolled in Broadcasting 375 with Professor John Shrader. They are the only females in this section of their class, which broadcasts Huskers football games, basketball games, soccer games and even some high school football games. “This is something I would’ve never imagined last year

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because nine times out of 10, I was the only girl broadcasting besides Hailey who would’ve been the other girl broadcaster,” Robinson said. As of the beginning of Fall 2021 semester, 57 females declared sports media as their primary major out of 269 total sports media students. There may be additional students (both female and male) with sports media declared as a secondary major, but those numbers are harder to nail down. “It’s pretty cool,” Franke said, “especially now that I feel like a lot more women are starting to get into this industry, whether that is sideline reporting or play-by-play, so actually being able to be up in the press box with both Molly and Hailey is something special that we haven’t had here at UNL yet.” A lot of the talk today is that there are not enough women in the broadcasting field because it has been stereotyped as a man’s job. The bright side with this though is that a lot of females are 26 UNLimited_12.21

starting to earn positions as play-by-play and color commentary personnel. “If you are qualified, then you can get a job,” Robinson said. “I think that there is a huge gender gap when it comes to women of the same qualifications not being hired because she is a woman. This all-female broadcast is a step in the right direction, especially for our generation.” When asked if gender or sex should matter in the broadcasting world, all three brought up the word “equality.” “To see more women on television, I think it’s important,” Ryerson said. “To see that representation and to have role models, that’s always exciting. I know when I watch football, basketball and volleyball, it’s always nice to see women either doing play-by-play, sideline reporting or color commentary.” Ryerson has the special opportunity of working

with FOX Sports while attending UNL and talks about her work environment and how many females are in her department. “I work with two other females in the department of talent development and production,” Ryerson said. “We all get along great and the culture there, there’s nothing like it and there is a reason why it is called the FOX Family.”

“It’s going to open doors and inspire those that might’ve been hesitant to go into the industry or want to take that next step forward,” Robinson said.

All three females said they are grateful for the opportunity that they had on Dec. 7 and they said it will be a long lasting memory in all their years to come. “Being able to see someone else in the same footsteps or the same path as I do and seeing them succeed and do well makes me more confident in myself saying, ‘I can do this,’ and ‘I can put my mind to whatever I want and take it to wherever I want,’” Franke said.

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Nebraska’s Director of Athletics, Trev Alberts, (LEFT) and Lawrence Chatters (RIGHT), Senior Associate Athletic Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, unveil the new Red Carpet Experience. Photo Courtesy of Twitter 28 UNLimited_12.21

marcel blackbird Helps youth Find hope Through Nebraska’s Red Carpet Experience Words: Chase Stubbs

“I always tell them that wherever you go, you’re not only representing yourself but also your family, your community and your tribe, too,” Blackbird said.

Marcel Blackbird drove 63 people, mostly kids and coaches, in 15 vans to attend the Nebraska-Fordham football game. It all happened because he made a phone call. Now, he is trying to get his Class B commercial driver’s license so he can drive a bus down to bring more kids. It’s all part of the Red Carpet Experience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, launched in 2021, that gives more families the opportunity to attend a Nebraska football game The trips are an experience for Blackbird to stress the core values he holds dear. When he heard about the Red Carpet Experience, he immediately jumped at the opportunity to make an impact for kids in his community. Blackbird said he brings children who are respectful, have good grades, have good attendance

and are well-behaved. “If you act right and do what you’re supposed to do then you get to go and do fun things,” Blackbird said. The ‘Sea of Red’ on Huskers game days creates an environment that can be found nowhere else in Nebraska -- when 90,000 fans all wearing the same shade of red gather in Memorial Stadium to create the third-largest city in the state. An emphatic roar of a “Husker Power” chant becomes a tug-of-war game between the East and West sides of the stadium that echoes across the Haymarket in downtown Lincoln. The Huskers hold the NCAA sell-out streak even after four consecutive losing seasons. The typical family in the US consists of two parents and two children in a household, though family can spread much farther than the walls of a home. This is the case for Blackbird. He has six children at home who keep him busy. But when he steps out of his home, his family expands to the rest of his tribe in Winnebago, Neb. “I wanted to help encourage them to pursue their dreams and stay off the streets,” Blackbird said. “There are a lot of athletes that come from the same walk of life that they do. I want them to see that they’re not alone.” Once Blackbird heard about the Red Carpet Experience, he made a call to Lawrence Chatters, Ph.D., senior associate athletic director for diversity, equity and inclusion. Chatters stepped forward with an idea on how to offer unsold tickets to donors to purchase and then provide the tickets to families who couldn’t normally afford the price of admission. Two university donors picked up the tab for the remaining 2,400 tickets and the Red Carpet Experience was born. UNLimited_12.21

“I wanted to help encourage them to pursue their dreams and stay off the streets,” Blackbird said. “There are a lot of athletes that come from the same walk of life that they do. I want them to see that they’re not alone.” The idea came to him after reflecting on his own experiences of being a kid growing up in Nebraska. “My idea of why to do that comes from my own personal story of growing up and my family never being able to afford to go to a game,” Chatters said. “I wanted young people like myself to be able to go whose parents couldn’t afford it.” Winnebago, a town in the northeast corner of the state, has a population of 767 with a median household income of $27,014 in 2019, according to city-data. Getting to experience events like this may not be the easiest for Winnebago families. They may not be able to because of their financial situation, travel or a variety of other reasons.

Blackbird tries to be a positive influence for the Winnebago and sports allow him to do just that. He coaches girls’ basketball, fifth and sixth grade football as well as girls’ softball. Being a part of these teams allows him to make an impact and teach lessons to the youth in his community. Since their first trip to Memorial Stadium, the athletics department announced that the Red Carpet Experience will not be exclusive to football and extended to volleyball matches and men’s and women’s basketball games. Blackbird said he hopes to show more people in his community the Red Carpet Experience. His son was one of those children who came to the Fordham game. He and the rest of the group got up close and personal with some of the players. Some of them came back out on the field to play catch and sign autographs. “Getting to high-five the players as they ran back to the locker room was amazing,” Angelo Blackbird said. Of the 63 people who attended the Fordham game with Blackbird, 50 of them were children, and many of whom had never been to a Nebraska game before. With many of the Native American children, Blackbird stressed the importance of making a good first impression. “I always tell them that wherever you go, you’re not only representing yourself but also your family, your community and your tribe, too,” he said.

The band performs on the field during a Nebraska game day. Francis Gardler Courtesy Photo 30 UNLimited_12.21

Marcel Blackbird’s daughters enjoy the Nebraska-Fordham football game in September. Photo Couresy of Marcel Blackbird UNLimited_12.21

If you can see it, you can be it: How Volleyball in Nebraska created a cycle of greatness Words: Abby Barmore

hirteen-year-old Lindsay Krause stood in awe of thousands of Nebraska fans and the incredible athletes on the court in front of her. Around her, the sea of red roared to its feet clapping in unison as Nebraska’s band launched into its fight song. The sold-out crowd in the Bob Devaney Sports Center encouraged the No. 3 Huskers. They gathered in a timeout, determination sketched on their faces and ‘Nebraska’ scrolled in cursive on their chests. Huskers Head Coach John Cook plotted to stage a comeback against No. 16 Wisconsin in the fourth set. The crowd remained on its feet as the serve flew over the net, dug by libero and future Olympic gold medalist, Justine Wong-Orantes. Krause watched Kelly Hunter set Alicia Ostrander behind her on the right pin. Ostrander crushed the ball with such force it bounced in bounds and launched into the stands. More than 8,500 fans erupted as two native Nebraskans helped boost the 2015 Huskers to a 22-20 deficit against the Badgers. While the Huskers would go on to lose this set and match, they would eventually fight their way to the 2015 National Championship.

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Krause, a Papillion native, always knew Nebraska was good at volleyball but after that moment, she knew she wanted to play volleyball for the Huskers one day. “It had never really dawned on me how big of a state we were in, how much of a tradition it was at this university,” said the No. 2 overall prospect in the 2020 class, according to PrepVolleyball.com. Nebraska offered Krause a scholarship in the summer before her 2017 freshman season at Omaha Skutt where she would win four consecutive Class B state titles. Krause said she thought, “Why would I want to go anywhere else? This is my dream.” Just like Krause, countless

“When you see people do it, it seems all the more possible for you to do it,” Huskers Outside Hitter, Lindsay Krause, said.

young Nebraskan females dream of becoming Huskers volleyball players because they see women, just like them, dominating on the court. “When you see people do it, it seems all the more possible for you to do it,” Krause said. “There’s a lot of things that seem like they’re impossible to do. But as soon as you see other women that are like my age do it, it seems all the more possible.” Currently, Krause is one of five Nebraskans on the Huskers volleyball team, along with freshmen Whitney Lauenstein from Waverly, Rylee Gray from Elkhorn and sophomores Anni Evans from Waverly and Kalynn Meyer from Superior. Since 1995, when the Huskers won its first national championship, the sport became a “state treasure,” Cook said recently. Native Nebraskans’ presence on successful volleyball teams doesn’t stop with the Huskers. Creighton, another top-ranked Division I volleyball team in the state, has five Nebraskans on its roster and both its Head Coach, Kirsten Bernthal Booth, and Assistant Coach, Angie Oxley Behrens, are Nebraskan. Because young girls are seeing

successful volleyball at every level, Bernthal Booth, who has coached the Bluejays for 19 years, said the sport is growing. “Volleyball is the most popular sport for young girls in our state,” Bernthal Booth said. “(My kids’) friends are picking volleyball because at every corner, they’re seeing great volleyball from the high school to the college.”

“It’s harder when you can’t see a woman or a woman of the same race or ethnicity or even the same age doing the kinds of work that you think you would like to do, whether it’s on the court, on the field, in an office or working in the athletic industry,” said Moore, who has owned Huskers volleyball season tickets for over 20 years.

If you can see it, you can be it.

Females in Nebraska are exposed to volleyball across the state at their high schools, in their communities and on TV.

Having someone who looks like you, by gender, by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or social class can have a “tremendous impact,” said Helen A. Moore, Ph.D., a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociology professor emerita.

“If you’re from a small town in Nebraska, and you see somebody who’s also from a small town in the Midwest, and they’re doing something extraordinary, you might think, ‘Wow, I didn’t know people from my town could

Female role models

Nebraska Volleyball’s Lindsay Krause Nebraska Communications courtesy photo

do that.’ So, it opens up a possible future self,” said UNL sociology professor, Julia McQuillan, Ph.D. With this exposure comes a higher likelihood that people will have volleyball players as role models. These role models matter, McQuillan said, because if females only see men in leadership positions, their brains might automatically only associate males with leadership. “One way to change that is to mix up the characteristics of people in those positions,” McQuillan added, “So, having what we’d call “counterstereotypical role models” can be really important for changing our default assumptions about UNLimited_12.21

Creighton Head coach, kirsten bernthal booth, and huskers head coach, john cook. Creighton Communications Courtesy photo

who can do what.” As role models, volleyball players and female athletes can create counterstereotypes by displaying strength, athleticism and other powerful traits that counter the female stereotype of being fragile or weak. These counterstereotypes can be productive, Moore said, if the role models are relatable and viewed as humans -- not larger-than-life figures. “If you make the individual athletes either so far removed from the everyday that nobody can be like that, or you force women athletes to abide by some other sets of 34 UNLimited_12.21

stereotypes, it’s very hard for those counterstereotypes to be authentic,” Moore said. Yet, seeing volleyball players isn’t going to make every girl in Nebraska run outside, grab a volleyball and work to become the next Jordan Larson. “In Nebraska, you’re going to be exposed to certain things,” Moore said. “Can Jordan Larson come from Hooper, Nebraska, and be one of the greatest players internationally? Yes. But not every little girl is going to see that the same way.” What happens when people can’t see similar people doing what they aspire to do? Moore said they tend to become discouraged from their dreams. “If you can’t see yourself, and if other people can’t see you

in that role, you’re much more likely to be discouraged,” Moore said. “We tend to have lowered expectations from people when we don’t see other people like them being successful.” These lower expectations, Moore said, can come in the form of a teacher not devoting as much time to that student or parents not providing the emotional or financial support necessary to help their child reach their dreams. “Maybe not every kid would want to be a Huskers volleyball player,” McQuillan said. “But, I think the better message would be, ‘If you really want to go after something, it’s probably going to take work.’” Nebraska’s volleyball history Before volleyball talent exploded

across Nebraska, the Huskers were the only in-state ranked volleyball program in the state. Now, it’s a hotbed for volleyball talent at every level. Here is a list of the 10 topperforming Nebraska colleges, four high schools and three clubs: Division I • • •

Nebraska -- No. 10 in AVCA Coaches Poll Creighton -- No. 20 in AVCA Coaches Poll, Big East Champions Omaha -- Summit League Conference Champions

Division II (AVCA Coaches Poll) • •

Nebraska-Kearney -- No. 12, No. 6 in Central Region Wayne State -- No. 8

NAIA (NAIA Coaches Poll Top 25) • • • •

College of Saint Mary -- No. 5 Midland -- No. 9 Bellevue -- No. 11 Concordia -- No. 19

NJCAA (Junior College Coaches Poll) •

Western Nebraska Community College -- No. 18

High School (AVCA rankings) •

• • •

Papillion-LaVista South High School -- No. 7 in AVCA Coaches National Super 25, Nebraska Class A State Champion (40-0) Millard West High School -No. 3 in region Omaha Skutt High School No. 6 in region Norris High School - No. 10 in region

coaching the Huskers from 1977 to 1999 to a 1995 National Championship, 21 conference titles and six NCAA Semifinal appearances. In 1972, with the passing of Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in federally funded educational institutions, Pettit said everything changed and not just in sports. But sports provided one of the most visible stages. Bernthal Booth took over at Creighton in 2003 and is the program’s winningest coach with a 383-175 record, leading the Bluejays to seven straight Big East tournament championships and in AVCA’s top 25 for nine of the last 10 seasons. Bernthal Booth, who graduated from Lincoln East High School in the 1990s, said the Huskers were the only major program in

“I think the best athletes in this state want to play volleyball because they’ve seen it,” Huskers head coach, john Cook, said.

the state, so teams like Kansas State and Missouri, both top 20 programs at the time, recruited many Nebraskans. Meanwhile, Omaha and Creighton developed and other schools started winning, more Nebraskans started staying in-state, she said. “I’m not saying we still don’t lose some, but our goal is that we keep them here in Nebraska,” Bernthal Booth said. “Creighton wants to keep them, I know Matt (Buttermore) at UNO wants to keep them and then obviously there are so many other Division CREIGHTON volleyball’s NORAH SIS. CREIGHTON COMMUNICATIONS courtesy photo

Clubs with nationally-ranked teams • • •

Nebraska Elite Premier Nebraska VCNebraska

Former Huskers Head Coach Terry Pettit can be credited with beginning the volleyball movement in Nebraska, UNLimited_12.21

II and NAIA schools (in Nebraska).” With a spike in successful Nebraska volleyball teams in the last decade, Cook said there has always been talent in Nebraska. He had four native Nebraskan starters on his undefeated 2000 team. “I think the best athletes in this state want to play volleyball because they’ve seen it,” Cook said. Volleyball programs like Creighton and the University of Nebraska Omaha are blossoming, too. In 2021, seven Nebraskans earned a spot on PrepVolleyball.com’s Top 150 prospects. Three, including No. 2-ranked Krause, are now Huskers. No. 28-ranked Norah Sis is a starting outside hitter for Creighton as a freshman and the Big East Freshman of the Year. Three others went to Division I programs -- Arizona State, USC and Iowa State. Phyona Schrader, now at Notre Dame, traveled from Ankeny, Iowa to join the Premier Nebraska club. Seven Nebraskans are also in 2022’s Top 150 and four are on 2024’s watchlist. In addition to the Top 150, eleven of UNO’s 15 players are Nebraskan. Of Nebraska’s top-ranked Division II teams (Wayne State and Nebraska-Kearney) and its four ranked NAIA schools (Midland, Bellevue, College of Saint Mary and Concordia), 36 UNLimited_12.21

109 of 145 players on all combined rosters are Nebraskan. “What makes Nebraska so special is the fact that we produce so many high-quality players,” Bernthal Booth said. “The other thing is, we have such good fan support in the state. There are other places that are also volleyball strongholds, but Nebraska is definitely in that top group.” Seeing female role models in sports Children are most impressionable in adolescence, which begins roughly at age 12. The Nebraskans on this year’s Huskers volleyball team were 13 or 14 years old in 2015 and grew up watching one of the most dominant eras in history. Cook won two National Championships (2015 and 2017) within a three-year span and took his team to four consecutive Final Four matches. Seven players on the 2015 National Championship team would be named All-

“There are other places that are also volleyball strongholds, but Nebraska is definitely in that top group,” Creighton Head Coach, Kirsten Bernthal Booth, said.

Americans: sisters Kadie and Amber Rolfzen, Justine WongOrantes, Kelly Hunter, Annika Albrecht, Kenzie Maloney and Mikaela Foecke. Six would go on to win another national title in 2017. Not only did Krause grow up watching championship volleyball players, but every single person she looked up to was female. Role models like former Huskers outside hitter and Olympic gold medalist, Kelsey Robinson, two-time Huskers national champion, Mikaela Foecke and Minnesota’s Hannah and Paige Tapp, who both played on Team USA. “It’s super important to have women that you can look up to, especially in a skill or maybe a profession that you want to accomplish,” Krause said.

OLYMPIAN AND FORMER HUSKER, JORDAN LARSON NEBRASKA Communications Courtesy photo

She looked to them because they were “exemplary” players, and they were good people. “I need to look at these women in powerful positions, doing what they can and they’re rocking the game,” she said. “And Jordan Larson, obviously, but she doesn’t even seem like she needs to be named.” Larson, a Nebraska player from 2005 to 2008, led the Huskers to its 2006 National Championship, was named the 2008 Big Ten Player of the Year and a two-time FirstTeam AVCA All-American. Her jersey was retired in 2017, and she was inducted into the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020. Now, the 6-foot-2 outside hitter plays professional volleyball in Shanghai, China, has three

Olympic medals, including USA’s first gold in indoor volleyball in 2020, and an estimated net worth of over $1 million. As a young girl growing up in Hooper, a town of less than a thousand residents, Larson said Michael Jordan was her role model. “I think to have female athletes in a place where (young girls) can actually see tangibly is really important,” Larson said. “I think we’re starting to make some headway in that, but I think there’s still a long way to go.” Getting females to play sports isn’t the only goal, Pettit said. “You want them to inspire to do whatever they want,” he said. “It isn’t just inspiring them to be volleyball players, you want to inspire them to take risks.” Literally seeing it

CREIGHTON Communications Courtesy photo

Huskers volleyball is one of the most televised Division I

“I think to have female athletes in a place where (young girls) can actually see tangibly is really important,” Jordan Larson said. volleyball teams in the country. In the 2021 regular season, 20 of 30 matches were televised. Nebraskans watch more volleyball on TV than any other college volleyball program. “What really changed was when we started televising matches on any team in the state,” Cook said. “That gave a lot of girls like the Jordan Larsons, Lindsay Krauses to the Kelly Hunters, Kadie and Amber Rolfzen, just a great visual of examples and role models for them to aspire to be.” They also watch volleyball in-person more than any other state and lead the country in attendance for seven UNLimited_12.21

OMaha volleyball players and Nebraskans Sami Clarkson (15), Claire Mountjoy (8), Alexa Blase (7) UNO Communications courtesy photo

again, I think this helps build the statement about Nebraska being a state treasure that we share it with everywhere in the state and not just in Lincoln.”

consecutive years, according to NCAA’s attendance records. In 2019, the Huskers averaged 8,186 people per set with 155,531 attendees across 19 matches. The Bob Devaney Sports Center, with 7,907 seats and 300 standing room only, has sold out every volleyball match since 2001.

attendance in 2019 with 21,986 total tickets in 23 matches, averaging 956 people per game. UNK has led Division II schools 15 times, including a 10-year streak from 2001 to 2010. The Lopers hold five of the six single-game Division II attendance records.

Huskers volleyball also holds the attendance record for a single match with 18,516 during the 2017 NCAA Finals against Florida in Kansas City, Mo.

Wayne State College was sixth in attendance in 2019 (5,458) with an average of 682 fans per game.

The attendance records don’t stop there.

Because Huskers volleyball’s home matches are always sold out, Cook and his Huskers play the spring game in different towns across the state to share Nebraska volleyball. It’s a huge deal, he said, for the girls in the state to have role models and see high-level volleyball often.

Creighton Volleyball ranked No. 22 in Division I volleyball attendance with 15,615 attending 13 matches in 2019 and an average of 1,970 per match, leading the Big East Conference. Marquette is No. 2 in the conference with an average of 1,050. In Division II, NebraskaKearney recorded the most 38 UNLimited_12.21

***

“We get in trouble because there are not enough tickets because we’re playing in a smaller gym,” he added. “But

The Huskers and Creighton try to play each other once or every other season. In Omaha, the teams play in the CHI Health Center, which seats 17,500. At a press conference days before the 2021 match, Cook called the NebraskaCreighton game “a celebration” and “the heartbeat of volleyball in this country.” No. 3 Nebraska swept the No. 22-ranked Bluejays in front of 11,279 fans, the 10th-largest regular-season volleyball crowd in NCAA history. “It just makes me proud to be a part of Nebraska Volleyball in this state from YMCA all the way up to Division I colleges,” Cook said at the press conference.

“It just makes me proud to be a part of Nebraska Volleyball in this state from YMCA all the way up to Division I colleges,” Cook said.

At club and high school levels Volleyball is the No. 1 team sport for high schoolers in Nebraska and the US. Over 450,000 females in high school participate in volleyball nationwide. In Nebraska, 6,600 girls in 300 schools play volleyball, according to a 2018-19 National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) survey. Twenty percent of Nebraska’s female athletes play volleyball, according to the survey, with 23 percent participating in track and field and 18 percent playing basketball. The programs across the state are growing at both ends, Pettit said. “It has to happen at the university end to motivate younger people,” he added. “But the real key is having people in junior high and high school that are working hard on it, and we’ve been fortunate to always have that.”

won her seventh consecutive Nebraska Class B State Championship and was named AVCA’s co-national volleyball coach of the year. After setting several basketball and volleyball records at Marian High School in Omaha, Saunders played both sports at UNL in the late ‘90s. Terri Neujahr, formerly Killion, head coach at Waverly High School, will have three alumna on the Huskers volleyball team in 2022. She coached at Nebraska from 1988 to1989 before Cook took over as an assistant coach in ‘89. Elkhorn South Head Coach Chelsea Potter was named the Storm’s head coach in 2019 after playing volleyball at Hastings College. She led Elkhorn South to a Class A State Championship in 2020 with current Husker Rylee Gray at middle blocker. The list of successful high

school volleyball head coaches who played college volleyball in Nebraska goes on and on. “One of the reasons we have such good players is we have such phenomenal coaches,” said Bernthal Booth, whose daughter, Reese Booth, is the starting setter for Elkhorn North. “You go to small-town Nebraska, and you’ve got coaches that know the game. That is not always the case in a lot of places.” Bernthal Booth said club programs, too, have grown tremendously since she played volleyball in high school. “They’re starting much, much younger than my generation did,” she said. “The quantity of kids playing, I have to guess, has increased and the intensity at which they are playing has increased, which leads to higher level volleyball.” Nebraska Volleyball’s Whitney Lauenstein NEBRASKA Communications courtesy photo

Many successful high school volleyball coaches in Nebraska played at a high level, too. “It’s a trickle-down of how many youths play at the college level,” Bernthal Booth said. “If we can keep a small subsection of those guys coaching high school, coaching club, we’re growing the sport.” Omaha Skutt Head Coach Renee Saunders recently UNLimited_12.21

Cook agreed the biggest growth he has seen is the expansion of club programs. Premier Nebraska, one of the state’s most successful clubs, has several nationally-ranked club teams. The 18 Gold team, ranked No. 3 in 2021 by PrepVolleyball. com, had Krause and Sis as a few of its stars. Ostrander is one of the coaches for the 18 Gold team. One of the most prominent Nebraskan head coaches is Dani Busboom Kelly, a UNL setter and libero from 2003 to 2006 and an assistant coach from 2012 to 2016. Busboom Kelly, now the head coach of Louisville, the No. 1 seed in the 2021 NCAA tournament, was named the 2020 and 2021

“All these young girls in the state are seeing these examples so it’s making them want to play volleyball all the more,” Krause said. “It pushes everybody further to be the best they can be.” Nebraska Volleyball’s Lindsay Krause Nebraska Communications courtesy photo

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ACC Coach of the Year. Former Huskers assistant coach and Huskers volleyball’s first AVCA All-American, Cathy Noth’s Train Like an Olympian business offers private lessons, training and camps in Madison, Wis. Noth said her volleyball role models were Mary Jo Peppler, an Olympic volleyball player in the ‘60s, who also played in the Women’s Professional Basketball League, and Karch Kiraly, a former American volleyball player, coach and broadcast announcer. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Noth’s major volleyball role models were two national figures, and one of them was a male.

Now, young Nebraskans and girls everywhere see an endless supply of in-state examples. “They’re in their home, they’re watching them and they’re a Nebraska girl and there’s a small-town Nebraska girl playing. It’s like, ‘Wow, I can be that,’” Noth said. Nineteen-year-old Krause is now setting her own example for 13-year-old girls in the stands to work hard and dream big. “It’s making them want to play volleyball all the more,” Krause said. “It pushes everybody further to be the best they can be.”

Keonilei Akana: From Hawaii to Nebraska Through Volleyball By Daniel Magnuson

Keonilei Akana talks about her journey from growing up in Hawaii to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln playing volleyball. Keonilei also talked about how off the field challenges shaped her outlook on life and volleyball. Check out the podcast by scanning the QR code below.

Nebraska Volleyball’s Keonilei Akana NEBRASKA Communications courtesy photo

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As Tough as they Come

ADDIE Schiemann won’t let amputation slow her down in the pool Addie Schiemann courtesy photos

Words: Justin Allen

ddie Schiemann was 14 years old when she faced the biggest challenge of her life on July 14, 2017 in Arlington, Neb when the competitive swimmer was in a UTV accident. “I was the passenger in a Polaris Ranger,” Schiemann said. “The vehicle lost control on a dirt road, and my right arm was severed underneath it, resulting in large amounts of blood loss.” Her mother, Jennifer Schiemann, received a phone call from the Washington County Sheriff that any parent would fear: Her daughter was being life-flighted from Arlington to UNMC in Omaha. “He told me that she was being life-flighted for the rapid loss of blood due to the ‘cut’ on her arm,” she said. “I was in disbelief as she was only supposed to be

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swimming that day, not riding UTVs.” Addie’s parents sped to the hospital and awaited the helicopter. The doctors gave her arm less than a 5% chance of ever functioning and said there would be countless amounts of surgeries to follow, Schiemann said. “The doctors said my arm was unsalvageable,” Schiemann said. It was at that point her parents decided the best decision was to have her arm amputated, and a long and tedious recovery followed. “I asked the surgeon, if he had a 14 year old child, what he would do? He assured my husband and I that he would amputate,” Addie’s mother said. “Addie would have had to endure skin grafts, hundreds of surgeries and countless numbers of days in excruciating pain.”

With her competitive spirit, not even an accident like this would slow her down. Even on the hard days, she was able to keep her positive spirit and followed her dreams to the University of Arizona, one of the leading schools for para sports, where she played a key factor in starting the para swim team and continues to train for the 2024 Paralympics. Since she was 6 years old, Schiemann said she can remember spending most of her time in a pool. And it didn’t take long for her to start swimming competitively. “I remember starting swim lessons at 6 years old and by 7, I was swimming on a YMCA swim team,” Schiemann said. Schiemann continued competing in the pool for the years to follow, eventually moving to a more competitive league, Swim Omaha. The new league came

as more of a challenge for the promising young swimmer as she prepared to swim in high school for the Fremont Area Swim Team. Schiemann had to undergo six months of occupational therapy. It was at this time that the predominantly right-handed swimmer had to relearn how to use her body and her left hand to do everyday tasks. This became an important step in her recovery as her freshman year of high school was about to start. “Some of the hardest things I had to learn again was how to write,” Schiemann said. “This was extremely frustrating for me as a perfectionist.” Throughout her time in therapy, Schiemann never took her mind off the pool. She said her Fremont Area Swim Team Coach, David Struble, came to visit her in the hospital and the two of them watched Paralympic swimming videos together to show her what was possible. Her next four words would motivate her to get back in the water. “I can do that,” Schiemann said. And she did. Once Schiemann’s stitches were removed, a little less than three months after the accident, her doctors cleared her to go back to the pool. She wasn’t worried about getting back to competition, but she was excited to be back in the water. It was still a challenge for her to change her form. “Contrary to what some people might think, I do not just swim in circles,” Schiemann said, letting out a laugh. “But I did have to learn how to rely

Addie Schiemann recovering at UNMC following the 2017 accident on my kicks more in order to compensate for my arm.” Instead of using her arms to propel her, the key to her future success had to be focused on her kicks and the rotation of her body. Luckily for Schiemann, swimming came naturally and made it easier for her to adopt her new form. In 2018, Schiemann attended a USA Paralympic meet and camp in Oro Valley, Ariz., where she met a member of the wheelchair track team. “They told me about the University of Arizona Adaptive Athletics Program and how I should reach out about starting a swim team,” Schiemann said. The University of Arizona Adaptive Athletics Program has been around for 44 years and is nation-leading in adaptive and wheelchair sports. The Adaptive Athletics Program houses men’s and women’s basketball, rugby, handcycling, tennis, track and road racing and golf. Schiemann is paving the way for the programs’ eighth sport: Swimming. There are 23 universities in the United States with Adaptive Athletics and three with established swimming teams.

“MY arm was left unsalvageable.”

“Since we are one of the only programs with a para swimming team, I can’t really compete in any local meets,” Schiemann said.

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Because adaptive swimming has not been adopted by many schools, Schiemann has started looking for a new club to swim for. Now, she competes in USA Paralympic meets throughout the year, representing Arizona. She also competes and trains in preparation for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. “Three years out from the games are the most important times in training,” Schiemann said. “I have stepping stone meets coming up where I can see where my times are and where I need to be.” Schiemann uses these first meets to record baseline times for what she needs to work on before the World Para Swimming World Series. “My next major goal is to train

until the trials in March and then qualify for the World Series,” Schiemann said. “I hope to progress with each meet until hopefully I can compete in the 2024 Paralympics.”

about her most.

Schiemann not only had to fight the battles of a physical recovery but a mental one as well. She would not be able to step aside and let this accident get the best of her, she said. Her positive attitude and vision for the future kept her determined to make a recovery.

While in the hospital and during her recovery, she had the support of her hometown, swimming community, family and friends who encouraged her every step of the way. Even when there were bad days.

“I knew I couldn’t just sit and sulk. Instead, I did everything I could to look at the bigger picture and approach every day with a positive attitude,” Schiemann said. She attributed much of her recovery to those who cared

“If it wasn’t for the support system, I would not have recovered the way I did,” Schiemann said.

Schiemann didn’t let the bad days get in the way. “It is OK to have hard days, but if you surround yourself with people you aspire to be and look up to, then you can get through it,” she said. “Surround yourself with people who support you.”

“I Can Do that.” - Addie Schiemann

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Former Nebraska baseball coach, Darin Erstad, staying local and enjoying family time Words: Jacob Miller

kating up the ice, he feels the cold breeze flowing through his cage onto his face, knowing that every move is a critical shift, and at the same time bringing back old memories. Darin Erstad spent most of his summer with his buddies playing hockey at the John Breslow Ice Hockey Center on campus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “It’s one of those things where there hasn’t been a day where I didn’t put on my skates and wasn’t excited to get on the ice,” he said. Erstad, 47, a former MLB player, UNL alumnus and dual-sport student-athlete and baseball coach, now finds time to enjoy his free time after a long historical baseball and coaching career by still being involved with sports he loved to play and be with his family. Spending most of his weekends at the ice hockey rink watching his sons play hockey, Erstad has a love for the game he had as a child and now

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makes more time for himself to get out there and play. “I love skating,” Erstad said. “Even as you get older and you’re not very good, it’s still fun to go out there.” As a multi-sport athlete growing up in Jamestown, N.D., he played anything you can name: football, baseball, ice hockey, basketball, soccer and track and field. His parents were his inspiration. His mom said he should play sports in college and play all four years at a university. Erstad said he really didn’t have a lot of options for colleges besides Creighton and UNL.

When he was 16, his legion baseball coach, also a UNL assistant coach, gave his name to Nebraska when Erstad was getting ready to go look at schools. His senior year of high school rolled around and Nebraska asked him to come down on a visit. Erstad showed them a video tape of his highlights. The coaches liked the tape and offered him a scholarship. But all of this isn’t what really got Erstad to come to UNL. “In the fall of ‘91, I went to the Washington versus Nebraska football game on my recruiting trip. The atmosphere was something I’ve never seen before coming out of North Dakota, and I was in and pretty much committed on the spot,” Erstad said. Erstad’s dream was to play professional baseball once he was done playing at UNL. He would live up to his dreams as he was taken first overall in the 1995 MLB Draft by the California Angels. Erstad would go on to play 14 years in the MLB,

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for the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros and the Chicago White Sox, and played in 1,654 games. He would finish his MLB career batting .282 hitting 124 home runs and getting 1,697 hits. After 14 years in the MLB, Erstad returned to his alma mater to be the hitting coach in 2010 and in the following year, he would be hired as UNL’s head baseball coach. “I was asked to come back and help get the culture back in place for Nebraska baseball, and when the University of Nebraska asks for something, I’m going to more than likely do it,” Erstad said. He described Nebraska as a second home to him and for his family -- the UNL mentality is similar to the mentality of his hometown Jamestown -- and said it felt right to come back. When former Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball player Jaxon Hallmark met Coach Erstad on his unofficial visit to UNL, he said he was intimidated at first. “I walked in and I met him and shook his hand, and I was blown away from his presence and the aura that he had. He was very intimidating, but he had a very dominant presence,” Hallmark said. Hallmark, who was coached by Erstad for two seasons before Erstad stepped down from the program, described Erstad as a hard-nosed, serious coach who coached like he played baseball. As a person, Hallmark described Erstad as a person who is more interested in setting up his players for the more important life 48 UNLimited_12.21

after baseball. Hallmark also mentioned one of his best memories of Erstad in 2019, his sophomore year. Hallmark played Oregon State and was 1-11 with seven strikeouts after coming off being Big Ten Player of the week the previous week. Erstad called out Hallmark for his poor efforts at the plate and Hallmark would go on to be First-Team AllBig Ten in 20-21. Angelo Altavilla, who played high school hockey in Minnesota and baseball at UNL, played all four years under Erstad and said that he treated everyone with respect. “It was nice to obviously connect to him on a hockey level because he enjoys hockey a lot,” Altavilla said, adding that Erstad was the best coach he ever had. When Erstad had the chance to coach the Los Angeles Dodgers and other teams in the MLB, he chose to stay at Nebraska where he coached the baseball team for eight seasons (‘12-’19), going 267-193-1 overall and 111-77-1 in conference, leading Nebraska to a Big Ten Conference championship in 2017 as well

“I was asked to come back and help get the culture back in place for Nebraska baseball, and when the University of Nebraska asks for something, I’m going to more than likely do it,” Erstad said.

as earning Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2017. After the 2019 season, Erstad stepped down as head coach from Nebraska to focus on spending more time with his family and watching his three children, Jordan Elizabeth, Zack and Adam, grow up.

“In the big leagues, it was what do I need to do to stay here, and for coaching, what do I need to do to get these kids to be better. Now, it’s not about me,” Erstad said. “It’s about what do our kids need and what is best for them.”

Now, he spends time watching Jordan’s dance recitals, taking both sons to practice and the same games their dad played growing up. His wife, Jessica Erstad, said too that it pained her husband to not be there at his children’s event when he was a coach. “The thing I miss most about Darin coaching is obviously getting to meet all the players and their parents and building relationships. But with that said, having Darin home now is super nice because he is able to see games,” Jessica said. Erstad’s middle child, Zack, also said that it has been nice seeing his dad every weekend now that he isn’t coaching anymore and still gives him insights if he or his brother or sister have any questions about anything.

SCOTT BRUHN COURTESY photo

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View from John Baylor’s booth in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. John Baylor courtesy Photo 50 UNLimited_12.21

back in Nebraska: How John Baylor reached his final destination after a long bumpy road Words: Chase Stubbs

alking around the campus of Stanford University, the mind of a wide-eyed freshman raced with aspirations of playing on the baseball diamond for the Cardinal. The dream was quickly cut short when he didn’t make the team. When one door closes though, another one opens. That is how the story of John Baylor begins. Baylor spent his childhood in Nebraska before moving to the East Coast where he attended high school in Massachusetts. The urge to play baseball lead him across the country once more to Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Even though the door to play college baseball closed on Baylor early in his career, another door opened to what he would do for the rest of his life. Baylor took on several different jobs during college to pay the bills due to him not yet knowing what he wanted to do with his life. The ones that opened his eyes to his future were tutoring high schoolers and announcing sports over the radio at Stanford. “It was at times difficult for me because I thought I would play college baseball, but I didn’t even make the team. So that was the jagged rocks of reality,” he said. Not to be deterred, Baylor graduated with a degree in international relations. The curriculum was rigorous, he said, due to all the requirements involved in the major: economics, foreign language and political science.

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John Baylor signs a volleyball for his fans. Photo courtesy of OnToCollege

After college, he was still not quite yet sure what he wanted to do, so he moved to New York where he worked on Wall Street and thought of becoming a lawyer in Omaha but ultimately decided that was not for him, either. His career path took a hard turn after watching a 1988 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, which led him to pursue a career in acting. “I was watching the movie, Rain Man, in a movie theatre, and I thought I could do that,” he said. “That’s how much thought went into it.” That’s all the motivation he needed to move back to California and chase his new dream by doing plays and some casting for commercials. The life of an aspiring actor was a difficult one, he said, and he needed to score some 52 UNLimited_12.21

side jobs to help pay the bills. A fellow actor told him of a sportscasting position nearby. With his experience calling baseball and women’s basketball games at Stanford, Baylor thought he would give that another go. He found a new joy in radio broadcasting, thanks to the subtle suggestion of a castmate, and went on to broadcast all-star football games in the area. He found that for him to get better in the field, he needed more repetition in smaller markets. His experiences in California allowed him to move back to Nebraska and call volleyball matches for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1994. Now, he knew he wanted a career in radio broadcasting, but he didn’t see calling Nebraska volleyball as

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his final stop. He originally saw this job as another stepping-stone to a bigger market job, just as he did in California. But soon Baylor saw Lincoln as his new home, a great place to raise a family and be with his father whose health was failing at the time, he said. Huskers volleyball has had the same voice calling its games for 27 years since Baylor took the radio job in

The trials and tribulations of becoming a broadcaster are something that John Shrader, a UNL sports media professor, can relate to. Shrader returned home to Nebraska in 2017 after more than 15 years of broadcasting and said he immediately saw Baylor as someone who can help

“What I think he brings for our students and anybody around him is experiences that are different. That are interesting. That molded him into who he is.” - UNL Sports Media Professor, John Shrader

enlighten students. “What I think he brings for our students and anybody around him are experiences that are different. That are interesting. That molded him into who he is,” Shrader said. These experiences helped Baylor develop and perfect his unique style -- one that Shrader said he has never heard before. Baylor brings a sense of humor to the booth to help engage the listener. He changes his tone or will make quirky remarks and puns. This unique style of quick and clever wit is what keeps listeners tuned in to his broadcasts. This energy Baylor brings to the booth is also what he brings to classrooms across the country. His OnToCollege ACT and SAT test prep courses are utilized in 27 states and over 440 high schools. The class prepares high school students for what to expect on the tests and also how the tests are formatted. On average, student’s scores go up one to three

points in the ACT and 50 to 200 points on the SAT. One past student, Kamryn Kautman, a first-year graduate student at the College of Saint Mary pursuing her doctorate in occupational therapy, said the courses helped her not only do well on the test but also calm her nerves going into it. “It helped me better understand what to expect on the ACT as well as how the test was made,” she said. “The one thing I do still remember that he told us was, ‘When in doubt, answer C.’” What Baylor initially thought would be a quick stop in Lincoln turned into his final destination that helped grow his business and his family. He is thankful for the opportunity to call volleyball matches for the Huskers and still loves it to this day. “I highly doubt that I would have greater enjoyment doing other play-by-play play jobs,” he said.

thousands of students have taken John Baylor’s OnToCollege test prep. Photo courtesy of OnToCollege. UNLimited_12.21

OVERWHELMED

Without An OFFICIAL outlet, sport club-athletes t

Words & photos: Jessica Blum

air spills out of every messy bun and ponytail, but no hair is left to cover the neck. Lacrosse practice has not started, yet sweat still drips down to leave lasting marks. Fifteen girls brave the 91-degree temperature at the start of practice, which is 16 degrees above normal, according to the National Weather Service, in the last week of September. With relief in sight as the sun sets below the Lincoln skyline, the girls play on. In these conditions, sports become more of a mental game: the willingness to push through the hot weather, to show up despite pressing deadlines, to be a part of a team with no current fundraising partners. And with no official psychological counseling for sport club-athletes, the UNL women’s club lacrosse team has found other ways to cope. “It’s stressful, but I think it’s teaching me how to set my

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own boundaries and how to really regulate what I need and prioritize,” senior defenseman, Mia Dawson, said. Dawson, originally from Los Angeles, came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for its early education program. And she has her sister to thank for introducing her to lacrosse. “She transferred from soccer to lacrosse after she tore her ACL, so after that, she’s been playing lacrosse for four-plus years and even in college,” Dawson said. “Since then, I’ve been playing when I switched over to a new high school, about five years now.” *** With the drive to be great on and off the field, mental struggles can settle in. Mental health concerns were up to 250% higher in 2020 than those historically reported, according to an NCAA wellbeing survey of 37,000 college athletes.

“This has impacted students more so in recent years than it has in a very long time,” Dawson said. “I feel like every student has felt the pressure of school, work and extracurricular activities much more in which it has made us more aware of our mental health concerns.” Simone Biles, a 24-year-old, seven-time Olympic gymnast, dropped out of her individual all-around competition in Tokyo to focus on her mental health in late July. Within lacrosse, three women from Michigan, Maryland and Florida have come out within the past two years to talk about their depression and anxiety. But some lacrosse players in Nebraska are experiencing something different. The mental health of UNL women’s club lacrosse players is improving, according to coaches and players. The sports club topped COVID challenges with more funding and friends after a year of lockdowns. “It’s a break from reality where

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turn to each other

“it’s an outlet for me to kind of just expel anger if i have stress. it’s some form to get that out,” said senior defenseman, mia dawson. you can really just focus on getting a good workout in and playing hard and know you’re talking to your teammates,” Coach Brenna Boulanger said.

counselor for Nebraska Athletics, said he exclusively treats varsity athletes.

However, club student-athletes don’t have a dedicated mental health group to support them at UNL like varsity studentathletes do. Each psychological counseling department associated with UNL provides assistance to a specific group of individuals: students or varsity athletes, but nothing in between.

“Sports have a significant impact on mental health,” Izuegbunam said. “You’re getting to interact with others; you’re making friends who many eventually call family and you’re cultivating transferable skills. At this time, we are working with varsity sports exclusively, and it’s possible that we do create programming for clubs and sports outside of varsity.”

Nedu Izuegbunam, an athletic

The Counseling and

Psychological Services (CAPS) is geared toward students. According to its website, “Our staff support all University of Nebraska-Lincoln students.” The specific group leaves one group in a gray area. Although technically represented by CAPS, sport club-athletes could require specific mental health counseling related to their activities as athletes, whether traveling, competing or practicing. Who is helping sport club student-athletes right now?

senior defenseman mia dawson throws her stick back and prepares to pass the rubber ball with a third teammate practicing ball handling skills and spot-shooting. Photo by Jessica Blum

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*** Coach Boulanger came to Nebraska from Dover, N.H., where she first played lacrosse. She, like Dawson, migrated to Nebraska for school. She enrolled at UNL for a master of arts in international administration and now works for Hudl as its elite customer success manager of ice hockey, pro football and national governing bodies. She said she loves to keep her plate full with coaching ice hockey and other jobs, too. As UNL’s coach for three years, she learns alongside her 15 players, whose knowledge and familiarity with the sport grow. The team travels to out-ofstate tournaments and usually aims to schedule two or more tournaments a season, Dawson said. “Our first tournament showed me we had a lot to a lot of work to do,” Boulanger said of three years ago. “But I thought our team was in a pretty good spot, and it just made me feel good

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about what I’ve been doing with the girls.” Funding makes a difference, too. Without it, the team has no money to buy into tournaments or for the equipment they use twice a week at practice. Without it, the team has no outlet for their stress and mental health. *** Brian Stelzer, assistant director for sport programs and summer camps at UNL Campus Recreation, said he knows about the club’s current condition. They now can allocate more money from Campus Recreation than they have in recent years. “Each year in the spring semester, the sports clubs recognized by Campus Recreation submit budget requests and presentations,” Stelzer said in an email. “Budgets and presentations are given to the Sport Club Council Advisory Board, which provides a recommendation for how to allocate the funds directly to our member clubs.”

Student fees contribute the most to UNL Campus Recreation’s budget, which is over $10 million. Sport clubs are included within the Campus Recreation’s own annual request. For the 2021-2022 academic year, $126,740 of student fees collected was allocated directly to 39 member clubs, according to Campus Recreation. “Between the allocation and selfgenerated funds, the sport club program has an overall budget of almost $400,000 annually,” Stelzer said. “As the program and number of clubs grow, that goal gets stretched.” The UNL women’s sport club lacrosse team is slowly catching up to the men’s allocation annually. In the 2019-20 school year, allocations were $2000. In 2020, it was $4750, and now, it’s $5000, according to Campus Recreation. The men’s sport club lacrosse team receives $8,000, so they can travel to more tournaments and get more fees covered. The growth from 2019 to the

coach boulanger overlooks the team huddle as president natalie underhill and vice president ayla volante lead drill practice. discussions range from what went right, what went wrong, what other teammates want to see from the team in terms of production, and tricks on form with the lacrosse stick. Photo by Jessica Blum

2020 season is uncommon for most sports clubs at UNL, Stelzer said. “Most of our clubs have a consistent budget from year to year,” Stelzer said. “It’s rare for any club to have a change in allocation of more than $1,000 in a year.” The women’s club lacrosse team was inactive on campus from 2011 to 2016, Stelzer said. After a five-year hiatus, the team returned in 2017.

“When clubs return, they typically do not compete at the same levels as an established team,” Stelzer said. “Men’s lacrosse has been consistent in its membership for almost 20 years, so their budget has remained consistent.”

team was really fun because we bonded and got closer over the timespan that we traveled.”

The increase in funds has led to an increase in fond memories, Dawson said.

“Mental health is more prevalent in our society today,” Dawson said. “Lacrosse — same with working out — it’s an outlet for me to kind of just expel anger if I have stress. It’s some form to get that out.”

“Two years ago, we went to Kansas and played in some tournaments,” Dawson said. “Having that experience with this

With more money comes more playing time as well. For coaches and players, the club has been a relief of mental pressures.

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Beers, Boys and Babies: Amateur hockey goalie deals with Daily life, stress and starting a family Words & photos: Nolan Dorn

n empty Coors Light can hit the pavement with a thud. Eli Bohlmeyer, 22, finishes his first beer of the night pulling up to the John Breslow Ice Hockey Center. He mentally prepares for the game ahead by grabbing another beer from the plastic bag. “Sometimes you’re looking at a 60-plus mph shot, taking it straight to the body,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t have the nerve to drop down in front of that. That’s where the alcohol steps in.” Teammates pull up alongside Bohlmeyer’s Mazda and begin walking toward the large gray building beers and gear in hand. The team suits up in one of the dimly-lit, musty locker rooms. New players walk in and out of the

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room while more beer drinking continues minutes before game time. Crushing beers, hanging with the boys and playing hockey are a weekly staple of Bohlmeyer’s life. He plays hockey year-round for Hockeyfinder.com, an adult league available in 18 states. With a new wife, a child on the way and a fulltime job, he finds time to relieve stress and play goalie for a recreational hockey league. “When I finish a week, working 40 hours a week or more and dealing with everything at home, I know that I’m going to hit the ice and I’m going to take some pucks to the chest,” he said. The amount of alcohol consumed changes on a weekly

Bohlmeyer gazes across the rink watching his team duke it out with their opponents. He has been a wall every time the opposing team comes close to his goal. “I love to be the last line of defense kind of thing, you know,” he said. “It’s arguably the most important position in the sport.”

basis, he said. Some days, he might have one or two beers and others, he doesn’t keep track. Today, he didn’t work and spent the whole day drinking and playing an online video game, Runescape, with his friends. “I didn’t want to get as drunk as I got, but I did,” he said. “Most of the time, I just get a light buzz and that definitely helps my confidence when we are up against some of the better teams.” Bohlmeyer and the rest of the team waddle out to the ice for pre-game rituals. No alcohol is allowed on the ice but most of the team has already had at least two to three beers while gearing up. Bohlmeyer sets up both goals by nailing the goals into the ice. A couple minutes before game time, the team warms up against him. He trash talks his teammates shooting wildly at him, some right into the goal and others not in the vicinity of the goal. “People are either really good and have been playing for years, while others might have just started playing this year. There are a lot of different skill levels in the league,” he said. The ref drops the puck onto the ice as the horn rings to begin the game. A collision in the middle of the rink begins the first of three 21-minute periods. According to Bohlmeyer, his team was more experienced than the other team, so he doesn’t see very much action in the first half.

A ref stops the game with his whistle and Bohlmeyer takes off his helmet and gloves to signal a heart to his sister, Jillian, who sits by herself on the barren bleachers. Jillian, 20, attends a lot of her brother’s games, and signals a heart back to him as he puts his helmet and gloves on as play resumes. Tonight, she is the only one in the stands. “It’s nice to show your support for your brother,” she said. “I know that he appreciates it. He’s always doing goofy stuff while he’s on the ice.” Many of Bohlmeyer’s friends and family come watch his games on Wednesday and Sunday nights, including his wife, Shelby, mom, dad or sister. “We love to watch Eli play,” his mom, Julie, said. “We just have to bring some extra blankets since it’s so cold at the ice rink.” After a quiet half for the opposing team, they come out swinging in the second half. This causes one to smash one of Bohlmeyer’s teammates into the wall. Whistles are blown as a group crowds around the wall near center ice. “Most teams rarely ever fight, but we fight pretty much every week,” Bohlmeyer said. The fight is quickly deescalated and a couple of players are sent to the penalty box when play resumes. Bohlmeyer returns to his post at the goal after a heated exchange with the opposing team. He doesn’t only defend the goal but said he would go to war for any of his teammates. “I love my team. I have played with a lot of these dudes for almost 10 years,” he said. “We have a really good chemistry on the ice.” Most fights are left on the ice, he said. Typically players are just letting out some daily anger that comes with life. UNLimited_12.21

“Most of the time, you can catch the players who fought in the parking lot having a beer after the game,” he said. Bohlmeyer leaves whatever grievances he has on the ice and says the only time he fights is when somebody comes after one of his teammates. The norm for goalies is to be stoic and not show emotions, but Bohlmeyer said he doesn’t follow the rules all the time. When there is a shutout, he gets excited and when he misses a puck and lets it go past him, he gets mad. “I should just go drink my water bottle and continue to play, but sometimes it’s just like damn, I could have done something better,” he said. Tonight, Bohlmeyer has been perfect. He protected his goal and his team scored three times against the opposing team.

“I start to think when I look around my house, and I’m like what’s childproof and what’s not, and it starts to scare me a bit,” he said. Bohlmeyer stresses about fatherhood and said he’s worried he won’t be what the baby needs, but he realizes it’s an obstacle he needs to overcome. “I look at myself and I think, nobody’s ever really ready for a child,” he said. “I just want to be as ready as possible to be the best father I can.” The perfect outlet is playing hockey to let out the stress that comes with daily life as a young adult. “It’s great to come out to the rink and sweat it out,” he said. “To get a break from real life and take some pucks to the face.”

Bohlmeyer’s team lines up to shake hands with the other team. The team turns toward their locker room to undress and have a celebratory drink or two. Swear words are thrown back and forth between teammates as they celebrate their 3-0 victory. Eventually, the locker room empties out and people exit to celebrate their victory at a local bar or return home. Bohlmeyer loads up his gear into the back seat of his Mazda sedan and plans to head home to see his wife who could not make it to the game tonight. Bohlmeyer’s softer side comes out after the brutality of a long-fought hockey game. He and Shelby are expecting their first child this winter and he said he has had to change a lot of his mentality.

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Beers, Hockey and a Baby: Scan the code for a visual memorial video for this story.

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Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama’s Football team, celebrates a national championship with his players. In football, collegiate success may translate to high school recruiting numbers. new york times courtesy photo

Recruiting in 2020: Why are some states recruited more than others? By Emma Hastings

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Every year, thousands of high school studentathletes meet with coaches from across the country. Both parties are looking for the same outcome: to sign these athletes to a team. However, how much will the team and the athlete benefit from a signature on signing day? Some athletes are more coveted than others, garnishing countless offers due to their high athletic abilityies. If they’re good enough, a select few will even grace the Top 25 recruiting lists in their sport. An interesting trend is looking at where these players come from. While writing a story earlier this semester about 4-star Britt Prince, I realized that from 2012-2020, only one athlete in the state of Nebraska has been a Top 25 athlete in football, boys basketball and girls basketball. Only one athlete out of 675 has been from the Cornhusker state. I began to wonder why this is, so I put it to the test with data. First, let’s look at the total number of Top 25 recruits by state, including Washington DC.

As we can see, Florida is the most recruited state with 35 total Top 25 recruits. California (27), Texas (26), Georgia (21) and Louisiana (13) round out the top five. 19 states have zero recruits over the nine-year time period, including Nebraska.

Let’s move on to boys basketball. Texas comes in first with 25 recruits, California is in second with 21 and Florida slides into third with 18. 14 states had no Top 25 boys basketball recruits.

Texas remains on top in girls basketball with 39 recruits with California and Georgia finishing off the top three with 25 and 16, respectively. 14 teams also had no Top 25 girls basketball recruits. UNLimited_12.21

Why are some states recruited so much more than others? My first prediction was due to population. It would make sense that a state like Texas, which boasts 29 million residents, would be recruited more than the state of Rhode Island with a population of 1 million. For this example, I looked at the Top 25 recruits from 2020 in all three sports. Next, I divided the number of recruits in each state by the total population of male/female 15-19 year olds.* Lastly, I added a red line indicating the average number of students from the 15-19 age range who are recruited in the Top 25. By population, a state to the left of the red line is under-recruited, and a state to the right of the line is overrecruited.

The story is the same in boys basketball. Both Texas and Florida were recruited almost exactly on average. However, most other states were either over or under-recruited. 15 states had a recruit in the Top 25. Again, New York had no recruits, whereas New Hampshire was toprecruited by population when it is 42nd in total population.

When considering population’s effects on football recruitment, we can see that quite a few states were over-recruited in 2020. For example, New York is the fourth-most populous state in the country with nearly 8.5 million people. However, it had no football recruits in 2020. Utah, the 30th-most populous state, was the fourth-most recruited by population.

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As far as girls basketball, again the story repeats. A few more states were close to average recruiting levels than in other sports (New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania). Maryland, who boasted three recruits in the 2020 Top 25, was by far the most recruited by population. Florida, the thirdmost populous state, had 0.

The top-recruited states in football are Florida, California and Texas. As you can see, the states with the highest average number of ranked teams are Texas, Florida and California. Alabama, Ohio and South Carolina also sit in similar spots on both charts. In football, collegiate success may translate to high school recruiting numbers.

All three of these charts tell us that when it comes to recruiting, population isn’t a completely accurate way to explain discrepancies between states. Can it be used to make some predictions? Yes. But, is it completely fool-proof? No. After I hit this dead end, I had an idea: Does the dominance of Division I programs have a direct effect on the high school recruits coming out of the states they call home? For example, does the state of Alabama produce more football recruits due to the Crimson Tide’s dominance nearly every year? In order to calculate this, I organized AP’s Top 25 teams at the end of each sport season from 2012-2020. Then, I added up each states’ total number of top 25 teams over the nine-year period, and finally found the average number of teams the state has in the top 25 every year.

Men’s basketball tells a similar story. Although Kansas and Michigan aren’t as heavily recruited as their DI teams are successful, Texas, North Carolina and Indiana fit the pattern.

Per the data, this method actually seems to be a pretty accurate way to predict where recruits come from. UNLimited_12.21

Lastly, girls basketball follows the same pattern as both other sports. Texas and California own both the most ranked programs, as well as the most recruited girls basketball players. Florida is also high on both lists. In conclusion, having more successful Division I programs does seem to correlate, at least somewhat, with having more Top 25 recruits. Both of these data sets produce interesting possible explanations about why some states are

recruited more than others. While I think both population and Division I success play a part in recruiting numbers, I predict that there are countless explanations, from weather patterns to socioeconomic status to youth sports popularity, that all work together to create the recruiting environment that exists today. Basically, after my research, I believe that there is no right answer to my question. However, I think this is what makes recruiting what it is: an unpredictable landscape of talent.

Players from Stanford’s Women’s Basketball team celebrate during the 2021 Division I Final Four in san antonio. sbnation courtesy photo

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Taekwondo: The mind and body sport helps UNL sport club-athletes gain confidence, self-defense skills Words & photos: Annie Walter

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im Synder started learning Taekwondo when he was 15 years old. His love for martial arts stems from the way it helped him develop his confidence and self-esteem. As Snyder grew up, he battled with dyslexia and often struggled in school. Because of this, his confidence was low, and because it was the 1960s, little research had been done about dyslexia. “One of my parents’ siblings had told them that they had read an article that people who struggle with dyslexia, if they did martial arts, it builds their confidence,” Snyder said. At the time, his cousin ran a Taekwondo class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Snyder ended up making a commute from his hometown in Hickman to Lincoln twice every week for class. After he reached brown belt -- the belt one step below the highest level in most martial arts -- Snyder taught his first Taekwondo class. Now a 10th degree black belt and one of the most qualified instructors in the country, Synder owns Sei Shin Kan Karate in downtown Lincoln, and is teaching the new generation of martial arts lovers how to build their own confidence, selfesteem and integrate martial arts philosophies into their daily lives. Primarily used for self-defense, Taekwondo originated in Korea. It falls under the category of martial arts, which have been around since the dawn of time. Literally meaning “way of the hand and foot,” Taekwondo is a specialized form of martial arts

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developed by Koreans after World War II. Martial arts schools called kwans opened up after the war ended and were taught by teachers who had background knowledge of Japanese and Chinese martial arts. Because of the Japanese repression, Korea’s native martial arts disciplines such as Taekkyeon were lost. However, the end of the war heralded a new era, and Taekwondo was born. No one creator is attributed to inventing Taekwondo; rather, the birth of Taekwondo is credited to “the Nine Kwans.” This refers to the five original kwans and the additional four kwans that opened after the end of World War II. Like many other martial arts forms, they often vary depending on which branch is practicing the discipline. Taekwondo also has its own form of guidelines, which take the form of tenets. The five tenets of Taekwondo are: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, selfcontrol, indomitable spirit. “The Korean peninsula was divided into three different kingdoms, and eventually modernday Taekwondo came out of some of the different fighting styles of those regions,” said Snyder, who has been teaching and practicing martial arts for over 50 years. *** A forceful body slam to the ground will harm anyone, but for those practicing Taekwondo, it’s just another day at the gym. Breaking boards, long nights of practice and body slams are all part of a night’s work for UNL’s Taekwondo sport club, which practices Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Those who have practiced UNLimited_12.21

Taekwondo originally joined for several different reasons, but they all gleaned similar benefits from the sport. Taekwondo has as much a philosophical connection as it does physical. Wesley Chong, a UNL junior biochemistry major, pinpoints several different areas Taekwondo helps him mentally and physically. “I joined Taekwondo because my parents thought I had too much energy,” Chong said. “It [built] great stamina and strength.” Taekwondo’s fast-paced combat style requires a quick response time, which for Chong spills over to academic life. Memorization plays a big part in Chong’s STEM major, and through Taekwondo, he learned the skills for pattern recognition. “I’ve learned discipline, time management and I’m able to think faster on my feet,” Chong said. In addition, Chong also said Taekwondo was a major confidence-booster for him. During Chong’s middle school years, he stood taller than most of the other children around him, so he was often pitted against opponents who were much older than him as well. Because of this, Chong often prepared differently and strategized differently in order to match his opponents. “I had to think more strategically, because not only was I taller than most people, but I was kind of thinner,” Chong said. “I think by practicing that, that also helped build my confidence and discipline within myself.” Similarly to Chong, UNL student Molly Storm also gained confidence and had her share of hardships when joining Taekwondo. However, her debut into Taekwondo was vastly different from Chong’s, and being a female presented its own set of challenges. “The main reason I do it is because of family for me,” Storm said. “I grew up doing it. My parents met actually through Taekwondo.” In addition to Storm’s immediate family, she also considers those around her who do Taekwondo her family as well -- whether they’re blood-related or not. A large chunk of Storm’s enjoyment is the community around her. Since joining the sport club two years ago, Storm grew from feeling like an outsider to closely bonding with them.

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“They have definitely grown to become my family,” Storm said. “I would definitely do anything for them, whatsoever.” For Storm, Taekwondo goes further than just this social and familial aspect. Her confidence-boost comes from Taekwondo’s defensive properties; like all martial arts, Taekwondo can be used as a selfdefense sport. “Just knowing that I know how I can defend myself from certain situations gives me more confidence to be able to go out in certain situations,” Storm said. “I feel more confident about walking out in public.” Taekwondo also gave Storm social confidence. She was a shy kid growing up, and through Taekwondo, she met and connected with people through a shared activity. Storm also gained the skills to express herself and now she is an instructor for the Taekwondo club. Throughout Storm’s many years in Taekwondo, she has also seen a lot of changes both culturally and the community she grew up with. “The gender biases definitely changed,” Storm said, adding that there were times she was told that she “can’t do that” or “you hit like a girl,” and that she needed the instructions simplified because she was a female. “I made it my goal to prove them wrong,” Storm said. “Now, I like to make sure the girls are held to the same standards as the guys at the UNL club. Kind of proving that we can do the same exact stuff guys can do and sometimes better.” During Storm’s adolescent years, she said it took her a while to turn that negativity into something positive for her. In addition to being compared to the males in Taekwondo, she was also compared to her mother since her parents owned the Taekwondo school where she was from. She especially felt like she couldn’t live up to the standards placed on her and rather than letting her resolve be tainted by the negativity she experienced, Storm changed that into something motivating instead. “One day something clicked in me,” Storm said, “I’m not going to take this anymore. I don’t deserve to be treated like this.”

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What It Means to be a Sports Videographer for Huskers football Words: Daniel Magnuson

he time is 3 in the morning. It is a weeknight. Most people are asleep and comfortable in bed, but not Mike Rapsys. He is awake and editing a highlight video for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln men’s basketball team. Caffeine and a passion for sports videography are his fuel to keep going through the night as he finishes a video due later that morning. Behind the scenes of Huskers athletics includes traveling with the team and putting in long hours of working day and night to promote sports teams, student-athletes and also the future of videography. Rapsys is not alone in this pursuit. Other UNL sports videographers like Rob Washington and Josh Ferdico can relate to the late night grind editing sports video. They share an origin of getting into sports videography with high school football, falling in love with photography first, and eventually for Rapsys and Washington, it was making skateboard videos. Washington shot photos and videos of high school athletes in his hometown of Denver, Colorado for a few years where he formed relationships through creating content. “There’s a kid who passed away last summer,” Washington said. “I was just out testing some new equipment one day, and I shot photos of him. And then the last photo of him was the one that I took. So then I was like man, I need to find out who these kids are who surround him.” The young man who passed away was Davarie Armstrong, the 17-year-old was set to enter his

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senior year at Denver South High School. Washington also followed a high school girl and her basketball season. He mentioned that she played her heart out that season for her lost friend. He talked about how his friends on the football team responded on the field. “And then his other friends, who play football, I would go shoot them and see how they all played. They were a terrible team but after that (losing Davarie) they went undefeated. And these kids lost a friend due to gun violence. Just being able to have a story that people can always hold on to forever means a lot,” Washington said. He shared the last photos of Davarie with his family and friends. The highlights he created of these high school kids also went a long way, not just for the young athletes but also for him in return. “During the high school football season they (Davarie’s friends) actually put a mural together of that (of the final photo of Davarie) and surprised me with it. I was like wow and to see all the support from different people and everybody was just like showing me love. I try to be a guy behind the scenes, I’m just like trying to test the lens one day and you know he was working hard, so I was like well I’m gonna focus on him right now,” Washington said. Washington was not only doing what he enjoyed but was getting appreciation and forming relationships in return.

“One of the coaches came to me one day, ‘Hey, your footage got a kid into a Division I college; you’re giving kids opportunities out here by shooting stuff.’ wow, ok, this is deeper than I realize,” Washington said.

brands, it’s always benefiting the athletes,” he said. Making highlight videos, graphics and other content has caused relationships to form between videographers and student athletes. “We were doing short documentary pieces and on some players during fall camp and spring ball. And having them come up to us afterwards. ‘Like man, that meant a lot for you to kind of really show who I am, and like what I can do outside of sports.’ And like one of our players he loves to meditate and really take care of his mental health in that way. He’s one of the guys crystallizing all that and bringing players together. Developing relationships with those guys means a lot. Playing Madden with those guys or joking around with those guys every time I see them, it’s fun dude,” Washington said.

Rob washington on Tom Osborne field this season for Nebraska athletics Washington now works full-time with Huskers football. No matter the location of the game, he is running all over the field catching video of the Nebraska football team. “Everything we do from after a game, making videos or taking photos and giving it to the players and making sure they are posting this content because it’s going to help their brand grow,” he said. With the rise of NIL and social media, sports videographers are crucial to the branding of college athletics. Washington also plays a big role in recruiting for Nebraska football. During the off season, he works to content for Husker commits and recruits. “Everything that we’re sending to the kids to get their eyes on Nebraska and get that brand to grow more and having those kids come here and know that they’re gonna have opportunities to grow their

It’s not all sunshine and roses, though. He’s experienced the ups and down while traveling and spoke about the tough trip home after a gut wrenching loss to Michigan State.

“This past weekend I rode home from MSU. It was brutal. Late at night and we didn’t arrive back at the stadium until 2 a.m. You feel that on the plane and you feel it immediately as soon as the game’s over. You feel the pain, maybe not the same pain that players have, but you know you feel like you’re part of the team being there. I feel like somebody stabbed me in the eye and I have to walk around with this knife there. I can’t pull it out like it has to stay there. I gotta look into these guys eyes and talk with them. Seeing them come together after that, you know what they’re not giving up,” Washington said. The late night flights home from road games are a small fraction of the time he dedicates to Husker football The work life balance is like a challenge. During fall camp, it’s like 7 a.m., so whenever we’re completely done that could be 10 p.m.,” he said. It’s a 365 days a year-job. UNLimited_12.21

“I don’t get to see my family. I don’t know when I will have legitimate time off to go back to Colorado. Sometimes I am having a creative block, I’m like, am I even good? When we do have imposter syndrome. We might see a video or something that we made or have a clip or a moment that we’re like, I can do this forever. I can do this,” he said.

worth it like being able to go back and look at your footage.”

In the future, Washington is looking forward to a future where he has more free time to put in work that pays off.

“The content we create around these athletes still directly benefits them. With the NIL stuff, personal branding has never been bigger, especially within student athletes, we’re here to support the athletes.”

“I don’t know if I see myself working in sports

Ferdico works mainly with baseball and also with football and says sports are nothing without student-athletes. At the end of the day, it’s all about them, he said.

Through his work, he spends a lot of time with the baseball team and is able to form connections with then. “You share those high moments with them, you share the low moments with them, you’ll share meals and it makes it a hell of a lot easier if you like each other,” he said. Last season, Ferdico interacted with “a baseball mom.” “Cam Chick’s mom told me ‘Your stuff’s fire’, and I was like, ‘Thank you.’ There’s just something special about working with the team and being that support system for them on the digital side.” What he loves as a traveling sports videographer is the romance. “That romantic feeling and sports is like that roller coaster of emotions. The highs are high and the lows are so very low and I mean that’s why we love it though. I mean nothing else delivers that feeling. I just think it’s so exciting. The environment, atmosphere, fans, I’ve never shot anything like shooting sports and just the rush in the excitement it’s never the same. It’s a blast,” he said.

Josh Ferdico courtesy photo forever, because I do miss the aspect of storytelling and having more creative control. To travel or spend time with my family, I have to get to that level. I have to have a work life balance but then get to a point where I’ve worked so hard to get to here whatever I choose to do with my creativity,” he said. “There’s definitely long nights, but it’s so

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But it’s not glamorous. ”We spend the majority of our time not on the field or on the courts. There’s huge backend processes after the game you need to take your SD card and dump the footage or photos. Then you need to tag them. So you need to enter in all this metadata, watch your videos, name them and organize them correctly. And even then your photos aren’t

color graded like your footage looks almost black and white because you shot in log, and it’s like a mountain of things you have to do afterwards,” Ferdico said. For Rapsys, a senior majoring in emerging media arts, his work this year includes filming and creating a documentary for men’s basketball player, Derrick Walker. “He has a really cool legacy that he’s left but still has more to accomplish. I think it’d be cool to kind of capture his last year of basketball, that’s where I kind of got more of a perspective of these athletes. Especially being with Derrick, I mean we rode in a car for six hours total driving to Kansas City and back. Already just right there, you kind of form a close relationship, and I think that’s what’s super cool with working with the basketball team, is just kind of getting to know all the players. You’re making content but also building relationships while you’re doing it,” Rapsys said. A quick conversation with Walker unraveled Rapsys’s schedule during basketball season. “I was shooting with Derrick Walker in Kansas City this weekend. He was asking questions about what I do. I told him, I’ll be going to the office at 10 o’clock at night, because of class, after class I have to do homework. And then I got to eat dinner. I like to take a couple of hours, kind of doing my own thing, and then I go to the office ‘til 2 in the morning. And he was like, ‘What, that’s actually insane,’” Rapsys said. Ferdico agreed.

“When you’re there sitting at your computer at the ass crack of dawn, 3 a.m., you’ve got work, is this really that fun? You know? Maybe, I should just not do photo and video work anymore. I think it’s important to make those sacrifices. It’s the name of the game in this industry. So, you know, the grind is absolutely real,” he said. They often have to work past their 20 hours a week -- hours that are not compensated for. In the future, Ferdico said he looks forward to growing his own photo and video business. “There’s something to be said about having one 100% creative freedom,” he added Rapsys said he is excited for this year’s basketball season and beyond. “I’m really excited about my documentary with Derrick Walker. Maybe I just want to have an editing bay at my house and be a freelance editor. Hopefully after I graduate, I can take my first couple of years to just network and just meet as many people as I can, so I can get to a point where I’m like, hey, I want to start freelancing. I want to have a happy family. I want to get some Border Collies. I want a good backyard,” he said. The life of a traveling videographer can be a roller coaster.

“When you lose away, it’s tough. The thing about this field is the highs feel so high and the lows feel so low,” Rapsys said. “To feel the lows in order to feel the highs, that’s part of what’s so cool about working in this industry.”

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A black Graduate Assistant looks to impact DIVErsity in Nebraska’s Athletics Department Words & photos: Sydney Long

n the top level of Memorial Stadium, Denise Bradford takes the elevator up to her desk to start a statistical analysis of the Cornhuskers basketball team. “Working in the Huskers Athletics Department has given me a unique opportunity to combine my love for problem solving and compassion for others into a dream job,” she said.

Bradford, a graduate assistant at the University of NebraskaLincoln, works in the Nebraska Athletic Performance Lab (NAPL) as a sports analytics assistant. As one of the most advanced college athletics departments in the country, the NAPL is devoted to providing all statistical information to coaches, players and administration. In her first few years on the job, Bradford said she hopes to contribute to the hard-working culture that Nebraska is all about and encourage more diversity in the department. “Representation matters. The percentage of athletes or people of color in sports is a very high percentage -- around 80%. Our backgrounds

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create a different perspective,” she said. When it comes to representation, there is a lack of diversity in the department compared to athletes. There are 10 Black men on UNL’s men’s basketball team. In the statistics department, one person of color is there to represent them -- Bradford. She is also one of the only females in the department. She said she feels like females are not given access to these careers in sports. “Most women think I play a sport and that’s it and move on,” Bradford said. “I don’t think a lot of women actually think about being in the space in a different capacity like this.” Bradford, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in applied statistics from Purdue University, said a few of her role

models helped show her that sports analytics could be a potential career path. “Tina Fey and Mindy Kahling are people that I look up to mostly because they kind of forged the space for women,” she said. ”In terms of sports, Kobe Bryant and LeBron (James) for their ability to pivot after the sport in their real lives.” Though she played and lettered in basketball and tennis in high school, she said she had no idea she could work in sports stats. “It is pretty cool that that’s a thing now,” she said. Before working as a graduate assistant, she interned as a data analyst at Hudl, an organization created for sports teams across all levels, from youth sports up to professional sports. Bradford compared learning the ins and outs of working in sports analytics to basketball. “You keep coming back and trying the lefthand layup, and I think working is the same thing,” she said. “You’re

not always going to know how to do everything, but you always have to remember it takes practice to learn.” Since she is the only graduate assistant in the department, she is able to work with the staff of all 23 varsity sports and primarily focuses on softball and men’s basketball. As someone who used to work in the same department, Tucker Zeleny, Ph.D., said he knows how much hard works goes into this field. In 2020, Zeleny was the director of UNL’s sports analytics department before he decided to work for Lutz as a data analyst. He received his bachelor’s degree in math with a physics minor and his Ph.D. in statistics. As the head of the department, Zeleney said it is crucial to a team’s development to have some kind of statistical analysis of the team’s progress.

“Whether that’s on-field stuff, recruiting stuff, ticket sales or whatever, I think it’s pretty important to have a handle on that data,” he said. Learning how to do all of these things is what can make you thrive in this sports industry, he said. “It is a balance of everything and having kind of that mindset of, ‘Hey, maybe can’t do this right now, but I at least have some ideas on where to start and give me time to research, I can figure something out,’” he added. The NAPL, where Bradford works, houses the statistics department and the analysis department. Athletes and coaches are given exclusive building access where they can keep track of everything going on with their bodies with machines like a DXA body composition scanner or an Athletic Analysis System.

“In terms of there being an entire lab, I think it’s very unique, if not one of two in the nation,” she said. Zeleny agreed that UNL’s lab and department are a rarity and most schools have a stats person for certain teams, but UNL has a group of people who work closely with every team to provide teamspecific data. “I think Nebraska was pretty unique, and we had a kind of standalone department to do it for every sport,” he said. One of Bradford’s co-workers, Jessica Calvi, Ph.D., said she knows how much of a privilege she has by working in arguably one of the most famous college football stadiums in the country. “Most college departments say, ‘Hey, we get to do a research study, and you get the benefit of using this technology.’ Whereas here, we just have that in-house in UNLimited_12.21

athletics, which is pretty rare,” she said. A research assistant professor with a Ph.D. in developmental psychology, Calvi’s job is to gather various forms of research, including brain biology and behavior research and the other half is NAPL research. Working in a job that involves sports statistics can be unpredictable, she said. “Never really knowing what the day is going to look like before the end of the day is always how it works,” she said. Different types of technologies are used to keep up with athletes and track their physical data. “Athletes wear these little sensors in the back of their jersey that gives us an idea of what their distances were, how much they weigh and how fast they run,” she said. Another side to sports statistics would be the live statistics portion. Cavan LaRose worked for the NBA as a statistics auditor for live games and knows about data tracked during professional games.

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With a bachelor’s degree in sports management, his job consisted of him communicating virtually with the league office to people at the live event. “I would be assigned a game, for instance the Celtics, and then I would talk with the statisticians from the Celtics,” he said. “I would also look at every single play that came in and I would make sure that the stats were correct for every player throughout the game.” All of the stats that LaRose recorded would go straight to any national website where the live gamecast was showing. This could be the NBA or ESPN and meant that attention to detail was vital in his job. During his time with the NBA, he was able to work closely with multiple teams on various nights and different types of people. One thing that stood is LaRose working with more females than a lot of sports fields seem to see. “I would probably say around like four or five women out of 15 that were there as statistics auditors,” he said. As a female, Calvi agreed that diversity is lacking

in the athletics department but has faith after the recent hiring of Lawrence Chatters, Ph.D., as UNL’s senior associate athletic director for diversity, equity and inclusion. He works to make sure all athletics staff have the proper training to contribute to cultural competence diversity and equity. “I think that’s really important to recognize that we work with a diverse population of studentathletes and we need to be able to understand and match that in our staff,” Calvi said. UNL is the only school in the Big Ten to not have any Black head coaches. With more hirings, representation should increase. Charlie Foster, Ph.D., and assistant vice-chancellor for inclusive student excellence at UNL, said diversity is still a prevalent issue, and it is important in the development of students to see diversity. “A sense of belonging is important,” Foster said. “We know that students who have a connection to one faculty or staff person are retained at a greater rate. We work really hard on that to make sure that students find their someone.”

Trina Creighton, a retired UNL broadcasting professor and certified diversity expert, said she wants to see a change in the world when it comes to diversity. “We need more change. Diversity brings us into other cultures and helps us learn from other people, so we all can grow together,” she said. As years go on, there is more and more diversity. By the year 2040, the new minority will be white people.

to enact change in this world,” she said. Bradford looks to the future with plans of making her way to the NFL. She hopes the athletics department is able to find a way to have more females like her in the statistics department. “My hope is that it will change,” she said, “But being able to have the opportunity to support the development of student-athletes at UNL as a member of NAPL will be a story that I will value until my final days.”

“I think that the representation is getting better. I still think for Black females in sports, it is still an uphill battle. We’re not used to that representation yet,” Creighton added. To encourage the trend of diversity in the United States, Creighton said it is important to not let others keep you down. “It can feel threatening at times because they look at you and say, ‘Stay in your place,’ but I do it because I know it’s the right thing to do

“You’re not always going to know how to do everything but you always have to remember, it takes practice to learn.”

Having these leaders in life, females like Bradford are given the opportunity to gain their confidence in what might be referred to as a “male-dominated” career field. Foster hopes to see more people be as successful as Bradford. “It’s really touching when we’re able to help students through their journey, so it’s important work to many of us because we see ourselves in the students that we serve,” she said.

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Despite a lack of recent success, the future looks bright for Nebraska track and field Words: Hugh Regester Walking into the Devaney Center, hundreds of banners hang on the walls.

congratulations when they have earned it and bolster the self-esteem of many under Pepin’s helm.

But there is only one track and field banner from the last five years.

“He really takes an interest,” Podraza said. “A couple years ago when I had a good deck, he wasn’t at that meet, and he called me a couple hours after and told me he was proud of me. It was really cool.”

For sixth-year senior student-athlete Zach Podraza, the thought of Nebraska’s former glory looms large. “Getting back to where we used to be as a team is definitely a big motivation,” he said.

Junior Darby Thomas, a jumper on the women’s track team, said that while Pepin can be a caring mentor and coach, he also expects the best from his athletes.

After taking over as the University of NebraskaLincoln’s head coach in 1984 for Frank Sevigne, Gary Pepin became the all-time winningest track and field coach in the history of the Big 12 conference and the former Big Eight Conference, yet has not had much success as of late.

“He can be a big critiquer,” she said. “If you aren’t doing something right, even like the first time, he will let you know. If you repeat the mistake, he will let you know. He knows it takes time to fix things but he is a person that wants to see it and wants to know that you understand what he is telling you to do.”

Pepin started in the Big Eight conference with the Husker’s before its eventual expansion into the Big 12 conference. Now, the Huskers are in the Big Ten conference with more teams and more competition than ever before.

Because of that extra adversity, Thomas said she has become a better athlete and a better human under Pepin, thanks to all that he has done for her, starting from the day he recruited her.

“Schools are so much better, that the level of ability that someone has has to be really good if they have hopes to ever score in a Big Ten conference meet,” Pepin said. Despite that, Husker track and field student-athletes look forward to regaining the success they once had under coach Pepin. Since 1984, Pepin has coached 59 national champions, 42 women and 17 men, one of many statistics that keep any doubt from creeping into the minds of his student-athletes. “Pepin has been the same person since I’ve been here and he obviously had the key to winning, so why fix what ain’t broke?“ Podraza said. Podraza, a senior decathlon and heptathlon athlete for the Huskers, said that while Pepin is head coach, he is also the head jumping coach and he still finds time to critique and give all of his athletes

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“The whole reason I came to Nebraska was because of Coach Pepin, and I knew the history he had as a coach,” she said. “The athletes he has produced, it’s incredible. He made Nebraska a comfortable place to be, he made it feel like home,” Thomas said. Having coached numerous All-American athletes and conference champions, Pepin has a proven recipe for success. “Pepin has produced so many Olympians, Big Ten and Big Eight individual conference champions, national championship runners, so he definitely has high expectations for all of us athletes, which I think is incredible,” Thomas said. Coming into this season, the Huskers added multiple assistant coaches, including assistant head coach and throwing coach, Justin St. Clair, and cross country head coach, Matt Wackerly.

St. Clair joined Nebraska this summer as one of the top throwing coaches in the nation, winning the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year award eight times since 2016. “The throwers coach this year (he) came with a plan and he is sticking with that plan,” said Thomas. “He has such high expectations for the throwers in the weight room, throwing in general and being better all around athletes, including more running, more biometrics.” Pepin makes sure to continue updating his competitive advantage, according to Thomas, whether it be at practice with their hydraulic-powered track or new workout routines. Triple majoring in journalism, broadcasting and psychology, sixth-year senior and captain of the pole vaulting team, Andrianna “Andy” Jacobs, said the COVID-19 pandemic strongly affected the team and cancelled their indoor season. A lot of the program’s direction, she said, comes down the athletes. “We have to put in the work,” Jacobs said. “We have to listen to what our coaches say and perform when it comes time to perform. I think if we trust the process and do what he has laid out for us, we can be successful.” In the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic, Pepin said his team is more talented and much improved from the year prior, yet the grind never stops. “I would say we are moving in the right direction,” he said. “Are we where we want to be? No, but we’re driving down the highway here and the direction looks really good.”

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Video Games, Streaming and Rabbits Words: Annie Walter

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A bedroom illuminated with fairy lights, a steaming cup of tea on the counter and a rabbit set the stage for what could be a full-time job. Morgan Pruitt, a broadcasting major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, hopes to make this enchanting, surreal aesthetic her full-time job by streaming on Twitch, a popular website for gamers to live broadcast to those on the internet. Her online name is mizzlewizzle_, and she currently has 148 subscribers. Streaming online video began in the 1990s with services such as YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. Some of the biggest streamers — YouTube celebrities, Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) and Seán William McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye) who have a combined 130 million YouTube subscribers — stream as a full-time job. Streaming has increased in popularity because of its accessibility and personalization perks, and 63% of Millennials use streaming services, according to statistics.

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“I’m here to share my stories and shed light on what’s going on with me.” "I've always been into playing games and talking everyone's ear off."

“There was a lot of production quality that went into New viewers are always welcome and because she [streaming],” Pruitt said. “I’ve always been into playing plays different games, different viewers will trickle in games and talking everyone’s ear off.” based on interest. At UNL, Pruitt entered the esports community through a class. She also provided the color commentary for UNL’s FIFA 2020 tournament hosted by Alan Eno, an assistant professor of practice in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “I’m here to share my stories and shed light on what’s going on with me,” Pruitt said about why she streams. Pruitt works to maintain a sense of community around her and makes a point to ask questions and engage with her viewers. Her community consists largely of personal friends from home and people she grew up with, along with the occasional wanderer who vibes with her existing community.

“She gains different followers and viewers through the different games she plays,” Smithberg said. Occasionally, a viewer will pop in and give Pruitt tips on how to play the game, and other times they’ll join just because the game is niche enough to pique their interest. Pruitt said it’s important to focus on a smaller, more narrow crowd. “I like how she interacts with her followers, and doesn’t necessarily talk about the game the entire time,” Smithberg added.

Another hallmark of Pruitt’s streaming is her own personal branding on-screen and image she highlights. One of her own trademarks is her pet rabbit, Alice, “The community is really interesting,” Soleil Smithberg, Pruitt’s unofficial mascot. She also works hard to a regular viewer of Pruitt, said. “A lot of her viewers are maintain a streamlined color palette. She focuses on bright, somewhat lighthearted colors such as pink and from her regular life.”

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"I can create a safe space for people."

purple. Pruitt’s branding is described by Smithberg as “positive,” “quirky,” and “retro.” A facet of Pruitt’s streaming life is the “behind-thescenes” part of streaming: moderation, which, in the world of streaming, is usually done by a trusted person and in some cases a bot. This person or bot will often scan the chat and remove offensive or “spam” posts from the chat. The content that gets removed is usually set by the streamer themselves, and often instructions will be posted before a viewer enters the chatroom.

for being a female. Even though she was providing the commentary for the tournament, Pruitt was approached by several men who she said needed to explain the game to her. “I did have someone try to explain some of the background knowledge,” Pruitt said. “I was literally announcing the game.”

One in particular made a show of himself and approached Pruitt to comment on her name badge. According to Pruitt, he asked if she “was a Kirby main” One of Pruitt’s close friends, Nick Nylan, is a key (that is, whether she played as a character named moderator for her chat. Kirby in the particular game she was providing the color commentary for) when in fact her name badge “I just kind of make sure the chat is going all right,” had Jigglypuff (an entirely different character) on the Nylan said. “I make sure no one is using any bad badge. Not only that, but he also told Pruitt he had language or spam.” been playing on the GameCube since 1997, and Pruitt had to correct him that GameCube in fact came out “Spam” in a chat can take a variety of forms, such as in 1999 (although it was officially released in Japan in typing a block of emoticons, using caps lock to express 2001). excitement or saying the same expression over and over again to try and get the streamer’s attention. “He asked for my number to get a group of people together to play Smash,” Pruitt said. “He was hitting on “Spam is just the people who want you to buy followers me because he didn’t ask for anybody else’s number.” or buy viewers or subscribers or whatever,” Nylan said. This can also take the form of people posting selfAlthough there were about four or five other females promotion links. who were playing in the tournament, Pruitt said she was the only female announcer there. Even though Pruitt said she would love to become a full-time streamer, streaming comes with its own She also voiced other frustrations about being a challenges, especially since Pruitt is a female. female in streaming and said many of the men who According to the NCAA, males make up 91.8% of approach her try to explain some niche component of esports players and 96% of esports coaches. Of the the game, as if they are attempting to brag about their top 20 most followed Twitich streamers, only one – skills. Pokimane – is a female. “It’s just, like, you have to expect to be talked down to,” This year, Pruitt was involved with the UNL Smash Pruitt said. “Everyone just assumes you’re stupid.” Bros tournament where she said she was singled out Often, Pruitt said she will have to endure an

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explanation about a particular game when she already knows the background or in some cases is more knowledgeable about it than those explaining it to her. During the Smash Bros tournament, Pruitt recalled three different instances where a male counterpart approached her to give her pointers on the finer details of Smash Bros. “If I’ve got questions for you, I’ll ask,” Pruitt said, “I’ve been a Nintendo fan for so long.” Another issue with being a female streamer is the objectification of her and who she is as a female. A certain instance occurred during her Sub-A-Thon stream in which a viewer insinuated that he wanted her to strip. “It is a little difficult,” Pruitt said with a sigh. “I feel like I can’t joke around as much as the guys do. There are some things I can’t do because they’ll [think it was] cringy or that [I] can’t behave in that way.”

“I have to play the role of the professional, and I feel like I can’t really joke around because I’m just going to get bashed for it or it’s going to come off as flirty,” Pruitt added. Since she is often paired with a male reporter, Pruitt said she has to be extra careful with what she says and often feels like her jokes will be seen as flirtatious or inappropriate. However, despite these issues, Pruitt still loves streaming and announcing for the world of esports. Streaming provides her with an opportunity to both feed her own enjoyment of entertaining and broadcasting while providing her viewers with a fun atmosphere. “I encourage people to chat and talk about the things that are going on in their life,” Pruitt said. “I can create a safe space for people.”

Pruitt said she feels somewhat trapped in a role because of the stigma around female announcers.

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From breaking noses to breaking down plays, UNL broadcasting student combines wrestling with radio Words: Andrew Pfeifer

he clock is ticking down. Sweat is pouring from his head. Kevon Davenport knows it is his time to shine. “In 5… 4… 3… 2… You’re live!” Growing up in Detroit, Davenport found a passion for wrestling. “I went to my very first practice and busted up this kid’s nose. My shirt was just covered in blood. I came back home and my mom was like, ‘Woah you’re not going back!’ and I told her, ‘Nah, sign me up for tomorrow!’ I went back there. I got to beat a kid up and I didn’t get in trouble so I was like, ‘Sign me up for more of that!’” Now, a freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he wrestles for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the 149lb weight class. He has a career record of 18-4 with eight pins, three technical falls and three major decisions. But more recently, Davenport has discovered another passion for sports broadcasting. “When I was growing up, I would watch a lot of wrestling on the Big Ten Network. You could tell that a lot of the guys that were commentating have never wrestled,” Davenport said. “They would use the wrong terminology and it showed there wasn’t a high level of knowledge to do the job. I feel like that inspired me because I know a lot more than these guys. If you have knowledge as a commentator, that’s what makes you the best of the best.” Davenport recently made his broadcasting debut for 90.3 KRNU, UNL’s student radio station. According to

his broadcasting peers, his electric persona brought the broadcast to life. “The experience was very unexpected because of how much control and freedom I had. I really enjoyed it, for sure,” Davenport said. “I wasn’t expecting to have that much freedom over what was being talked about and what was being emphasized. It was really cool to know that I was the one dictating the tempo of the broadcast.” Being a Division I student-athlete, Davenport brings the same energy and tempo into the broadcasting booth as he does the wrestling mat. “The really neat thing about wrestling is that you get out of it exactly what you put into it, and I think that same philosophy runs very similarly with life,” Davenport said. “You get out of life what you put into it. The more you work every day consistently, the better you’ll be as a wrestler or someone excelling through life. It’s the same mindset you have to apply in life. You have to try to excel every day and that is what wrestling taught me in life.” Nebraska wrestler Ridge Lovett said he admires Davenport’s passion and knows he has the factors to make him successful. “Whatever he wants to do he can do it, ‘’ Lovett said. “We will wrestle live and try to beat each other and try new things and give each other tips and things like that to make each other better. I think he applies these skills to everyday life.” Davenport, a four-time state wrestling champion, UNLimited_12.21

recently made his debut commentating on high school football with UNLimited Sports staff writer, Daniel Magnuson. Magnuson said he loved spending time in the booth with Davenport and commented on his progress just as a beginner. “It’s cool that he is an athlete who is passionate about sports broadcasting,” Magnuson said. “Most athletes don’t get into broadcasting until after their careers in athletics. It’s cool that Kevon is getting started in college.” Typically, broadcasts feature seasoned veterans fresh out of retirement, but not Davenport. He’s getting a head start. “You don’t have to shut up,” Davenport said. “You can always talk about what you see and what is going on. Obviously, you have to make time for your color analyst. It is like main-character-type energy because you are just constantly talking. You are the voice of what everyone hears. It is super cool.” Magnuson follows: “Kevon, if you want to be a broadcaster, you have the ability to do it.” Davenport found his calling in the booth and his goals are beginning to take flight. Shooting for the professional level, Davenport is hoping to use athletics to help migrate over into his career as a broadcaster. John Shrader, a UNL sports media professor, gave Davenport his first opportunity as a broadcaster and praised him for his passion and knowledge of the sport. “Kevon’s knowledge of wrestling will help him immensely,” Shrader said. “I think his passion for the game will help him immensely and the audience picks up on that. He has a lot of energy and when he packages that energy in the right places then it works.”

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Shrader, who is a distinguished sports broadcaster himself -- spending over 40 years calling California professional sports -- said Davenport has a lot of potential in life wherever he decides to go. “Take that sports and athletic training and focus it into broadcasting: the details, the preparation, the passion for the sport,” Shrader said. “Take all of those things and package them into a broadcast presentation and just keep working really hard at it. Take advantage of every opportunity you can to broadcast.” As Davenport enters wrestling season, his time becomes more constricted, but there are ways he can improve on himself as an athlete and a broadcaster, just from his energy. “Kevon brings a whole lot of energy to the broadcast,” Magnuson said. “Kevon definitely has a passion for wrestling as he is one of the top wrestlers at UNL. This, combined with his broadcast potential and knowledge of the sport, will give him a lot of opportunity to be a broadcaster in wrestling if he chooses to go that route.” In a perfect world, Davenport hopes to achieve accolades of a national champion in his respective sport, compete on the world stage and finally land into the broadcasting booth. “It would be so cool if I could win some national titles in college and go on to the world stage and win some world titles and transition over to broadcasting,” Davenport said. “I hope wrestling continues to grow forward at this progression to the level like now, where wrestling is being covered now and I can be like Steven A. Smith of wrestling. Being able to achieve those accolades and being able to transition into a wider stage into the broadcasting booth.”

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Betting regulations changing in the husker state Words: Jason Kraus & Sam Jacobson

he smell of cigarettes and regret along with the sound of ATM machines buzzing sets the scene for one of America’s favorite pastimes: Sports betting. Sports betting has been around since the early 1800s with the Olympics being the first modern sporting events. Nebraska has finally allowed sports betting to become a part of casinos, and there will be new sports books popping up around the state as soon as this year. There is a way, however, to bet without going to a casino, and that is by using betting websites and apps. Sports betting is more than just betting on a game as thousands of different bets can be made both in casinos and on apps. It has become a prominent part of some people’s lives, especially in college towns. On the corner of W Denton Road and S First Street lies the city of Lincoln’s horse racing course. This casino is different from others around the country as the only thing to bet on is horse racing. This in fact will change in the coming years as the expansion of the horse racing casino is believed to start construction in the spring of 2022. The project is estimated to cost around $200 million and will include a new revised casino space with 1,200 slot machines, table games, a spa, restaurant and bars. There will also be a conference and event space with a hotel where rooms will have the views of live horse racing events. “Everyone is really excited for the slots and table games that are coming with the expansion of the casino,” front desk worker, Julie Meyers said. With expansion comes more company. “This place is really special to me because you meet a lot of people and make relationships with all the regulars and on race days it is a whole new scene with new faces and it’s refreshing,” said current teller for Lincoln’s Race Course Barb, who has been working at the course since 1998. The construction of six new commercial casinos across the state will improve gambling options for enthusiasts.

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The six new casinos that will undergo construction in 2022 include: • • • • • •

Atokad in South Sioux City Fairplay Park in Hastings Lincoln Race Course in Lincoln Horseman’s Park in Omaha Agricultural Park in Columbus Fonner Park in Grand Island

With an improved casino coming to the city and the recent legalization of sports betting in the state, the question that comes into play for many is when will sports books make their way to the casino? Sports books like DraftKings and FanDuel accept daily fantasy wagers and some believe that these sports books may be the frontrunners to establish themselves in new casinos, not just in Lincoln, but all over Nebraska. Sports betting is not legal as of yet in casinos, but there are many ways for people to get involved with sports betting in Lincoln. Still even on the apps, someone needs to keep track of the money and all the bets that are taking place. This is where a “bookie” can come into play in the wide world of sports betting. “You can bet through a series of online books across the country, I can pretty much place bets anywhere that I have access to the internet,” said an anonymous student who did not want to be named. Betting on these platforms has grown and grown since sports betting first became a thing. But there is a newfound notion of bookies that keep track of the money and where it is going. “It’s not as much about keeping track of the bets, but more of keeping track of the money,” they said. “Seeing who is owed money and owes money is probably the hardest part of being a bookie.” Being a bookie isn’t just as simple as paying people,

journalstar.com courtesy photo

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Photo By KTPM

you have to stay on top of your game and add players to your book at the right time. “Basically, I have a website where I can add players whenever I want. When I add them, I can control how much credit they’re given. This means how much money I’m willing to let them gamble with from the book. If they lose credit, they pay me. If they earn credit, I pay them. Since players don’t pay you directly when they make a bet, they will have a weekly balance that is reset at the end of each week. Their balance determines how much they owe me or I owe them,” they added. There are many things going on behind the scenes in the world of sports betting, but what advantages could there possibly be to sports betting? “First, you can make money. But I think the biggest benefit is how much of a conversation starter it is,” said the anonymous student. “You meet someone who is into sports, odds are they are familiar with how sports betting works. I talk to the same people almost every day just about sports gambling.” Sports betting brings many people together and you can cheer for pretty much everyone with this being in play. You are not going to win every bet you put down and sometimes the “acceptance of losing a bet,” is actually one of the most crucial parts of sports betting.

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“You’re not going to win every bet you put down on a sports book, but if you are willing to put in the time I believe that sports betting is a great place for sports fans,” another anonymous student said. “Also as a rule of thumb, if you don’t know the outcome of the game, Vegas always knows.” Now the bookie is one of the most important parts of online betting, but the betters who actually put money on games are easily the most important. It is happening among one of the largest population groups in the United States, college students. “I started betting when in my junior year of high school and the crazy part is I really didn’t have anyone betting around me,” Wilson said. “I was kind of the trend setter in a way of sports betting at my school.” Sports betting is very common among this age group because sports are pretty much the center of attention, and what’s better than winning money just watching your favorite team play. “I just enjoy the chance part of sports betting, it makes me feel more involved with the game, and brings excitement to games in which my favorite team is not playing,” he said.

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Senior Finance major Colin Bencker poses in his sae jersey.

Brothers in Sport: Sigma Alpha Epsilon members live out their athletic passions through UNL intramural sports

Words & photos: Matthew Ludwig and Hugh Anderson

t’s late. 11:50 p.m. to be exact. The cool dirt crunches under dozens of rubber cleats as they hurry across the dark and dusty infield of Fleming Fields. It’s a Wednesday night and Thursday morning class looms in the near hours. However, for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) intramural softball team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, this is a routine weeknight. “It’s definitely a different experience,” senior Colin Bencker said. “The latest baseball game

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I ever played growing up was probably 7 p.m. So to be on the field almost until midnight was kind of surreal.” While UNL is nationally recognized for its sports programs such as football and volleyball, a small percentage of total enrolled students reach this level -- 845 out of 26,079. Others, such as Colin Bencker, Dylan Dubisar and Michael Reinert of SAE, fulfill their passion for playing sports through intramurals. While each

found success throughout their high school athletic careers, these young men are now seeing the difference that Greek life intramurals is making on them. It is giving them a chance, possibly for the last time, to compete in the sports they grew up loving. From traditional to non-traditional events, intramural sports directly contribute to the physical, social and emotional wellness of students, according to the UNL website. Activities are organized into women, men, co-rec and/or

Senior supply Chain management major DYlan dubisar reenacts his favorite pitching pose.

open leagues. Each sport is then broken up into different divisions, which is where fraternities and sororities find themselves competing. Throughout high school, Bencker played middle infield for the Bennington Badgers baseball team and ended his career with a .932 fielding percentage. After graduating in 2018, Bencker decided to attend UNL and focus on his academics. However, he soon found himself joining SAE and competing on the field once again. Of the 110 active members, 12 joined the softball team. “We all decided to play softball, even though not everybody had played it or baseball before,”

“Deciding to participate in softball and the other intramurals was one of the best decisions I have made while at UNL,” Reinert said. “I still get to play the sports I love while creating a bond with some of the brothers that I don’t know well, but who may become some of my best friends.”

Bencker said. “It was a fall sport and we all enjoy a little competition, so we wanted to go up against other fraternities.” Chloe Dolan, Bencker’s girlfriend, can see the impact that Greek life intramurals is making on him. Not only does it strengthen the bond between the brothers, but Dolan also said it makes him a better person. “Softball has impacted Colin in a way that has made him a leader, more driven, resilient and just an overall better person because of the various challenges and achievements that came along with it,” Dolan said. “His attitude on the field reflects his attitude in the classroom, because he is someone that truly never gives up and gives his all with UNLimited_12.21

whatever challenge he faces.” For Bencker, softball is another way to keep close to baseball, his favorite sport. His father, Paul Bencker, is the one credited for instilling this passion. “I actually own and maintain about 32 baseball fields here in Omaha, Nebraska,” Paul said. “So I think that me being around the fields and Colin working for me as a kid naturally led him to love baseball. He’s out at the fields all the time, so I was not surprised to hear that he is playing softball for his fraternity.” For Dubisar, playing basketball at Elkhorn South High School, he thrived from behind the arc, shooting over 45% from the three in his senior season. “Obviously playing high school basketball is very different from playing intramural sports in college,” Dubisar said. “However, I am still able to bring all my competitiveness to the intramurals that I participate in. I have always been a competitive person, so I take every softball game very seriously.” Dubisar’s mother, Karla Dubisar, said her son’s love for competition is a big factor in his choosing to play intramural softball and basketball. “Dylan is not just a competitive athlete but also a competitive person,” Karla said. “He really likes to make everything a competition, even when it comes to family activities.” Although golf was Dubisar’s first love, then basketball, the transition to college helped expand his horizons to compete in any sport his fraternity brothers participate in. Fellow teammate and SAE member Michael Reinert attended Omaha Westside and played

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shortstop for the Warriors baseball team. In 2018, he ended the season with one of the highest batting averages in the state -- .375. The opportunity to play at multiple junior colleges and Division I schools presented itself, but Reinert decided to attend UNL, major in finance and join SAE. He participates in intramurals such as flag football, basketball, broomball and, most recently, softball. “There is a lot of communication involved in softball, and I felt as though that and the conversations in the dugout helped me get to know my fraternity brothers,” Reinert said. “We had a few freshmen on our team, so softball was a great way to get to know them and learn more about them.” Though Reinert, Dubisar and Bencker are all competitive athletes, at the end of the day, they each said they are playing to make memories and take a break from their busy academic lives. Now that the softball season has come to an end, the SAE brothers set their eyes forward to the winter months where they can unleash their competitiveness once again on the basketball court. “Deciding to participate in softball and the other intramurals was one of the best decisions I have made while at UNL,” Reinert said. “I still get to play the sports I love while creating a bond with some of the brothers that I don’t know well but who may become some of my best friends.”

Senior business major michael reinert smiles for the camera. matthew ludwig & Hugh anderson photos

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Cole Hartman plays at a LAN event. Photo by Kento Warner

UNL student confronts addiction, learns to balance gaming and school Words: Jacob Osborn

“Next round, let’s slow push A.” As he sits in his bedroom, illuminated by a single lamp and the beaming PC monitor in front of him, Cole Hartman calls out the strategy to his four teammates. As his day unwinds, there is still work to be done. Hartman, 21, a senior electrical engineering student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln works to balance competitive gaming with schooling. Electrical engineering remains one of the most challenging college majors according to many academic rankings like Prep Scholar and Big Economics. It brings even more of a challenge to Hartman and his time commitment to competitive gaming. Known online as “LilPoverty”, Hartman has made the change from one first-person shooter to another as he previously competed in Counterstrike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and took his talents to Valorant. Hartman wants to continue to push boundaries in college esports while pursuing his passion in electrical engineering. College esports, beginning around 2009, emerged and began to take shape in 2014 at Robert Morris University in Chicago, Illinois. As of 2021, over 200 schools are members of the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). In 2016, Midland University became the first university in Nebraska to launch a varsity esports program, offering scholarships to high-skilled student-athletes to attend college. York College and Concordia University also followed suit and became member programs while UNL remains on the sideline, still failing to make the big commitment and expand its esports programs. UNL maintains active organizations and teams participating in League of Legends Club and Nebraska Esports while attempting to build an audience. Even with the lack of a varsity esports program, Hartman is still dedicated to representing the university. “I want to win and show off our school well,” Hartman said, adding, UNLimited_12.21

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put into school and gaming. “Schoolwork, I see more frequently,” Sorensen said, adding, “I see his coding on his monitors and what’s on his breadboards. He’ll always show me how much work he’s been doing since like 8:30 in the morning.”

“We have a UNL Esports Club Discord (an instant messaging and digital distribution platform). There’s a lot of people in there who watch the games and root for us so I’m motivated by them and their encouragement.” With practices and matches, coupled with the schoolwork, it can all become time-consuming for Hartman. “If we do two practices and a game a week, that’s already 8 to 10 hours,” Hartman said, adding, “I’m a full-time student, so it’s anywhere from 30 to 40 hours a week there. It’s somewhere between a 50 and 60 hour work week if you include being an esports player.” From the outside looking in, as a fulltime electrical engineering student and esports player himself, Hartman’s roommate Preston Sorensen is able to understand how much time and effort is

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Learning to balance school and gaming is one thing, maintaining a healthy balance between the two posed a major obstacle for Hartman in his early college days. As with anything in life, video games can be an addictive habit that one can find themselves in. From an early age, Hartman developed many addictions. His mother, Linda Hartman, recalls things like solving the algorithms for a Rubik’s Cube for hours and computer problem-solving games. As time progressed, Cole expressed how he would later spend countless hours online improving his aim in video games on aim training servers. Hartman said, “I barely enjoyed what I was doing but I was doing it for the sake of improving and I fell in love with the idea of grinding out a task until I achieved mastery.” As time went on, addiction would

continue to find its way. Hartman found himself struggling his first two years of college. Gaming was becoming an addiction and taking away from his schooling. Most importantly, he said it was taking away from his social life and interaction with family and friends. “The trap I generally found myself in was that I was making excuses as to why I was spending so much time online,” adding, “There was prize money to win and teammates that you didn’t want to let down. It’s extremely difficult to see a trap when you’re stuck inside one.” And Hartman was ultimately stuck in this trap. Hartman added, “I don’t regret it, however there are times I wonder what my early adulthood could have been if I had not dedicated so much time to gaming.” This predicament is what has led so many to wonder how young adults like Hartman fall victim to these kinds of addictions. “I think early college students are much more susceptible. Sudden freedom and independence play huge roles in forming these addictions,” Sorensen said.

Hartman could attest. “Those things coupled with having my own place to live definitely helped fuel the addiction. When there’s no one to moderate how much time I was spending, it was extremely easy to get carried away with the amount of hours I was logging,” Hartman said. But even with addiction, positives came about. “I don’t think his gaming addiction was always really a negative,” Linda Hartman said, adding, “I would rather see him sitting in his room with a headset on than getting drunk at the bar or going to parties. I always knew where he was. So it didn’t bother me as much that he was sitting in his room gaming and making friends and building great connections and bonding with his team.” And that’s exactly what he did.

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Football student manager lives out his dream to be more than a Huskers fan Words: Hugh Regester

unday mornings are a day meant for reflection as some University of Nebraska-Lincoln students wake up mostly hungover from a long night, drinking in celebration after a football game just hours prior. But for one Nebraska football student manager, the obligations spill over into their day of reflection and pretty much every other day of the week. “Sunday mornings, we would have to clean and repair the helmets after games and that’s always kind of something you don’t want to do,” Kyle Young, a UNL graduate assistant, said. Young bled Husker red from the day he was born. Growing up, he had one goal in mind: to be at every Nebraska football game. “When I came to Nebraska, I just wanted to be a fan, but then I wanted more, you know, I want more than this,” Young said. Realizing that his capacity was limited by his size and athleticism, Young did the next best thing: work in equipment. “For somebody like me, it was a good place to start. You are around in the building doing stuff all the time. I was lucky enough to get a chance there, because

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not everyone does,” Young said. Gaining experience during his undergrad as one of equipment managers, Young was able to live out his dream, even if it wasn’t exactly how he pictured it as a kid. “At some point every day I’m like, am I really doing this? I’m extremely lucky to be in the position I’m in. I get to do something different every day, doing something I never imagined I’d get to do,” he said. Even with a swirling schedule full of recruiting visits, calls and questions from prospects about the program, Young embraces the grind for his lifelong passion. “My job is to help answer questions and concerns that parents or recruits might have. It’s a little different than usual since I didn’t play here, but I spent my time as an undergrad around the program and graduated from school here, so I’m able to give a different perspective than most people in the department.” After graduating with a bachelor degree in business administration, Young is in his final year of graduate school and looking forward to the future. “I’d love to stay here at UNL, but you have to go where there’s an opportunity,” he said.

On the chance he doesn’t get to stay in Nebraska, Young is ready to make the move, alongside his fiancé, Paige. “Since I’ve met him, there’s nothing I’ve ever seen get him more excited than sports, and they consume his life,” she said. “Even when we first started dating, we were pretty career-driven and had big goals and didn’t want to have to sacrifice those and be able to encourage each other and pursue those. I’m fully committed for the next 20 to 30 years of my life to moving whenever, and lucky for me as a teacher, that will work.” While Young was able to do things he couldn’t even imagine as a child, he had to make sacrifices to get there, mainly with his friends and family. With little offtime from work and school, Young tries to juggle his relationships with his parents and his brother, Seth, while also spending time with his friends and Paige. “On game days, it’d be nice to watch football games with my brother again like we did all through high school, but he’s always busy with it, taking calls from coaches at family events among other things, but I really admire his dedication,” Seth said. Because his weekends are filled with game days and recruiting visits during the season, regular “social hours” are not on Young’s agenda— one of the few things he would have liked to experience in school that he couldn’t because of his responsibilities to his job.

envious of what they were doing. I always thought I had the better experience on game days,” he said. Prior to becoming a full-time employee, Young had a little extra free-time and help from coworkers getting into a daily rhythm. “Equipment was great because I was able to do anything that I needed to do. I was able to manage my studies and still do well in school while also having a social life outside of that, so it definitely takes up time but if you manage your time well it’s very rewarding,” he said. With a supportive family around him, Young is able to enjoy making a living without any guilt about quality time missed. “I hardly ever see my fiancé but she’s great and supports everything,” he said. “She tells me all the time how tough it is but she loves that I have the opportunity to do what I’m doing, and she understands it.”

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A day in the Life of A UNL club golfer: Hilton Head Edition

y day starts around 9 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 14 as I head to Highlands to hit some range balls with my teammate, Stone, before our flight. This really helps me before tournaments to dial in my distances and make sure my driver is going straight. “I love hitting the range before we go because it makes me feel so much better about my game,” Stone said. As a member of the sport club golf team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I see how great this club is from the inside. The club is serious about golf, winning two national titles in the last 10 years, and it’s also a place to join if you just like to play golf and hang out with the guys. This year, we were invited to the National Club Golf Invitational in Hilton Head, S.C. Our club has been to nationals before and won the championship in 2016. We were so excited and all geared up and ready to go for the biggest tournament we had all played in years. I then headed home to my house in the North Bottoms to make some lunch and pack for our trip. Around 4 p.m., Stone and I hopped into his Mercedes-Benz and headed off to Eppley Airfield. Once we arrived at the airport, it was time to check our gold club and go through security. One of my teammates had actually never been on a flight before so

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Words & photos : Sam Jacobson

I helped him out during his first time in an airport. “I can’t believe how big this place is,” said my teammate, Kobe. “I never thought there was going to be so much to do before boarding a plane.” Once we had made it through security, we all went and got snacks and were ready to board the flight. My teammates, Caden, Sam and Ryan Duffy, showed up about 20 minutes before the flight was going to take off, because Ryan forgot his charger at home. Eventually, we all made it and everyone was aboard the flight heading to Atlanta airport where we would be connecting for our next flight. A few things about the Atlanta airport:

Our flight was indeed on time and we were lucky enough to step off our flight and have our next gate in the same terminal we arrived at. We all sat down and did some homework and talked about how well we were going to play in Hilton Head while waiting for our next flight to board. Club golf has been one of my favorite things at UNL. It has gotten me back into the competitive spirit of the game and got me back out one the course much more than I used to when I first started going to school. Everyone on the team pretty much has the same idea when it comes to club golf. My teammate Ryan, the club president said. one of the best decisions of his life was to join the UNL sport club golf team. Everyone on the team acts like brothers to each other and traveling for tournaments is one of my favorite things to do.

For one, this airport is one of the biggest in the country and you have to know where you are going to even find your next flight. We eventually would make it to Hilton Head at about midnight and had our taxi driver waiting for us at the airport when we arrived.

“one of the best decisions of my life was to join the UNL club golf team.”

Another thing is that they only give you a layover of about 50 minutes and that is barely enough time to make it to your next gate if your flight is one time.

It was about a 50-minute drive to the Omni Resort where the tournament directors had rooms for the weekend. Finally, we had made it to the hotel and had a tee time the next morning at 10 a.m., so being the smart individuals we are, we all stayed up ‘til about 3 a.m. playing Rocket League on the hotel TV.

Palmetto Dunes

I woke up Saturday morning ready to go. We all put on our polos and hats and headed to the driving range before the tournament started. I think the coolest thing about this tournament was just how many people I met from all around the US. There were players from California all the way to Pennsylvania, and everyone had their own personality on the course. For the first round, me and Stone were paired together like we had been for the four tournaments before because of how much we love to play together. We were playing with guys from Kansas University, and they ended up being some of the best guys I have played with this year. Through the first nine holes, Stone and I were not playing our best golf and were getting ourselves in trouble a lot on the

course. I was not able to keep my tee shots straight, and this caused me to have a lot of tree trouble on many of my second shots. This course at Palmetto Dunes was definitely one of the hardest courses I have played in a while, and you could see that with the scores posted at the end of the day. We were all given lunch vouchers from the organizers of the tournament, so it was nice to be able to come into the clubhouse after a long round to get a free lunch. After everyone on our team had finished for the day, it was time to look at our scores and talk about what we need to do better in the next round. We were sitting in third place as a team after day one and my teammate, Andrew Martin, shot a 69 and was leading the

tournament after day one. “It was one of my best rounds of the year,” Andrew said. “I was able to find fairways and make a lot of putts I shouldn’t have made.” That was not the case for most of my team as we all struggled the first day but were happy to be sitting where we were as a team on the leaderboard. We all then walked back to our hotel, showered and changed for the night. Downstairs at the hotel was one of the best restaurants I have been to. They had so many good options and the team was very excited to eat after our long day of golf. We watched college football on the flat screen TVs and talked to all of the other teams in the tournament. That night we also went and played mini golf as a UNLimited_12.21

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team where I came out on top with a score of three under par. After mini golf, we all came back and sat in the hot tub for a while before going to our rooms and going to bed so we could all have a good round the next day. Sunday golf is what every golfer dreams of because that is the day where champions are made. We all walked to the range like we had done the day before but all of us just seemed to be more focused. Me and Stone were again paired together for this round and we were playing with Florida State. These guys had a lot of skill and it was tough for me and Stone to keep pace with them the entire round. We both started out slow but got hot around the eighth hole on the back nine and were both able to come in with lower scores than the day before. I think both of us were proud of how we played that day. After the round was over, all of the teams gathered around the scoreboard to see which team had won it all and which individual player had one. Sadly, we had moved down two places in the rankings and took fifth place overall. Andrew had not had his best day either and ended up losing the tournament by one shot to Florida State. We all were just happy to be there, though. The course and everyone we played with was too great to be upset about the rounds we had all just had; I think we were all happy with our fifth place finish.

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We all then left the course for the last time and headed back to the hotel to watch some NFL football and chill for the rest of the night. The next morning, we had about eight hours until our flight and we needed to kill some time. What better way to kill time than going to the beach? We stayed at the beach for a while before heading to the airport around 4 p.m. Our Uber’s picked us up from the Omni, and we were on our way back to Lincoln. We arrived at the Savannah airport in Georgia and had to go through security again so we could board the plane. We had some time to kill so everyone sat down and did their homework that was due that day or the day after. Our flight was delayed one hour, so we all knew that getting to our connection in Atlanta was going to be a tough task. We landed in Atlanta about 15 minutes before our flight and were very stressed out thinking we had to spend the night in the airport. I however was not going to let that happen as I burst off the plane and sprinted as fast as I could to the next gate. I made it just in time and waited for everyone else who was sitting behind me on the plane to get to the gate. We all got on the flight and everyone drank a lot of water after our half mile sprint. The flight from Atlanta was about two hours and it was about midnight again when we touched down in Omaha. We got off the plane and went to grab our bags before eventually getting the car and heading home.

“This tournament is something I will never forget; spending time in Hilton Head playing golf with you guys has been the best trip.”

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respect earned one tackle at a time female forwards coach for unl men’s rugby isn’t quitting anytime soon Words: Jessica Blum

n the beginning, there were men. And Amie Miramonti.

As an assistant coach for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s men’s club rugby team, Miramonti is the only female coach for a men’s club team in any of the 38 active sport clubs. Within a practice of about 25 men on the team and the other coaches, she can be seen alongside Head Coach, Niko Waqalaivi, and Assistant Coach, Vernon Gene Helt II, grabbing pads and shoving herself into the drills. “Only half the reason I love rugby is the sport itself, and the other half of it is the community as a rugby player,” Miramonti said. “I have friends all over the country and some overseas. I’ve seen people help strangers move just because they play rugby. I don’t know how to make friends anymore without rugby.” During COVID-19, a Facebook group started to help support other rugby players’ mental health, she said. Many people recognize that the rugby community is an important part of

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the game. “A lot of people relied on it for social support, mental health and so forth,” Miramonti said. “During quarantine, they were like we need to reach out and make sure these people are OK.”

Money talks, and a significant amount has been raised through this tight group of people. “They’ve since raised like $50,000 for charity,” Miramonti said. “There’s an offshoot group of single rugby players that raised another $8,000 for

assistant coach vernon gene helt coaches the backs on the team while coach miramonti works with the forwards. Miramonti can be seen often with pads in hand, ready to jump headfirst into the next drill. Photo by Jessica Blum

charity. It’s wild how you can go almost anywhere and if you find rugby people, you immediately have a support group.” However, that is just the beginning of her testimony to this sport. IN THE WAY BEGINNING Amelia “Amie” Miramonti grew up in New Hampshire. In college at the University of Central Florida, she was involved with the sports club council, women’s rugby club, mixed martial arts club, judo club and rock climbing club. Now she is involved in roller derby, rugby and Muay Thai as hobbies. Allx these hobbies and sports made her different, and she didn’t mind being thrown in with the guys if that meant she got to play. “I learned with high school guys, and I was four inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter than my high school team when I started playing at age 14,” Miramonti said. “I’m used to being the little one.” She also doesn’t mind getting thrown into the mix of the UNL men’s club rugby drills, either. On the first day of full-contact practice with the team, Miramonti stood on the field in her cleats and rustic rock climbing T-shirt. Coach Waqalaivi drew up a drill to practice tackling. Players quickly looked at each other with doubt as

Miramonti suited up to join them. Soon, Miramonti would engrave an image into the brains of every man on the team. Swiftly, completely and without hesitation, she tackled a 6-foot hairy-chested man 10-12 years younger. It did not phase her, but it did earn her more respect from the team. “Every time Niko introduces me at the beginning of the semester he says, ‘You know, you might be wondering why there’s a girl out here, but let me tell you, she’ll take you down,’” said Miramonti, who earned her bachelor’s and master’s of science in exercise physiology from UCF. Her studies helped her to understand the differences between men and women that the world sees, yet they are not the entire picture, especially in what she sees with rugby. “There’s exercise science research for comparing men and women, athletes or non-athletes, in terms of strength or muscle development,” Miramonti said. Much of the current research out there says that men are faster and stronger, she said. But most of

those studies do not take into account the differences in training status or athletic history. “You take any random sample of guys in college, most guys will have more strength training history than a random sample of women that you know,” Miramonti said. “And if you don’t account for those differences, then you’re attributing more to that gender difference than actually is due to gender. You’re attributing training status to it as well.” There is a gender difference, but it is smaller than most people realize, she said. It is more about taking equal height, muscle and similar characteristics to make true comparisons. In fact, World Rugby upheld a ban for transgender women playing in women’s rugby, sometime last year, and there was a huge uproar within the community, she said. “What’s interesting is a lot of it UNLimited_12.21

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“most of the women are like, ‘no let them play.’ trans women are women. broadly speaking, we don’t have any qualms about it.”

came from men saying that trans women shouldn’t be able to play women’s rugby because it’s dangerous,” Miramonti said. “And most of the women are like, ‘No, let them play.’ Trans women are women. Broadly speaking, we don’t have qualms about it.” However, some females know how to train better, she said. It turns out that most of those females are still playing women’s rugby after college. IN THE NOW Miramonti travels with the Omaha Goats women’s rugby team to St. Louis to play a few games with females there. She shares her time with the Goats as a

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player and the UNL men’s club rugby team as a coach. But it is 270-pound females who Miramonti faces, on Women’s Division II club teams like the St. Louis Sabres, that she worries about taking down to the ground. “They have multiple women who are over 200 pounds,” Miramonti said. “And she’s not slow, either. It’s not like she’s just walking down the field. They’re intimidating.”

our assistants for the forwards, so I work with her a lot,” junior forward Will Beiermann said. “She brings a lot of intensity to every practice. She’s very involved. And she’s always ready to step in and point out any problems we will be having.” At this point, some three years later, Miramonti knows her place and knows her positions. The players and coaches get that sense, too.

When she is not away, playing the game herself, she is rooted in Lincoln, studying for her doctoral degree in exercise physiology and nutrition or coaching this team.

“She’s definitely a player’s coach,” Beiermann said. “She tries to get to know us and she gets really good at working with us individually.”

“This year, she’s been one of

“She provides a fresh perspective

with a different way to think about communicating,” Helt added. IN THE FUTURE This fall, the team finished eighth overall in the Heart of America Conference. The spring semester will bring a new season; games will be played with seven men instead of 15 on the field during the fall. “They’ve got a lot of athleticism and potential to develop,” Miramonti said. “A couple of years ago, they went to nationals for sevens, which is the smaller version that’s in the Olympics, but

it’s on the same size field.” Looking toward her future in coaching this team, she said she anticipates the time when practice reflects in the game and movements start to flow better. “They’ve kind of come close to putting a lot of things together,” Miramonti said. “It would be good to see it click.” In the end, no sport comes close to rugby in her eyes, she said. But as the money fades, a more physical reality surfaces. Eventually, bodies will give out. Strength training may come into play as to how soon a body

will start to break down, but nevertheless, the day to call it quits comes. That is the time when older players start to look into refereeing positions to stay a part of the rugby community and give back, she said. “Rugby is kind of unique because there’s a lot of people who want to keep playing but at a certain point, your body is like maybe you’re done,” Miramonti said. “I keep thinking, I’ll retire eventually, but it’s not happening anytime soon.”

head coach niko waqalaivi pushes his players to their limits, encouraging each player to give their all. miramonti said he is the reason she was welcomed on the team, and he has always stood up for her to have her around. there was once confusion on the team and with campus recreation about having a woman on the men’s club rugby team, but he was always for having her. photo by Jessica Blum

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A day of fundraising for suicide prevention ends unexpectedly Words & photos: Peter Krenzer

he atmosphere of the Stocks n Bonds event center in Omaha was lively as an evening of professional wrestling took place in front of a passionate crowd. With each passing match, the chants grew louder, the action in the ring intensified and energy filled the room for the duration of the show.

During the show, a video of wrestler Jim Lamorre, who goes by the ring name, Con Artiest, detailed his own battles with mental health. In the video, Artiest announced that he is a survivor of two suicide attempts. When he heard the cause that Magnum Pro would be fundraising for, it sparked his idea for the video.

However, just as the Magnum Pro supporters were ready to go home following the evening’s final match, a deafening silence fell over the room following an unexpected announcement.

“It was something that was actually important to me to do, mainly because it needed to be heard, but the undertone of it was, I want to help someone,” Artiest said. “You never know who needs to hear it.”

“We have been going nonstop for 11 years. It was just a necessary evil to let everybody reset and breathe,” said Magnum Pro owner, Jaysin Strife.

Artiest was happy to hear positive feedback from his candid few minutes discussing mental health. In fact, it came with a few surprises he was not expecting.

The day began with the Omaha Out of the Darkness Walk at Stinson Park in Aksarben. The sun was shining down on attendees with near-perfect weather for a mid-September Saturday morning. Hundreds of people gathered near the amphitheater to pay tribute to those lost to suicide and raise awareness for suicide prevention.

“Ironically, a couple of the guys in the locker room came to me after seeing my promo and hugged me and said, ‘Man, I battle that every day, I thought it was just me,’” Artiest said. “Here are guys who I didn’t even realize look up to me who are sitting there telling me they struggle with mental health and suicide awareness. They struggle with this on the daily, and you’d never know because they have a smile on their face.”

Magnum Pro’s representatives participated in the walk and later that evening would have its first “People Are Strange” fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, organized by owner and wrestler Nathan Blodgett, who goes by the ring name, Jaysin Strife. “It was pretty successful,” Strife said. “It was a really good show, and I don’t say that often because I’m my harshest critic. It was booked really strong even with a lot of last-minute changes. $1,567 for one night, just a couple of hours, not too shabby.” The show raised $1,567 for AFSP Nebraska. By the end of the evening, mental health intersected with the show in a way that not many in the crowd could have predicted. Following the final match, Strife announced that Magnum Pro would be taking an indefinite break, citing a non-stop schedule and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “We had been going strong even aside from the couple of months COVID had us down,” Strife said.

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Once Strife made the announcement that Magnum would be temporarily suspending operations, most of the talent heard the news for the first time. Artiest was in that group, and he was not sure how to handle the initial shock. “It caught a lot of us off guard,” Artiest said. “It slows a lot of us down because that’s our main thing.” Some of that concern is heightened by the fact Artiest is one-half of the Magnum Pro Tag Team Champions, The Culture. Artiest and his partner, Jon West, have been a team for the better part of four years and have found great success as a duo. “Not only am I a first-ever tag champion, but me and Jon West, we’re the first Black tag team champions in the state of Nebraska. That’s history,” Artiest said. “We love representing Magnum. We love going in there and duking it out in the ring, and then it’s like, ‘Hey, you know, it’s not going to happen for a little bit.’”

Jaysin Strife shares an embrace with Magnum Pro Champion, Redwing, at People Are Strange in omaha. Peter Krenzer photos

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Garret Hamilton, another wrestler for Magnum Pro who goes by the ring name, Nino Hatchet, also took part in the fundraiser. Like many of the wrestlers, Hatchet works with other promotions on the independent scene. However, he has found a home with Magnum Pro and said he, too, was taken aback by the news. “I guess the fact that he [Strife] announced it at that show is kind of serendipitous, just for the fact that the show was to bring more light to mental health awareness,” Hatchet said. “I just feel like the whole event kind of reminded him that he should value his mental health.” The announcement gave Hatchet a chance to reflect on his time in Magnum Pro. It also gave him a chance to look back on his wrestling journey to this point and what Strife has meant to him personally. “I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it

wasn’t for him. Every day that I step into the ring, I always remember that it’s because of Jaysin Strife,” Hatchet said. “He has made an impact locally. So, I’m just hoping he’s in a better place. I’m hoping that everyone can find some sort of peace and get that spark brought back.” Hatchet, like many of his fellow wrestlers, came out of the fundraiser with a different outlook on the profession and the road ahead. He will keep himself busy wrestling the independent scene the next few months and recognizes the helpful reminders that this announcement has given him. “It kind of just brings that reassurance that we are all individual humans and being individual humans means we all have individual feelings,” Hatchet said. “A lot of people go out here and they think solely for themselves. I just want everyone to be more empathetic and realize

Magnum Pro Tag Team Champions, The Culture, Prepare to Defend Their Titles at the People Are Strange event.

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that we are all in this together.” Artiest said he will be ready when his name his called, and he has plenty to keep himself busy. With his other professions as a DJ and member of the Scary Acres haunted house team, there is much Artiest is looking forward to. Whether his next time in the ring comes sooner with another promotion or later with Magnum Pro’s return, he and partner West will be ready to represent The Culture in front of a passionate audience. The announcement on September 18 is not lost on Artiest, who was reminded of his own mental health struggles growing up. “Never be afraid to speak up. Never be afraid to send your message. Never be afraid to say you need help,” Artiest said. “Never be judgmental. Their story is true because it’s true to them, and you cannot ever negate anyone’s reality from what they see in their

Nino Hatchet (left) Locks Up with TJ Benson (right) in a match for the Top Gun Title at People Are Strange. own eyes.” As for the return of Magnum Pro, Strife has that all planned out with big plans for the future of his promotion, ranging from new equipment to a potential rebranding. “My date is set. I’m just letting everything sit and marinate, just going dark on social media and letting things be for the time being,” Strife said. “We have a whole relaunch plan. We have plenty of time.” Strife is excited at the future when it comes to fundraisers. While the promotion has had success in the past for giving back to the community, Strife is hoping that some ideas he has in his back pocket will pay off when they return. “Omaha has allowed us to grow at the rate we’ve grown. They’ve let us grow, and I’m proud of how

much we’ve been able to give back,” Strife said. “Since 2014, we’ve probably given back $20,000 or more to the area. I’d like to stay on track doing that.” Something Strife has been stressing to Magnum Pro supporters is the role they play in the eventual return to action. Without pre-sale tickets, it becomes difficult for smaller promotions to turn a profit. Strife is hopeful that this time off will bring with it more momentum and revitalized energy from in-ring performers and fans. Time will tell what the new Magnum Pro will look like, but the man in charge has a plan. “We’ll be back. It’s not if, it’s when. Just be ready,” Strife said. “The initial support for when we come back is going to be the biggest thing.”

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Photo by Jacob Osborn