Millard South Football Sits At The Peak of High School Football

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Emory. You got Peyton High lock with me. It's
a Tuesday. Did you play high school football?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
No?

Speaker 3 (00:09):
I did not.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, you played other sports, but not high school football.
High school football. That's that's an interesting one, right, It's
just like, what's the what's the participation. I would wonder
nowadays versus when I was a kid, because I remember
and I went I lived in a town of twenty
five thousand people, you know, which was a bigger We

(00:33):
were like one in the biggest class of Iowa high schools,
which was for a the way that they do their classifications,
and Class four A was this and all the Des
Moines schools and all the suburban schools, and a Tuma
was one of the best football teams in the state.
And I just wanted to be one of those guys
so bad. I just loved our fight song. I loved

(00:55):
going to our stadium. We had a really cool stadium.
We'd have a big firework that would go off every
time we'd score, like we were proud of our football team.
That pride kind of left after the longtime coach retired.
While I was actually in high school. You could kind
of see it dissipate to you know a little bit
more of people not caring. But you know, I always

(01:17):
wonder about this and the answer to me, right is,
Football's tough. It's hard. You have to work hard, you
have to really dedicate yourself. You have to be willing
to hit and be hit. It's every single day that

(01:38):
you have to dedicate yourself to wanting to go to practice.
Maybe you'd get yelled at, maybe you'd get you know,
you'd have to do a bunch of burpies up downs
as they would call them on the football field, have
to run laps. I mean all that stuff. Even in
middle school, right like, there was an intimidation factor to

(01:58):
the coaching. I bring this up because high school football,
and especially in Nebraska, it's not really what it once was.
And I bring this up because Millard South they are
ranked nationally, it's one of the top twenty five high

(02:20):
school programs in the country. We have seen on multiple
occasions solid players from around the Omaha metro or even
from outside the metro move into the district and decide
to play for Millard South. It's kind of like, you

(02:43):
know how college is essentially the minor league professional game
at this point. With the transfer portal and nil and
players getting paid and all that stuff. Well, high school
kind of is looking that way too. You have insteadive
eighteen year olds, you also now have sixteen year olds
who are going on their social media saying I'm transferring

(03:03):
to Millard South. I can't wait to be a Patriot.
You know, it's like, man, social media. It didn't exist
when we were a kid. We didn't do all of
the whole like grab the hat and put it on
your head thing, or have this giant graphic of saying
committed whatever. Right, And I think kids in high school
who are good players and are getting phone calls from

(03:24):
these bigger, better high schools, they're like, oh, this is fun.
I'm like a free agent. That wasn't a thing when
I was growing up as a kid. Millard High School,
Millard South High School sorry beat Arbor View High School
from Las Vegas to start the season forty nine to seven,
so quite a trip. They got into Nebraska action in September,

(03:47):
beat Millard West sixty five to zero. They beat Carney
seventy two to zero. They beat Billard North seventy to seven.
They beat Lincoln Southeast High School seventy seven to nothing.
They beat Papillion Levista High School fifty eight to seven.
They only scored fifty eight points in that game.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Fifty eight only.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
They were scheduled to play Lincoln High School this Friday.
Lincoln High the links. Lincoln High four and two so
far this season, having a pretty decent year. Today, lincol
High School has forfeited that game against Millard South and
they will not play that game on Friday. Lincoln High

(04:32):
School says in a release through high school Principal Mark Larsen,
due to the extent of player injuries sustained in last
week's game in a number of other factors, we are
communicating with Millard South and the NSAA today that we
are forfeiting the game. This was not an easy decision. Ultimately,
we need to make the best decision for players health

(04:54):
and safety so we can finish our season. This will
allow an extra week for our players to heal end quote.
Do I have to say it? He's saying what he
needs to say, but he's not really saying what's true.

(05:16):
He finished the statement, by the way, by saying, we
believe in our student athletes and our coaching staff and
know they will continue to work hard to finish the
season strong, show of hands, how many people think they
they didn't. They're not playing this game because of injuries.
This is a class A team. They don't have enough
guys to get twenty two on the field. I'm sure

(05:39):
if Benson was the team they were playing, they'd play them.
No disrespect to Benson, But how many show of hands
think it's more likely that they know they're gonna get
absolutely destroyed by Miller South. They do have some key
guys dinged up. They see that their last couple of

(06:01):
games in the regular season are winnable games, and it
makes absolutely no sense for them to get clobbered by
seventy points. No matter how good you might be, Millard
South is not. They're not gonna lose. He's not gonna
be a game close, you know, like somebody scoring on
them is like news. So why would we play this game?
I think if you asked every single one of those players,

(06:23):
I think a lot of them would say, yeah, I
think this has been I think I'm down with this.
This is this is the difference in you can't even
game plan against them. They're in a league of their own.
They really are.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
Now.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I don't know how you police this. I don't know
how you get people that not want to play for
Millard South that are really good football players, And I
don't even know if you should be policing them, but
there certainly is no motivation for these teams to play
this team. I'm gonna lose anyway, Why am I? Why
would I risk getting hurt or hurting my guys and
making it more difficult for us the last couple of

(06:58):
games of the regular season and hampering us before we
get into the playoffs. It's gonna count the same in
the standings if I forfeit on Tuesday versus getting beat
seventy to seven against Millard South on Friday, And I
hate it. I hate it. Could you imagine being a
student at either of those schools and just being like, like,

(07:21):
if you're at Millard South, now, are you even that passionate?
Remember when Nick Saban and he had to call out
the Alabama fans because there was like the student section
and stuff, just they wouldn't show up or they would
leave in the second quarter against certain teams, They're just
you get so spoiled rotten, you just kind of stop
caring about football Friday night. I mean, that was a

(07:43):
huge deal. When I was a kid and I was
in high school, it was a huge part of high
school and the fact that every game you didn't know
if you were going to win or lose, because in
that era, you know, fifteen ish years ago, there weren't
a lot of juggernauts that were just getting built that
we would play. You know, we felt like we had
a chance to win in most games. I don't know,

(08:03):
you know. So my feeling on this is I feel
bad for the students of the two schools. I do
feel bad for the kids that are playing at Miller
South that they don't get to play one of the
football games. Imagine being a senior and just like one
of your games is gone. It's just poof. But can
you blame Lincoln High considering the circumstances, knowing what the

(08:26):
outcome will be, no matter how good of a game
they play, Like, what's the point of going there getting
absolutely wrecked on the scoreboard and potentially wrecked on the field.
You're putting your team and your players on the field,
and they're essentially just yeah, try not to get hurt, boys,
do the best you can. I think it, honestly is

(08:48):
a pretty responsible thing for their principle and their coaching
staff to decide. I hate that we don't play this game,
but what's the point of playing this game? I feel
like it contradict the nature of sports. Though I understand
if they are being dub I just feel like, you know,
like it's a game on your.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Schedule that you play a football schedule. But at the
same time, I'm not saying I would want to get
absolutely destroyed without any shadow of a doubt, like I
have no chance.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
There's no chance, you know, Like like like these are
other solid teams that Millard South is just steamrolled by seven, eight,
nine touchdowns.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Yeah, I mean, Millard West is usually a good football team. Yeah,
but and then they are and they just but they're
gobsmacked them. I mean sixty five to nothing. They didn't
even score. Mean, but this is my thing, man, It's like,
how do you fix it? Like, do you have to
put these kids into a draft? Do you say, like, Nope, nope,
you can't go to Millard Miller South. You have to

(09:49):
go to Miller North. No, no, nope, you can't do that.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
You gotta go to you know, you gotta go play
for Papilion Leavista you can't actually go to Millard South, Like,
how do you do that?

Speaker 4 (09:59):
Can you?

Speaker 1 (09:59):
You can't gate keep a school like that. You just
have to I guess put in stricter rules about kids
moving into a district. I suppose, especially when you know
it's because of the football team. I don't know. Well, anyway,
that's some news Lincoln High School four and two on
the season forfeiting a game, not gonna play Millard South,
and that was supposed to be a Lincoln High School

(10:21):
home game. So they decided to punt on a home
game because they didn't want to play Millard South, and
they cite injuries. But there's a lot more to the story,
I think there. We were talking about Millard South the
football team, not necessarily even the high school. It's just
really the football team that's in the news. And they've

(10:41):
just steamrolled every team they've played this year, likely to
steam roll every team they do play the rest of
the season. And Lincoln High who's four and two this season,
having a good season, They're supposed to host Millard South
this week. They have forfeited that game. Here on Tuesday
saying that we're binged up, we're hurt, we just want
another week to get healthy. But also there's got to
be an era of Okay, we just really don't want

(11:02):
to play those guys in Millard South and knowing what
the result likely is. Mike's on our phone line four two, five, five,
eight eleven ten. Mike, you got some opinion about this, and.

Speaker 6 (11:12):
You know what I do. I am just saying from
an opinion of a lot of information going around. I
would not be surprised if this is a Netflix documentary
special within two to three years and about Millard South.

Speaker 7 (11:25):
It's going to be in it.

Speaker 6 (11:26):
I don't think it's going to be in a good light.

Speaker 8 (11:28):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
So can you tell me a little bit more about
what you think? Do you think they're paying kids so
you think they're funding families moves to get into the
school district? Like, what are you suggesting?

Speaker 6 (11:39):
You know, I don't want to assume anything. I will
say I feel very bad for the Millard South kids
that work their butt offs every year and then a
new kid shows up that just happens to be a
new junior senior transfer. There's just a lot surrounding the program.
There's a reason to a forfeit. That game in Vegas
is a reason coaches. We're using different now addresses, and

(12:01):
I don't want to make any assumptions, but as a
father of a high school football player here, I would
not be surprised if this is national news at some point.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Well, Mike, it does. It's the the imbalance is so
stark that there's something has to be done. You would
think because the great players in our area and in
our state, they're just going to kind of want to
go there because they think that's an option for them.
It's like going to Alabama, and it's unfortunate because that's

(12:30):
not what high school football used to be about. I
appreciate the call, Mike, thanks for listening to us.

Speaker 9 (12:35):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, So, I as much as I want us to
get to the crux of the matter, and as much
as I want us to understand this, assuming is probably
not the right thing to do. But there is a
great chance that there's, you know, something some element to uh.
I don't know if cheating is the word that I
would use, but there's certainly something that's going on there.

(12:59):
We've heard of some schools, even Class A schools, have
a lot of kids that go there have to forfeit
football game. So it's becoming a thing that is the
last five years post COVID, I think a lot of
guys are injured. We really we're low on dudes. We
know we're probably going to get smashed on the field.

(13:22):
It doesn't make sense for us to play this game,
whether it's the end of the season or in Lincoln
heighst case this week. They don't want to play the
number one team in the state who would be coming
to Lincoln to play them for the reasons they say
are injuries and they just need a week to heal up.
But in reality, right, it's kind of one of those
things like why would we play this game when the

(13:43):
result of a forfeit is basically the exact same, maybe
even less humiliating then getting beat seventy to seven or
whatever the final score would be against Millard South got
us to talking about this Millard South situation, not to
say that it's illegal by whatever means, but why are
they so much better than everyone else now? And then
we had a caller Mike before we hit the top

(14:05):
of the hour that said, well, don't be surprised if
there's some real nasty, dirty stuff that they're doing behind
the scenes to help make all of this take place. Well,
we've got the phone lines open four, two, five, five,
eight to elevens in. We're here to have your thoughts today.
We'll start with Joe. Joe's on our phone line today. Joe,
welcome to our show. It's on your mind.

Speaker 10 (14:26):
Hey, Amory, how are you?

Speaker 1 (14:27):
I'm good.

Speaker 10 (14:29):
I happen to know. One of the issues with the
whole high school football thing is with the open rollment situations.
You do not actually have to live in the Millard
district to play for Millard South. So there's some school districts, Gretna, Elkhorn,
some others that you're required to live within that district,
but that's a district policy. Millard does not have that policy.

(14:52):
So the NSAA that runs the football for the state
allows you to play and go there as long as
you can become in at that school. So Millard South
has a lot of players that do not live in
the Millard district, but they go to school at Millard
High schools and therefore they're eligible to play. I've got
a son who plays at Millard South, not on the

(15:13):
varsity team, but he does know a lot of the
football players and they come from Elkhorn, Gretna, there's some
that come over from Council Bluffs that play, so that's
one of the issues. It's kind of a state wide thing.
West Side is the same way. They allow open enrollment,
so there's a lot of students that play for west
Side that are also not residents in that district until

(15:36):
something is regulated at the more beyond the district level,
but at the state level, there will probably be issues.
You know, one school or another. I mean, Omaha Public
allows the same thing. You can through open enrollment go
to any of the OPS schools and then once you're
even play sports.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, And I don't want to tell people like what
the best fit for their kid is because they very
well could say that my kid just fits in better
at a high school that's different than the one that
they are in the right district for. But it could
end up being the death of the public school system
as we know it, considering that people can just pick
and choose. Hey, this school is awesome. I want to
go there, do you think, Joe? And I mean maybe

(16:16):
I'm this is this is a weird question to ask
because I don't know if there's any parameters, but is
there kind of like a cap to how many kids
per class that these you know schools can even handle.
Like if all these people keep filtering the West Side
or the Miller South for whatever reason, whether it's for
sports or just for academics, or just because that school
has a better reputation, is there some limits to how

(16:38):
many kids they can actually take in.

Speaker 10 (16:41):
I don't know if they have a set limit, because
I know that there are like certain schools North as
a prime example. I believe it's the science program that's
down there and maybe computer technology that it's known for,
so a lot of kids will go there from you know,
other districts for that reason. I know it's pretty common

(17:01):
not only for athletics, but academics as well. Millard South
happens to have an early Tickets early College program where
some of the credits and things can transfer to college credits,
So that does draw kids in not only for sports,
but for other purposes as well. So it's hard to say,
you know, if there's a cap or a limit, or

(17:21):
if they just kind of take anybody they can get.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Well, I will say this, it definitely is very strange
and very odd, and I don't know how if there's
ever another era in high school football where there'd be
a four and two Class A team just straight up
say yeah, we're not going to play that game against
number one team in the state and basically punt on
a home game. It's just very strange to see that. Joe,
I appreciate you for calling in man. Thanks for listening to.

Speaker 10 (17:45):
Last year Benson forfeited at halftime.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah well, and for yeah, it's I mean right, but
that's the thing about like crazy Benson. At least like
played the game right. They tried to play the game
knowing what the outcome is likely to be.

Speaker 10 (17:58):
Right, So well, and one of the other concerns. The
following week, North Platte is supposed to travel in to
play Millard South. And you know, if I'm a player
a coach, I don't know that I want to drive
that far, must drive that far back?

Speaker 11 (18:14):
Yeah, so who knows.

Speaker 10 (18:15):
It's it's interesting. It'll it'll definitely be interesting until they
come up with a better solution.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, it's well the wild West right now. Joe, appreciate
you colling in man, thanks for listening to us. Yes, thanks,
good evening, Yeah you too. Got Mary on our phone line.
She's on at four oh two, five five, eight eleven, ten. Mary,
welcome to our show today. What are you thinking about?

Speaker 12 (18:34):
Hey, Emory, just want to make a comment about the
Millard Sauth program. I too, am a parent of one
of the Millard Saw players, and I want to caution
everybody just to be careful when you're accusing the team
and the coaches of cheating and doing other nasty, ugly stuff.
I think I heard you say that earlier in the

(18:57):
season they had to forfeit. That was self reported.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
So the is it wasn't me that said that. By
the way, it was a caller that called in and
said that, but that wasn't me.

Speaker 12 (19:06):
Sure, okay, thank you. And these these are kids. This
is a school that had built a culture around football.
To see the pride and the joy.

Speaker 13 (19:16):
And the kids been.

Speaker 12 (19:17):
In the works. They're waking up every day at six
am over the summer. The coaches are putting endless hours
and working with the kids. It's a school that the
kids want to be at. Of course, they want to
be at a winning program, and they work there. They
work their tails off. So I would just, you know,
I caution everybody from they're just kids.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, no, no, Mary, I I totally understand, and I
hopefully hopefully this isn't. I don't want them to I
don't want people to think that I am trying to
paint Millard South as like a villain here, because that's
I mean, for every Millard South in Nebraska, there's a
Dowling Catholic in Iowa. Okay, like there there are like
just schools that's a private school in central Iya. But

(19:57):
they have just steamrolled through many years of high school
football at the highest level over there. My bigger point is,
you know what about Lincoln High that has decided that
it's better for them to forfeit than actually play this
team that's made up of some of the best players
in the Omaha metro area. It's just, you know, this

(20:17):
isn't the high school football that we grew up with.
This isn't the high school football that you know, you
had pride for the school that you were at. Now
kids are basically picking and choosing which schools they want
to be at, and to Millard South's credit, they have
absolutely become the premiere program for people to You know,
if you're a sixteen year old player and you're good,
you want to play for them, knowing that you're playing

(20:39):
with the best of the best and you'll have a
chance to win state championships and go on to bigger
and better things from there.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
You know.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
But at the same time, if I'm a kid that
doesn't have that ability to just go and play for
Millard South, I'm playing for Lincoln and my team has
to forfeit a game, a home game in my senior
season because we're a bit banged up and we know
we're going to get beat by seventy to this juggernaut team.
I just don't know if that's also like a solution

(21:09):
we should just be okay with.

Speaker 12 (21:10):
You know what I'm saying, right, I agree, and I
feel like something does need to be changed about that,
and I don't I don't have the answer to it.
But if you look at history too, there is a
long history of the powerhouse schools. I know, you guys
talked about Creighton Prep. And if you know I can
predict the future, I guarantee in about five years, Millard
South is not going to be in the same position
because it comes with you know, there's other Miller schools

(21:33):
like North. In a couple of years, they're probably going
to be the new Mi North South. You know, if
you look at their underclassmen, and so I think you're
just you just see Ebban flows across the city.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
All right, So what you're saying is that I'm going
to hold you to this, Mary. What you're saying is
that Millard South isn't going to become like the New
England Patriots of high school football Nebraska. There are some
other you know, even in Millard, there are a couple
of schools that potentially could usurp them in the coming year.
That's what you're saying.

Speaker 12 (22:01):
I think so, you know Miller's sound of a Chance
and maybe the five p you know, like the you know,
the Patriots. But I think it'll I think it'll change
just like history, you know, you have a powerhouses and
then they go away, or just like college okay football.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
All right, Well, I'm glad that you called in with
that perspective and I really do appreciate that today. Mary,
thanks for calling in. Thanks all right, we uh, we'll
continue this conversation. It's a good chat. We are sitting
here and it is five or sorry three sixteen, my
bad on your Tuesday. If you got thoughts to call
us four h two five five eight to eleven ten
four h two five five, eight to eleven ten Lincoln

(22:39):
High forfeitting against Millard South this Friday. They cite injuries.
We're also kind of reading a little bit more into it.
This is a very strange thing that is happening. As
we talk about the strange scenario where Lincoln High, a
four and two football team here in the UH state
of Nebraska, they are forfeiting an upcoming game at Homing

(23:02):
is number one Millard South signing injuries, signing safety for
the players, but also I think everybody kind of knows
that they're going to be finding themselves down on the
scoreboard big time and they'd rather just not have the
game play. We're talking to you about this, and we're
going to start with Greg on the phone line today. Greg,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 8 (23:20):
What's going on?

Speaker 14 (23:22):
Hey, thank you to me. The answer to the problem is,
and it is a problem, and it is a safety
issue because those kids are just big, and they're going
up against schools like say North Platte that draws their
students and their athletes from a population of fifteen thousand
and here in the learning center. You know, these schools

(23:44):
get to draw the population from a half a million people,
and so you know someone that like these coaches that
are good at recruiting, good at talking to these kids,
they're going to get the good players and create that team.
So what needs to happen is the learning school. Schools
just need to play themselves and leave the leave the
rest of the state out of it.

Speaker 15 (24:04):
I would forfeit two.

Speaker 14 (24:05):
I've seen him play and.

Speaker 15 (24:08):
It's it is a safety issue.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, when you look at just the scores, you know,
just having the kids play in a game where you
know that it's probably gonna get out of hand no
matter how good you think you might be compared to
the rest of your the rest of the teams that
you may see during the schedule, that one time that
you see Millard South, it's not gonna probably be too pretty.
So it makes sense to me, Greg, I appreciate the
call today, Thanks for listening. It's got a Bill on

(24:33):
the phone line four two, five, five, eight to eleven ten. Bill,
welcome in. What's going on.

Speaker 5 (24:40):
My thought is that if my coach and my school
forfeited a game because they're afraid to play, that we
might get hurt. I would immediately quit that team, and
I would try to talk to every underclassman to try
to get them to not ever go out for that
football team again.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, and so I don't disagree with that either.

Speaker 16 (24:59):
Bill.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
You know, this is the other thing. It just feels
weird to me that a Class A school and I
don't know exactly how many players that Lincoln High has,
I would bet it's north of fifty or sixty guys,
would be my guess. And I don't know how many
guys got hurt last week in their football game that
they just played. But the idea of just deciding you
don't want to play a game at you know this,
if we're talking like eight man or six man and

(25:22):
they have like fifteen guys out and all of a sudden,
like like four of your fifteen guys are hurt, that
could create a safety issue with guys having to play
the entire game. But this, one hundred percent I agree.
Like thinking about a Class A team, especially one that's
four and two, like they're no slouch Lincoln High, for
them to basically say, hey, dude to injuries. Yeah, and

(25:45):
I'm insinuating that the result, the likely result of this
game has something to do with this decision. That's they
didn't say that, but I'm assuming that had something. I
think they'd play the game if they were playing North Platte,
but they're play they're playing Miller South, So I'm I
typically agree with you, Bill, at the same time, like
going there, maybe a couple of your best players are

(26:06):
dinged up. If you play backups instead, you already know
that you're gonna get beat by sixty seventy points. Just
based solely on the way that Millard South is beating
teams that are about as good as Lincoln High is
this year, I can understand that the coaching staff or
the school themselves think it's better just to not play

(26:26):
the game in general and get basically a built in
bye week before they play their last two games. So
I see what you're saying, but I also see what
they're thinking too.

Speaker 9 (26:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
I was to say when I was in high school,
I played for Nebraska City and when we played Elcorn
this was a ninety six, and when we had to
play Alcorn and Alcorn was the top dog in the
state at that time, they were better than the Class
A schools.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, how they go.

Speaker 10 (26:52):
Not well, they.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
Usually got subbed pretty hard, But I would never ever
considered not playing that game.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, I'm with you. Bill, It's a different mindset these
days for sure. And I wonder what the you know,
kind of the reputation the Miller South has of plucking
all the great players from around the area. I wonder
if that has something to do with Lincoln Hi not
wanting to play the game also.

Speaker 5 (27:12):
So yes, yeah, we always thought Alcorn was doing that too.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
And and you know, at least right now, I don't
think they are. It's just you know, the public.

Speaker 7 (27:21):
Schools and Miller back in the day.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
But and they may have because you know, that was
a different time, right. I appreciate it. Bill, got other calls,
are able to get to appreciate the call man. Yep,
we got Brian on the phone line. Brian is sitting here.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
He is on.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Four two, five, five, eight eleven ten. Welcome in, Brian.
What's on your mind?

Speaker 13 (27:41):
Oh, I just was gonna be kind of way in
on the football thing. I think it probably goes to
a higher level where they need to, you know, draw
those school districts and then that's just where where you
go to school, because that's how they're plucking. I mean,
they're just yeah, you're just creating, creating.

Speaker 7 (27:58):
The best of the beast in those schools.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, And I guess my only thing is in this
I was in Iowa, so I started to keep referencing Iowa.
But I was living in Iowa when this happened. But
when school choice became a thing, you know, they don't
they didn't have open enrollment in Iowa before that. But
kids would find a way to move to a school
district that they would rather play football for or to
play basketball for. And that would become a thing towards

(28:23):
the end of my school schooling experience, and it was
always kind of a big deal. It was. There was
big hubbub about it. And I don't know, Like to me,
I just wonder what the like if you made that solution,
that would have to be like the government would do that.
It wouldn't have to like the schools couldn't really say that.
You'd have to get like the state unicameral involved to

(28:45):
make that determination, right, right, I.

Speaker 17 (28:48):
Would, I would think so, And you know, you look
at the end NSAA and they got to look at
this situation and think that, well, something's got to be
done because you can't have teams forfeit. And I graduated
night eighty nine from South Dakota.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
And we would have never I mean I.

Speaker 17 (29:03):
Never heard of a team forfeiting ever.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah yeah, especially one that different. Yeah, and especially considering this,
we're talking about a Class A school. This is a
team that certainly would have enough players, you know, and
even a JV team that they could have thrown out
there to at least play, but for safety reasons and
for injuries or whatever, they just thought it was better
just to not play the game. It's pretty it's not unprecedented,

(29:27):
but it feels unprecedented because, like everybody's talking about, that
never would have happened when we were in school for
any reason.

Speaker 10 (29:33):
So and I get that, because if you put your
varsity up against you know, as a Class A school,
saying against the reserves of some sort, that's that's not
gonna be a good situation either.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
No, yeah, I get that.

Speaker 10 (29:45):
I mean you could get people injured, you know, and hurt.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Especially when you're talking about these kids at Millard South
that are getting all these D one offers. I mean,
these are some big boys. So yeah, uh, appreciate it,
bright appreciate yep, thanks so much. Try to squeeze another
one or two here in Let's go to Dan on
the phone line four two, five, five, eight, eleven, ten.
Welcome in, Dan, what's on your mind here.

Speaker 11 (30:09):
Hey, Amory. The reason why Millard South forfeited was they
had two players that had moved from Kansas and we're
living with a volunteer assistant coach, and they had improper
guardianship papers. When you start having multiple players move from
other states, you are now become what's like an IMG

(30:32):
academy out of Florida. Yep, there's no comparison to say
these are local kids. That is such a fallacy. This
is ridiculous, and I hope everybody forfeits against them.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Well, that's something we'll keep an eye on. I appreciate it. Dan,
thanks for calling in today. Big conversation we were having
today was about the situation i'll call it a forfeit
by Lincoln High School. They're forfeiting their home football game
against number one Millard South coming up on Friday, and
Lincoln High, for what it's worth, says this has everything

(31:09):
to do with being dinged up and being injured. And
I am in no position to tell them that they're wrong.
But you're telling me that a Class A team that's
four and two doesn't have enough guys to play a
football game. Something else at play here, potentially the fact
that Millard South has beaten every single one of their
opponents on the field since they got into Nebraska. Actually,

(31:31):
they played a Vegas school in Week one. They won
that game handily but had to forfeit it after the
fact because of a couple of improper guardianship for a
couple of players. But every other game that they have played,
they have won by a bazillion points, like eight or
nine touchdowns. At least, there's got to be some part
of that that Lincoln heist thinking about when they forfeit

(31:53):
this game. Well, Joe's on our phone line, Joe, appreciate
you for holding today. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yeah, Emory, I have been a coach for fifty years,
twenty one of those at the high school level. This
is an administrative issue in terms of how things are scheduled.
And there's a simple answer to this, and I think

(32:23):
you know a little bit about European sports, and that
is the concept of promotion and relegation. So instead of
having classes that are based on school size, which fifty
years ago made some sense, but it no longer makes
sense because of open enrollment issues, as you've already discussed.

(32:46):
So we should divide divisions by let's say twenty four teams,
and then the next twenty four and the next twenty four,
and each year the bottom three teams drop down a
division and the top three teams of the lower division
come up.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
It would balance over a few years. It would take
probably four or five years to balance. But on the
initial started this, teams could schools could choose which division
they think they belong in, and that way we would
avoid situations like this Lincoln High issue or Benson last year.

(33:31):
And it's this is not just a football issue, this
is every sport, boys and girls.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
So in theory, Joe started to interrupt. In theory, what
you're saying is football would operate independently, and volleyball would
operate independently, and bowling would operate independently just based on
their success.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Correct, Because certain schools are basketball schools and certain schools
or football schools and certain schools or soccer school Yeah,
and there's no reason why they can't be within you
know what they do well, and that way a group
of kids is not going to be totally embarrassed and

(34:16):
humiliated by you know, large score. I understand Lincoln High.
I agree with you. I don't think this is totally
an injury issue. I think it's a psyche issue more
than anything else. And they have enough players if they

(34:37):
have a JV program, which I guarantee a Class A school.
Does you know this has been an issue for many,
many years because there's schools that you could.

Speaker 5 (34:50):
Be anywhere in the city and.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Attend, like Marion or Creighton Prep Westside and millerd South.
They're just operating that way. And back in the seventies
and eighties you still had parents that would rent an
apartment within a school district for where they wanted their

(35:12):
kids to attend. Sure because of that football program or
that basketball program, or that coach as who they were following.
So this is not something new. But there's a simple fix.
And I understand at the small school level you probably
still need to for travel issues, probably divide the state
in half.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Right, you don't want to be going on to the
four or five hour bus trips for these high school games, right, Yeah, yep, Hey, Joe,
this great stuff, man.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
I really appreciate answer.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
I love the idea. Thanks so much for being on
our show.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Today, thank you.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah. So, I again I'm going to bring up by
it because I was kind doing high school football coverage
there and at some point they had done something similar
to that with their biggest class, which is four ARA
I guess five A now in Iowa, and it's basically
like within five A they built in districts that were

(36:07):
all based on their like how good the teams were
basically so, and they have like an RPI system that
they use for strength of schedule and how many points
that they win games by and stuff like that, and
so the teams that were the best teams were in
the districts with each other, and teams that were not
very good were in districts with each other. It made

(36:28):
all of the games fairly competitive. I think he's onto
something there. I don't know if it would solve Millard
South this year and how much better they are than
everybody else, but it I don't hate the idea, especially
these days when you know kids can kind of control
where they go. If you want games to be competitive,
the best have to play the best way more often

(36:48):
and vice versa. We were talking about Millard South great
football team. I have their list here of all the
games they've played. They won forty nine to seven against
Arbor View High School, Las Veg, Vegas. That game has
since been forfeited because of a snaffo with guardianship with
a couple of players from the Kansas City area. Strange

(37:12):
played Miller West beat them sixty five to zero, played
Carney won seventy two to zero, played Millard North won
seventy to seven, Lincoln Southeast High School seventy seven to zero,

(37:32):
and then played Papellion La Vista last week and beat
them fifty eight to seven. They only scored fifty eight
points in that game. Wow. They have been absolutely throttling
teams and their next game was going to be on
the road at Lincoln High School. The Linx now Lincoln
High School has forfeited that game already. Today their principal,

(37:54):
Mark Larson put out of a statement and said, due
to the extent of player injuries sustained in last week's
game in a number of other factors, we are the
number of other factors doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
We are communicating with Millard South and the NSAA today
that we are forfeiting the game. This was not an
easy decision. Ultimately, we need to make the best decision
for our players health and safety so we can finish

(38:15):
our season. This will allow an extra week for our
players to heal. We believe in our student athletes and
our coaching staff and know they will continue to work
hard to finish the season strong. Yeah. Well, for whatever
it's worth, Lincoln High School four and two, they are
a Class A team, But there obviously has got to

(38:35):
be some other mitigating factor to just not having enough guys,
because they certainly have enough guys to play. They just
don't want to play this game right now against this team.
For whatever it's worth, we're debating this, we're talking about
all the implications. Phone lines open. I'll get to some
emails here. Four two, five, five, eight, eleven ten. Matt

(38:57):
is on the phone line today. Hello, Matt, what's on
your mind?

Speaker 15 (39:00):
Hey, So, wouldn't you think instead of kind of being
around the bush and saying, you know, these other things,
the injuries, if it wouldn't it be a stronger message
if they just came out and said, we're not playing
against this team because of how they recruit players and
to the point of where it's been, where it's at
like we're just we're fed up with it. We're not
going to do it. We're not going to subject our

(39:21):
players to that and and our school to that kind
of philosophy.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Yeah, I mean it would make a statement, but you
would want to do it with other schools, right, Matt.
You don't want to be the one school it's like, too,
we need to actually play this team, even if you
know you might be you know what I mean, So like, yeah, yeah,
that would be My only thing is, as far as
we know, this is going to be the only team
that forfeits to them. Now, if other teams are like,
you know what, we're going to forfeit against them as well.

(39:46):
And if all of a sudden this offseason, from from
the end of this season before next school year, all
of a sudden, another three or four guys who were
D one four star athletes decide to go to Millard
South for some reason. If other schools that are on
their schedule kind of talk to each other and say
we don't want to play them, then I think that's
when you make that statement. But you certainly don't want

(40:09):
to be the cry baby in the room that just
says we don't want to play them because they're a
lot better than us, and they recruit, and we're mad
that we're gonna get beat by ten touchdowns on our
home field, you know, so they're kind of I feel
like they have to kind of play it off at
least right now. But I think we can read in
between the lines that yeah, they definitely would play this

(40:29):
game if they were playing against Elkhorn South or you know,
if they were playing Benson or they were playing North Platte,
that they would have played this game. But because it's
against Millard South, they're not going to play the game.

Speaker 11 (40:41):
Right.

Speaker 15 (40:41):
Do you think over over time, do you think there's
a chance anybody else jumps onto that that that bandwagon
with them. I know it's early, any speculations, says if
this is a real thing.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
About not wanting to play, So if Millard South does, like,
let's say that happens, another handful of four star, five
star guys from around the Omaha area, from even Kansas
City or something just kind of appear on their team
for next year, Yeah, I mean I would if I
was another school that's just trying to operate as a

(41:17):
public school and we're trying to just do the best
we can as a school, not just as a football program,
but as a school, and Miller South turns up on
my schedule, would I would say that this is just
not a fair fight. You know, like if West Side
or if some of these other schools can kind of
match them in some way with their personnel for football,
let them play each other in a best of five

(41:39):
or something. But you know, if I'm another random, you know,
public school that is just trying to get by on
a year to year basis just fielding a program at
all and being somewhat competitive in most of my games,
like a lot of public schools are, I don't want
to see these guys and I know that they're playing
a completely different sport than I am, basically a miniature

(42:01):
college at this point, you know. And this isn't to
say they're a villain here, and I hope people aren't
aren't reading into that. They're just doing what they're doing
and it's a kind of a machine that's feeding itself.
But I do think that there has to be a
reckoning at some point if it's ever going to get corrected,
and this is going to be the only way it
gets corrected is people just refuse to play them would
be my only thing.

Speaker 15 (42:19):
Yeah, it's going to have to be the school locations
because the NFA, I mean, this is this has been
a conversation for a while and they haven't done they
haven't done anything about it, probably won't, so yeah, this
might be the first step.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah, and I just don't know. I think their hands
are almost tied at this point because it's more of
a unicameral thing as to whether or not school choice
is what it is or it isn't. You know, do
we have to draw district lines or not? And how
much power do we give the districts to either follow
those rules or not. It's a great conversation, Matt. I
appreciate you for calling in today, Thanks for listening to us.

Speaker 11 (42:51):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Bobby's on a phone line four two, five, five, eight
to eleven ten. Hey Bobby, what's on your mind?

Speaker 5 (42:57):
Hi?

Speaker 12 (42:57):
Er?

Speaker 10 (42:57):
Hey?

Speaker 9 (42:58):
Yeah, you know, I have no answers. But I'm a
Lincoln High Link. I'm down here in Lincoln and a
true believer. I believe red and black. But you know, alumni,
we're not happy with this, you know, I mean, you're
not happy with what exactly with canceling this game?

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Okay, you're not happy with the ft.

Speaker 9 (43:23):
I'm not happy, but you know, for safety, I guess
is what they're saying.

Speaker 5 (43:28):
You know, I gotta agree with it.

Speaker 9 (43:30):
I got to hang with my school whatever they do.

Speaker 5 (43:33):
But like, uh, you know, I.

Speaker 9 (43:36):
Think I was the bitish grade. I had their life championship.
It was a mythical one. There was no playoffs there.
But it's like sixty nine, I believe. And you know,
I think I think back in the days and all
those big name.

Speaker 16 (43:52):
Football players that I grew up.

Speaker 9 (43:54):
Listening to and watching now Seacrest Field and yeah, Lincoln
High Oval. I mean, it's just out of here's here
in Lincoln I And it's really sad that, you know,
stuff like this is starting to happen to any school,
I guess. But yeah, well Lincoln High has you know,
like you know, Lincoln High open like what eighteen eighteen

(44:14):
seventy one, So we've been around a while, and that's
really sad that come to this.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, I'm with you, Bobby, And you know, I feel
bad for schools like Benson. I feel bad for you know,
schools like Omaha North that might just not have they
they've had better days, let's just say that. And then
you see the middle of south of the world and
west side. They just have way more resources, and it's
a machine that kind of feeds itself based on the
rules that we have. You know, kids who want to
go there and play football for a team that they

(44:41):
know is going to have the chance to steamroll everybody
they play. A lot of kids just want to do that,
and there's nothing that stops them from being able to
do that right now.

Speaker 9 (44:50):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, man. Like I said, I have
no answers. It's just, you know, it's just a lot
of a lot of a lot of.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
You know, great iron players.

Speaker 9 (45:00):
From heroes from the past. Man, they're kind of over
in their grades right now, you know.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
One hundred percent. No, I one hundred percent agree, Bobby,
And thanks so much for calling in man, Thanks for
listening to us. All right, all right, I feel for
him and I agree with what he is saying. Even
when I was in school, you know, and that's not
that long ago, you know, I was in high school
in the late two thousands, and it still was like

(45:24):
a matter of city pride that you represented your school,
and when your school one, it felt like your town one.
Now there's just you know, and especially in these big
metropolitan areas where there are so many schools, it really
feels like there's just so much of a conversation as
it relates to you know whether or not. And this

(45:44):
is not to say that there's any right or wrong answer,
and I'm not trying to villainize anything, but there's no
pride in the school that you're you're at anymore. And
you see it in college because these these kids are
going to colleges and they're able to transfer on a whim.
They go to school knowing that they don't have to
commit for four years to that place. They could literally
leave by the third week of the season and essentially

(46:08):
get into the transfer portal and go somewhere else, and
there's just there's no loyalty in the game anymore. It's
all about people looking out for themselves. And I can't
say that I'd do anything differently if I was a
five star athlete somewhere here in the Omaha metro. But
I can also tell you that it isn't what we
grew up in with the pride of our school teams.
Whether you're a Benson Bunny or you're a Lincoln Link

(46:31):
or you're a Millard South Patriot, it just isn't what
it used to be. Vince is on our phone line. Vince,
welcome to the show today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 8 (46:39):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 16 (46:40):
You're talking about, you know, competition and kids transferring, getting
to go to these schools and where they're looking at
them right now. I'm a graviduate. You haven't brought up
Brian High yet.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Yeah, they're like zero ins.

Speaker 16 (46:52):
I mean they have no wins and they haven't had wins.
They really haven't never ever been a program.

Speaker 10 (46:58):
Since I left there.

Speaker 9 (47:00):
Graduated in eighty five.

Speaker 16 (47:01):
And if you look back at eighty five, we had
the great Nebraska Kenny Clark, and he graduated and and
uh and you know he went on and played.

Speaker 11 (47:10):
The Colts and.

Speaker 16 (47:12):
He passed away of course, rest in peace.

Speaker 9 (47:14):
And his son now plays for Nebraska.

Speaker 16 (47:16):
I believe he played for West.

Speaker 8 (47:17):
Side and then yeah, and so anyway, you know what're
else getting.

Speaker 16 (47:21):
As when I, uh, come eighty five and we're actually
having our class reunion forty this weekend, and it said
anybody wants to go to Brian High.

Speaker 8 (47:33):
Football game Friday night? Let us know, we kidding free,
And I'm like, you know, we only want to waste.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
My time yeah, but maybe to.

Speaker 16 (47:40):
Meet other people.

Speaker 10 (47:41):
But that's the thing.

Speaker 16 (47:42):
And the year eighty five was when Omaha Public School
started bringing in It was freshman, so you know, I
had no more junior highs. It went to middle school
and then it went nineteenth five and twelve, So then
we had these freshmen coming in all over the place.

Speaker 9 (47:56):
And you know, we we switched coaches, came over and it.

Speaker 16 (48:00):
Was kind of a disappointing year.

Speaker 11 (48:03):
My senior year, I was a punter.

Speaker 16 (48:05):
Slash kind of defense.

Speaker 8 (48:06):
But that's the thing I was getting at is like
these schools just they just don't have the talent coming.

Speaker 9 (48:13):
To these schools.

Speaker 5 (48:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
Well and sorry, Evin's going to just hop in here
because I have other callers that I want to take.
But the first thing that you just mentioned there was
like even if they had a player or two, do
you think they're gonna stick around and play for them?
Like like if they had the option to go to
Millard South or West Side, then they can just go there.
They certainly would, right. Like so you know, we had
the caller that talked about like promotion relegation that idea

(48:37):
and just having schools like Brian and you know Benson
have these schools that are kind of struggling to be
competitive against a lot of the other, big, more talented teams.
Maybe they just play kind of in a world amongst
each other for a while and make things a little
bit more fun and competitive for those kids. I think
that'd go a long way to making kids want to

(48:59):
be a part of the team instead of knowing that
they have to go get beat by fifty every other week.

Speaker 16 (49:03):
You know what I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, because that's Brian
has been blown out a couple of times already this year,
and and and back in eighty five, Benson was our
only win.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
I think, yeah, well, it's not gotten better for them either.
He events appreciate the call today, Thanks for listening to
go Bears. I love the pride see and this is
the thing that's missing from a lot of the kids
that are playing at a high level now. They don't
have that pride for their district or their school. It's
all about, hey, where can I have the best opportunity

(49:34):
to succeed. And I'm not saying that that's bad. It's
just very different than the high school football that we
used to grow up with. Chris is on our phone
line real quick, Hey, Chris, thanks for listening to eleven
to ten kfa B.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
What's up, Hi?

Speaker 7 (49:47):
Well, so my whole thing goes back to when did
all this start happening that you could transfer schools for
high school? Because I remember back in the COVID days,
there were kids that were being recruited to Division one
that we're playing, like at North and Central, and because
they canceled the football season, they wanted to transfer to

(50:09):
like Bennington or somewhere that was playing, and they weren't
allowed to. So I don't understand what's going on there.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Yeah, well, I think my biggest I think the rule
probably always existed, Chris, the way that it exists. I
know that school choices become a pretty political thing in
a lot of places around the country recently, but my
guess is that it just wasn't something that people considered
in the same way as they do now because the

(50:38):
culture of sports just didn't dominate a kid's lifestyle at least.

Speaker 10 (50:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Now we got all this travel ball stuff, like if
you're a basketball player, you're playing basketball basically twelve months
out of the year. As a sixteen year old, you
got aau, you got travel ball in the summer, you're
going to all these camps. You know, when I was
in school, even like fifteen years ago, like you play
played football or you played golf or whatever in the fall,
then you played basketball or wrestling in the in the winter,

(51:05):
and then you played tennis or track and field in
the spring, and then you played baseball in the summer.
And nowadays, like if you're just kind of committed down
one lane, you're just playing that sport all the time.
And it's it's kind of these kids are it's just
a completely different culture of sports, and it's just dominating
a kid's life intent of just all of their schooling,

(51:26):
right right.

Speaker 7 (51:26):
I know my granddaughter plays high school volleyball, and so
I understand that she also plays cluball.

Speaker 10 (51:31):
Yeah, it was never ending.

Speaker 7 (51:32):
But I was just talking about four or five years
ago during COVID, they literally were not letting kids play
football from North to go to Bennington. I just don't
understand how they can transfer around so easy now.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Yeah, Well, you know what, I wish I had a
good answer for you, Chris. The only thing that I
can say is somebody found a loophole in the system,
and everybody was like, hey, that's an interesting thing. I
want to try to exploit that, and maybe it's a
I know, every district kind of hads their own rules
on stuff like that, but this is a situation at
least for right now. And obviously COVID's not a factor anymore.

(52:07):
But there's a gigantic juggernaut in Millard South and that's that.
I mean, everybody else is just kind of trying to
play catch up at least at this point. Chris, appreciate
the call today, Thanks for listening to us. Lincoln High,
by the way, is four and two or one on
one in district plays so far. They did beat Brian,
but it was a tight one. They beat Brian fifteen

(52:27):
to fourteen. They beat Omaha Northwest thirty four to six.
They took a loss to Fremont forty two to seven.
Fremont solid, you know, suburbanish school. Then South Sioux City
they played them. It was competitive, but they were able
to pull it out twenty six to twenty. These are
fun games to be a part of, right, like games
that are competitive that these games against Brian, against South

(52:48):
Sioux City and then Benson they beat forty seven to
twenty four, and then they lost to Lincoln Southeast fifty
seven to nothing, got a little dinged up in that game,
and apparently dinged up enough to where they have no
interest in playing Millard South this coming week. For whatever
it's worth, they cited injuries, but I think we all

(53:10):
are kind of doing the math on this that you
know with Millard South and their average margin of victory
so far this season is something in the fifty eight
to fifty nine point range, may maybe worse. They're averaging
over sixty points a game in terms of their offense. So, yeah,
losing to Lincoln Southeast fifty seven to nothing, could you

(53:31):
imagine what the possibilities like Lincoln's up. You can't tell
me they're an awful team and be four and two.
I know that their schedule might be helping in that
a bit, but you can't tell me right like, but
they would play this game, I think against anybody else
that's not Millard South. And that is me speculating that
it's not something they said. For whatever it's worth, tons

(53:51):
of emails have come in, and I want to chat
about what people are talking about. Janis emailed and said,
I think you're confused about the students playing football at
Millard South they're not moving into the district. They're simply
transferring schools. That's a major difference. Sure, that's possible, and
it's well, I mean, we know that's happening. And I
guess my old school mentality is that, hey, if you're

(54:11):
going to go to school there, you need to get
closer to the school you move there. Well, it's just
not happening like that, right, Like, it's just a completely
different monster. You're a good football player, you want to
play on a good football team. Do you want to
play for the Yankees? Here's your opportunity. What are we
are we in a position to tell them that they
shouldn't do that. That's what they want to do, especially

(54:33):
when sports has taken up so much time now. I mean, it's,
like I said, it's a completely different monster than it
ever was when I was in school. It just is,
you know, and for people who are older than me,
it's even crazier of a difference. People just like sports
were part of being in school, Now sports are everything.

(54:55):
Kids are leaving the school that they grew up in
to go play with. And I had a guy call
in I think his name was Ron, and Ron told
me that he was like these Miller South kids have
played together a long time and they want to play
keep playing together because they played youth football together. It's like, okay,
so that's kind of like an AAU environment, right, Like

(55:17):
I want to play with my guys that I played
with when I was twelve. That's fine, that's that's that's
totally okay. I'm not here to tell you that you
shouldn't be able to do that. I'm just telling you
that it makes a ridiculous competitive imbalance. And back when
I was in school, and I you know, I'm not
even that old, but it's just like it sounds like

(55:37):
a completely different world. We didn't play travel football. We
didn't have flag football during the summer. We all played
baseball like we played basketball in the winter, or we wrestled,
like we didn't have this thing that all we ever
did was just the one sport that we wanted to
do when we thought that we were going to be
great at We played everything with our friends in that

(56:01):
was of being a part of school. It was just
being at our school. We had pride in our school.
We wanted our school to be good. We didn't just
abandon the people that we were going to school with
to go play for a team that seemed to be
better on the field. Mark says, I'm divided on this.
I'm sure they have enough to play Class C much less,
I don't know what that means, but still can put

(56:23):
up a team on a field even though most players
play both ways. I understand not going to all practical
purposes versus a Division I team, but what if all
of the teams forfeit to them? Is that right? It
sends a bad message that if we know we're going
to get beat bad, we just don't play. You have
to battle that right. Is it worth going out there
and saying, hey, we still tried and losing seventy seven

(56:44):
to nothing. Is it still worth going out there and
just deciding, hey, you know what, guys like I know
we're dinged up and stuff, but we really want to
show people that we have heart, that we really want
to give it a go. Or in this situation, understanding

(57:04):
that you have a team full of future Division one
athletes like Millard South, do you decide Yeah, maybe discretion
is the better part of valor here. Maybe forfeiting this game,
taking it on the chin. Maybe in the media and
the way people talk about us not having the guts
to play this game or whatever. Get our guys healthy.

(57:27):
Lincoln Lincoln High has Omaha South and North Platte left
on the schedule. One of those is a home game
chance to you know, kind of finish with a winning record,
feel pretty good about yourself. And yeah, that Millard South thing,
it happened, but nobody got hurt because he didn't play

(57:48):
the game, and they would have beat us by one hundred.
Who knows, We'll never know. I understand what Mark is saying.
I also understand why Link and High is doing what
they're doing. Jason reminds us that this is not a
new concept. It's been done in high school since the eighties,

(58:09):
where kids are going to different schools, creating perhaps a
bit of a different thing, right, like tuition and all
this stuff. And not to say that it's always them,
but if you go back to like baseball history and
like high school baseball teams, I mean, there's a lot
of fun stuff in Omaha and how competitive certain schools
were at different times, and the powerhouses were in pretty
unlikely places in some cases. I enjoy looking up Omaha

(58:31):
sports history and things like that, but this is not
the same thing. Like I keep saying that, it just
isn't the same when you are basically a four or
five star athlete, maybe even a three star, you're anywhere close.
You know that it benefits you to play with other
Division one future athletes to get the most out of
your talent, and it's going to put be put on

(58:54):
your huddle account so you can go and have everybody
look at how great you are and how great you
play around all this the talent even though you're not
playing anybody. Think about Arch Manning, right, number one prospect quarterback.
He's Peyton and Eli Manning's nephew, and he's tearing it up.
I think you know in high school he was the

(59:15):
number one recruit in his class for like the last
three years he played, but if you look at who
he played against, he was so much by far away
he was the best player on the field at every
given time. I mean, you go watch some of his
tape in high school, he's playing against kids that are
never going to touch a Division one field. So he

(59:37):
couldn't win the Texas starting job for two years. Quinn
Ewers was the quarterback for two years. Arch finally gets
a chance to be the starting quarterback this year, Texas
goes from the number one team preseason, he's the preseason
Heights Bean favorite. They are completely out of it. They
are completely out of the top twenty five. Nobody thinks
that they're a legitimate contender to make the college football
playoff anymore. He would have probably benefited from playing with

(01:00:02):
other top level athletes and against other top level competition.
It just didn't happen for him in high school. But
it's Millard South, number one team in Nebraska, one of
the top twenty five teams in the rankings in the
United States for high school football, and Peyton highlock here
with me has done some digging on their program. Is
they now won't play on Friday, as Lincoln High has

(01:00:23):
decided to forfeit that game citing injuries. But what are
you seeing here about some of the personnel that they have.

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
Yeah, Millard South, like you've been talking about there, you know,
been absolutely dominant this season in all facets of the game.
And just for some numbers about kind of how dominant
they have been. The most stands out to me the
most is the quarterback Jet Jet Tamala. I think that's
how you say it. Tamala he's having an unprecedented season

(01:00:51):
in the state of Nebraska. I mean, right off the jump,
I mean, one hundred and one passing touchdowns in his
career in his career set the state record. So he's
got the record. Yeah, and where's he going. He is
committed to Alabama, of course he is. And I didn't
tell you this off air too. The running back for
Millard South also an Alabama commit.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
So we got guys committing to Alabama off Adam Millard South,
and we like, we're cool. Just again, I'm not here
to say where they should be playing high school football.
I'm just saying, like, can you understand why there are
a lot of teams in on their schedule that are
just like, this is not fair, This does not make sense.

(01:01:36):
And when really good players consistently are still like deciding
that they want to just go play there with these guys,
it just makes it the gap bigger and bigger and bigger.

Speaker 16 (01:01:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
This was from a two four to seven sports director.
Two four to seven Sports is huge in the recruiting
part of high school athletes into college. This is something
he said about the backfield, the quarterback running back partnership quote.
I think it's definitely one of the top one to
two punches and probably the best one at this stage,
end to quote.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
And they're gonna stick together at the next level. So
here's a few different emails I've gotten signed a proud
parent of a non Millard South football player. My son
played against Millard South this year. His coach told him
that only four boys in the Millard South starting lineup
were former Millard Middle School students. All other starters were

(01:02:29):
not from the middle school or Millard South community. How
sad for those Millard kids who don't have a chance
to represent their community. That's the other aspect of this,
right You kind of have these Mercenary High School kids
that are going to Alabama and they're getting recruited by Nebraska,
all these big D one schools, and who are you
gonna play if they want to come play a Millard South.

(01:02:53):
I want to play those kids. That's just part of
the deal. And I guess the if you're a Millard
South person, you and raised, you grew up there, and
you really want to play football, there's other schools that
I'm sure would love to have you if you wanted
more playing time. Had another email here from Natalie All
teams should have forfeited them. They have one kid that

(01:03:16):
starts that's actually from an in the Millard school district.
What are they teaching the kids? So I think maybe
we have a few different reports on how many kids
are actually Millard kids that are playing for them, that
actually get onto the field, But twenty two starters, eleven
on offense, eleven on defense. If it's anything less than
like sixteen of the twenty two that are actually from

(01:03:36):
the Millard area, anything less than that is kind of
like what is going on there?

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
We've seen different numbers, but we can assume that. We'll
just say like a handful, right, I mean, like it's.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
A vast majority of the players that are on the
field making a difference or not originally from the Millard
South district. I have a lot of long emails here.
I'm not gonna be able to read those, but I
have a few other notes here. I had a guy
call in and say promotion and relegation with the idea of,
like let's take all the Class A schools. You know

(01:04:08):
how many are there, There's like twenty four thirty two
something like that. You take them and the idea of
like making little leagues like, let's just make eight team divisions.
Eight team divisions, So like let's say Millard South and
then the other seven best teams, and then they basically

(01:04:31):
play each other throughout the season, and maybe you have
a couple of games against other non league teams and
then the next group of teams. I don't know how
we I don't know how we like organize this. We
have a ton of hundreds of schools in all these classes.
Obviously the six man guys and the eight man guys.

(01:04:53):
There's a lot of those teams. You'd have to kind
of have them within their own groups based on their participation.
But Class A through C two you basically could just
do the whole Like you keep winning, you win your league,
you get a chance to go up, you know what
I mean, and then you can try to compete at
the next level. And if you can eat great, If

(01:05:14):
you can't, okay, and then you fall down, and then
every game should be more competitive. Forget about state championships, guys,
It's not about state titles. It should never be about
state championships. It shouldn't be about championships in football anyway.
We don't play enough games for it to really feel
like a real championship anyway for football, honestly, and I

(01:05:34):
say this at the college level too. If you're a
Nebraska fan, if you're an Iowa State fan, if you're
an Iowa fan, if you're a fan of Kansas or
Kansas State, like, honestly, it should be about wanting to
be competitive every single Saturday. In high school, Let's be
competitive every single Friday. Sure, there're gonna be games you're
gonna get blown out, and maybe you'll be on the
other end of that and you'll blow somebody else out,

(01:05:55):
but you want to know something, it should be about
just having the fun competing and trying to win in
every single Friday instead of, Hey, if we don't want
to stay championship, this whole thing is lost. That's not
what it's supposed to be about. Especially at this level.
It's about pride, it's about community. We've lost that, especially
at the biggest level here. Fred said, relegation and promotion

(01:06:15):
doesn't solve the issue of one school recruiting all the
best players in the area, which is the main issue
with Millard South. I would just counter that in saying,
if they were playing against West Side and I don't
know who all would end up in that pot of
like the best teams, like the eight best teams or whatever,
if they were playing all of them though, if there
was a chance that and I'll use college football as

(01:06:36):
this right, So, like the Big Ten, you have Ohio State,
who in Michigan and Penn State, those three usually get
all of the best players. They have the best recruits
out of the big tent. Well, if I'm a recruit
that goes to a place like Ohio State, and I'm
really excited to be a part of that, but I
get stuck third on the depth chart. But I could

(01:06:57):
start for Minnesota, wouldn't I feel like I could go
play for Minnesota and maybe build my own brand there.
I'm going to get to play these guys, going to
get to play some of the best competition. I think
it actually might have a chance to level it out
a little bit. I don't know. Again, that doesn't stop
Millard South from still getting all the best players, but
you know, on promotion.

Speaker 4 (01:07:18):
And relegation, briefly, we would have Millard South, Wahoo, Waverley, Norris, Bennington, Elkhorn, North, Scott,
Gretna East. That would be the top eight teams right now,
just based on record in the state of Nebraska. Just
interesting to think about. You know, this Class B schools there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
Right, and how would we do that? You know, it's
just like what would be the weight of population or
weight of enrollment number? Is there a Class C or
a Class B school that could pop up and play
some A schools? I mean probably right.

Speaker 4 (01:07:49):
A school like Scutt could probably handle it, right, they
have the resources.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Yeah, in theory, you'd ask the teams that they play,
they would say, well, why aren't they? Now, you know
that the same thing can go for the people in
Iowa because there's a ton of Catholic schools and private
schools that have those resources that the public schools just
don't have, and they usually punch above their weight most
of the time anyway. But yeah, it's interesting. Had an
email from Terry and Lincoln says that if there was

(01:08:14):
a student wanting to transfer to Miller South to play
football but he wasn't recruited to play, would they allow that.
Rumor here is that a coach or a volunteer coach
took two boys in from Kansas City this year to play.
Now we heard that they because of the weird guardianship situation,
they forfeited their game against the Vegas team at the
beginning of the season. As a longtime Lincoln Southeast fan,
I wish all the schools would forfeit playing Millard South

(01:08:36):
when they no longer have high school teams to beat
the crowd of they can play INNAIA football teams. That's
what I'm saying. And I had a caller who said
that they had a kid that plays Millard South. I
don't know if it's a kid that plays much, or
if it's JV kid or what, but said that, hey,
look out, Millard North might actually end up being the
powerhouse that emerges. I'll give you the benet the doubt

(01:09:00):
that maybe that's possible. But seeing how Millard South is doing,
you know, some of their business here. And this isn't
to knock on them again. I don't want Millard South
to look like a villain here, I really don't. It's
just a system, right, It's like, and people are taking
veto the system and the kids wouldn't play there, and
there's no rule it says they can't do that. Is
it fair? It doesn't feel fair, But it's not like
they're breaking rules. And they did self report when they

(01:09:23):
did break a rule about the guardianship. They were self
reported at themselves. So I don't want it to sound
like I hate Millard South or I think Millard South
is a like they're the villains of the story here.
I'm just saying that this is what everybody who's not
at Miller South is saying. And if you're at Millard South,
you're gonna be like, oh no, don't break up the
Yankees here. Well, my fear is that all the great
players that are in some of these other schools, when

(01:09:44):
they get an opportunity, they may weave their way into
being a part of Millard South eventually. And if that happens,
then we can say we absolutely have a problem here.
I mean, it's already feeling like a problem, but yeah,
it is what it is. I I don't know, it's interesting.
It's five eighteen. I appreciate everybody for emailing. Sorry if

(01:10:06):
I wasn't able to get to your email, or if
I was unable to get to all of the h
in reply to you, But I really do appreciate everybody
for putting their two cents in. Fresh out of exiting
his parent teacher conferences has given us a call to
do some Husker reporting and I appreciate that, Sean. The
first things first, we've been spending a lot of the
afternoon talking about this Lincoln High versus Millard South forfeiture

(01:10:29):
and trying to figure out what possible solutions are. How
do you best kind of illustrate this situation and you know,
the state of you know, especially at the Class A
level of high school football and the state of Nebraska.

Speaker 3 (01:10:42):
Yeah, I think the question is is it going to
be just a one year thing with Millard South being
this dominant or is this are we going to have
a program at this level every year? And there's such
a unique situation because they have a youth program there,
the Junior Patriots, which is frusually the best youth football
program in town, and a lot of their players kind

(01:11:04):
of gravitated to start playing for that program when they're young,
and they all went to Millard South. And they've kind
of created obviously a super team with nine or ten
Division one seniors alone, which we've never seen in one
senior class that I've known in the state's history, on
top of what they've got in their sophomores and junior grades.
So they've kind of created this team with littered with

(01:11:25):
power for town and Alabama quarterback and Illinois running back
of his dirty tied end in Iowa state wide receiver,
et cetera. And they've just throttled people like we've never
seen before. I mean, these are proud programs Lincoln Southeast
and Millard North and Millard West and to hang scores
like seventy seven to nothing's there's no comparable year to

(01:11:48):
this that we've seen. And I know there were people
in the administration world that knew that this was coming,
and there was something you know, some people tried to say,
we need to get something done for this year immediately,
and it was met with some resistance, is my understanding.
But now next year there will be a shuffle. They're

(01:12:09):
going to create what's called the Emerging District and essentially
all of the programs that can't compete at this level
are going to play only themselves. They'll be in their
own class a district called the Emerging District, and then
the other top teams would play in their own setup
and that they would not play games like this. But

(01:12:31):
Lincoln High it's a little deceiving. Their four and two.
It's on the paper. There's a foreign two team wave
in the white flag. Well, all of their wins have
come against what you would label emerging district type teams
that have not won games all year, and you know
even now, but by forfeiting, Lincoln High is not eligible
to make the playoffs in their favorite to win their
next two weeks. My understanding though, is no matter what

(01:12:53):
evernet six and three with this forfeit, they still would
not have done enough to get the playoff spot this
year because of their low power point standing. But it's
not good and it's got a lot of people talking.
I know the NSA. Everyone always wants to blame the NSA,
But the NSA works for the member schools. The members
schools ultimately vote and control the legislation, and the NSAA

(01:13:18):
is the group that then follows the rules that the
members vote on. So I know the NSA is always
the easy scapegoat, but remember they work for the schools
and the schools are the ones that make the rules.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
Well, it's something to keep an eye on, and we
will just real quick, Sean. I know that Tuesday is
usually a pretty good day of availability for the Huskers.
Do we learn anything today?

Speaker 8 (01:13:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
You know, we heard from Dana Holderson and John Butler
and Dylan Royola and several of the players you know
going on the road. It's a big story this week
for Nebraska. They're going to leave a day earlier. Maryland's
got a great defensive line that's going to get a
lot of pressure. I mean, there are two defensive ends
have produced a lot of havoc. I think they've got

(01:14:01):
thirty combined pressures in five games, so that group of
players is getting about six to seven good pressures every game,
along with some guys in the interior. So that will
be a challenge. It's going to be a challenge for
the defense. Malik Washington, their quarterback, and what he does,
you know. I think for the offense, they're just they're
trying to improve after what happened last week with that

(01:14:24):
dry spell. That was really unlike any stretch we've seen
with Dana Olgerson thus far. And I know there are
a number of things that kind of were to blame
for it, and they want to get it worked on
and address that for next week. So we'll see if
the offense can kind of learn from that and put
together a game against what's going to be one of

(01:14:44):
the better pass rushes. They'll face here all season.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
Yeah, something to keep in mind. Will have more breakdown
of exactly what we're seeing with both the Huskers and
the Terrapins as we get set up for Saturday's matchup
between the two teams. Sean Calley and for Husker Buzz,
appreciate it. Man, thanks so much for being a part
of the show and we will chat again tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
All right, every Banks