Kick Starting a New Journey
Nebraska Soccer Talk is a newly established outlet that has the sole purpose of covering and promoting soccer within the state of Nebraska.
The NEST is a three-person operation that will be doing their best to cover all teams from the Metro to Scottsbluff and everywhere in-between. The authors/volunteers love this sport and have a genuine desire to grow the game throughout the state.
Follow along with our journey on Twitter or give our podcast a listen on Spotify.
This is a true community effort, so please feel free to contribute! Tips and observations are welcome! Let us know who or where NEST should be looking. Leave a comment below or email at nebraskasoccertalk@gmail.com
Soccer Aunt
I listen to your podcasts and wanted to let you know that you do an amazing job covering soccer in Nebraska. Earlier this season, when you were giving your Class B Girls’ soccer forecast you said something that caught my ear, if you will. You wondered aloud about the veracity of Skutt’s statistics according to Max Preps from last season. And maybe should.
I have a niece who has played the last two seasons for Skutt and she said aloud while we were listening together that,”No one thinks Lakin had seventeen assists.” Now she didn’t come out and say anything other than this, except, “Lakin’s dad keeps the stats.” (This would be Lakin Appell, and her dad would be Jason Appell.) Which I thought was interesting at the time, but didn’t think much of it.
Until my niece showed me the team stats, current as of today. There’s Lakin Appell with seven assists. I’ve been to every game except Gretna, Bellevue West and Millard West this season. There were no assists in those games as these were all shut-out losses. I’ve kept an informal tally to the games I have at, as what you had said piqued my curiosity.
The goals are pretty easy to keep track of. I have a team roster that I just jot notes down on. I deal with numbers, so this is right up my alley. Assists, as you are well aware, can be tricky. Two players can get an assist on each goal. Do I think this should be allowed? Not really. When I played it was pretty much assumed you were getting an assist if you passed it to someone who then scored. However, you could include the secondary pass…
With that being stated, I have the following stats (unofficial, of course), with one pass=one goal:
Tess Behrens- 5 Goals, 5 Assists
Caroline Daub- 4 Goals, 4 Assists
Lakin Appell- 2 Goals, 4 Assists
Delaney O’Doherty- 5 Goals, 2 Assists
Addison Burt- 4 Goals, 3 Assists
Josie Tobaben- 3 Goals, 1 Assist
Maggie Reisbig- 2 Goals, 2 Assists
Milayni Cain- 2 Goals 1 Assist
Josie Ausman- 2 Goals, 0 Assists
Presley Douglas- 1 Goal, 1 Assist
Kate Carlson- 1 Goal, 0 Assists
Camryn Kasner- 1 Goal, 0 Assists
Hannah McWilliams- 0 Goals, 2 Assists
Corrine Merkel- 1 Goal, 0 Assists
Shaeley Reichmuth- 0 Goals, 2 Assists
Abby Ostergaard- 0 Goals, 1 Assist
At the end of the day does this mean anything? Not really. I mean, Skutt has had a hard time scoring the last two seasons. However, no high school team (and college/pro) should have a parent in charge of keeping the stats. It’s not fair to the girls, and isn’t fair to the parent(s). There is a lot of pressure to do the right thing while at the same time wanting your kid to be good. A student or assistant coach should be doing this.
Just my two cents on the matter. And my niece doesn’t see a lot of minutes, so she has no stats! But loves her teammates. And I love watching her when she does play.
Salutations,
BRM