Tag Warriors

Previewing an upcoming season is never an easy task. To do so properly takes countless hours of emails, observations, statistical research, conversation, and reflection. Adding onto that difficulty are challenges, such as a cancelled 2020 season and lingering COVID restrictions, making our preview preparation feel almost impossible.

Despite these obstacles, the approaching 2021 season and its participants – whether that be players, coaches, fans, or families – deserve some semblance of normalcy. Soccer in Nebraska and all those who participate deserve to be promoted. Over the course of the next several weeks, the NEST will overview EVERY high school soccer program in our state. This was done to the best of our ability using all of the information we could collect.

Nebraska Soccer Talk is here to support many fantastic teams, coaches, players, fans, and referees that make our game possible. One mission of this venture is to discover and centralize newsworthy information. This can only be done in collaboration with individual programs. As a whole, our sport must better promote itself in order to grow the player and supporter pool. We encourage every team to proudly and consistently advertise itself to us and the general public. The more information available, the more our game will grow. Soccer is a game historically left behind to linger in the background in the United States. That circumstance is changing, but that change will not happen automatically. Growing and covering all aspects of our sport will take effort from all of those who love it.

Disclaimer – To prepare for these articles, a questionnaire was sent to every school’s head coach and athletic director. Many of these questionnaires were returned in a timely fashion, others were not. Nebraska Soccer Talk prides itself on equal and in-depth coverage but cooperation is needed to meet that goal. Please consider this to be our reasoning when it comes to article length and accuracy.

Omaha Westside

Head Coach Info – Michael Dean

Previous Records

State Status – Front Runner, Contender, Dark Horse, Up-And-Coming, Building, Too Early To Tell

NEST Analysis – A team that is accustomed to success, the Warriors will attempt to rebound after a disappointing 2019 season. A 6-10 record is highly unusual for Westside, a program rich in tradition and talent. Normally this would be a team easily placed in the contender or front runner status category. However, for right now they are in the “dark horse” classification until evidence of a turnaround is apparent. Coach Michael Dean will need to refocus his players in order to reclaim their traditional stature.

Do not be shocked to see Omaha Westside at Morrison Stadium in May. The Warriors have been placed on our list for Teams on the Verge. They could easily enter our Top 10 sooner rather than later.

Thank you for reading and being a part of our new community. A like, share, comment or recommendation of content would be greatly appreciated. In order to financially support our efforts, sponsorship/partnership opportunities have become available. Sponsors will receive vast exposure to the Nebraska soccer community through different media avenues. The sponsorship process is easy and reasonable.

Contact us on our website or email @ nebraskasoccertalk@gmail.com.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, or listen to our podcast on Spotify.

Chace Hutchison

Although it is rarely covered by the traditional media giants of the state, Nebraska is filled with exciting and competitive collegiate soccer programs. In fact, Nebraska contains a grand total of THIRTY programs for men and women. Those thirty programs compete across a wide variety of collegiate levels including Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA, and junior college.

Nebraska Soccer Talk is here to examine, cover, and promote all of these teams. This task has been made a bit more challenging by the circumstances created by COVID-19. Depending on the playing level, conference, and school, the season outlook changes drastically. Roster information can also be in flux, depending on the school. Despite these challenges, our staff attempted to put together the best program summaries possible. To our knowledge, we are the only outlet providing such coverage to our state’s college programs.

Just like Nebraska Soccer Talk, this column will grow and become more in depth as the years pass. In the future, we hope to provide sideline coverage of games, facility features, coach and player interviews. We look forward to the journey ahead. Thank you for being a part of our community. The sport of soccer is growing in Nebraska, and we intend to see it thrive.

Disclaimer – In the making of this article, team websites and other research sources were utilized. Although we attempt to avoid them whenever possible, errors can occur. Please contact us directly with corrections.

Midland University

Head Coach – Greg Jarosik

Assistant Coaches – Rachel Smith

Mascot – Warriors

Nebraska Homegrown Players On Roster – 

• #10 Chloe Dietz – Fr – Papillion-La Vista – M
• #11 Kisa Omerovic – Jr – Lincoln – M
• #15 Sidney Wells – Sr – Waverly – D
• #16 Melissa Warner – Jr – Waverly – D
• #26 Anastasia Bitzes – Fr – Omaha Westside – M
• #29 Kennedy Kress – So – Millard North – M
• #31 Hannah DeStefano – Sr – Brady – F

7/27 = 26%

NEST Analysis – Midland represents one of the most competitive, consistent, and stable women collegiate soccer programs in the state of Nebraska. This team’s roster incorporates players from all over the United States, indicating a national recruiting strategy. Greg Jaroski and his staff appear to search high and low to find the proper additions to their team. Despite that diversity, the Warriors are able to find a common purpose once on campus. From 2016 to 2019, Midland won a combined 60 matches, an impressive mark that many programs dream about. Coach Jarosik has served as head coach for 8 seasons. With his continued leadership, Midland has a bright future competing in the GPAC. 

Thank you for reading and being a part of our new community. A like, share, comment or recommendation of content would be greatly appreciated. In order to financially support our efforts, sponsorship/partnership opportunities have become available. Sponsors will receive vast exposure to the Nebraska soccer community through multiple different media avenues. The sponsorship process is easy and reasonable.

Contact us on our website or email @ nebraskasoccertalk@gmail.com.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, or listen to our podcast on Spotify.

Chace Hutchison