Waverly – Class B Team Preview (Girls)

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, 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.

Waverly

Head Coach – Joel Fritz

Previous Records

Year Record
2019 8-8
2018 13-4

Players to Watch – Leah Rasmussen

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

NEST Analysis – Returning to their 2018 form will be the objective in the upcoming season for this program. Coach Joel Fritz will surely have his team motivated and prepared to make a run in 2021. Coach Fritz is a well-known commodity within soccer circles. He is a major asset for Waverly High School. During this season, the highlight of the Waverly squad will be Leah Rasmussen. Rasmussen has our attention, demonstrated by her presence on the Pre-Season Players To Watch List. Overall, Waverly looks to be highly competitive in Class B. Early season results will be very telling and this team could quickly rise through our rankings.

 

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 TwitterInstagram, or listen to our podcast.

Class B Girls – Players To Watch

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 four articles, NEST will recognize many outstanding athletes that everyone should look forward to seeing on the pitch.

This list was put together using several resources such as coach recommendations, past all-state lists, statistical analysis from previous seasons, and observational research. The inclusions vary greatly in terms of location, age, and future plans. The listed athletes live in every corner of the state from Omaha to Scottsbluff. Many have signed or are committed to play soccer at the Division I level, while others are pursuing other interests in the future.

Even so, there are two traits that all inclusions of the inaugural NEST Players to Watch preview have in common.

  1. Show stopping and jaw dropping ability on the field.
  2. An admirable love for the sport of soccer. With their ability, passion, and outreach, this game will grow; that is the ultimate goal of Nebraska Soccer Talk.

A special congratulations to all of the athletes. Your hard work, skill, and dedication deserve to be recognized. Nebraska Soccer Talk will be observing closely as your season and career progress.

Class B – Girls

Players are not ranked, instead listed alphabetically by first name.

  1. Abbey Schwarz
    • High School: Omaha Roncalli
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: University of Nebraska-Lincoln soccer signee
  2. Cece Behrens
    • High School: Omaha Skutt
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: University of Nebraska-Omaha soccer signee
  3. Deja Daniels
    • High School: Bennington
    • Class of 2021
  4. Ellie Hutsell
    • High School: Aurora
    • Class of 2022
  5. Emma Caito
    • High School: Omaha Mercy
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: University of Minessota State-Moorehead soccer signee
  6. Emma Foote
    • High School: Scottsbluff
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: Hastings College volleyball signee
  7. Hanna King
    • High School: Elkhorn High
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: South Dakota State University soccer signee
  8. Jenna Hotovy
    • High School: Omaha Skutt
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: South Dakota State University soccer signee
  9. Lauren Stull
    • High School: Lincoln Lutheran/Raymond Central
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: Hastings College soccer signee
  10. Leah Rasmussen
    • High School: Waverly
    • Class of 2021
  11. Madison Smith
    • High School: Omaha Duchesne
    • Class of 2021
    • Future Plans: Benedictine College
  12. Mia Hurt
    • High School: Bennington
    • Class of 2022
  13. Sydney Herren
    • High School: Omaha Gross Catholic
    • Class of 2021

Once again, congratulations to the above athletes for all of their accomplishments. Your future in the game of soccer is incredibly bright.

Additionally, it must be mentioned that this is not intended to be an all encompassing or complete list. There are a great number of talented soccer players in Nebraska that we have simply not discovered yet. As the 2021 season gets underway, those athletes will be seen and recognized. That is truly the whole point of Nebraska Soccer Talk.

If you are a soccer player or know of a soccer player that should be on our radar, feel free to contact us. NEST is always looking to cover more soccer and add to our lists.

 

Thank you for reading and being a part of our new community. A like, share, comment or recommendation of our 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 TwitterInstagram, or listen to our podcast on Spotify.

 

Midland University – Women’s Soccer College Spotlight

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

Year Regular Season Record GPAC Record
2019 17-2-2 11-1
2018 14-3-4 9-0-3
2017 14-2-3 7-1-2
2016 15-5 8-2

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 TwitterInstagram, or listen to our podcast on Spotify.