Dorchester Times: DHS Athletics In Good Hands With Zoubek

Thursday, March 14, 2013

DHS Athletics In Good Hands With Zoubek

Nobody knows Dorchester's athletic programs better than DPS educator and football coach Brent Zoubek. That's a good thing since Zoubek will take over the DHS athletic director's position next school year following the lengthy and faithful service of Scott Pohl, who is retiring after more than three decades at DPS.

Zoubek's rise to athletic director comes as very good news to Dorchester boosters. The DHS community -- students, parents and alumni -- are rallying around him.

Zoubek has proved his loyalty to Dorchester by building here and raising his family in our community. He sacrificed by going back to school to get his teaching certificate. Then he turned down a chance to coach one of the state's better Class D football programs -- Exeter-Milligan -- to return to DHS this school year.

We think Zoubek's promotion will pay high dividends for Dorchester's student athletes at a time of turbulence and low rates of student participation.

First, let's acknowledge Zoubek's outstanding resume. In high school, he became Dorchester's only football player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in more than one season. (He ran for 1,292 yards in 1992 and 1,228 in 1994. Shawn Hostetler in 1995 and Bill Velder in 1978 are the only other two Longhorns to gain more than 1,000 yards in the modern era.)

Zoubek was also an outstanding basketball player, and those who know him best say he always took strong interest in other sports, too -- including baseball, track and wrestling.

Zoubek gets Longhorn sports because he's been a DHS team leader, himself. His Longhorn pride and knowledge of the community will be needed for the foreseeable future.

Consider the situation Zoubek inherits:

The Milford-Dorchester junior high football merger will begin next season.

The schools' varsity wrestling co-op will begin next school year, as well.

A two-year varsity football co-op begins with the 2014-2015 season -- as long as projected combined enrollment numbers fall in the Class C-1 range. If the move would take the DHS-MHS squad into Class B, the co-op would be ended.

Junior high wrestling will be combined for 2013-14 and 2014-15.

These are challenging times for many small-school athletic programs, including Dorchester's. But if Dorchester's young athletes are to experience the most success possible, DHS needs a leader and Dorchester loyalist like Brent Zoubek leading its sports programs.

If you're a DHS parent or student, be sure to take a minute to tell Zoubek that he has your support.

7 comments:

AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 12:03 PM
Go Bud Go!
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AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 12:37 PM
From what I see, Dorchester has a lot going for it. A lot of positive developments in the past few months. It makes me kind of feel sorry for those naysayers who shipped their kids to other schools just to stoke their own egos.
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DBMarch 14, 2013 at 3:16 PM
Amen, anonymous!
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AnonymousMarch 14, 2013 at 8:52 PM
I hope more people will show strong loyalty and support for bud
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AnonymousMarch 15, 2013 at 11:11 AM
Better check your stats.

Jed Burkey was a thousand yard rusher his senior season.
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Village DwellerMarch 15, 2013 at 1:50 PM
Our data source was only valid through 1999.

We apologize if we omitted any other Dorchester Longhorn footballers.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."