Dorchester Times: DHS Football Squad Profiled In Journal Star

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

DHS Football Squad Profiled In Journal Star

On Aug. 16, the Lincoln Journal Star profiled high school football teams from around the region, including the DHS Longhorns. To see the entire LJS Prep Football Preview, click here.

According to the LJS profile, DHS has the second-best strength of schedule in Class D1 (out of 59 teams) based on last year's records.

The Journal Star wrote that, "The schedule maker did Dorchester no favors in 2008, as seven of the Longhorns' eight opponents made post-season play. But as DHS showed in its upset of an eight-win Sterling team a year ago, the Longhorns will battle. Spencer Kotas and Adam Kahle are this season's senior leaders."

Inside sources tell the Times that depth will be much better for this year's Longhorn squad. The 2009 schedule is comprised of all D1 opponents, except for Sterling, which is in Class D2.

The Journal Star lists the following players as Dorchester's "playmakers": Kotas,

Kahle, Russ Barak (jr.), Kyle Palky(jr.), Brandon Schwisow (so.), and Jeremy Inderlied (jr.). The paper wrote that QB Schwisow threw for 615 yards as the Longhorns' freshman quarterback in 2008.

The profile also mentions that co-coach Brent Zoubek played on Dorchester's 1994 playoff team, and then coached the Longhorns when the returned to post-season play 12 years later in 2006.

Through the years, Dorchester has had 5 playoff appearances since Nebraska implemented a playoff system in 1975, according to the LJS profile.

2 comments:

WilberiteAugust 20, 2009 at 6:58 PM
Here's a note for all you sports fans:

A web-based magazine called Nebraska High School Sports (www.nebhssports.com) will soon carry all the latest sports news from Dorchester, Wilber, Fillmore Central, Tri County, Diller, Odell, Fairbury, Hebron, Exeter-Milligan, Friend and Meridian. The web magazine is a collaborative effort of the Nebraska Signal, Hebron Journal-Register, Wilber Republican, DeWitt Times News, Fairbury Journal-News and the Friend Sentinel. Subscription prices are $18 a season.
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AnonymousAugust 21, 2009 at 2:30 PM
Sweet helmets you guys have.

- Lincoln reader
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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."