Dorchester Times: DHS-MHS Football Season Gets Underway Next Week

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

DHS-MHS Football Season Gets Underway Next Week

The crisp feel of autumn is in the air. That means football season is upon us.

The Dorchester-Milford High School team will kick off its season with a road contest next Friday at Louisville. The MHS-DHS team is entering its third season as a cooperative in football in Class C-1, which offers a more competitive brand of football.

The team is coming off a 6-win season in 2014, and it boasts at least seven Dorchester players according our count.

SEASON OUTLOOK

The DHS-MHS squad will be led by 36-year veteran head coach Marty Hingst, who boasts a 237-146-2 lifetime record.

Milford-Dorchester relied on strong defense last season, and according to the sportswriters at the Lincoln Journal Star, that should be the case this season with the return of several defensive starters, including nose tackle Marty Schildt. Jaidon Policky is one of the top skill players on the roster. He received all-district honors at wideout in 2014. The Eagles are hoping to develop some depth on the offensive line.

All combined, the team will see six returning starters on both offense and defense.

DHS-MHS will look to make the playoffs for the third straight year this season. The back-to-back playoff berths in '13 and '14 are the school's only playoff appearances in its young history.

HISTORY AND OUTLOOK FOR DHS

The 2013 season marked the first time since 1948 that Dorchester had not had a high school team. (In 1949, DHS' football program was rejuvenated after years of not playing the game due to a student's death on the gridiron in the early 1930s.)

Three years ago, Milford school administrators and board members agreed to allow DHS to join in what is now officially deemed an "athletic cooperative" between the two schools, until DHS has sufficient numbers to resume playing at the Class D level. The impacted athletics include football and wrestling.

According to several reports, it may be some time before football returns to Nerud Field. The Times received two e-mails confirming that no Dorchester junior high boys are participating in football this season, despite a healthy number of Dorchester boys enrolled in 7th and 8th grades.

Milford-Dorchester 2015 Schedule

9 comments:

AnonymousJuly 28, 2014 at 5:39 PM
Resurect The Horns! Bring Back The Orange And Black!!
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AnonymousJuly 30, 2014 at 11:15 PM
Kinda neat to see DHS kids are going to be playing 80s foe Lincoln Christian again
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AnonymousJuly 31, 2014 at 10:30 AM
I don't work for the school or have any pull with the board, but I do pay property taxes (and a lot of 'em). I gotta ask if anyone at DPS is taking a survey of the current junior high and high school kids, as well as the sixth and fifth graders to see if they have interest in playing football???

If there are more than a dozen kids who are interested in playing at a time (within a four year span), are we taking steps to get a team back on Dorchester's field. Now is the time. Don't let this situation go on too long, parents!
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AnonymousAugust 1, 2014 at 10:07 AM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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Don HoffmanAugust 2, 2014 at 11:04 PM
They will be back, as soon as some of the younger ones grow a bit!! Go Horns!
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AnonymousAugust 19, 2015 at 3:54 PM
Well good news. We need our football back! Bring along the cheerleaders with this and it will be like the old days and a full circle school!
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AnonymousAugust 19, 2015 at 5:58 PM
Hey dorchester girls, dont date dorchester boys who are to scared to play football cause you know theyll be to scared to committ to you
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EdAugust 21, 2015 at 12:19 PM
Town needs to start a dorchester flag football team or league. Let kids play on the football field, under the lights. If its 3 on 3 or 6 on 6, whatever. Just get them playing at a young age, like 6 and up. This is the only way to rebuild a culture that promotes the sport and the teamwork needed
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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."