Dorchester Times: MHS-DHS Football Prepares For 2016 Campaign; Dustin Nelson Gets Spotlight

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

MHS-DHS Football Prepares For 2016 Campaign; Dustin Nelson Gets Spotlight

Football season is nearly upon us.

The Dorchester-Milford football team will kick off a new season with a road contest next Friday, Aug. 26, at Columbus Lakeview. The MHS-DHS team is entering its fourth season as a combined unit in football at the Class C-1 level, which offers a more competitive brand of football.

And to prove that Longhorns can compete, DHS's Dustin Nelson is getting much attention in the pre-season media.

The team is coming off a 6-win season in 2015, and it boasts half a dozen Dorchester players according our count.

The DHS-MHS squad will again be led by 37-year veteran head coach Marty Hingst, who is one win away from his 250th career win. With one more victory, Hingst will become the 16th coach in Nebraska history to reach 250 career wins.

The team this year will have five returning starters on both sides of the ball.

The Lincoln newspaper reports: Priority No. 1 for Milford-Dorchester will be rebuilding the offensive line. Outside of Parker Moore, the Eagles will have four new starters up front, but coach Marty Hingst likes the upside and size of his big men. Jaidon Policky, a four-year starter, aims for a healthy season at running back and safety after missing three games last year. Dustin Nelson, Austin Martin, Drake Burton and Elliott Carraher could be splitting the carries with Policky, and Jacob Bitterman will battle for the starting quarterback spot.

Regarding Dorchester's Dustin Nelson, the Journal Star names him as the team's "spotlight player," adding that Nelson returns after leading the team in tackles (70) from his linebacker position in 2015. He also averaged 7 yards per carry.

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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.)

Four 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.

Milford-Dorchester 2016 Schedule

Aug. 26 | Columbus Lakeview | A

Sept. 2 | Adams Central | H

Sept. 9 | David City | A

Sept. 16 | Bishop Neumann | A

Sept. 23 | Ashland-Greenwood | H

Sept. 30 | Southern | H

Oct. 7 | Raymond Central | A

Oct. 15 | Lincoln Christian | A

Oct. 21 | Fairbury | H

6 comments:

AnonymousAugust 17, 2016 at 8:04 PM
Is Nelson getting looked at by Nebraska? 70 tackles in a season at the C1 level is nothing to sneeze at if he's athletic enough to be a back on offense. Look at the great NU teams of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, they were majority Nebraska kids. The NU coaches must pick up more of these class B,C and even D studs if they want to revive Husker Football. Parents need to help replenish the talent pool by telling they're boys they need to man up and join something bigger than themselves and their egos.
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AnonymousAugust 18, 2016 at 9:06 AM
i had 125 tackles my junior and senior year !!!!!!!!!!
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AnonymousAugust 18, 2016 at 10:57 AM
no ! 11 man football with 18 guys on the team !
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AnonymousAugust 19, 2016 at 11:07 AM
Let's go six man. 25 teams in the state are playing it

Friday night lights beat a dark town
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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."