Dorchester Times: Unveiled: DHS' 2018 Football Schedule

Monday, February 19, 2018

Unveiled: DHS' 2018 Football Schedule

The 2018 football season will bring the return of high school football to Dorchester on Friday nights, under Nerud Field's new lighting system. And the Times has been provided with the schedule.

Here's the 2018 DHS football schedule:

Week 1: Walthill (at home)
Week 2: at St. Edward
Week 3: Hampton (at home)
Week 4: Bye
Week 5: Deshler (at home)
Week 6: at Lewiston
Week 7: Heartland Lutheran (at home)
Week 8: at McCool Junction
Week 9: at Sterling

Last fall, Dorchester school board members signed off on a plan to establish a six-man football team at DHS, after deciding there was sufficient support from parents and students.

An online survey of Times readers in late September 2017 showed nearly three-quarters of readers said they wanted DHS football to return.

Dorchester has been without a football team of its own since 2013, as fewer enrolled boys in grades 9-12 and decreased participation rates raised questions whether a viable eight-man team could be fielded. From 2014-2016, DHS co-oped with next-door neighbor Milford, a Class C-1 school.

DHS will enter six-man football as the version of the game is gaining popular support, with more than 40 Nebraska high schools expected to be play six-man ball next season, including more nearby schools.

The 2017 season was the final season of the Nebraska Six-Man Coaches Association. The six-man game is now back under the jurisdiction of the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA).

The idea of six-man football at Dorchester is not new. Seventy years ago, Dorchester resumed its football program (following an hiatus in the program following the 1930s death of a DHS player) with only 11 players participating.

From the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, the Longhorns played six-man ball for 10 seasons, getting better with every snap. In fact, Dorchester's six-man teams of the 1950s were quite successful. DHS alum Vern Johnson once told us that "the best six-man player DHS ever had was Jack Bruha, a two-year all-state player in the early 1950s."

DHS transitioned to eight-man football in 1959, when DHS went undefeated. (Back then, Nebraska did not have a state playoff system for football.) By 1969, Dorchester was playing 11-man football, a tradition that continued until 1991, when DHS reverted to eight-man ball and dropped to Class D.

1 comment:

AnonymousFebruary 19, 2018 at 3:56 PM
This is good news for Dorchester's business district too! Four home games in 2018 will pack the two restaurants, guaranteed.
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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."