Dorchester Times: DHS Sports Wrap-Up: First Wins For DHS Football, Volleyball Teams

Friday, August 31, 2018

DHS Sports Wrap-Up: First Wins For DHS Football, Volleyball Teams

Six-man players from DHS' 1949-58 teams, along with former DHS Football Coach Bill Story (front in blue shirt), at Dorchester's Aug. 24 halftime at Nerud Field.
Photo credit: Amanda Nohavec.

Here's the latest from the Times' sports ticker...

* Longhorns Beat St. Edward 48-26: For the first time since the fall of 1958, the Dorchester Longhorns have won a six-man football game. Friday night's score from just east of Beaver Creek in Boone County was DHS 48, St. Edward 26. The Dorchester squad, now 1-1 on the young season, appears to be learning a lot about the game in a very short amount of time, making huge strides after their season-opening loss to Walthill on August 24. The Longhorns are back home next Friday, Sept. 7, against Hampton at 7 p.m. at Nerud Field's "Youth Night."

* DHS Volleyball Team Rolls Over Weeping Water: In a Thursday night triangular at home, Dorchester's volleyball team picked up its first win of the new season, defeating Weeping Water, 19-25, 25-17, 25-23. DHS fell, however, to Palmyra. The team is now 1-2 on the season, but its two losses are to Class C2 schools. (Dorchester is Class D2 this year.) The coming week will be filled with solid Class D competition for the Lady Longhorns. On Tuesday night, Sept. 4, DHS will be at Class D2 College View Academy (1-1). On Thursday night, Sept. 6, DHS will travel to Giltner to take on the 2-0 Hornets and the Hampton Hawks (2-2).

* Longhorn Express Carries Nearly Two Dozen To St. Edward: We are told that a renovated bus, affectionately called the "Longhorn Express", carried roughly two dozen Dorchester football fans to St. Edward for Friday afternoon's six-man contest. The bus is now owned by Dorchester businessman and DHS parent Greg Tyser. We're certain St. Edward fans were envious of the dedication of the Longhorn fan base.

* Dorchester Salutes DHS Players From 1950s -- And Their Coach: During Dorchester football's home-opener on Aug. 24, there was a special tribute at halftime to honor DHS' six-man football players from the 1950s. Nearly 500 fans saw the event. Even the players' former coach -- Bill Story (now nearly 90 years old) -- was on hand. While six-man may be new to the current generation of DHS football players, it's not new to the school. Sixty-nine years ago this fall, Dorchester resumed its football program with only eleven players going out for the six-man version of the game. From the fall of 1949 and throughout most of the 1950s, the Longhorns played six-man, getting better with every snap. (DHS transitioned to eight-man football in 1959, when DHS went undefeated. 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:

AnonymousSeptember 3, 2018 at 7:59 PM
How bout ALL past football players support our team by wearing their old jerseys (if they still fit!!)
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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."