Dorchester Times: Fall Sports Season Begins With City Park Preview, Team Scrimmages

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Fall Sports Season Begins With City Park Preview, Team Scrimmages

The upcoming 2018 autumn sports season promises to be big in Dorchester.

DHS students paint the football scoreboard.

In fact, as the president might say, it's gonna be huuuuuge.

Preparations are currently underway to prepare Longhorn students and fans for football and volleyball outings.

The high school band is tuning up.

The football field and volleyball court are being groomed.

Last week, DHS students Collyn Brummett, Kohl Tyser and Karter Tyser even painted the Nerud Field scoreboard to get it ready for the 2018 season, under the supervision of Dorchester coaches Brent Zoubek and Brandon Bruha.

DHS marching band prepares in early August.

The refurbished scoreboard will complement Nerud Field's new lights and several other improvements -- just in time for the return of Dorchester Football later this month.

It can be safely said that the 2018 fall sports season will be special for Dorchester, both the students and the entire community.

Here's a look at what else will soon be taking place in Dorchester in preparation for the fall sports season:

FALL SPORTS PREVIEW - THURSDAY NIGHT

The school newsletter says that Dorchester's Fall Sports Preview will be held Thursday, August 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Dorchester city park. There will be free hot dogs and drinks for the preview, along with other goodies. The entire public is invited to attend to get an early glimpse of the DHS volleyball and football teams, as well as to hear perspectives from the Longhorn Coaches. The event is sponsored by the Dorchester Booster Club.

FOOTBALL SCRIMMAGE - FRIDAY NIGHT

Dorchester's new six-man football team will be unveiled to the public on Friday, August 17 during a 7:30 p.m. black vs. white scrimmage contest at Nerud Field. Admission is a sports drink. (Bring a sports drink for the players.)

VOLLEYBALL EXHIBITION GAME - FRIDAY NIGHT

The DHS volleyball team will conduct an exhibition game on August 17 against Milford. JV teams will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the varsity teams. Proceeds will go to the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame.

BURGER BASH PRIOR TO FIRST FOOTBALL GAME - AUG. 24

We're told through an anonymous source there will be a "burger bash" beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Dorchester School on August 24, the night of the season opener for the DHS football season. Superintendent Daryl Schrunk will be doing the grilling honors.

TRIBUTE TO FORMER SIX-MAN FOOTBALLERS - AUG. 24

During Dorchester football's home-opener on August 24, we are told there will be a special tribute at halftime to honor DHS' former six-man football players. While six-man may be new to the current generation of DHS football players, it's not new to the school. Seventy 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 late 1940s 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 -- and would have likely been declared the best team in the state had there been state championships.)

GAME NIGHT SPECIALS ON MAIN STREET - FRIDAY NIGHTS

We've learned that City Slickers Bar and Grill (formerly Joe's Place) will be hosting a "Friday Night Lights" special after every Dorchester Longhorn home football game with $7 half-pound burgers and fries and $2 root beer floats from 9-11 p.m.

DHS FALL SPORTS SCHEDULES

Here are the DHS team sport schedules for autumn 2018:

2 comments:

AnonymousAugust 5, 2018 at 4:42 PM
Six men from Dorchester can WIN BIGLY!!
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UnknownAugust 5, 2018 at 9:00 PM
I want to thank the community for ALL your support in making ALL this possible! Our students are looking forward to having you cheer them on throughout the school year as they participate in many activities.

The Burger Bash will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m. (More details to come!) I will be flipping burgers that night and am looking forward to visiting with you before our boys take the field. Go Longhorns!!! -- Daryl Schrunk, Superintendent
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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."