Dorchester Times: Longhorns Football Starts New Era Tonight At 7 PM

Friday, August 24, 2018

Longhorns Football Starts New Era Tonight At 7 PM

DHS 2018 football team. Photo credit: BJ Fictim

Tonight, at 7 p.m., Dorchester football will kick off a new era under the lights at Nerud Field, just northwest of the school. A burger bash will be held at the school beginning at 5:30 p.m. for those who want to check out the refurbished ball field and other pregame festivities.

The Lincoln Journal Star recently published its preseason analysis of the Dorchester High School 2018 football team, which kicks off its first contest Friday, Aug. 24, at 7 p.m. at Nerud Field.

The Lincoln paper says this about DHS gridiron squad:

For the first time since 2012, football returns to Dorchester. For the past four years, Dorchester co-oped with Milford to form a team, and now the Longhorns will give it a go in the six-man ranks. The Longhorns will look to build around a trio of seniors. Cole Johnson and Nathan Cochnar are tight ends and can play on the defensive line, while Jonathan Vielma is expected to be a running back and linebacker. With those players in place, Dorchester will aim to overcome its inexperience. "Six-man football will be new to our entire team, including the coaching staff," coach Brent Zoubek said. "It will be a work in progress."

According to the Journal Star, Dorchester's "spotlight player" to watch is Jonathan Vielma, who -- at 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds -- is "expected to be among the top skill-position players for the Longhorns."

"Dorchester last played on its own Oct. 19, 2012, against Hampton. The two schools will meet on the third week this year."

As the Times has reported before, DHS is re-entering six-man football as the version of the game is gaining popular support, with more than 30 Nebraska high schools playing six-man ball this season, including several nearby schools.

History buffs will recall that it was 69 years ago this fall, in 1949, when Dorchester resumed its football program (following an hiatus in the program after the 1930s death of a DHS player). Only 11 DHS players went out for the 1949 campaign, which consisted of only five games. Here are the scores from the 1949 season:

Milford 50, DHS 0

Fairmont 64, DHS 8

Western 52, DHS 32

Exeter 59, DHS 44

Beaver Crossing 40, DHS 6

Throughout most of the 1950s, the Longhorns played six-man ball, getting better with every snap. In fact, many of DHS' 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 and was likely the best eight-man team in the state. (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.

8 comments:

AnonymousAugust 14, 2018 at 7:27 PM
Great turnout of kids on the football team, real credit to the coaches! How many does Friend have out by the way? I assume twice as many since their town is twice as big.
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AnonymousAugust 14, 2018 at 9:56 PM
I mean the last game on our own in 2012 was a loss against Hampton. Credit to LJS for the in-depth research.
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AnonymousAugust 15, 2018 at 4:42 PM
Who will be announcing?
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AnonymousAugust 15, 2018 at 7:51 PM
Why is Friend always like, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha"??
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AnonymousAugust 16, 2018 at 3:55 PM
DHS ... ROCKIN' AND ROLLIN'
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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."