Dorchester Times: December 2025

Monday, December 1, 2025

New Season Of DHS Basketball Tips Off Thursday

Ever since the girls' state championship game at the Pinnacle Bank Arena last March, Dorchester has been abuzz with anticipation for the 2025-26 basketball season.

On Thursday, Dec. 4, both the DHS girls and boys teams will tip off what promises to be an electric season. Deshler comes will come to town for a 6 p.m. girls contest, while the boys' game will start at 7:30. Both games will be at the Dorchester gym.

Girls Seek to Build on Last Year's Success

The Lady Longhorns, still riding a wave of momentum from last season's historic run, have their eyes on the prize this season.

In 2024-25, DHS delivered a 24-3 record, storming through districts and the playoffs and reaching the Class D-2 state championship game. It was the best tournament run in school history -- for either girls or boys in any sport -- and a moment that put Dorchester girls basketball on the map.

Head coach Brandon Bruha, who was named Nebraska's high school girls basketball coach of the year earlier this year, returns alongside assistant coach Brent Zoubek. Their blend of strategic coaching and strong community support have helped the Lady Longhorns establish their own brand of basketball.

Despite the loss of three key players due to graduation, expectations are high once again this season, especially with the off-season development of younger players who saw significant playing time last winter.

Boys Ready to Re-Establish DHS' Winning Tradition

The 2024–25 season was a tough slog for the DHS boys, who sported a 1–21 record. But as deep talent begins to emerge, this season represents a pivotal reset.

One DHS fan in his 70s told the Times: "This year's team has a chance to turn what used to be losses into wins and rebuild pride in the DHS boys basketball brand."

Under the coaching leadership of Corey Bird, there’s optimism that a renewed focus on fundamentals, teamwork, and mental toughness will allow the program to leap forward. (And DHS' head coach knows something about leaping.)

See the girls basketball schedule.

Check out the boys basketball schedule.

Then go put on your best orange-and-black attire for yet another season of DHS basketball!

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."