Players and coaches representing fall sports teams from around the area gathered at the Broken Bow high school gymnasium
Sunday evening for the first Custer County Chief fall sports media bash.
Among the schools attending was SEM. It was a phenomenal fall sports season for the Mustangs last year winning a Class D1 state
volleyball title and the NSAA Six Man state football championship.
SEM head football coach Shane Hrasky talked about the mindset of this year’s team coming off a state championship run last year
“Yeah it’s something we’ve never done before and we talked about it all year long but that was the ultimate goal to win state. This year is a little different. Day one told them you can’t have a big head about it. Everybody’s 0-0, brand new year, start all over. Same goals, come ready to work and hope we can accomplish the goal.”
SEM opens the season Friday when they host Ansley/Litchfield. The game will be broadcast on KBBN 95.3 FM and kbbn.com
Erika Kappel takes over for Tammy Kenton as SEM head volleyball coach. There are spots to fill from last year’s championship team but there is still a good core of players returning to build around this season. Coach Kappel talked about leaning on players with returning experience such as Taryn Arbuthnot and Jacelyn Hoos.
“You can’t coach that sometimes. I think Taryn and Jacelyn probably thirty times this summer would text me and say, “Hey can you just open the gym for us we just want to come in and hit”. I would be like ok I’m mowing but I’ll come in and do whatever you guys want to do. I have never had that in other teams I have ever coached where kids would just on their own want to come in and you can’t coach that type of motivation.”
SEM opens the volleyball season Thursday vs Gibbon
Kyla Robbins will serve as head coach this season for the SEM boys and girls cross country teams. Rilyn Schledewitz, a state qualifier last year, talked about the work and amount of miles she has put in during the summer in preparation for this season.
“Over the summer we run every Monday and Wednesday. Just a couple of us come out but I try to get in as many miles as possible because I really want to get that school record this year. I run on the weekends. I love running so it’s actually kind of an enjoyment.”
SEM opens the cross country season at the Burwell Invite on Thursday.
Central Nebraska’s Sports Source will be bringing you more area sports previews this week featuring comments from coaches and players during this past weekend’s media event.
