Weeks before Millard South football takes on the field, a different sport plays on the outdoor Buell Stadium, and that sport is volleyball. This triangular between Millard’s three high schools, Millard South Patriots, West Wildcats, and North’s Mustangs, was unprecedented and marked a unique milestone in women’s high school sports for Nebraska.
Battle at Buell is a direct reflection of the massive popularity of women’s volleyball in the state. This community-driven initiative brought nearly 4,000 spectators to the stadium. This game was inspired by Nebraska volleyball’s event at Memorial Stadium two years ago.
“Ok, outdoor volleyball isn’t new in the state of Nebraska. Two summers ago, Nebraska kicked off its season with an outdoor volleyball event,” Millard South’s head volleyball coach Jaisa Poppleton said.
“So when the three high school head coaches got together, we kind of kicked around the idea of doing it. That’s when the seed was planted and we figured it out.”
Activities Director Steve Throne said, “Obviously, the Huskers did it. Everybody went to that 1 and it went great. North’s coach and West’s volleyball coach started talking to me, saying, ‘We should do that,’ and those two conversations started happening.”
Exceeding expectations, the game brought in the largest crowd of spectators in women’s high school sports history for Nebraska.
“There was a lot of work. My wife asked me afterwards. ‘Was this work worth all the time now, you guys put in, and to watch our girls get to play on?’ It was well worth it,” Throne said.
“It was awesome for our players and our coaches in our community. It was a great night. We got a great crowd ’cause Mother Nature was nice,” Throne said.
It was “probably the largest female crowd or an outdoor crowd for volleyball in the state of Nebraska on the high school level, which is incredible,” he said.
Players were also aware of the specialness of the event.
“It was definitely really different. The team had like a lot more fun than we normally do. Everyone was yelling. It was really electric. It was definitely different,” junior Sophia Varn said.
“I guess we’re used to not having like a bunch of people, just like being able to feed off the crowd’s energy and like having knowing that you had a lot more support behind do is always really cool.”
The game was not only a change-up in women’s Nebraska high school history but also a change-up for the players.
“When we beat Millard West in the second set. When we really started beating them, their certain sections just got quiet. It felt really remarkable to look back at this moment. It was really fun and exciting to see the whole community pop out,” Madi Jacobson said.
