6March 2015Sports

By Jaime Gasper Staff Reporter

By Justin ZouchaStaff Reporter

By Garrit ShanleStaff Reporter

Bo still knows

There was a time when Nebraska was caught up in Bo Pelini fever. “Bo’s back”, “Bo Knows”, “Offense, De-fense, Pelinisense” were a few terms that were conjured from his return to Nebraska as head coach. But after seven aver-age, frustrating years, people were calling for his blood. He was canned late November after leading Nebraska to nine wins, which he had at least in all seven of his seasons. Many factors were said to have led to his firing: inability to win big games, leaked audio of rants that showed his “un-controllable” rage, and the idea that he turned his players against the program and fans. I do not agree with these state-ments at all.

Under Pelini, the Corn-huskers were 9-17 against Top 25 teams and 2-9 against the Top 10. It also seemed like every season they would lose to someone that they weren’t supposed to like Minnesota, Northwestern, or Iowa. So if this was a reason why Bo is history then hiring Mike Ri-ley makes no sense. Riley is 14-41 versus Top 25 and 4-21 versus Top 10. Obviously, the inability to beat top teams wasn’t the main reason Bo was fired.

Over the years, Pelini has proven that he has colorful language and disgust with the media. His bluntness toward the media, which has enter-tained me for years, didn’t please some people at the university. Pelini also had a history of chewing out play-ers and refs which of course was shown on TV to every-one. I found this hilarious and serious at the same time. His players screwed up a lot and needed to know that they did. A few years ago, audio was leaked of Bo using exple-tives to rip the fans who left early after Nebraska made a 21 point comeback against Ohio State. This angered peo-ple but not me. I was at this game and witnessed a ton of people leave at halftime and not come back. I think he had a right to say what he did, es-pecially since he didn’t know he was being recorded.

After he was fired, ru-mors came out that during his tenure Pelini turned the players against the school and the fan base by saying that they wanted them to fail. If this was true I believe that it’s a wrong way to motivate a team, but he was still right. Bo said that he felt no sup-port from the AD Eichorst. According to Bo, Eichorst spent little time meeting with him or the team. Also, com-ing from a proud tradition of football, fans have become highly critical of the team and coach. When he had a meet-ing with the team after he was fired, more audio was leaked of him bashing the program and AD. Once again I thought it was hilarious because a lot of what he said was true. He was unfairly recorded again so he was demonized by the media again. Honestly though everyone says things that they would say differently or not at all if they knew someone was listening that could get them in trouble.

I’m not saying I hate Mike Riley; I haven’t seen what he will do for the team yet. All I am saying is I grew up with Bo who’s been coach since I was 10. It was hard for me to see him go. If Nebraska wins less than nine games or even misses a bowl game this upcoming season, I’ll be sit-ting here saying, “Hey, at least Bo knew how to do that”.

By Justin ZouchaStaff Reporter

Justin Zoucha/Rock Bottom staff

Bailey honold/yeaRBook staff

Foltz wins Scotus’ first wrestling title

Scotus wrestling contin-ued to make history this sea-son, as individuals and as a team, from the beginning all the way through districts, and including the state champion-ships.

“Having four state med-alists is awesome. Gilson and Foltz surprised some people like we knew they would,” head coach Tracy Dodson commented.

Juniors Alec Foltz placed 1st at 145, Mason Brandenburg placed 3rd at 126, and Marcus Dodson placed 4th at 160 while senior Riley Gilson placed 4th at 170. Foltz, Dodson, and Gilson were also district B-3 champions. The other state qualifiers were sophomores Layton Mullinix, Wyatt Gutz-mer, and Dillon Muchmore. Brandenburg, Mullinix, Gutz-mer, and Muchmore were all runners-up in district B-3. The teams’ finish at state was the sweetest surprise for their coach.

“We finished 6th place up from 32nd in 2012, and 16th in 2013,” coach Dodson add-

Junior Miles Putnam goes in for a layup against North Bend. The Shamrocks beat North Bend in the subdistrict game.

Jessica schaecheR/yeaRBook staff

Girls’ basketball looks to improve for next season

Sophomore Eastyn Klink drives past a defender in the girls’ subdistrict game versus North Bend. The Shamrocks fell to the Tigers 36-37.

ed.Alec Foltz accomplished

a major feat for the Scotus wrestling program at the state tournament. Foltz won his first three matches with pins. He then won the Class B 145 state championship with a 3 to 1 decision over Adams Central’s Mark Zeckser. Foltz

The girls’ basketball sea-son came to an end in their first sub-district game verses North Bend on February 17. North Bend hit a couple of free throws to give the Tigers the spark to win the game. The Shamrocks could not find a way to put the ball in the basket at the end of the game, and they lost 36-37.

Despite the bitter ending to their season, they still have positives to focus on for next season.

“Toward the end of the season we kept working hard by moving the ball,” senior Kelsey Kessler said.

The Shamrocks had im-proved by the end of their sea-son, as they won three of their last four games, one of which was a big win over their rival Lakeview.

“It’s always fun to beat our cross town rivals,” junior Sarah Schumacher said.

Not only did they get the victory over Lakeview at the end of the season, but they also beat them to win the Hol-iday Tournament back in De-cember.

“Winning the Holiday Tournament was huge for us this season,” head coach Jar-rod Ridder said.

The Shamrocks came away with two more wins against Aquinas on February 5 and St. Paul on February 12. The girls combined for a total of 105 points in both of those games, which helped them se-cure their victories.

The girls finished with a 9-13 record, and their last game was a loss to North Bend. The Shamrocks have had more successful years, but they have room for im-provement.

Ridder said, “We have to get stronger, and we just have to get a lot of reps at playing basketball. Our kids have got to spend some time playing in the gym.”

Not only does Ridder un-derstand how important it is to get better in the off season, it is vital to work hard in season as well.

Junior Allie Johnson said, “It is important to go hard in practice in order to be a good team.”

That should help, but at the end of the day, the team with the most points wins.

“We need to figure out ways to score,” Schumacher added.

The Shamrocks need to come next season with the energy they had at the end of the season, if they look to im-prove.

Junior Morgan Thorson said, “Hopefully we are able to play with the same ener-gy we had at the end of the year to the beginning of next year.”

The Shamrocks will lose seniors Kelsey Kessler ans

Jessica Schaecher. “Kelsey and Jessica are

very fun and energetic; they always bring some enthusi-asm to the team. They always came to practice with positive attitudes and led by example. They will be missed.”

Junior Alec Foltz celebrates with his coaches after winning the champioship round at state wrestling at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.

is the first state champion in Scotus’ brief wrestling history that began in 2012.

“It feels good because there is a lot of good wrestlers on the team that could have won it,” Foltz said.

Coach Dodson thought the same about his team.

“All of our wrestlers are

champions. People across the state are noticing it, but when you become a STATE cham-pion people listen,” Dodson noted.

The Rocks had a suc-cessful season in 2014-2015. They won the Logan View Invite, the Lutheran High Du-als Invite, the Boone Central

Triangular, the GICC Invite, and the Conference Tourna-ment. They also won duals against Schuyler and Aurora. This led them to match a team best third place finish at dis-tricts and then a best yet sixth place finish at state. The team boasted three district champi-ons and seven state medalists. Despite all this success Coach Dodson had a message for his team.

“Never be satisfied. Lift weights, get into other activ-ities, and always get better in wrestling and at school being a better person,” Dodson stat-ed.

The Shamrocks were able to accomplish their best season to date even with a limited number of wrestlers. They had vacant spots at 113 and 195. They also were short on upperclassmen as they had one senior on the team.

“I think next season if you are reading this get involved. We were a great team without 113 and 195 pounds. We need wrestlers; we need bodies at spots. If you are sitting at home doing nothing then you are the one who is losing,” Dodson concluded.

The winter sports season is winding down, but the Shamrocks aren’t finished yet. The boys’ varsity basket-ball team has a winning record of 20-4 as the season’s end ap-proaches. However, the team also has the chance to make it to state this year.

“We come to prac-tice every day ready to work and have fun,” junior Miles Putnam said.

The team has been preparing for state all year, and it shows.

“As the season has gone on, we have become more confident in what we need to do, and we have de-veloped some guys off the bench who have also be-come more confident in what they are doing,” head coach Jeff Ohnoutka said. The team is happy with their success, but they are not quite satisfied.

Senior Grant Lahm said, “We have been success-ful, but we won’t be satisfied unless we win it all.”

There have been

B o y s ’ b a s k e t b a l l s t r i v e s f o r s t a t emany season highlights, but both Lahm and Putnam agree that the biggest season high-light was beating Neumann. As a senior, the win was espe-cially exciting for Lahm.

“My final season has been sad, but also reward-ing.”

The double over-time

win against Neumann was a huge win for the Shamrocks, but the season was full of many other high points.

Ohnoutka said, “Winning our side of the Centennial conference was a highlight of the season as well.”

The Shamrocks went

on the beat Wahoo High and Aquinas after the Neumann victory. Last week was yet another streak of success for the Rocks. They beat North Bend on Tuesday, and they went on to get another victory against David City on Thurs-day.

Ohnoutka added,

“We need to play great de-fense, be efficient on offense, and take care of the basketball to be successful in the fu-ture.”

Last night, the Shamrocks played Wahoo Neumann again in the district finals for a chance at the state tournament.

Jessica schaecheR/yeaRBook staff

Senior Grant Lahm puts a shot up over a North Bend defender. Lahm had 18 points against the Tigers.