Omaha Skutt’s reign ended, but SkyHawks have nothing to be ashamed of

That’s what Omaha Skutt coach Renee Saunders said after her SkyHawks were denied a 10th straight Class B title, and she’s right. It took a great effort to beat Skutt on Saturday night for the championship, and there was absolutely no shame in the SkyHawks’ five-set loss to Norris.

Skutt was very good, but the Titans were just a little better.

In my mind, there were three key moments in that Class B final:

1. Norris winning the first set.

In Skutt’s previous nine championship matches, it had lost the first set only once. It gave the Titans, who had lost to the SkyHawks in the Class B final three of the previous four years, the confidence to think they could win this one.

2. An early lead in the fourth.

Norris had just lost the second and third sets and desperately needed to regain the momentum. The Titans jumped to a 9-4 advantage and never looked back, winning 25-18 and forcing a fifth set.

3. The crucial point in the middle of the fifth.

The score was tied 7-7 when Norris went on a 4-0 run to take control. Two Skutt timeouts couldn’t stem the tide as the Titans finished off the 15-8 victory with a block that ended the SkyHawks’ state-record run of consecutive titles at nine.

After the match, Saunders spoke about her players carrying “a pretty heavy load for a long time.”

“Right now it seems like the end of the world, but it’s not,” she said. “We can’t do it forever.”

The coach added her players were apologizing to her after the match, and she wasn’t having it.

“You played your hearts out,” she told the team. “They (Norris) played out of their minds and played great.”

Mention must be made of the job Titans’ coach Christina Boesiger did with her team. Her daughter Malorie, the team’s setter, was sidelined all season by injury so two other players with limited varsity setting experience — seniors Zoe Rademacher and Harper Gable — stepped up to fill the void.

Rademacher was an outside hitter last season with one assist while Gable was a defensive specialist with no assists. Together they combined for more than 1,000 in 2024 and played a critical role in the 38-1 Titans’ championship season.

Now on to Class A, where another Titans squad finished as the champion. Papillion-La Vista South swept Elkhorn South in the final, earning its fourth title in six years.

The team had its highs and lows but was peaking at the right time. After the Titans defeated Omaha Westside in the Metro Conference tournament final Oct. 25, senior setter Charlee Solomon told athletic director Jeremy VanAckeren the Titans wouldn’t lose again.

Papio South swept two district matches and three state tournament matches to make amends for a first-round loss at state last year.

“Last season was a heartbreak for these kids,” coach Katie Tarman said. “As coaches, we’re trying to instill a sense of accomplishment that you can do anything you put your minds to.”

Solomon said she could sense the team was coming together in the final weeks.

“Metro gave us a huge confidence boost,” she said. “There was a whole bunch of trust and we knew if everyone did their job, we were going to be perfectly fine.”

A titanic finish for the two teams nicknamed the Titans.

It’s a close call but Papio South gets the edge over Norris as the overall No. 1 team.

You’ve got to go back to Sept. 21 when Papio South defeated Norris in the semifinal of the LPS Classic. That loss was the only blemish on the Class B Titans’ record and proved to be the ultimate tiebreaker when determining the final ratings.

The six champions at state finished No. 1 in their classes. They were Papio South (A), Norris (B), Minden (C-1), Lincoln Lutheran (C-2), Superior (D-1) and Shelton (D-2).

Lutheran now has the longest string of consecutive championships with four. Congratulations to coach Sue Ziegler and her staff.

We finished with three wins in the prediction department, the same as last year. That was enough to beat colleague Stu Pospisil’s football picks in 2023 but that number seems very much at risk this season, so we’ll see how it plays out.

If Stu wins, I can only hope he’s the gracious winner that I’ve always been.

Coaches should have received an all-state ballot Monday via email.

The deadline is Sunday for those sheets to be emailed back to [email protected].

A chat with Wahoo boys basketball coach Kevin Scheef at the state volleyball tourney — he was there to cheer the Class C-1 Warriors — was a gentle reminder the winter sports season is just ahead.

Boys and girls basketball coaches will be receiving preseason sheets to be filled out and emailed back as soon as possible. Winter practice starts Monday and basketball season begins Dec. 5.

It’s often been said to never say never, but my guess is that Skutt’s amazing string of nine straight volleyball championships will never be broken.