From a Scrub's Standpoint - End of a Huskerland Era

I have drug my feet on writing what I am about to write. For about 34 years, in fact.

Due to a number of circumstances I am announcing today I will no longer publish Huskerland Prep Report’s weekly print edition. There are a number of factors in play here and in combination they are simply too much for me to overcome. Because if I could, I would. Huskerland’s weekly football print edition has been my baby for more than half my lifetime.

* This decision will not impact publication of our 2023preseason magazine - more on how to order that in a bit - nor will it affect the huskerlandpreps.rivals.com website.

As for the weekly publication of Huskerland there is a big part of me that wants to give you a history lesson, one I have given you before, about how that whole thing got started but I am not sure how much that would interest you. So we will stick with the here and now, and the why.

The number one reason we will no longer publish a weekly Huskerland during football is directly tied to statistics, which in many ways is at the heart of what Huskerland Prep Report is all about. I always looked at stats as the best way to get as many kids’ names in the publication as possible. Great for the week’s reading, great for a lifetime scrapbook. There are many coaches who don’t see it that way, especially in basketball, where reporting stats is basically frowned upon with limited exceptions.

I could go into how complicated use of MaxPreps forms are for us when we do our stats - it makes a two-minute job and triples (at least) the time it takes when using our tried and true form where the needed numbers are right in front of you - and there is more regarding all that I could go into but again not many of you reading this are going be interested in that rant.

To be honest I mainly wanted to get that off my chest. The bigger problem is I don’t have a typesetter for the stats, nor a real good solution for putting one in place. Up until a couple of years ago we hired local people to type stats at our Central City newspaper office, did it for three decades. But now I work from home (hate it), my wife has a full-time job so she can’t help, which would mean we’d need to hire someone to type those stats at our house. Not ideal.

With such a tight window - with postal delivery being what it is we need to have everything done by end of Tuesday, whenever that might be - no way I have time to type the stats with my other responsibilities, so no stats. No stats, tough to publish a weekly print edition of Huskerland. So we won’t.

* Work on the preseason magazine has stalled to some degree because of this morning we still have about 50 forms which have not been returned. The plan is to eventually get enough of them to have a representative set of team previews. We will get there, we always have. The magazine is scheduled to be mailed right after the first of August.

The best way to order your 2023 Huskerland Prep Report preseason football magazine is to either email me at jensenpub@hamilton.net or direct message me at my Twitter account, @HuskerlandBob. Cost for the magazine will be $15.00 plus shipping and handling, estimated at $10.00. Thanks for the consideration.

On our website - huskerlandpreps.rivals.com - we will continue with our team previews and also some other preseason stories, features and other goodies. The next few weeks will be particularly exciting in terms of content, so stay tuned.

* We will be mailing postcards to our print subscribers, explaining in much less detail the decision to cease weekly publication with the magazine and website remaining part of the plan. We will also be contacting our sponsors and advertisers about our plans for 2023 and beyond.

Words can’t really express my gratitude for those who have been part of our Huskerland family since 1990. What we created together, a weekly statewide high school football magazine, has never been duplicated, not anywhere in the country. It breaks my heart knowing in the fall there will be no crazy deadline rush to finish Huskerland, nor the great satisfaction that comes with the finished product arriving from the printer. Most everything that’s in the printed Huskerland will be on the website - you’ll be well taken care of, promise - but it won’t be in print.

Life goes on, we will publish a great preseason magazine with more information on Nebraska high school football than you will find anywhere else, and our website will continue to be the go-to place for Huskerland football and basketball. Thanks for hearing me out, thanks supporting Huskerland Prep Report all these years, and I appreciate you staying with us on the website.

Now on with the countdown (thank you, Casey Kasem!) as we get back to talking Huskerland football for 2023.