From the Intern's Standpoint

For all of you people who follow Huskerland Prep Report and huskerlandpreps.rivals.com, another member is getting added to the crew this fall. My name is Kaden Hager, and I will be serving as Huskerland Preps intern for the 2022-23 school year.

I was born in Kearney and lived there until I was 10 years old before we moved to Wallace, a little town 40 miles southwest of North Platte. My parents are graduates of Hayes Center High School, which is located about 20 minutes south of Wallace, so we moved back to be closer to my grandparents and attend a smaller school.

While attending Wallace, I participated in football, basketball, and track. Throughout those four years, I got to be a part of some great memories. One of my favorite memories was getting to run at state track my junior year. Even though it was pouring rain the whole morning, mainly until up to the point of the race, it still will be some of the most memorable 12.4 seconds of my life.

For as long as I could remember sports have been something that I have been passionate about. When my family moved to Wallace, my dad took a coaching position on the Wallace High football staff, where he was an assistant for a year and the head coach for four years. Being around high school football at a young age really sparked my love for high school sports.

After high school, I attended McCook Community College for two years. In my time in McCook, I was the color commentator and sideline reporter for Coyote Country radio in McCook. I also started my own media outlet called 308 Sports Extra where I covered local high school football, volleyball, and basketball. I also officiated basketball and got the opportunity to officiate a girls sub-district tournament. If there was any way to be a part of sports, I was sure going to find a way to be a part of it.

After my time in McCook, I transferred to UN-Lincoln to double major in sports media and broadcasting. This past year I spend my time as sports reporter for the Daily Nebraskan where I covered Husker volleyball (briefly) and was one of the beat writers covering Husker softball.

Though my time at the Daily Nebraskan was a good experience, my real passion was for high school sports. In my opinion, Nebraska high school sports doesn’t get enough media coverage, something that it deserves, and it is something that I truly believe in. Bob Jensen is someone that I have looked up to since I was 12 and getting the Huskerland magazine before each football season was always something that I looked forward to each August.

It’s truly an honor to get to work beside Bob and can’t wait for the season to start next week. Bob and I have come up with some great material to produce this season, which we are excited share with everyone. It is going to be a great year at Huskerland for high school sports in Nebraska, with a lot of stories that have yet to be told.

Please follow me on Twitter @kaden_hager.

@HuskerlandBob Sez: It is great to have Kaden join me in our work at Huskerland HQ, including our print edition and this website, with a surprise or two mixed in. Kaden is a passionate young journalist with some big ideas - I like it - and you can never have too many guys from Wallace on your staff, right?

Welcome, Kaden, we're gonna have fun.