The 2023-2024 school year is complete.
No more official school sports or homework until August. Isn't that nice?
At the end of each school year, the NSAA and the Nebraska Department of Transportation are able to then calculate their annual Buckle Up Phone Down Cup standings. The first-place finishers are, essentially, the all-activities award winners who participated and excelled the most often across the most amount of sports and activities. They earned points for fielding teams, but also 50 points for each state title, 45 for each runner-up finish and so on.
Earning first overall in Class A was Lincoln East, while Elkhorn North topped Class B. Grand Island Central Catholic earned top honors in Class C and Plainview topped D.
Blair, however, made the top 10 in Class B after what I would deem a pretty darn successful school year. The state runner-up softball Bears did a lot of heavy-lifting, earning 45 of the Bears' 314 total points.
BHS' baseball, football, girls cross-country, music, boys wrestling and track programs secured additional performance points, too. The Bears' Fremont swimmers earned a few, too, according to the NSAA's breakdown.
So, overall, Blair took 10th out of 29 teams in the B standings.
How did Washington County's Class C schools do?
I'll tell you.
Arlington was 38th out of 108 schools as Fort Calhoun finished 64th. The Eagles were, obviously, propped up by their incredible state track finish, which accounted for 45 of their 180 points. Boys cross-country, music and girls track earned points, too, as did Lizzie Meyer with the Fremont swim team.
Fort Calhoun's point total hit 125, too. The boys cross-country team and the music program provided the most points for their successes.
Is winning the Cup all that memorable? No, probably not, but its a decent way to sum up how our school year went.
Overall, I think I had a lot of fun covering Bears, Eagles and Pioneers across the last 10 or so months. There was so much to be proud of.
