Vote: Who should be SBLive's Nebraska Athlete of the Week (9/5/2023)?

Here are this week’s candidates

Here are the candidates for SBLive’s Nebraska high school athlete of the week for Aug. 28-Sept. 3. Read through the nominees and cast your vote. Voting will conclude Sunday at 11:59 p.m. If you would like to make a nomination in a future week, email athleteoftheweek@scorebooklive.com. 

Editor’s Note: Our Athlete of the Week feature and corresponding poll are intended to be fun, and we do not set limits on how many times a fan can vote during the competition. However, we do not allow votes that are generated by script, macro or other automated means. Athletes who receive votes generated by script, macro or other automated means will be disqualified. 

Peyton Abbott – Bridgeport Football

Every time Abbott caught the ball it meant points during Friday’s 64-6 D-I win over Maxwell. Abbott was used primarily in the running game in the two weeks prior. It seems his role might be about to expand. The Bridgeport senior had three touchdowns on his three catches and totaled 106 receiving yards. And while he might have more to do in the passing game, he was still effective as a runner – carrying it 12 times for 79 yards and two more scores.

Lane Belina – Howells-Dodge Football

Lane is living up to the family name thus far during his first season as the premiere back for the Jaguars. In Week 2 he took 21 handoffs for 242 yards and three touchdowns. One of his carries included a 70-yarder. Belina had three other games with 100 or more yards rushing but has never been better than this past Friday when he averaged 11.5 yards per carry.

Conor Booth – Bishop Neumann Football

Neumann’s rich history of football has had all kinds of legendary performances over the years. Booth put one of those together last Friday night when he rushed for more than 300 yards and five touchdowns. Hopefully, he showed his gratitude to the Cavaliers offensive line. Booth needed just 14 carries for that total, averaging over 22 yards per carry with a long run of 65 yards. His final total was 313 yards and gave him 443 for the year and nine touchdowns in just two weeks.

Grady Kelley – Central Valley Football

What’s better than averaging more than 10 yards per carry? How about finding the end zone five times? That was the performance for Kelley in the 52-6 Aug. 31 eight-man win over High Plains. Kelley’s efficiency in the run game added up to 150 yards with just 13 carries. It’s the second straight week he set a new single-game rushing career high. Kelley also nearly had a double-double of sorts, making nine stops on defense.

Nolan Maahs – Waverly Football

Maahs was hitting everyone in stride while putting together a 42-0 win over Beatrice on Friday at home. The Waverly senior completed 15 of his 19 passes, for 247 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed four times for 66 yards and another score. His 79% completion percentage included completions to five different receivers and a long of 50. It was the first time Maahs has thrown for more than 200 yards in a game.

Able Molina – Kearney Football

The Kearney senior showed it’s about quality over quantity. Molina had just seven carries in Friday’s win over Fremont but those seven carries generated three trips to the end zone and 166 yards. That’s an eye-popping average of 23.7 yards every time Molina touched the ball. Nine carries for 114 yards and two scores in Week 1 makes it 280 yards and five touchdowns in two games with just 16 carries. Chances are, when Molina gets the ball, something special is going to happen.

Sloan Pelican – Johnson-Brock Football

Pelican is one of the most diverse players in the state. That was obvious again in Week 2 when he had his fingerprints all over a 55-6 D-2 win against Weeping Water. His effectiveness as a runner and 61 yards on 10 carries perfectly set up a passing game where he needed just seven attempts and six completions for 199 yards and four touchdowns. Pelican put together 260 yards of total offense, made seven tackles, kicked a PAT and converted two two-point tries.

Breckan Schluter – Exeter-Milligan/Friend Football

At this rate, Schluter will reach 1,000 yards rushing before mid-season. The EMF senior was all over the field once again, this time racking up 245 yards rushing on 21 carries with five touchdowns in an Aug. 31 80-34 eight-man win over McCool Junction. Schulter already has 467 yards rushing in just two games to go with eight touchdowns. This time he was also dynamic in the return game, totaling 107 yards on two kickoffs.

Keenan Valverde – Pierce Football

Valverde reminded everyone why he was an all-state selection last fall. Following a loss to Wahoo in which the Pierce senior had just nine carries, the coaching staff decided to lean on their workhorse in Week 2. The result was 31 carries, 300 yards and four touchdowns in a tough 28-20 win over Scotus. The Shamrocks led 7-0 and 14-8 but Valverde had an answer every time and capped the night with a 61-yard scamper in the final two minutes.

Alex Wilcoxson – Gretna Football

The most obvious question for Gretna football in 2023 is at the quarterback position. Wilcoxson is quickly quieting any concern with the future thanks to a 2-0 start that has included the Gretna senior quarterback making plays with his arm and his legs. This past week was his best when Wilcoxson completed 70% of his passes for 239 yards and three touchdowns, picked up 93 rushing yards and found the end zone three more times.

Cecile Ahrens – Millard West Volleyball

Ahrens has hit the ground running as the Wildcats setter. In her first season leading the Wildcat offense, the senior is among the state leaders in total assists. Ahrens has 192 through her first seven matches and already has two matches with more than 30 assists and racked up 40 in the first match of the season. All of those numbers came in a matter of just three days when Millard West played Aug. 24 and had triangulars each of the next two days.

Lainey Benson – Hastings Volleyball

Benson has been one of the best backrow players in Nebraska during the early part of the new season. The senior leads the state with 166 digs and is coming off a week that included six games and 110 digs. Her best effort of the year was the previous week when she dug up 37 Wallace shots during a 2-1 victory. She had at least 13 digs in each of the six matches from this past week and had back-to-back matches with 23 digs.

Jalyn Branson – Shelton Volleyball

Branson had a pretty good start to the season when she racked up 42 kills in her first four matches. She was even better in Week 2, piling up 63 more in four matches. During the week, her performances included 20 kills against Ansley/ Litchfield, 18 against Red Cloud and 17 against Franklin. For the season, Branson already has 105 kills and is averaging five per set.

Keira Farritor – Malcolm Softball

How does a power hitter follow up a three-home run start to the season? Well, with three more of course. Farritor blasted three pitches over the fence during an eight-game opening stretch of the season. After a few days away from the diamond she returned to the batters box and did more damage in a week with six more games on the schedule. Farritor hit three more home runs, drove in 12 runs, scored five times and was 8 of 18 overall. Her six-homer total leads Nebraska.

Mattie Kamery – Minden Volleyball

Kamery closed out a big week with a double-double when she had 15 kills and 14 assists in Thursday’s sweep of Lexington. The Minden junior has 84 kills through the first seven games and slammed down 38 of those in three games last week that were all wins for the Whippets. An all-around player, Kamery’s three games also came with seven aces, 13 digs and 30 total assists.

Addy Maxwell – Elkhorn North Softball

The Wolves completed a 5-1 week on Saturday with three wins at the Fairbury Invite. Elkhorn North dropped the first game of the week but then won the next five and has already reached the 10-win mark. Maxwell has been the biggest factor in this recent run of success. In six games she put together 13 hits including three doubles and scored 10 runs. Her average for the week was a blistering .684.

Shelby Perchal – GACC Softball

Perchal is among the Nebraska leaders in average and is currently on a seven-game hitting streak with a robust .636 average. She collected nine total hits last week and was 9 of 15 at the plate with six RBIs, a double and two triples. Guardian Angels has played in 13 games and Perchal has had two hits in 13 of those 18. In 39 plate appearances, she has scored 14 runs, driven in 16 and only has one strikeout.

Taytum Perdew – Nebraska Christian Volleyball

Perdew was deadly from the back line in a pair of triangulars on Aug. 29 and Aug. 31. The Nebraska Christian had 23 aces in four matches, racking up a nine in just one match when she helped lead a 2-0 win over Heartland Lutheran. Perdew has 28 aces through her first eight matches, is averaging better than one per set and is landing better than 92% of her serves between the lines. The Eagles have scored 66 points out of Perdew’s 94 serves.

Kalli Ulven – Blair Softball

Her run of consecutive games with a run driven in ended, but that was only a minor setback for a hitter who is among the tops in Nebraska for RBIs. Ulven finished last week with nine RBIs in six games and now has 26 on the season. Blair is 12-3 through the first part of the schedule and Ulven has at least one run driven in during all but three of those contests. This past week she had two three-hit games and four games with two RBIs.

Tori Walker – Homer Volleyball

Walker was a minor factor with just 10 swings and six kills in an Aug. 29 win over Walthill. Just a few days later she finished the week with 49 total kills and three matches of hitting better than .359. All of that happened in one heck of a triangular Aug. 29 that saw Walker pile up 19 kills and hit .359 against Tri-County Northeast then add 24 more kills on a .438 attack percentage in a win over Ponca. She’s totaled 81 kills in six matches.