Wahoo Dominates Field to Win 2018 Omaha Team Camp

OMAHA – After two days of competition in the Omaha team camp, defending Class C-1 champion Wahoo showed why it’s not only the early favorite to repeat in C-1, but also figures to be one of the very best teams in the state.

After convincing winning its pool during the first day-and-a-half of competition, the Warriors went out and compiled a 5-1 set record against the top three teams from the other pool to lay claim to the team title. Wahoo swept both highly-touted Class B Elkhorn South and last year’s Class C-1 runner-up Grand Island Central Catholic and split with one of the Class A frontrunners Lincoln Pius X. 

Wahoo not only displayed that it has some of the top individual talent in the state, but that it operates smoothly as a team. The Warriors showed a lot of cohesion for this point in the summer and played with a lot of poise in knocking off some of the best teams in Nebraska. 

Wahoo won pool A with Elkhorn finishing second and Gretna taking third. In pool B, Pius was the top team with Grand Island Central Catholic and Elkhorn South finishing second and third, respectively. When the top three teams from each pool faced off in the “repool” for the afternoon session on Saturday, Wahoo went 5-1, followed by both Elkhorn and Gretna at 4-2, Pius X and GICC at 3-3 and Elkhorn South was 1-5.

Here are some takeaways from the team camp, followed by the complete standings of the pool play prior to the repool on Saturday afternoon.

Wahoo lost some good talent from last year, but the Warriors are still deep. There was some concern at the start of 2018 for Wahoo with the knee injury and surgery for returning all-state Wayne State recruit Elly Larson, but she seems to have recovered well and quickly and was playing well at Omaha. She didn’t show nearly the same explosiveness or quickness she had in the past, but my guess is that she was intentionally throttling things down and seemed to be at about 70-75% of what she was. There’s certainly no reason to think she won’t be back to 100% by the start of the season or shortly thereafter. 

Keep an eye on Wahoo freshman Mya Larson, yes, Elly’s little sister. She will be an impact player in Class C-1.

Elkhorn took its lumps at times last year during a 15-16 season, but the Antlers showed they will be much improved this fall. Elkhorn had five freshmen and zero seniors on the team last year. 

Gretna transitions to Class A this fall, and it’s a little hard to tell right now where the Dragons will fall, but I certainly don’t seem them being overmatched at all. Kenedy Schaecher continues to show she’s one of the best liberos in the state, they’ve got proven hammers on the outside in Kamryn Schuler and Lydia Yost, and keep an eye out for a freshman of theirs – Skylar McCune. 

Lincoln Southeast loses A LOT from last year, but man did the Knights play well at Omaha and I don’t think it’s going to be long before first-year coach Paige Hubl has them playing at a high level. Lexi Long really impressed me over the two days. The 6’2 senior has always seemed to have the potential to do big things, but I felt like she looked the most comfortable and confident that I’ve ever seen her. She was hammering some balls and moving well and could be a big factor in Class A. Sophomore Brittany Wulf and senior Cecily Liphardt played very well.

Bellevue West is going to be solid in Class A. The T-birds finished fifth in pool A, ahead of teams like Lincoln East, Grand Island Northwest and Millard South. Bellevue West has a couple really good 2020 players in Jacki Apel and Makena Sobczyk and will be able to compete well at the Class A level, which is very balanced this season.

Omaha Concordia, Lincoln East and Grand Island Northwest all finished in the middle of the pack in Pool A, but you can tell each of those three teams is still focused more on trying to figure out pieces to the puzzle right now. Millard South still hasn’t had a full team at any camp this year, but I will tell you this much, incoming freshman outside Maddie MacTaggart gives the Patriots its first real power-hitting outside in a few years and incoming freshman setter Makayla Fleming is going to be pretty good.

Lincoln NorthStar might not have had a whole lot of success as a team and it has quite a bit of uncertainty at most positions, but incoming freshman middle Rebekah Allick is going to be one of the most dominant middles in the state. She is fun to watch. 

Lincoln Pius X won pool B and went 3-3 against the top teams from pool A and should feel really good about how it looked in Omaha. I felt like the Thunderbolts were using the camp as an opportunity to tinker with a few things, which really is what you should be doing at this point of the year. Pius X is still, in my opinion, the team to beat out of the gate in Class A this year and I have no reason to think otherwise after the Omaha camp. 

The best teams in the state that weren’t at Omaha team camp were Skutt Catholic, Millard North, Omaha Marian, Papillion-LaVista and Papillion-LaVista South and a good chunk of Millard West. Part of the issue we have in Nebraska is that there are simply a limited number of high quality teams in Class A that they get tired of always seeing the same teams. I get that. At the same time, it would be nice to see everyone there, because A.) there are plenty of other non-Class A programs to face that will challenge big schools (such as Wahoo, Grand Island CC, Elkhorn, etc., that Class A programs don’t see during the year) and B.) it is a good chance for local kids to showcase their ability in front of a local Division I program.

From a selfish standpoint, you want to see the top kids in the state stay home. Team camps – at all college levels – are where a lot of programs in the state at all levels gets to see and evaluate kid.

Grand Island Central Catholic is a team with a lot of kids worth looking at. The Crusaders didn’t have Omaha recruit Megan Woods for the camp, which makes the fact that they finished second in their pool and went 3-3 in the repool even more impressive. Hard to find a player in the state that sets a better ball than Creighton recruit Katie Maser and Kamryn Willman looks strong and healthier than I’ve ever seen her and she was hitting harder than ever. GICC returns a ton of talent, but file the name Chloe Cloud away – she’s an incoming freshman who could be a difference maker.

Elkhorn South has all the pieces to be right there with Skutt Catholic in Class B this season, but Husker recruit Rylee Gray was not at camp. The Storm finishing third without her is a great sign. Elkhorn South just needs to find the right setter and it seemed like they were trying a lot of different options there during the two days. Once that gets figured out, the Storm should roll. 

Omaha Burke did really well and finished in the middle of pool B and Lincoln Southwest wasn’t running with all its pieces on the weekend, but looked good as well. St. Paul and Syracuse are going to do much better than what their finish in pool B indicates and while Millard West’s team was labeled the varsity squad, it was really more of a JV team, so I’m not reading much into where the Wildcats finished. 

Initial pool final standings:

Pool A:

Wahoo
Elkhorn
Gretna
Lincoln Southeast
Bellevue West
Sioux Falls O’Gorman
Omaha Concordia
Lincoln East
Grand Island Northwest
Millard South
Aurora
Dakota Valley
Sioux Center
Lincoln North Star

Pool B:

Lincoln Pius X
Grand Island CC
Elkhorn South
Sioux Falls Rosevelt
Sheyenne
Seward
Omaha Burke
Lincoln Southwest
St. Paul
Syracuse
Millard West
Union
Bellevue East
Lincoln Northeast