Berk Brown stepping down from Prep Dig Nebraska
Prep Dig’s first website, Prep Dig Minnesota, launched in 2016 and was received extremely positively throughout the state. Shortly thereafter, our team started to think about bringing its mission of player-driven coverage of prospects at all levels to more states throughout the country.
Emails, tweets, texts, and calls were made to club programs, journalists, and volleyball operators throughout the upper midwest. Responses were wide-ranging, full of curiosity, skepticism, inquisition, and interest. One response came through quickly and stood out, from a twitter account called Nebraska Prep Volleyball, led by Berk Brown.
Berk sent over a link to his site and a quick bio, explaining that he’s been covering volleyball in Nebraska for years under the NPV brand and was potentially looking to step away. We struck up a conversation and shared our mission. Berk was initially interested in passing off his website and resources, seeking to advance his career elsewhere, outside of the volleyball world.
It was clear to us, however, that Berk was the most-equipped person for the job of leading that site as it transitioned to Prep Dig Nebraska over the next few months, and that’s exactly what he did. Over the past 3 years, Berk has served the volleyball community well and provided value to the players, coaches, and fans throughout the state. His knowledge of the game and his comprehensive network made effective coverage possible for Berk, but it was never in his plans for him to lead this site long term.
At the end of the high school season, Berk will be stepping down as the senior contributor for Prep Dig Nebraska to pursue other opportunities outside of the high school volleyball world. We thank Berk for the site he founded, led, transitioned, and grew.
Our mission at Prep Dig is to provide visibility for as many players as possible – especially those that wouldn’t receive coverage otherwise. In this, Berk was an exceptional contributor. He provided a platform for thousands of athletes throughout Nebraska for the better part of the past decade, and his dedication to promoting the game of volleyball will be missed.
Prep Dig Nebraska will continue to live on and strive to fulfill our mission moving forward. We’ll rely on our contributors throughout the rest of the region to cover Nebraska prospects as they hit the road this club season. More importantly, however, we’ll be looking to fill the void of coverage left in Berk’s absence with a person or persons directly from the Nebraska volleyball community. Nebraska high school volleyball is as strong as any, and it’s our hope that there will be local folks interested in and capable of picking up the mantle and covering Nebraska volleyball players at all levels.
Perhaps that’s you or someone you know. If it is, or you’d just like to learn more, please reach out to Jared Nelson (jared@prepnetwork.com).
Here’s what Berk had to say in regards to the change.
“I feel very blessed to have been able to partner with the Prep Network team the last couple years, because I knew it was an organization that could help grow state-based coverage of volleyball and could take it to new heights that I simply never could have on my own. The guys at Prep Network – Jake, Nick, Jared, Chris and so many others have just as much – if not more – passion than I do, so I knew when the time was right for me to leave, coverage of high school volleyball in this state would be in good hands. It’s a bitter-sweet time, because I am looking forward to taking on a massive challenge in the business world but will miss my daily interactions with so many coaches, players and members of the volleyball community. It has truly meant a lot to me the way I was received when this all started all those years ago and I have been blessed with so many great friendships that I will always carry with me. I especially want to thank my wife – who is my everything – and my two beautiful and wonderful daughters who have supported me in this venture from the beginning and allowed me to spend a lot of time away from home to promote the sport that I love so much. Also, a huge thanks to a couple friends that were massive supporters from the very beginning and helped encourage and enable this thing to get off the ground seven years ago. At the end of the day, though, this always has been and always will be about the amazing young women who play the sport in Nebraska and the incredible teams and coaches that make high school volleyball in this state the best there is in the nation! I look forward to keeping up with everyone via Prep Dig’s website and social media and I highly encourage everyone to give even more support to Prep Dig as it continues to raise the bar on exposure and recognition for high school volleyball in Nebraska!”