Big Winners from the Bellevue West Invitational

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Bellevue West Invitational has delivered again.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We have plenty of time to break down everything we saw at this event. I'm planning positional breakdowns, team spotlights, and a lot more after this exciting event. Before all that, though, let's paint some broad strokes.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This high-level August event always provides a good primer on what to watch for during the high school season. I wanted to discuss a few trends and highlights from this event, so let's do that here.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Here are a few big winners from the Bellevue West Invitational.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Lincoln East</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>How about the Spartans?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This feature is going to talk about a lot of broad observations and trends from the event, but I just have to single out Lincoln East for making an incredibly hard-fought run to the championship. We have so many players to feature from this squad.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's clearly starting to come together from this team after last year's young roster looked to find its footing. Veteran leadership has suddenly become a huge plus for East's roster with [player_tooltip player_id='112002' first='Brooklyn' last='Fuchs'], [player_tooltip player_id='210292' first='Sophia' last='Weed'], and [player_tooltip player_id='59195' first='Brynn' last='Carey'] spearheading the team's strong senior class. The juniors are similarly impactful with persistent standouts like [player_tooltip player_id='187800' first='Brynne' last='Topolski'], [player_tooltip player_id='109612' first='Megan' last='Waters'], and [player_tooltip player_id='104986' first='Shandy' last='Faalii'].</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We'll have plenty more on these players in future positional breakdowns. Even in a broad recap, though, we have to acknowledge the extraordinary run that Lincoln East just put together. It's really early, but this squad might be poised for some postseason action in 2022.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1563548748801646594?s=20u0026t=fmoFQQOX1xK9_8RTPghSEw","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1563548748801646594?s=20&amp;t=fmoFQQOX1xK9_8RTPghSEw </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Parity and Competitiveness</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This event gave us a new level of unpredictability.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In this tournament's best-of-three format, teams frequently used all of those sets to decide a winner. Saturday's bracket play started with an absolute thriller between the aforementioned Lincoln East and Class B frontrunner Elkhorn North. To add to the parity of this event, this was also one of several close contests that featured a matchup between Class A and Class B.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The bracket matchup between Omaha Marian and Skutt Catholic was another A-B duel that went the distance in bracket play. Like Lincoln East, Marian had a young team last season and brings so much talent and experience back into the mix for 2022. Look out for our features on the Crusaders.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1563551180676284416?s=20u0026t=fmoFQQOX1xK9_8RTPghSEw","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1563551180676284416?s=20&amp;t=fmoFQQOX1xK9_8RTPghSEw </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Three-set gauntlets continued all the way to the event's conclusion, as Lincoln East battled past Skutt in a tiebreaker set to win the championship match. That, of course, was after Skutt survived a thriller against Omaha Westside in the semifinals. The small separation between Class A and Class B has been fascinating to watch, but this also shows that the championship races within these classes are going to be intense come November.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>High-Level Play...in August!</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I can't help but marvel at how organized and cohesive these teams looked for this being an opening weekend tournament.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are plenty of reasons why a team may not be at its best this early in the season. For one, preseason practice is not very long. Putting a team together takes time, and practice also can't replicate the kind of in-game pressure we saw at the Bellevue West Invite. New seasons also bring new faces to every roster, and meshing these additions isn't easy.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With all this in mind, it's hard to believe we were watching an August tournament with the way teams were flowing last weekend. If you want to identify a "big winner" from this whole point, it might be the fans. Nebraska prep enthusiasts are going to love what these athletes are bringing to the court in 2022.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I hope you'll join me for all the action.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1563567317719519239?s=20u0026t=fmoFQQOX1xK9_8RTPghSEw","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1563567317719519239?s=20&amp;t=fmoFQQOX1xK9_8RTPghSEw </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->