At the end of every school year, Millard West gives the IRONCAT award to any senior who has competed in at least 11 NSAA sports seasons at any level throughout their high school career. In the class of 2025, six senior boys received the award. Seniors Bradyn Johnson, David James Schiemann, Collin Witte, Henry Hansen, Zack Bruegman and Kyle Ferguson were the slim majority who could finish this significantly hard accomplishment.
Participating in sports all year round means coming before school for early practices and staying into the evening hours for other games and even more practices every day. On top of the sport, you have homework and jobs to manage while trying to balance spending time with your loved ones. With such a time-consuming task, it could be hard to stick with playing so many sports, but these six stuck through it all.
“Playing sports all year long takes a ton of time and effort because I never got to go home right away after school because I had to go to practice,” Witte said. “Leaving much less time for homework and other academic things, it was important to go see my teachers for any extra help when it was needed.”
Making one sport at a Class A school is a difficult task, but being able to make three or more different sports is one of the most impressive things you can do as a high schooler in the state of Nebraska. A lot of the athletes were inspired by people in their lives to play these sports and maintain being on a team throughout their four years.
“Coach Johnston influenced me the most during high school athletics,” Hansen said. “He got me to do cross country and continued to develop me as an athlete while working with my other teachers to make sure I could still do music activities. I have lots of gratitude for coach J for all of the support he provided.”
Schiemann, being one of the six, is taking his athletic talents and now gets to display them at the collegiate level in the fall of 2025. With abilities to do anything on the field, his skills would be a huge asset to any team he finds himself on.
“I knew going into high school I had a chance to get this achievement and played a big handful of different sports,” Schiemman said. “Football was my favorite and has made such a huge impact on my life that I get to continue playing at the next level.
Hundreds of hours put into athletics for six outstanding athletes have finally paid off. As this group of boys is planning to graduate this May, you will know they always will bleed black and green.
