LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Nebraska women’s soccer team had a magical season in 2023, and senior forward Abbey Schwarz hopes to lead the Huskers to an even greater campaign in 2024.

Schwarz enters her senior season with an already loaded resume.

Big Ten Distinguished Scholar (2023, 2024), Academic All-Big Ten (2022, 2023), Big Ten Freshman of the Week (Oct. 26) and the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team (2022, 2023, 2024) are just a few awards to her name.

The Huskers kicked off preseason soccer last Monday.

Schwarz made her presence on the pitch known with two goals to help give Nebraska a 5-1 win over Kansas City.

“Finishing off some of those scrappier goals is one of my goals,” said Schwarz. “It was good, it was a good little confidence boost.”

The Huskers experienced a run unlike any in recent memory last season, winning the Big Ten regular season title and making it the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.

“Last year was such a great year and I think one of the best things is that we were so present to the moment,” said Schwarz.

Looking ahead to this season, Nebraska comes into the year pre-ranked 6th in the nation.

Starting out sixth.

️ https://t.co/VgzgcwRVIF | #GBR pic.twitter.com/vq2fW6MvJn

— Nebraska Soccer (@HuskerSoccer) August 7, 2024

“Seeing where we’re at now and setting our sights on Big Ten regular season, tournament championships, and national championships things like that,” said Schwarz. “There’s been a shift, I think, in just the perspective of not only on the individuals on the team but the team collectively.”

Nebraska finished with a 1-1 record in preseason games following a 1-0 loss to Oklahoma on Friday.

The Huskers kick off the year at Hibner Stadium versus Oklahoma State on Thursday, Aug. 15 at 7:05 p.m.

LINCOLN — Every year, a wreath is placed on the grave of Beryl Zich.

It has been a solemn tradition since her death in 2005, a way to pay tribute to her love and dedication for her son, Larry, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, who was listed as missing in action until his remains were identified in 2022.

The flowers aren’t from a traditional veterans organization, but from a group of inmates at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

For more than 40 years, a “veterans club” has been among the betterment groups allowed to form at the state’s oldest prison.

Her boys

Along the way, the 25-40 inmates/veterans who gather twice a month behind prison walls got interested in the MIAs and prisoners of war from the Vietnam War. Eventually, they connected with Beryl Zich, the mother of an MIA, who began coming to the State Pen for their meetings.

She eventually referred to the veterans club members as “my boys” as the years passed, and as her son — who disappeared during a mission in 1972 — remained missing.

“Sometimes, I think those boys are the only ones who care,” she once remarked.

Jaime Obrecht and Roy Schoen, two long-time volunteers for the inmate club, related that story and others about the prison veterans organization at the 39th annual Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion held this past weekend at the Marriott Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln.

The first motto for the State Pen veterans’ organization was “Forgotten and Disowned,” which, Schoen said, was how a lot of veterans felt back in the 1980s.

“We had a chip on our shoulder for quite a few years for how we were treated,” said Schoen, an Army veteran and a retired counselor with the veterans center in Lincoln.

He and Obrecht, a retired Lincoln teacher, first began volunteering with the prison group back in 1984, shortly after it was formed.

A war that ended 49 years ago

The Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion began in 1985, Schoen said. It was organized by a group of vets who felt that a gathering would be helpful, not only to share stories and common experiences, but learn more about veterans benefits and organizations.

“There wasn’t much going on back then for (Vietnam) veterans,” he said. “Things have changed quite a bit. Slowly.”

About 300 veterans and their spouses registered for this year’s reunion, which included presentations about the State Pen’s Veterans Club, Agent Orange, a book about fallen veterans from Norfolk (see sidebar) and the evacuation from Afghanistan. The state office of Veterans Affairs also offered remarks.

There were a lot of dark-blue “Vietnam Veteran” ball caps among the participants, as well as MIA/POW shoulder patches and veterans’ reunion T-shirts. Some aging vets used canes to walk, or carried small tanks of supplemental oxygen, a testament to the advancing age of soldiers who served in a war that ended 49 years ago.

The reunion serves many of the same needs as the veterans club at the State Pen, said Schoen and Obrecht — bringing those with common experiences, and challenges, together.

The State Pen’s club has several projects besides the annual wreath on the grave of Beryl Zich, said Obrecht.

Club members have made more than 511,000 red, paper poppies for the American Legion Auxiliary, which distributes them as a tribute and fundraiser on the Friday before every Memorial Day, he said. More recently, club members have been crocheting hats and scarfs for residents of the state veterans home in Kearney.

Special housing unit

But club members have also served as mentors that “police themselves” in the sometimes challenging world of prison, Obrecht said. At times, they’ve served as informal counselors for inmates/veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome, Schoen said.

In 2016, the state corrections department established a special housing unit exclusively for military veterans, which the two volunteers said has been greatly appreciated by the inmates who live there.

“It really was a remarkable change,” Schoen said. “They were more relaxed, they didn’t have to deal with all the craziness in the rest of the prison.”

Obrecht said the club meetings at the State Pen are much like the meetings held by the Legion or VFW — there’s a business meeting, followed by reports on projects and then an hour for visiting.

The club holds annual programs on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and purchased the black MIA/POW flags that fly on the flagpole at the State Pen. They also helped obtain new headstones for inmate/veterans buried at the State Pen’s cemetery outside the prison walls atop Grasshopper Hill.

He said they especially like contributing to causes that help veterans on the outside, such as the annual wreath for Beryl Zich.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to live (in prison) … but the club gives them something to take pride in,” Obrecht said.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The community in Sterling is starting the long road to rebuilding after a fire torched St. John Lutheran Church.

Around 7 p.m. Friday, a neighbor near the church called 911 as smoke poured out of the building.

Mike Hestermann, a council member at the church, said he got there as quickly as he could.

“When I first got there, you could see heavy, heavy smoke,” Hestermann said. “It was coming out of the windows in the basement, the front doors, the back doors. At that point, there was just smoke everywhere.”

Firefighters worked for hours to put the flames out.

SEE ALSO: Crews investigating church fire in town southeast of Lincoln

“The basement of our church is pretty much gone,” Hestermann said. “The sanctuary had very little burn damage but extensive, extensive smoke damage and water damage.”

The church was built in 1930, and according to Hestermann, the state fire marshal suspects it was an electrical problem that sparked the fire in the basement.

There’s no estimate on the total amount of damage yet.

Jenna Pelchat is also a member of the church council.

She said it’s hard to walk in and see everything that’s been lost.

“Memories flash back in your head right away of all of the times you’ve been down there and what it used to look like,” Pelchat said. “Just sad with all of the history that’s in the church and rebuilding it will be different.”

But she said they will rebuild.

The church started a GoFundMe to raise money for the costly process ahead.

“You know, this happened for a reason, and I think that out of it, we will become better and stronger for it,” Pelchat said.

In the meantime, the congregation is meeting for regular services at the Sterling Community Center.

There’s no timeline yet on how long it will be before they can return to the church.

Hestermann said the council is grateful for the support from the community and all the fire departments that responded.

“Just makes you proud to be from a small town where stuff matters,” he said.

The community gathered at St. John on Sunday morning to ring the bell in remembrance of memories made at the church.