The Omaha Sports Commission yearly award ceremony, known as the OSCAS is a collection of seven categories with nominees across all different levels of athletics in the state of Nebraska. Westside High School leads all high schools with five nominations in different categories. The Warrior football team leads the school with four of the five nominations.
The Westside football team is nominated for team of the year. The undefeated class A state champions are considered one of the best high school football teams of all time.
They had an average margin of victory of 49-3. The offense put up a total of 5,643 yards and averaged 434 yards per game. The offense scored a whopping 82 touchdowns on the year. The defense had 96 tackles for losses, 17 sacks, 15 interceptions, recovered 12 fumbles and had eight shutouts.The 2023 Warriors matched the record for All-State selections with eight.
They are joined by other team of the year nominees, Millard South Wrestling, junior college national champion Iowa Western Community College Soccer and Football teams, and finally the class B football champions Bennington High school.
“I think we just gave it 100% every single day,” Rezac said. “Whether it was in the weight room in the summer practice field or on Friday night, it was always 100% not taking any days off, don’t take any plays off and that’s what kind of allowed us to continue to elevate every single day.”
Leader and captain of the football team Anthony Rezac is nominated for male athlete of the year. Rezac was named the state’s football Gatorade player of the year. The state champion quarterback threw for 2,316 yards and had a school record 30 touchdowns. Rezac also broke the school record with his 73.4% completion percentage. On the ground, he rushed for 905 yards and 15 touchdowns. The Notre Dame commit averaged 9.3 yards per carry leading the Warriors to a 13-0 season. In the state championship game Rezac completed 20 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown, while adding two more rushing, leading the Warriors to a 56-0 win.
The other nominees Rezac will face are, former Burke grad and Notre Dame defensive back Xaiver Watts, Creighton Guard and Aurora high grad Baylor Sheierman, Creighton Center Ryan Kalkbrenner and lastly Millard North graduate and current Wake Forest Guard Hunter Salis.
“It’s really cool,” Rezac said. “There’s tons of great athletes up there, all college guys who have performed at the top level, so being able to have my name next to them, be nominated for that spot is a super cool honor. It definitely shows amateur athletes as a whole, not just college sports, there’s a lot of great athletes in high school that can go and compete at that level. Its kind of a stepping stone to where there at.”
Moment of the year is always a fun category and Westside’s punt return touchdown, in which Caleb Benning handed the ball to RJ Eckhard to complete the score.
The other nominees for moment of the year include Creighton men’s basketball upsetting #1 Uconn, Bud Crawford’s unified title win, Gretna High school game winning shot in the metro holiday tournament and opening night for the Omaha Supernovas.
“It’s definitely pretty cool,” Benning said. “I wasn’t planning on it being super big. I was just talking to RJ at the beginning of the week in the regular season. He wanted to score in the last game of the regular season and for it to happen was really cool, but for it to turn into a big story wasn’t something I planned on but it was super cool.”
The one man at the helm of all the football success Paul Limongi is up for male coach of the year for the second straight season. Limongi coached the Warriors to an undefeated season, ultimately winning the state championship in record fashion.
Limongi is joined by elite company for Male coach of the year which includes, Creighton Basketball coach Greg McDemott, Bennington football coach Kam Lenhart, Millard South wrestling coach Nate Olson and Skutt basketball coach Kyle Jurgens.
“One of the best leaders I’ve ever been around,” Benning said. “From getting us ready in the weight room to creating our leadership plan. to get us ready at 6:50 to go play a football game. He does it all. I’m very, very thankful I got to play for him. And I know he’ll also lead this next year’s team to hopefully even more State Championships.”
The final Warrior nominee is Lademi Davies, who is in the running for female athlete of the year.
Davies finished her season with four golds. Davies won the triple jump with a leap of 38 feet and 6.25 inches. She also won the long jump with a jump of 19 feet and 9.75 inches, the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.71, and the 200 meter with a time of 24.37. Davies was ecstatic when she finished her senior campaign with four golds.
“It feels amazing,” Davies said. “It feels like the accumulation of the past four years of just working and Mr. Preister and coach Steve know what they are doing and can help me get to the place where I want to be.”
Voting began on April 9 and the voting form can be found on the Omaha Sports Commison Website or Twitter/X account.
