Snowfall Doesn't Stop Boys State Basketball Tournament

March 7, 2019, 11:41 a.m. ·

The Nebraska boys state high school basketball tournament is underway even after five inches of snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning in Lincoln.


The snow just keeps falling in the capital city as January and February combined for ten snowfalls over one inch, which is six more than the average according to the National Weather Service.

Jay Bellar, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association, said the boys state tournament is pretty limited in its ability to postpone or delay games. He said a two-hour delay for Thursday was discussed, but starting the last game at 10:45 p.m. wasn’t ideal.

If there is more bad weather ahead, Bellar said the last resort would be playing games on Sunday, which is now possible because of changes in the by-laws allowing the NSAA to play on Sundays.

“Well, I’m afraid it’s, of course, going to affect our attendance and we always do worry about that," Bellar said. "We’re in it first for the safety of everybody to make sure they are safe. But, to just say it’s easy to reschedule would be an understatement because it is quite tough to reschedule this. So, the tournament is going to go on, unless something really crazy happens.”

Bellar said the NSAA contacted schools on Tuesday of this week to let them know the tournament games would be played barring non-blizzard conditions. He said most of the teams spent the night in Lincoln to beat the poor road conditions.