But more importantly, UNO’s baseball team became the first program at the university to win a Division-I conference championship, as the Mavs beat the Jackrabbits Friday to secure the regular season title. And UNO did that in dramatic fashion, as senior outfielder Ryan Keele hit a walk-off homerun to end the game and give UNO the victory.

Mavericks celebrate Ryan Keele’s (12) walk-off home run to give UNO the regular season Summit League title (Photo Courtesy UNO Athletics)

It was however, a rocky start to the season as head coach Bob Herold points out. But he says the team gelled well as the season wore on and became more confident in their play. The schedule backs that statement up, as the Mavs had an eight game winning streak in April and finished the year winning nine of eleven games. Herold also calls the talent in the Summit League very even from top to bottom.

“Looking out there I don’t see the difference in talent,” Herold said. “Now granted we aren’t played South Carolina and Arkansas and Cal State Fullerton so we’re not seeing 95 (mph) every time out there either. But the way the guys play you see a few more guys making that can run and make catches in the outfield and good plays in the infield,” he said. “So you are seeing a little bit more overall talent, which will cut your batting average down,” Herold said.

Herold says in a cold weather league like the Summit League, it is normal for the pitching to be ahead of the hitting. And that’s where he sees the only inconsistency in the conference. He talked about the Mavs first full year in the Summit League, going from playing 10 conference games in 2012 to 26 this year.

UNO head coach Bob Herold notched his fourth conference championship this year, but it was UNO’s first Division-I conference title. (Photo Courtesy UNO Athletics)

“Guys always talk about when you play a close game with somebody, ‘hey we can play with these guys,’ Herold said. “Of course you can you are scheduled,” he said. “You are going to play with them every game; you are going to play with them, So the mentality has to go from ‘can we not play with these guys?’ (to) ‘we can beat these guys’ and then ‘we are going to beat these guys.’ Herold said.

One pitcher who has benefited from the move to D-I is sophomore pitcher Zach Williamsen who finished the year 4-1 with a 3.38 ERA while yielding just a .216 batting average to opposing hitters. Coach Herold also pointed to his 2-to-1 strikeouts to walks ratio.

“He is an imposing guys, 6’5”, his ball really moves in the strike zone which means you can’t just settle in and say ’I’m going to get a good swing on this guy’ because it’s not there part of the time,” Herold said. “He has got a pretty good breaking ball; he is a guy that has really given himself an opportunity,” he said.

With UNO ineligible for post season play due to NCAA rules regarding their move to D-I in 2011, Herold says he is building for the future. One player he noted as a building block was redshirt freshman Clayton Taylor, who filled in for the Mavs nicely this year, hitting .353 and leading the Mavs in on base percentage and getting 23 walks. Herold notes the impact the redshirt year had on Clayton.

“Tremendously,” Herold said. “In fact he was a guy that looked for it. He is a terrific player, I think he won the class B batting title two years in the row. He really has a solid eye at the plate, has a great feel for the game of baseball,” Herold said. “But he was, by his own admission was a skinny guy, well a tall skinny guy. So he used the year to actually put on about twenty pounds so it helped him there,” he said.

Clayton Taylor came out swinging in his first year of Division-I baseball, batting .353 and leading the Mavs with a .466 OBP. (Photo Courtesy UNO Athletics)

Taylor will play summer ball in El Dorado Kansas this year and he says he would like to improve his game over the summer, primarily his defense. He also points to the redshirt year as a big reason why he had so much success at the plate this season.

“It really helped, I wasn’t ready to play at the division-I level last year,” Taylor said. “And taking the year to get stronger and work on my hitting, work on my fielding really helped me develop into he player I am today,” he said.

Herold says his teams approach isn’t about focusing on the winning. It’s about the laying the groundwork to be successful through preparation and playing with controlled intensity.

“So the progression takes a little while,” Herold said. “Particularly when you are getting your rear-end kicked,” he said. “So we kind of got through that, then each guy stepped up and we kind of massaged our pitching staff a little bit to see who was pitching better. Moved guys to the front and moved them around a bit and now it’s starting to work out for us,” Herold said.

“If you think executions are important for justice, you have to face the fact that they are not happening,” said Crawford. “Having the death penalty on the books is not leading to the deaths of those accused of heinous crimes, and it is not giving the families closure,” said Crawford.

Sen. John Nelson of Omaha said the lack of executions in recent years was not justification to change the law.

“Just because we haven’t been able to carry those out is no reason to do away with the death penalty. Sooner or later, regardless of what you hear on the floor, it will be done,” said Nelson

Omaha Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh defended the process used to arrive at death sentences:

“No one is rushed through this process,” said Lautenbaugh. “No one’s conviction goes un-revisited, unexamined. This process is fair. This process is just. It is not arbitrary. The facts of each case differ. This is a just penalty. It should be maintained. And I think it is our job as a society to actually met out this most serious penalty,” Lautenbaugh said.

Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop said it’s just a matter of time before the death penalty is abolished:

“As the Supreme Court reviews the death penalty, and whether it is or is not cruel and unusual punishment, that is an incremental process,” said Lathrop. “It will not happen overnight. But it will happen gradually. It will happen as more states repeal it, for whatever reason. And the standards of decency in this country will ultimately result, as I said yesterday, in the Supreme Court concluding that this is cruel and unusual punishment,” said Lathrop.

With repeal opponents vowing to talk the bill to death, supporters tried to invoke cloture, which would cut off debate and produce a yes-or-no vote on repeal. It received 26 votes, including those of Sen. Jerry Johnson of Wahoo, a death penalty supporter, and Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus, who had not declared his position.

Both said they thought the Legislature should vote on the issue, regardless of their position. But while the 26 votes represented a majority of the 49-member Unicameral, legislative rules require a 2/3 vote, or 33 senators, to invoke cloture.

On another matter, senators took up Gov. Dave Heineman’s veto of changes to the teacher retirement system. The bill would reduce future retirement benefits of new hires, and increase the state contribution by $20 million a year. In his veto message, Heineman complained that teachers were not being asked to contribute more.

Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha, the bill’s sponsor, argued their contribution had gone up from 7.28 to 9.78 percent of salary two years ago, when the state had no additional money to contribute. Senators voted 32-1 in favor of his proposal to override the governor’s veto.

Some teachers would contribute more, new employees would get less generous pensions, and the state would contribute an additional $20 million a year under the compromise plan. It needed 33 votes to take effect immediately. But when a vote was taken just before noon, it received only 27. When senators returned from lunch, they debated whether or not to change their minds.

Supporters of the bill argued that the pensions are a contract obligation, and if the state didn’t approve the compromise, it would wind up owing $50 million next year without getting any concessions. Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln said that would eat up any money for discretionary projects senators want to undertake:

“So what goes first? The water study? The tax cuts? What goes first?” asked Conrad. “Cause those are questions we’re going to have to be prepared to answer. And if you can’t answer those today, you are not meeting your duties in voting against LB553, or not voting for LB553,” said Conrad.

Some senators questioned the need to pass the bill. Among them was Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha, who questioned Nordquist about it:

“Could this change wait to be made until 2017, senator – what you’re proposing in LB553?” asked McCoy.

“Sen. McCoy, we could wait for the next 30 years and not make these changes but we would have over that time period a $3.6 billion obligation to pay. That would be the cumulative total,” said Nordquist.

Critics say the state needs to consider moving away from defined benefit retirement plans to defined contribution or hybrid plans. Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion warned that the bill won’t necessarily solve the problem long term:

“I feel it is our responsibility as legislators to work to protect the retirement funds of our public workers,” said Smith. “But it is also our responsibility, colleagues, to ensure that the funding obligations of such plans do not break the backs of future generations. Our state’s population is aging, and a growing portion of that population is now employed by a government entity. Therefore maintaining a sound public retirement system is only going to continue to become more and more challenging,” said Smith.

Senators decided to revote, and passed the bill on a vote of 34-0. Senators then moved on to debating the overall state budget.

The development and production of new work in theatre is no easy task, just ask local playwright Ellen Struve.
“When I was writing this I really thought that it would never get done. It has seven female characters, it has a stairway (which is kind of a jerk move for a playwright to put in a play), it has a ten year old who only speaks German. There are many, many barriers to production for this play but it has turned out to be the play that people have responded to the most warmly. I’ve been really thrilled by that.”
The process of developing new work often entails several workshops and revisions that can last for months, sometimes years. But when the curtain rises on the finished product, the end result is a wholly unique contribution to an art form that can last for generations.

Cast Members of ‘Recommended Reading for Girls’

The final performance in UNO’s “Petite Musique” concert series is Thursday, May 2 at 7:00 pm. Maria Harding, principal flutist with the Omaha Symphony, will be joined by the Symphony’s pianist, Christi Zuniga. The recital will open with Martin’s “Ballade,” which Harding says reflects more than one meaning of the word, “ballad.”

“The middle section has actually kind of a dance quality to it, and a lot of interplay with the piano, kind of supporting the idea of a dance, that there’s a real partnership there.”

The next work on the concert is Lowell Liebermann’s “Flute Sonata.” Liebermann is a living composer whose music is quite popular. Harding points out that Liebermann’s music is often less cerebral than his contemporaries.

“The chords that he builds or the melodies that he draws out are ones that just resonate with us on an instinctive level. I think the way he writes phrases, the rhythms are not unlike speech patterns.”

Harding and Zuniga with then play two of Dvorak’s four “Romantic Pieces,” originally for violin, followed by Ian Clark’s “Orange Dawn.” Clark is a flute player whose knowledge of flute technique allows him to find new ways to creatively express ideas.

“The alternative fingerings (are) used liberally to kind of give it that “otherworldly” that’s exactly the quality that it has.”

The final work on this recital is the third movement from the “Flute Sonata” by Thomas Briccetti, former music director of the Omaha Symphony. Harding says this work is fantastic way to end the concert.

“It’s a huge work, it’s pretty heavy, kind of contrary to the lightness of the instrument. It tries to be big and Brahms and pretty long piece, too.”

Maria Harding and Christi Zuniga perform on UNO’s final “Petite Musique” recital of the season this Thursday, May 2 at 7 pm. Harding and Zuniga will also hold a masterclass today at 5 pm. Both are at UNO’s Strauss Performing Arts Center, and more information is available at unomaha.edu.

A hippie father who’s addicted to fake swear words, an overbearing mother with her French-Canadian ballet-dancing fiancé, a coddled son and his massive panic attacks and a level-headed daughter who is trying to make sense of it all. The dysfunction is only the beginning of the fun for the Playhouse’s latest mainstage production A Night with the Family by Matthew Ivan Bennett. Director Carl Beck said that show stemmed from the playwrights own experiences.

“It’s a fascinating process because it basically is based on the playwrights own life. His father turned into a hoarder so the setting is the father’s home which is literally piled high with junk… It’s a battle of strange personalities mixing and coming together on Christmas Eve.”

The Cast of ‘A Night with the Family’

“Theatre is a constant struggle to bring in audiences and to be able to continue to produce quality work. To take the chance on an unproduced piece is very much to the Playhouse’s credit.”

The play seemed to be a perfect fit for the Howard Hawks theatre. More often than not, the greatest challenge in picking the Playhouse’s season is finding an appropriate and effective contemporary comedy for the Mainstage.

“Generally you’re dealing with adult language in contemporary pieces and adult themes. This one was incredibly refreshing in that it was perfectly suited to our mainstage audience.”

The one message that all audiences will take away from this show, Beck said, is the complicated yet rewarding journey that a family makes.

“Everybody inherits a complicated bag of tricks, each with their own family. The ups and downs a family undergoes are as varied as the personalities that make them up. But ultimately the family unit and a loving spirit does prevail.”

A Night with the Family runs Wednesday through Sunday until May 12th at the Omaha Community Playhouse. For ticket information call (402) 553-0800 or go online at www.omahaplayhouse.org

Jermaine Ballard is Site Director with Community in Schools at North High school in Omaha. His job is to connect students and their families to community resources that can assist them with their unique needs. Ballard does this through one-on-one sessions with students covering a myriad of topics including how their studies are going, their attendance to school and inquiring about family life and their community. However, Ballard often goes above and beyond what is asked of him.

“It’s just taking that next step while you’re employed and learn that most of these positions when you work with non-profits and youth, it’s not an 8-to-5,” Ballard said. “Its and all-around the clock job. One thing about me, if it doesn’t hinder my growth, or my health or my safety, I’m going to help you some way,” Ballard said.

Jermaine Ballard graduated from the University of Nebraska Omaha (Photo Courtesy KVNO)

Though he talks a big game Ballard is widely known to back it up according to one student he mentored, Mynesha Spencer a sophomore at Texas Southern University.

“I became a teenage mother my junior year of high school, and my vision for life and my plan and my goal for college became blurry,” Spencer said. “He helped me to see that those things that I thought were going to stop me would only be temporary,” Spencer said.

“I’m here now and I’m doing it with a child,” Spencer said. “I’m in the honors college here and they raised my GPA… or I raised my GPA, so they raised my scholarship. He has just been inspirational to say the least,” she said.

Ballard says he isn’t driven by horrific events or a troubled childhood, but rather the desire to see kids prosper through learning by observation.

“I think overall it’s just me wanted to see kids succeed,” Ballard said. “And I get a better appreciation for that, like I said, with my father. Growing up with my father, I always thought that he (came) down hard on me, but it was just because he wanted me to do the right thing so when I’m older I don’t have to learn – (because) I already know,” Ballard said.

Ballard says he has a better understanding of patience since he started to work directly with students. And an understanding of what it truly means to provide and serve.

“A lot of kids have my phone number because you never know when they are going to need you,” Ballard said. “They will call and say ‘hey coach I need a ride to school’, I’m like ‘man I just got to work! Let me see if I can leave,’ so I get up and give them a ride to school,” Ballard said.

“This kind of reverses back to parent involvement,” Ballard said. “Because when I get to a kids house there are three or four cars in the driveway. So I’m like ‘there is nobody at the house that can bring you to school?’ You’ll get a ‘yea but my mom is tired she just got off work’ or, ‘two of the cars are broke’ or ‘yea but my mom has to go to work in five minutes, she doesn’t have time’ those are lame excuses, get your child to school,” he said.

On top of his role at North High, Ballard is the Defensive Coordinator for his Alma Mater Benson High football team. One player who he has helped since taking on the role is Tre Johnson, a sophomore at Benson. Johnson is well aware of the fact that it was Ballard who last led Benson to a playoff victory in 2000.

“I was a freshman and I played varsity (in 2011),” Johnson said. “I was one of the smallest players on the team but I was strong. But he told me ‘Tre you need to speak about this’ but it’s all seniors,” he said. “You don’t want to be a freshman telling a senior what to do, it doesn’t seem right. But he told me that, leadership doesn’t come with age, it comes just with the person you are. If you feel you need to tell somebody what’s right, don’t let them continue to do wrong, you need to be a teammate and lead them to the right way, “Johnson said.

From Director of teen programs at the YMCA to a specialist at the Urban League to setting up the areas first Urban Youth Leadership Symposium last month, Jermaine Ballard is a prime example of an area leader stepping up to the plate and giving back.

“It’s about that kid coming back saying, ‘hey I appreciate it Mr. Ballard.’ After a time when they were the knuckle head that was like ‘man you can’t tell me anything.’ But then as the years go by they mature, they grow up,” Ballard said. “They experience things they never thought they would and the next thing you know it’s like (snaps fingers), ‘man he was right’ or ‘she was right’ or ‘that person really did help me.’ Those are the main things that are more gratifying (for) me is when a kid can say a simple thank you, I appreciate you,” Ballard said.

Christensen said the department is limiting irrigation this year in order to keep enough water in the Republican River not to violate an interstate compact with Kansas. Irrigation adds about $600 an acre to the value of crops that can be produced, Christensen said, but his proposal limits payments to farmers to $300 an acre:

“Its about half of what it should be,” said Christensen. “I’ve got a lot of very unhappy farmers that I’ve been that aggressive on limiting the amount, but at the same time I’m working with them to say, y’know, we’ve got to work with the state we’ve got to keep the state in compliance, and we also have to meet our obligations,” said Christensen.

Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said the bill tries to address a question of fairness between surface water irrigators, who use water from rivers and streams, and ground water irrigators, who use wells:

“If an individual that’s used to using surface water for irrigation and has no well, and doesn’t get any water, the neighbor has a well and will be able to pump a full allocation,” said Carlson. “So there’s water available. That’s pretty tough to take when you look across the fence and you can’t irrigate, and your neighbor can,” said Carlson

Carlson also noted that surface-water irrigators in the area are suing the state, and said he might not continue to support the bill if that continues. Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop said he sympathizes with farmers’ need to irrigate. But he said there needs to be a better plan for managing water in the Republican River Basin:

“Until we address the problem, we will have every year somebody coming back to the Legislature to say ‘I didn’t get to use water,” said Lathrop. “Somebody needs to pay me because I didn’t get to use water. My water, the water I would have irrigated with, has to go down to Kansas. So somebody needs to pay me,” said Lathrop.

Lathrop said he hopes to amend another bill later to allow the state to determine if water in the Republican basin is over-appropriated, which would give it more management authority. Senators then gave the bill first round approval on a vote of 27-0. On another matter, senators gave first round approval to a proposal to study the effect of climate change on the state and make recommendations. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm.

“My bill deals with climate change,” said Haar. “It’s here, it’s happening, and we will have to adapt. What LB 583 comes down to is what does science tells us long term so we can plan and we can adapt?” said Haar.

Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha disputed the bill’s premise:

Nebraska Senator Beau McCoy of the 39th district (photo courtesy of Nebraska Legislature)

“I for one – this is a philosophical position – don’t subscribe to global warming – that theory. I think there are normal, cyclical, rhythmic climate changes that are not caused by man-made attempts,” said McCoy.

McCoy succeeded with an amendment inserting the word “cyclical” before climate change. The bill calls for the state’s existing Climate Assessment Response Committee, which studies drought, to report by Dec. 1 of next year. It advanced on a vote of 35-0.

This Sunday evening at 7 the Omaha Area Youth Orchestra’s “Youth Symphony” will have it’s annual side-by-side concert with the Omaha Symphony. The Youth Orchestra’s Music Director Aviva Segall points out the advantages to having the young musician play alongside the professionals.

“There’s really nothing like it. You have all the excitement of young musicians playing this repertoire for the first time, and the professionalism of the Omaha Symphony players, this is definitely not the first time playing it, they know the ins and outs of this repertoire and are able to share that with out musicians.”

You might imagine the Symphony musicians would take any difficult parts and solos, but Segall says this is not true.

“The Omaha Symphony musicians not only graciously allow the students to play the solos, they also give them so much advice. ‘Oh yeah, this solo, here’s the trick, here’s what you need to do with this solo’.”

Dvorak

“So this really Dvorak taking a look at the new world through an entirely Czech perspective, and writing a tremendous piece. There’s a reason this piece gets programmed all the time.”

This concert also includes an unusual feature: several selections just by the percussionists, led by J. B. Ferguson. Segall explains the decision to include a percussion ensemble.

“It’s really important for percussionists both to play in an orchestra – get the experience, counting rests, coming in exactly right – but having something more to play, working together as a team, and having some great repertoire to play.”

The Omaha Area Youth Orchestra’s Side-by-Side Concert with the Omaha Symphony is this Sunday, April 28, at 7 pm. The concert is at the Holland Performing Arts Center, and more information is available online at oayo.org.

That leaves about one-third coming from state government – largely from sales and income taxes. And that’s what senators are arguing about. Unlike recent years, when the pie has been shrinking or staying the same size, the Education Committee is proposing to increase state aid from $852 million this year to nearly $915 million next year. But how that pie gets divided up is the big issue. Education Committee Chairwoman Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids said she didn’t want the argument to be about politics or winners and losers:

“And neither do I want this to be a rural versus urban fight about state aid,” Sullivan said. “I’m sure that some, maybe even some here in this body, thought I would have too much of a rural slant in my focus as education chair. But I can promise you I have tried to create statewide policy here,” said Sullivan.

Sen. Ken Haar of Lincoln led the opposition to the Education Committee’s proposal. Haar said there’s a growing gap between districts with fewer than 900 students and those with more. The larger districts charge their residents an average of $1.04 per hundred dollars in property taxes for schools, while the smaller ones average about 10 percent less than that. Something called the “averaging adjustment” in the state aid formula is supposed to help compensate for that, but Sullivan and the Education Committee want to abolish or suspend that, in order to make state aid more predictable. Omaha Sen. Tanya Cook objected to that:

“This averaging adjustment was introduced,” said Cook, “in part, to address the widening gap between the amounts that are spent per student in those districts that have more than 900 students and the districts that are small by choice or are experiencing decreases in population,” Cook said.

Haar said costs per student are nearly $18,000 in rural Elba, with 67 students, but less than $7,200 in Omaha, with 48,000 students. But Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis said there’s a reason for that:

“The fact is that small districts are going to have high costs because they have few students,” said Davis. “And as long as rural Nebraska is declining in population we are going to see the smaller districts cost increase,” said Davis.

Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue suggested rural schools with few students per classroom and high costs per pupil have some advantages:

“I would like us to keep in mind the importance of equalizing the advantages of being in a small class for our students across the state,” said Crawford.

Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial referred to the number of rural schools that have closed in recent years, suggesting anything that would continue that trend would hurt his constituents:

“I have kindergartners getting on a school bus at six a.m. for an eight o’clock start,” said Christensen. “They get out at 3:10 they get home at 5:10. I’ve heard senators say we need to even that cost out. Do you want my kindergarteners on the road to school for two hours? Three hours? Four hours?” said Christensen.

The way the state aid formula works, if a district has high property values it can tax, it gets less state aid. Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk said the recent rise in ag land values has skewed the system:

“When we talk about Ag values, I want you folks from the metropolitan areas[to keep in mind],” said Scheer. “If your homes had tripled in value and your taxes had gone up as much as the farm ground has and rural ranchland you don’t think we would have a revolt on our hands on this floor because your taxes had gone up? I’m not asking for sympathy, but I want you to realize that is the difference. Your home values because of the current economic conditions have not gone up. Farm and ranchland has. And they are continuing to pay more and more dollars each and every year.” said Scheer.

But Sen. Rick Kolowski of Omaha rejected that comparison:

“The analogy doesn’t fit,” said Kolowski. “Because the same areas where the land prices have gone up, corn prices, soy prices, bean prices, and beef prices have also risen astronomically to new records in our country and having the resources to pay a higher tax bill will be very easy to meet compared to being on a stable yearly salary in an urban area if your house prices or taxes went up two or three times,” said Kolowski.

By late afternoon, senators were continuing to wrangle over what promises to be a complicated and high stakes battle over school funding.