The Millard school district hosted nearly 4,000 people at the first ever Battle at Buell volleyball jamboree at Buell Stadium on Thursday.
The exhibition triangular saw Millard North, Millard South and Millard West play two sets apiece against each other.
“This is the way it should be, right here at Buell Stadium,” Millard South athletic director Steve Throne told Hurrdat Sports. “It’s the best venue in the city, in the state.”
According to Millard North athletic director Keith Maly, the Mustangs’ head volleyball coach, Lindsay Grant, first presented him with the idea, setting the dominoes in motion.
“After the season ended last year in 2024, the first thing she came in and was like, ‘Hey, we’re developing this idea similar to what Nebraska and UNO did last year at Buell Stadium,’” Maly said. “And I looked at her, I go, ‘Are you crazy?’, and she said, ‘Well, yeah, a little bit, but we want to see if we can do this.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s see if we can talk to our district AD as well as our board of education,’ and our district said, ‘Yeah, let’s do this, sounds like a great idea.’ We started putting it together, and then it basically came to fruition probably in January or February.”
The programs reached out to USA Volleyball for help in finding a court to lay down outside and the Millard North and South football teams helped construct it, setting the stage for the Battle.
Millard North graduate and former Omaha middle blocker McKenna Ruch is back coaching for her high school team as an assistant. Ruch started 110 matches during her five seasons as a Maverick, totaling 1,196 kills and 471 blocks while earning first-team All-Summit honors in 2022, 2023 and 2024. She was on Omaha’s side of the net during Volleyball Day in Nebraska at Memorial Stadium.
Battle at Buell gave her a chance to experience outdoor volleyball from a different perspective.
“I had a lot more fun this time,” Ruch said. “Last time was awesome too, but I just enjoyed being a part of the coaching staff and getting to help the girls out there, and kind of not personally having to worry about the weather, and the wind, and all of that. So I enjoyed it a lot tonight.”
Typically, the three teams are rivals, but they along with the entire Millard community came together to support one another for this event.
“Events like this don’t happen very often in, really, any school district,” Millard West athletic director Lance Smith said. “It’s usually the rivalries and all that kind of stuff, trash talking on Twitter and all that, but it’s fun to see all the teams come together. They do the kids camp all together and all the girls are teaching the little kids, and us as ADs can work together on the logistics. It’s cool to see.”
As of right now, it’s unclear as to whether this event will become an annual occurrence, but Ruch said that she enjoyed the exhibition.
“I know everyone put a lot of work into this, and especially the head coach for Millard North,” Ruch said. “She lost sleep over this sometimes I felt like, just trying to put so much together to make it happen, and what did happen was incredible. If they could do it in future years that would be awesome too, but if it doesn’t happen, I’m sure all of us will remember this night.”
The high school volleyball season kicks off on Thursday in Nebraska, and all three Millard schools will head into the season in the top 10 of the NebPreps Coaches Poll.
