High School Football Preview: Waverly enters 2025 with veteran squad

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The Vikings are hungry for another go at it this season, bringing back a loaded senior class for 2025.

Waverly went 8-3 in 2024, with a loss to Skutt Catholic, the eventual state champions, in the quarterfinals.

One of the senior’s back for another year includes running back Nathan Axmann, who rushed for over 1,100 yards and 8 touchdowns.

“Waverly is always pretty senior heavy, and we’re just great at filling in spots,” Axmann said. “We have a lot of guys returning on offense and defense, we did lose a few players. The guys we have now are good enough to fill those shoes.”

While the Vikings are focused on one day at a time, they’ll be eyeing their first couple of games of their 2025 schedule.

Waverly is scheduled to play Bennington — the Class B runner-up — and Seward.

They were tasked with the same two schools to start the year in 2024, but they lost both. This year, they’re hoping to change that.

“We’ve always said, if we don’t beat ourselves, we’re a tough out,” said Head Coach Reed Manstedt. “The number one thing we’ve been focusing on is not compounding mistakes, and not turning the ball over.”

Senior defensive back Connor Schere knows how important the early part of their schedule is.

“We want to go undefeated at home and away,” said Schere. “If we win the first two games it will be a big impact on the season.”

Waverly did a nice job rebounding from those back-to-back losses by winning eight straight until the postseason.

But Manstedt is confident in this year’s packed senior class.

“I’m just excited for this group of seniors. They’ve worked their tails off and put themselves in a really good position to be successful,” said Manstedt. “I’m excited to see them reap the benefits of that.”