SEASON PREVIEW: Orangemen basketball set for Jackson Weeks era to begin

BEATRICE, Neb. - It’s a familiar name, in a familiar place.

Jackson Weeks is set to take over as Head Coach of Beatrice Boys Basketball, a place where his dad Jim served as a long time successful leader, and where his brother Jalen currenlty coaches on the girls side.

The Weeks era officially begins this Thursday night in Nebraska City.

“It’s been really good, our kids have been impressive in terms of their buy in,” Weeks said. “We have great parents, elite administration, we all have the same vision so it’s been really really good."

During Weeks’ time as an assistant and co-head coach with his dad at Auburn, the Bulldogs went to three consecutive state championships in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and six consecutive state final appearances.

According to juniors Tyson Cerveny and Harrison Vetrovsky, Weeks has come to Beatrice with the goal of building trust and a lot of intensity.

“We do a lot of things together and we’re really close,” Cerveny said. “I know he’s knew, but we trust him a lot.”

“He’s really intense, but that’s something we needed,” Vetrovsky said. “We’ve been focusing a lot on rebounding, staying in front of our guys and stuff we needed to work on from last year.”

Last years Orangemen squad went 3-19, but 11 losses came by 10 points or less. Boston Crawford says Weeks has keyed in on late game scenarios.

“We work a lot on time and situation to win those close games, so that’s something I’m looking forward to.”

The Weeks name will forever be remembered in the O-Zone, but Weeks says the time for surreal moments is in the past.

“Me getting here has nothing to do with our success this year in terms of what our players goals are,” Weeks said. “We’ve tried to make the focus 100% about this team, their goals, and what we can do to accomplish those goals.”

Both Beatrice basketball teams kick off the year on Thursday night against Nebraska City.