Local/State Briefs

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Husker Fan Day is Aug. 17

LINCOLN  -- The Nebraska football team's annual Fan Day is set for  Aug. 17.

Players and coaches will sign autographs and pose for pictures from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Memorial Stadium.

The athletic department plans to release details on Fan Day in coming weeks.

Information also will be available on Huskers.com.



WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

UNK selects Esses as graduate assistant coach

KEARNEY -- Nebraska-Kearney head women's basketball coach Carol Russell announced Wednesday that Adam Esses will be the Lopers new graduate assistant coach.

He replaces Erin Mankin, whose two-year appointment ended this past winter.

A 2008 graduate of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., Esses hails from Littleton, Colo.

This past year for the Bethany Swedes, he served as head men's junior varsity coach while also being an assistant with the men's varsity program. Prior to that, Esses was an assistant junior varsity coach and team manager for the Bethany varsity team.

Esses has also worked summer camps at Colorado, Colorado State, Northern Colorado, Kansas State and RMAC-member Colorado School of Mines.

Finally, he served as a student teacher this past fall at Salina (Kan.) South High School.

UNK will return three starters off of last year's 27-7 team, including senior Jade Meads and sophomore Kaitlin Petri.



NEWS AND NOTES

BASEBALL: Fans can catch Grand Island's Friday game against Charleston (Mo.) Fighting Squirrels on the KFVS12.com WebCast. The Babe Ruth 16-18 Midwest Plains Regional Tournament game will begin at 7 p.m. The multi-camera WebCast will be presented live around the world at www.KFVS12.com, and then archived on the web site for users to watch attheir convenience. Both the live presentation and the archived version will be available free of charge. The audio stream will be available on the Fighting Squirrels' web site at www.nutsbaseball.com. … TELEVISION: The NET Television high-definition documentary ``Dream Like a Champion`` won an Emmy Award for ``Best Sports Special`` at the 2008 Heartland Regional Emmy Awards announced July 19 in Lakewood, Colorado.  Emmy statues were awarded to Joe Turco, writer/producer/executive producer; Pat Aylward, videographer/editor; and Ralph Hammack, Jr., editor. ``Dream Like a Champion`` follows the Husker volleyball team on its journey to winning the 2006 National Championship and along the way explores some of the history behind one of the nation's premier women's volleyball programs.