NBOSTRIPES

The weekend of Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, January 9, 10 and 11 features the Annual Bennington Badger Shootout and the second weekend of Conqueror Basketball League (CBL). It all adds up to around 600 youth basketball games and lots of opportunities for our Nebraska Basketball Officials. Please text your availability to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

The Bennington Badger Shootout will be played at the South Union Bank and Trust Sports Complex (UBT2 South) building (6 courts) as well as Bennington Middle School (2 courts), Bennington South Middle School (2 courts), Bennington High School (2 courts) and Trinity Classical Academy in Waterloo (2 courts).

The CBL will be played at Elkhorn Middle and Elementary schools, as well as the Nebraska Basketball Academy building in West Omaha.

Please be as flexible as possible with your availability for this busy weekend. We will also be receptive to officials wanting to work all day on Saturday and Sunday.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Referee schedules for the New Year’s Bash Tournament and the first weekend of the 2026 Conqueror Basketball League (CBL), Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, January 2, 3 and 4, have been released. Please read through the schedules carefully and text your confirmations to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

As a reminder, please plan to arrive 10 minutes early for your first game of each day. It is important we stay on schedule and you arriving early can help make that happen.

Thank you!

With Christmas later this week, it only makes sense to start early taking your officiating availability for Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, January 2, 3 and 4. As of the timing of this post on Monday, the 2026 Conqueror Basketball League (CBL) has 516 teams registered for its Winter Session, which is over two times larger than any other Metro youth basketball league. We will also have the Elkhorn Attack/Elite New Year’s Bash on that opening weekend. Please text your availability to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

A reminder that we will be taking off this upcoming weekend, December 27-28, so teams, officials, staff and families can enjoy the holidays.

Please be flexible when sending your availability. We are going to have a bunch of games to fill, and we will try to get everyone as many games as possible.

If you missed last week’s post which has the first half of our 2026 schedule, it can still be accessed in our archives at nbostripes.com.

Happy Holidays!

The Winter Conqueror Basketball League (CBL) and area youth basketball tournament schedules for Nebraska Basketball Officials (NBO) Youth Division have been released and begins on the weekend of January 2, 3 and 4 with both a New Year’s Bash tournament and Conqueror League games.

The CBL will be the largest youth basketball league in the Omaha area this Winter with over 510 teams registered at the time of this post.

Here is the up-to-date Winter schedule:

January 2-3-4, CBL and Tournament

January 9-10-11, CBL and Tournament

January 16-17-18, CBL and Tournaments

January 23-24-25, CBL and Tournament

January 30-31-February 1, CBL and Tournament

February 6-7-8, CBL and Tournament (Games ending early Sunday for Super Bowl)

February 13-14-15, CBL and Tournament

February 20-21-22, CBL Tournament

February 27-28-March 1, Tournament

March 6-7-8, Tournament

March 13-14-15, Tournament

Elkhorn Attack and Elite is also going to be hosting tournaments this Spring and Summer, expanding opportunities to officiate youth basketball. We will announce those dates moving forward.

Mark your calendars now for these upcoming events.

Happy Holidays!

The final Elkhorn Attack and Elite tournament of 2025, the Holiday Hoopfest, will be played this weekend, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, December 19, 20 and 21. Referee schedules are included in this post and you can text your confirmations to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

I wanted to include a reminder that after your final game of each set of games you work, please wait for your replacement to arrive. We need to make sure each court has 2 officials before you leave. If it’s 5 minutes before the scheduled start of the next game and your replacement has not arrived, call Brent at 402-618-2859 and he will check on your replacement. We are very proud of our reputation of having two officials on every court for every game. And although it may just be a couple minutes at the start of a game, we want to make sure we have all games covered. Thank you!

Also, watch nbostripes.com this week. I will post the 2026 schedule for both the Conqueror Basketball League and the upcoming tournament schedule.

Happy Holidays!

The final youth basketball tournament before the holidays — Elkhorn Attack and Elite’s Holiday Hoopfest — is scheduled for Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, December 19, 20 and 21 at venues in West Omaha, Elkhorn and Waterloo. Please text your availability to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

The tournament should have a busy schedule for Friday night, December 19, so be sure to include that in your availability. It isn’t clear how late we will be going Saturday or Sunday evenings. Remember, the more flexible you are, the better chance you have of getting games. Please text your availability as soon as possible as we will attempt to have the schedules out by Sunday evening so everyone can make plans for the weekend ahead.

The referee schedules for the Elkhorn Attack Boys’ Santa Shootout and Elkhorn Elite Girls’ Rule Tournament this Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, December 12, 13 and 14, have been released. Please text your confirmations to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

These early schedules could have some slight changes. If so, Brent will text you updates on your individual schedule later in the week. Also, please be aware that these are two separate tournaments, so rules will slightly vary.

Times for the Girls’ Rule Tournament will be every hour on the hour (8:00, 9:00, 10:00, etc.) while the Boys’ Santa Shootout will run every :55 minutes (8:00, 8:55, 9:50, etc.).

Please plan to arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled start time for your first game.

We’ve also had questions about the weekend of December 19, 20 and 21. We WILL have a tournament that weekend.

Two tournaments, the Elkhorn Attack “Santa Shootout” for Boys, and the Elkhorn Elite “Girls Rule” event, are scheduled for West Omaha (Elkhorn and Waterloo) venues Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, December 12, 13 and 14. If you would like to officiate a busy Friday night and the rest of the weekend, please text your availability to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

These tournaments are going to have well over 300 teams and will be played on 18 courts over these 3 days. We will need 36 officials on Friday night alone.

If you would like to work all weekend, let us know.

The courts we will be playing on will be Union Bank and Trust Sports Complex2 South (6 courts), Trinity Classical Academy in Waterloo (2 courts), Elkhorn North Ridge Middle School (2 courts), Elkhorn Grandview Middle School (2 courts), Elkhorn Ridge Middle School (2 courts), Elkhorn Valley View Middle School (2 courts) and Elkhorn Middle School (2 courts).

Referee schedules for the Conqueror Basketball League Tournament this Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, December 5, 6 and 7 have been released. Please take notice that Friday night games will be played at both Union Bank and Trust Sports Complex buildings — NORTH and SOUTH — at 6, 7, 8 and 9 pm. Games will also be played Friday night at Trinity Classical Academy in Waterloo at 6, 7 and 8 pm. Please text your confirmations to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

Please plan to arrive at least 10 minutes before your game times. We want all officials to be on their court, dressed and ready to go at GAME TIME. Also, with many different age divisions playing, it is important to know the rules for each age division. Kindergarten, first and second grade games have different rules than third grade on up to eighth grade. And, please be aware that Conqueror Basketball League rules do not allow Zone defenses until the sixth grade. Do not allow coaches to use a “Matchup” zone defense. That is not person-to-person defense!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Thank you!

With the long Thanksgiving weekend coming up, a lack of teams has caused the cancellation of the Turkey and Stuffing tourney scheduled for next Saturday and Sunday. So, after a welcome weekend of Thanks and rest, we will look ahead to Friday, Saturday and Sunday, December 5, 6 and 7 and the Conqueror Basketball League Tournament. Please text your availability for that weekend to Brent at 402-618-2859 or Jim at 402-215-1740.

We hope this weekend off on November 29 and 30 will give everyone a chance to spend time with family and friends.