Nebraska Eight Man Coaches Assn. 2019 Hall of Fame Inductee-Casey Beran - Sargent High School

We spotlight our 12th player to be inducted into the Nebraska Eight Man Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Mr. Casey Beran of Sargent School. More on Casey below his bio.

CASEY BERAN – SARGENT HIGH SCHOOL

In the early to mid-1990’s, Casey stood out as both a running back and defensive end while leading the Bulldogs to the 1994 state semi-finals. His dominance on both sides of the ball saw him achieve multiple honors during his prep career including: 1st Team All-Loup Valley Conference, 1st Team All-State, and 8-Man Defensive Player of the Year. After his senior season in high school, he moved on to Chadron State College where he was a 3-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference defensive end. Casey became the 1st player in Eagle history to earn 1st Team Honors as an All-American and Academic All-American in the same season (1998, 1999). In the year 2000, he was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year and the Omaha World-Herald’s Nebraska State College Athlete of the Year after compiling career marks of 182 tackles and 35 quarterback sacks (while also adding 11 touchdowns on offense as a goal-line fullback). Casey was inducted into the CSC Hall of Fame, the RMAC Hall of Fame, and was later named to the RMAC’s “All Century Team”. He was also inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame and The NEMFCA is honored to now welcome him into the Eight Man Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019.

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Nothing beats a high school guy that is a pure football player and genius in the classroom as well. In this case it would be Sargent’s Casey Beran.

That also extinguishes the phase “big, dumb football player.” Not in this state baby and if you aren’t sure about that, take a stroll down the Memorial Stadium hallway that passes by the players cafeteria on he way to the football field.

The wall to the right houses photos of the gazillion Academic All-Americas who played sports for the Huskers. That’s our state, that is Casey Beran, only he did it for Chadron State. And…..if you see him this Saturday at the Sertoma 8-Man All-Star game, you should address him as Dr. Casey Beran. You see, last I knew Dr. Beran was an orthopedic surgeon with CHI Health at Creighton University in Omaha.

There was no doubt about about Beran’s talent when he played for Sargent and I’m wondering if one of the highlights of Dr. Beran’s senior season wasn’t when the ‘Dogs went up to Mullen in those 1993 quarterfinals and laid a 46-20 licking on the Class D-1, #2 rated Broncos.

In addition to a bushel basket full of tackles (more than one on John Howell), Casey rushed for 178 yards on 30 carries which included a 38 yard TD scamper.

Oh, I heard someone say they didn’t know Casey Beran was an excellent ball carrier back in that day. Oh yeah, I’d say about 1,290 yards worth in 1994.

I know that the Chadron State playing days had nothing to do with Dr. Beran’s stats at Sargent, but think about this for a moment. 35 QB sacks and 38 QB hurries during his career for Eagles and all the while the man was maintaining a grade average worthy of Academic All-American status.

Heck, as long as Casey was living in the opponents backfield when he played defense, it’s only fitting that Chadron State inserted him in their own backfield as a goal line back. Worth 11 career TDs folks. What a player.

Oh, and by the way Dr. Beran, I have this L5/S5 back problem and I was wondering………………..