LEWISTON, Neb. - If your team holds the ball for 35 seconds, be ready to hear the buzzer. 

The NSAA’s 35-second shot clock is expanding to all classes of high school basketball this season, including Class D. Chuck Humphrey is Activities Director for Lewiston High School, located about 15 miles east of Beatrice.

“Once it came down to Class B, it was only a matter of time it drop to C and when it was implemented into C, it was just a matter of time before it came to Class D,” Humphrey said.

The shot clock has forced adjustments by players and coaches and sped up the pace of play. Bother Diller-Odell AD Eric McMurray and Humphrey say through the first few games, the overall reaction is mixed, but issues and complaints have been minimal.

“I think our coaches like having the shot clock, they’ve gotten used to it, it’s now in all other levels,” McMurray said. “There is some strategy to playing with the shot clock and i think they like that aspect of it.”

“I don’t think they’ve really ever noticed it,” Humphrey said. “In the two games we’ve had, we’ve only had two violations. One was girls and one was boys, so we really haven’t had any major hiccups with it.”

For schools like Lewiston and Diller-Odell, managing the game and strategizing around the shot clock, is just one small element of the new wrinkle, There’s also the financial side of staffing the machine and paying for it.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate here that I’ve had teachers, helping coach in other sports step in and help out with those things,” Humphrey said. “It’s another financial hit, where now you have your normal book keeper, scoreboard operator, and shot clock person. Financially, some schools are taking a hit on it.”

Shot clocks can cost as much as $7,000. To help off set the cost, schools like Diller-Odell got ahead of the eight ball. The school built a new gym in 2019 and installed a shot clock in anticipation of one eventually being implemented.

“When they built the gym, they told us if we went ahead and put the shot clocks in when we built it, it would be much cheaper then if we did it later,” McMurray said. “We kind of anticipated this happening so when it came to fruition, we were prepared and ready.”