Amie Just Lincoln Journal Star
Amie Just is the sports columnist at the Lincoln Journal Star, covering Nebraska athletics across football, volleyball, basketball, softball and other varsity programs. Her work stands out for its program-wide perspective and human-driven storytelling, using games, injuries, traditions and long-term projects to explain what is happening inside Nebraska’s teams rather than only the final score. She moves between breaking news, game columns, features and multi-part projects, keeping a steady focus on how players, coaches and histories shape the current moment for the Huskers.
Football columns and the “Cornhusker State” project
Just’s football coverage centers on the Nebraska program’s culture, decision-making and turning points, rather than only play-by-play analysis. In game columns such as her look at how miscues and penalties threaten to hold the Huskers back, she breaks down specific errors and then connects them to discipline, leadership and the team’s broader trajectory. Pieces like her picks for which Nebraska football players deserve single-digit jerseys use a seemingly small tradition to talk about identity, accountability and who sets the tone inside the locker room.
She also delivers hard news on the football beat, including breaking coverage of quarterback Dylan Raiola’s season-ending leg injury and player availability updates that are cited by national outlets. That mix of sourced injury reporting, pregame observations and postgame analysis gives her columns the feel of a beat reporter who also has license to step back and judge what those developments mean for the program. Her “Cornhusker State” project, which takes a road trip across the state to examine in-state players who built Nebraska football, shows how she uses special projects to explore the roots of the program and the place those players hold in its history.
Volleyball and basketball with a program-level lens
Just’s volleyball work mirrors her football coverage in its blend of tactical detail and program perspective. In her column on Nebraska’s sweep of Missouri in the restarted Wrigley Field match, she highlights individual brilliance, the spectacle of the setting and the looming impact of an injury to Laney Sigler, treating the match as both a moment of flair and a test of depth. Her award-winning portfolio includes coverage of the five-set loss that ended the No. 1 Nebraska volleyball team’s 33-match winning streak in the Elite Eight, using that defeat to examine momentum, expectations and how a dominant season can pivot in a single night.
She extends that program-level lens to basketball. A long profile of men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg, written 20 years after his open-heart surgery, focuses on how health, time and perspective shape his approach to coaching and life, turning a coach’s biography into a story about resilience and leadership. When she joins shows such as KLIN’s Husker Hour to talk about Nebrasketball’s first NCAA Tournament win, she brings courtside context and historical framing, treating the victory as a landmark in the program’s evolution rather than just a single upset.
Across these sports, she uses access to coaches and big-stage games to explore how Nebraska’s major programs manage pressure, success and transition.
Softball and multi-sport storytelling
Softball columns are a major part of Just’s recent work and show her instinct for mixing strategy, emotion and offbeat details.
In her coverage of Nebraska softball’s historic season and its push to “lock in” and make more history, she tracks the team’s achievements over the year and then looks ahead to how they must tighten their play to extend that run, keeping the focus on both performance and mindset. Other pieces, such as her column weighing Alexis Jensen versus Jordy Frahm in the circle, Ava Kuszak’s gift to her grandpa and the team’s steady bat, braid together pitching choices, family stories and hitting into one narrative about a program finding ways to sustain success.
Her preview of NCAA softball regional storylines, framed around Jordy Frahm’s “dream” and unexpected Coyotes from Nebraska, uses those particulars to sketch the stakes, personalities and oddities that define a postseason run.
Alongside those columns, she writes service pieces on how to watch Nebraska softball and baseball on a given day, showing an awareness that fans need both storytelling and practical information. Beyond softball, her portfolio includes a feature on wrestler Antrell Taylor, whose grief over the deaths of his father and brother fuels his push to become a national champion, underscoring her interest in the emotional core of individual athletes. Across sports, she has said she is trying to cover every program Nebraska offers because “good stories are everywhere,” and her columns reflect that commitment by moving outside the marquee teams into wrestling, baseball and emerging sports.
Columnist voice, background and recognition
Just returned to the Lincoln Journal Star in June 2022 to take on the sports columnist role, bringing with her a career that spans college and professional beats. Before focusing on Nebraska, she covered Montana football and high school sports, LSU football, basketball and gymnastics, and then the New Orleans Saints, building a portfolio that ranges from small-college fields to the National Football League. That breadth shows up in her Nebraska work, where she navigates everything from football recruiting and volleyball streaks to softball regionals and new ventures like women’s flag football with equal comfort.
Her reporting and columns have earned multiple honors, including first place in the Associated Press Sports Editors Division C team beat writing category for her Nebraska athletics portfolio. That winning entry bundled breaking news, game coverage, a deeply reported feature on Antrell Taylor and a reflective profile of Fred Hoiberg, confirming that her range is central to her identity as a columnist.
Professional bios note additional awards from national football writers’ organizations, features journalism groups and regional press associations, reinforcing that she is recognized for both news judgment and narrative skill. Across her tenure at the Lincoln Journal Star, Just has established a clear voice: she treats Nebraska athletics as an interconnected ecosystem, uses columns to interrogate what moments mean, and finds human stories in every corner of the department.
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