Making a statement

“Oh you should see the Colosseum, Spaniard,” said Oliver Reed’s character Proximo to Russell Crowe’s Maximus in the 2000 movie, “Gladiator.”

To many of the freshmen and other first-time competitors to the 2013 NSAA Track and Field Meet, it just may seem like the Colosseum in Rome 2,000-years-ago.

Today, hundreds of high-school athletes will or have already departed for Rome and the great Colosseum, here forward to be known as Burke Stadium in Omaha. There will be two days of games beginning tomorrow and concluding on Saturday. The Sun-Telegaph will go too. Complete with three photographers and...