Mention the importance of Wyoming American Legion baseball to Nebraska coach Mike Anderson, and he'll cut you off before you can even finish the question.

"Oh yeah, I know," Anderson said. "You bet."

Of course he does. After all, Anderson attended high school in Eaton, Colo., which gave him a number of chances to come up and face Wyoming teams. Later on, he coached Legion baseball in Greeley, Colo., making him plenty familiar with how the game was played throughout the entire Rocky Mountain region.

So when Anderson started recruiting Cheyenne Central's Bryce Nimmo, it didn't matter that Nimmo hadn't played organized high school baseball. When Anderson saw the statistics Nimmo was piling up, it didn't matter that they were coming in the country's most sparsely populated state.

All that mattered was this: Nimmo could flat-out play baseball.

Fast forward two years, and that's exactly what Nimmo is doing for Anderson's Cornhuskers.

Only a sophomore, Nimmo is proving Anderson's recruiting instincts right. The leadoff hitter and starting centerfielder for Nebraska, Nimmo is a key reason why the 'Huskers were 36-8 and ranked No. 5 nationally entering Monday night's game at Oklahoma State.

In 42 games this year, all starts, Nimmo is hitting .304 with three home runs, 21 runs batted in, 37 runs scored, and leads Nebraska with 22 walks and 16 stolen bases. All of those numbers are better than last year, when he came off the bench and hit just .207.

"This year's been a great year," Nimmo said. "It's been a great leap, the team's had a lot of success, and it's been a lot of fun."

As one of only three states that doesn't sponsor high school baseball (Montana and South Dakota are the other two), Wyoming can present college coaches with some obstacles when recruiting players.

"Obviously, you'd love to have him play high school baseball where they get more at-bats, more experience, more of all those things," Anderson said.

For Nimmo, that wasn't an option. But that didn't make Anderson hesitant to go after the speedster. Instead, Anderson used his knowledge of local Legion baseball - and his friendship with Cheyenne Legion coach Tagg Lain - to realize the sort of player Nimmo could be.

Of course, Nimmo's career marks with the Post 6 team didn't hurt, either.

Nimmo holds Cheyenne career records in batting average (.456), hits (525), RBI (334), runs (484), stolen bases (188), doubles (120), triples (43), home runs (32) and walks (212), led his team to four consecutive state championships and twice was named MVP of the state tournament.

"If you look at our program, we've got small-town kids from Iowa and South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, Cheyenne," Anderson said. "They're good athletes; they're just maybe in need of a little more time to get adjusted to the Division I game. But once they do, they bring that small-town atmosphere, that love of the team and love of the game. That's what Bryce has done. His character is just outstanding. He's doing everything he can to help this team win.

"You learn that by playing for Cheyenne. You learn that by having a sense of community and understanding what the Legion post is all about."

And what is that all about? Anderson likes to tell a story about when a local news outlet came and asked a number of players which of their teammates' help they would most like to have during finals week.

"The overwhelming answer was Bryce Nimmo," Anderson said. "He's just everything you want in a student-athlete. Great leader, great role model, just unselfish. He's everything we want in a ballplayer here at Nebraska."

The ever-humble Nimmo, however, simply took that information in stride.

"I'm just pleased to be a part of this this team," Nimmo said. "I love all these guys. To have their respect like that, it's quite a tribute."

Contact sports reporter Robert Crow at (307) 266-0634 or robert.crow@casperstartribune.net