GRETNA, Neb. — This isn’t a narrative about highschool basketball. It’s not a few treasured coach who died halfway by a season. It’s not a narrative of redemption, sorrow or achievement.
It’s about togetherness. This can be a story about neighborhood and a workforce that has revealed, by its resilience and struggle to honor a misplaced chief, what the very best of sports activities appears like.
Wednesday evening at Pinnacle Financial institution Area in Lincoln, Neb., Gretna Excessive Faculty will play a first-round sport within the Class A boys state event towards Millard North.
Brad Feeken coached the Dragons to win. He coached them with a passion recognized round Nebraska. His demise at age 48 on Dec. 30, 2023, after a battle of greater than two years with neuroendocrine most cancers marked a brand new chapter for his gamers.
Gretna begins 5 seniors and brings two others off the bench. Landon Pokorski, Alex Wilcoxson, Alec Wilkins, Kade Prepare dinner, Joey Vieth, Chase Doble and Avery Schendt have already secured their legacies. This week issues little for the way they’ll be remembered — and nonetheless, it means a lot for them to reach on this place on the state event after months of ache.
On the morning Feeken died, Gretna’s gamers and coaches gathered at their highschool. They felt extra geared up to maneuver ahead as a gaggle reasonably than individually. The schedule confirmed a sport later that day within the quarterfinals of the Metro Convention vacation event.
The Dragons selected to play. 9 hours later in an emotionally charged gymnasium, Pokorski sank a game-winning buzzer-beater. He pointed a finger skyward as teammates mobbed him. Pokorski believed that if he lofted the ball excellent, Feeken would assist it discover the online.
Couldn’t have written it higher. #Gretna (@gretnabball) upsets Papio South on a buzzer-beater through senior @LandonPokorski simply over 12 hours after #Dragons head coach Brad Feeken handed away 🏀🐉💚
@GEHSGriffins @WOWT6News#nebpreps #ForFeek pic.twitter.com/TMu09zUnw9— Grace Boyles (@GraceBBoyles) December 31, 2023
From that second, the boys confirmed the way in which. As Feeken’s situation worsened final fall, dad and mom, lecturers and supporters in Gretna ready to carry the workforce up.
It has unfolded simply the alternative — with these seniors inspiring a neighborhood in quest of solutions.
“They simply hold exhibiting up,” mentioned Travis Lightle, the Gretna Public Colleges superintendent. “They simply present up. They’re there for one another. With how they deal with the followers, the little children, they are saying, ‘That is what (Feeken) would need us to do.’ And if you watch them, they’re enjoying precisely how he would need.
“They’re not indignant. They’re not bitter. They simply proceed to do the fitting issues.”
My view on Gretna basketball is skewed. I’m biased. Too near it, too invested.
I resisted for months to the touch this story professionally. However final week, one thing modified. I’ll get to that.
First, some background. I’ve lived in Gretna with my spouse Shannon since 2005. Each of our youngsters had been born right here. They’ve grown up as a part of this swelling suburb southwest of Omaha that’s nonetheless sufficiently small to foster an attachment.
Ten years in the past, I coached T-ball with Invoice Heard. His daughter was 6. Mine was 7. A longtime assistant on Feeken’s Gretna bench, Heard took over the basketball workforce when his previous school teammate grew too sick to educate.
He has mourned the lack of his finest buddy for the previous 9 weeks. Heard additionally runs the Gretna softball program, and he plans to educate each sports activities as his two kids progress by highschool.
Feeken gained two state titles in 21 years as the top coach, however he impacted extra lives in Gretna as a seventh-grade studying instructor. My daughter discovered about life in his classroom 4 years in the past. Few lecturers meant extra to her.
My son attended his basketball camps. Feeken’s groups embodied his vigorous persona. This piece written by Dirk Chatelain beautifully captures the Feeken spirit.
When he acquired sick, the neighborhood rallied behind the coach, his spouse, Jenny, and their kids, Rylinn, 13, Maylee, 11, and John, who turned 7 final month.
This was the scene two weeks in the past for an occasion put collectively on quick discover. If there had been room, I’ve little doubt extra individuals than dwell in all of Gretna would have proven as much as assist Feeken and his household. pic.twitter.com/0dobg200TO
— Mitch Sherman (@mitchsherman) December 30, 2023
In his remaining weeks, Feeken linked with Brad Stevens, basic supervisor and former coach of his beloved Boston Celtics. Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg and Creighton’s Greg McDermott voiced their admiration for Feeken.
As phrase unfold of Feeken’s demise, my household, like many others, felt referred to as on Dec. 30 to attend the Dragons’ Metro Convention event sport. In that health club at Omaha Creighton Prep, the second of silence and pregame tribute to Feeken added to a temper in contrast to something I’ve skilled — a mixture of disbelief, heartbreak and resolve.
In a prime nook of the seating space, Hoiberg watched.
“It actually was one of many extra particular video games that I’ve witnessed in individual,” the Nebraska coach instructed me this week.
Gretna jumped to a 15-point lead at halftime towards Papillion-LaVista South, then noticed it disappear as the load of the second took maintain.
“We’ll by no means play in a sport like that once more,” Pokorski mentioned. “It nonetheless hasn’t absolutely hit me how arduous that day was, how arduous that sport was.”
When Pokorski drove to the baseline within the final seconds, with Gretna down 48-47, Hoiberg predicted out loud that the shot would fall.
A city held its breath.
“To see the response of the workforce, these guys all hugging out on the courtroom and crying, I do know they did it for Brad, what he meant for these children,” Hoiberg mentioned. “It was emotional. I acquired a tear in my eye.”
He was removed from alone.
The Dragons with Feeken daughters Rylinn, 13 (left) and Maylee, 11, after Gretna’s 65-63 win at Kearney to clinch a berth within the state event. (Courtesy of Angie Wilcoxson)
The tears didn’t cease on that Saturday evening. 9 days after Feeken died, Rylinn, his older daughter, delivered a tribute to her father at his memorial service.
Heard eulogized Feeken. Pokorski and Wilcoxson spoke to his legacy. For years, they mentioned, Feeken preached to them concerning the significance of “doing arduous issues.”
Three of Gretna’s 5 losses this season got here within the first 18 days of January. It was a tough time.
“Basketball was secondary,” Heard mentioned. “However basketball was actually vital as a result of it’s the place the place all of us acquired to be collectively. It was evident that the children wanted it. I wanted it.”
Feeken famously left motivational messages on sticky notes for his gamers to search out. In January, Jenny Feeken took his place, sending textual content messages to the seven Gretna seniors.
They obtain snippets from “Pound the Stone: 7 Classes to Develop Grit on the Path to Mastery,” a e-book that Jenny is studying with Rylinn and Maylee.
The frequency of her messages elevated final month as event time neared. Currently, she’s reminded the seniors that they’re prepared for no matter life presents.
“All the pieces has been arduous for them,” she mentioned. “It helps me. They’re telling me that they prefer it, so I hope it helps them, too.”
The Dragons gained 9 consecutive video games earlier than a three-point defeat within the regular-season finale towards top-ranked Bellevue West. The loss knocked Gretna from a bunch place in state-tournament qualifying district play and arrange a Feb. 27 journey to Kearney Excessive Faculty in central Nebraska.
In Kearney’s hornet’s nest of a 3,000-seat health club, the trail of this season modified for Gretna. Basketball got here roaring again to the forefront. One other chapter started. It was Feeken’s sort of evening. And once more, the Dragons confirmed their power.
Late within the district remaining, crowd noise shook the ground. Gretna gained 65-63 to safe a visit to the state event as a Kearney halfcourt heave at the buzzer hit the rim.
Conceivably, no workforce within the state might have dealt with that wild atmosphere in addition to Gretna. Within the celebration, Rylinn and Maylee minimize the ultimate strands of the online from the edges. The nets went again to Gretna with the women.
“Simply a type of moments that’s a lot larger than a ball sport,” Heard mentioned.
Likewise, Heard mentioned, the state event typically elicits exaggerated feelings.
Gretna, in seasons previous, has felt the postseason strain. Final 12 months in Lincoln, Millard North beat the Dragons within the semifinal spherical. Officers waved off a Pokorski bucket within the remaining seconds. Video of the play exhibits Feeken, stomping towards the motion earlier than Millard North held on to win 54-52.
The identical Mustangs eradicated Gretna two years in the past within the semifinals and in 2021 district play. The Dragons’ historical past towards Millard North looms of their minds, Pokorski mentioned.
However strain for Gretna? Not an opportunity with this workforce.
“While you’ve been by what we’ve been by off the courtroom,” mentioned Pokorski, the unflappable level guard set to play at Southwest Minnesota State, “it tends to make basketball somewhat simpler. What we had been supposed to do that 12 months, we already did.
“Our goal was method larger than basketball.”
(Prime picture of Invoice Heard and Gretna’s 5 senior starters (seated), courtesy of Nicole Stuchlik)
