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. It is a story about group and a crew that has revealed, by its resilience and battle to honor a misplaced chief, what the very best of sports activities seems to be like.
Wednesday night time at Pinnacle Financial institution Enviornment in Lincoln, Neb., Gretna Excessive Faculty will play a first-round sport within the Class A boys state event in opposition to Millard North.
Brad Feeken coached the Dragons to win. He coached them with a ardour 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 Cook 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 good, Feeken would assist it discover the web.
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, mother and father, academics and supporters in Gretna ready to carry the crew up.
It has unfolded simply the other — with these seniors inspiring a group seeking solutions.
“They simply hold displaying up,” stated Travis Lightle, the Gretna Public Faculties 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 while you watch them, they’re taking part in precisely how he would need.
“They’re not indignant. They’re not bitter. They simply proceed to do the proper 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 crew when his previous faculty teammate grew too sick to teach.
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 teach each sports activities as his two kids progress by highschool.
Feeken received two state titles in 21 years as the top coach, however he impacted extra lives in Gretna as a seventh-grade studying trainer. My daughter realized about life in his classroom 4 years in the past. Few academics meant extra to her.
My son attended his basketball camps. Feeken’s groups embodied his energetic persona. This piece written by Dirk Chatelain superbly captures the Feeken spirit.
When he received sick, the group 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 brief discover. If there had been room, I’ve little doubt extra folks than reside 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 ultimate weeks, Feeken linked with Brad Stevens, normal 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 not like something I’ve skilled — a mixture of disbelief, heartbreak and resolve.
In a high 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 informed me this week.
Gretna jumped to a 15-point lead at halftime in opposition to Papillion-LaVista South, then noticed it disappear as the burden of the second took maintain.
“We’ll by no means play in a sport like that once more,” Pokorski stated. “It nonetheless hasn’t totally hit me how laborious that day was, how laborious 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 crew, these guys all hugging out on the court docket and crying, I do know they did it for Brad, what he meant for these children,” Hoiberg stated. “It was emotional. I received 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 night time. 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 stated, Feeken preached to them in regards to the significance of “doing laborious 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 stated. “However basketball was actually vital as a result of it’s the place the place all of us received 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 seek 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. Recently, she’s reminded the seniors that they’re prepared for no matter life presents.
“Every little thing has been laborious for them,” she stated. “It helps me. They’re telling me that they prefer it, so I hope it helps them, too.”
The Dragons received 9 consecutive video games earlier than a three-point defeat within the regular-season finale in opposition to top-ranked Bellevue West. The loss knocked Gretna from a number 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 type of night time. And once more, the Dragons confirmed their energy.
Late within the district ultimate, crowd noise shook the ground. Gretna received 65-63 to safe a visit to the state event as a Kearney halfcourt heave on the buzzer hit the rim.
Conceivably, no crew 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 web 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 stated.
Likewise, Heard stated, the state event typically elicits exaggerated feelings.
Gretna, in seasons previous, has felt the postseason strain. Final yr in Lincoln, Millard North beat the Dragons within the semifinal spherical. Officers waved off a Pokorski bucket within the ultimate seconds. Video of the play reveals 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 in opposition to Millard North looms of their minds, Pokorski stated.
However strain for Gretna? Not an opportunity with this crew.
“Once you’ve been by what we’ve been by off the court docket,” stated Pokorski, the unflappable level guard set to play at Southwest Minnesota State, “it tends to make basketball just a little simpler. What we had been supposed to do that yr, we already did.
“Our objective was manner larger than basketball.”
(Prime photograph of Invoice Heard and Gretna’s 5 senior starters (seated), courtesy of Nicole Stuchlik)
