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Gretna, Neb. – This is not a story about high school basketball. This isn’t about the treasured coach who died in the middle of the season. This is not a story of redemption, sorrow or achievement.
It’s about solidarity. This is a story about community and a team that, through its resilience and the fight to honor a lost leader, has revealed what the best sport looks like.
On Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb., Gretna High School will play a first-round game against Millard North in the Class A boys state tournament.
Brad Feeken coached the Dragons to victory. He coached them with the passion he famously had at Nebraska. His death at the age of 48 on December 30, 2023, after a more than two-year battle with neuroendocrine cancer, marked a new chapter for his players.
Gretna starts five seniors and brings two others off the bench. Landon Pokorski, Alex Wilcoxon, Alec Wilkins, Cade Cook, Joey Vieth, Chase Doble and Avery Schendt have already secured their legacies. This week means little to how they will be remembered — and yet, it means a lot to them to get into this position at the state tournament after months of pain.
The morning Feeken died, Gretna players and coaches gathered at his high school. They felt more able to move forward as a group rather than individually. The schedule featured a game in the quarterfinals of the Metro Conference Holiday Tournament later that day.
The Dragons chose to play. Nine hours later, in an emotionally charged gymnasium, Pokorski hit the game-winning buzzer-beater. As teammates surrounded him, he raised his finger to the sky. Pokorski believed that if he bounced the ball correctly, Feekanen would help him get it to the net.
It couldn’t have been written better than this. #gretna ,@gretnabball) Papio upsets South on buzzer-beater through senior @LandonPokorski exactly after more than 12 hours #dragons Head coach Brad Feiken passes away 🏀🐉💚
@GEHSgriffins @WOWT6News#nebpreps #forfake pic.twitter.com/TMu09zUnw9– Grace Boyles (@GraceBBoyles) 31 December 2023
From that moment on, the boys led the way. Parents, teachers and supporters in Gretna rallied to support the team last fall when Feeken’s condition worsened.
It’s turned out to be just the opposite – with seniors inspiring a community in search of answers.
“They just keep showing up,” said Gretna Public Schools Superintendent Travis Lightley. “They just show up. They are there for each other. On how they treat the fans, the little kids, he says, ‘It’s what (Fecken) wants us to do.’ And when you watch them, they’re playing exactly how they want to.
“They are not angry. They are not bitter. They just keep doing the right thing.”
My perspective on Gretna basketball is odd. I’m biased. Very close to it, very invested.
I resisted touching this story professionally for months. But last week, something changed. I will reach there.
First, some background. I have lived in Gretna with my wife, Shannon, since 2005. Both our children were born here. They grew up in a part of Omaha’s southwestern suburbs that is still small enough to foster attachment.
Ten years ago, I coached T-ball with Bill Hurd. His daughter was 6 years old. My daughter was 7 years old. Feeken’s longtime assistant on the Gretna bench, Hurd took charge of the basketball team when his old college teammate became too ill to coach.
He has been mourning the loss of his best friend for the past nine weeks. Hurd also runs the Gretna softball program, and he plans to coach both sports as his two children move up to high school.
Feeken won two state titles in 21 years as head coach, but he impacted Gretna’s life more as a seventh-grade reading teacher. My daughter learned about life in her class four years ago. Some teachers meant more to him.
My son attended their basketball camp. Feeken’s teams embodied his vibrant personality. This work by Dirk Chatelain beautifully captures the Façade sentiment.
When he became ill, the community rallied behind the coach, his wife, Jenny, and their children, Rylin, 13, Maylee, 11, and John, who turned 7 last month.
The scene was of an event organized at short notice two weeks ago. If there were room, I have no doubt that more people than all the residents of Gretna would have come out to support Feeken and his family. pic.twitter.com/0dobg200TO
– Mitch Sherman (@mitchsherman) 30 December 2023
In his final weeks, Feiken remained connected to his beloved Boston Celtics general manager and former coach Brad Stevens. Nebraska coaches Fred Hoiberg and Creighton’s Greg McDermott praised Feiken.
As news of Feiken’s death spread, my family, like many others, was called to attend the Dragons’ Metro Conference tournament game on December 30. In that gym at Omaha Creighton Prep, the moment of silence and pregame tribute to Feiken created a mood unlike anything I had ever experienced – a mix of disbelief, heartbreak and determination.
In the top corner of the seating area, Hoiberg looked.
“Honestly it was one of the more special games I’ve seen in person,” the Nebraska coach told me this week.
Gretna took a 15-point lead into halftime against Papillion-LaVista South, but it vanished as the weight of the moment mounted.
Pokorski said, “We will never play a game like this again.” “It still doesn’t fully sink in for me how hard that day was, how hard that game was.”
When Pokorski drove to the baseline in the final seconds with Gretna trailing 48–47, Hoiberg loudly predicted the shot would fall.
A city held its breath.
“To see the team’s reaction, all those guys on the court hugging and crying, I know they did it for Brad, how much he meant to those kids,” Hoiberg said. “It was emotional. Tears welled up in my eyes.”
He was far from alone.
The Dragons with daughters Rylin, 13 (left) and Maylee, 11, to clinch a berth in the state tournament after Gretna’s 65-63 win in Kearney. (Courtesy of Angie Wilcoxon)
The tears didn’t stop that Saturday night. Nine days after Feiken’s death, his elder daughter Rilin paid tribute to her father at his memorial service.
Heard Feiken’s praise. Pokorski and Wilcoxon talked about their legacies. For years, he said, Feeken preached to him about the importance of “working hard.”
Three of Gretna’s five losses this season came in the first 18 days of January. It was a difficult time.
“Basketball was secondary,” Hurd said. “But basketball was really important because it’s where we all had to be together. It was clear that the children needed it. I needed it.”
Feeken famously left motivational messages on sticky notes for his players. In January, Jenny Feeken took her place by sending text messages to seven Gretna seniors.
They receive excerpts from a book titled “Pound the Stone: 7 Lessons to Develop Grit on the Path to Mastery”, which Jenny is reading with Rylin and Maylee.
The frequency of his messages increased last month as the tournament approached. Recently, she reminded seniors to be prepared for whatever life throws at them.
“Everything has been difficult for them,” she said. “It helps me. They’re telling me they like it, so I hope it helps them too.”
The Dragons won nine consecutive games before suffering a three-point loss in the regular season finale against top-ranked Bellevue West. The loss eliminated Gretna from hosting in state-tournament qualifying district play and set up a trip to Kearney High School of Central Nebraska on February 27.
In the 3,000-seat Jim Kearney’s Hornet’s Nest, this season changed for Gretna. Basketball came to the forefront again. Another chapter began. It was Feeken’s kind of night. And again, the dragons showed their might.
Crowd noise shook the field late at night in the district finals. Gretna won 65-63 to seal its trip to the state tournament as Kearney heaved at halfcourt at the rim at the buzzer.
Possibly, no team in the state could handle that wild environment like Gretna. In celebration, Rylin and Maylee cut the last threads of the net from the rims. Jaal took the girls and went back to Gretna.
“This is one of those moments that’s bigger than the ball game,” Hurd said.
Similarly, Hurd said, the state tournament often generates exaggerated emotions.
Gretna has felt postseason pressure in past seasons. Last year in Lincoln, Millard North defeated the Dragons in the semifinal round. The officials flagged Pokorski’s bucket in the final seconds. Video of the play shows Feiken moving into action before Millard North secured the 54-52 win.
The same Mustangs that ousted Gretna in the semifinals and 2021 district play two years ago. Pokorski said the Dragons’ history against Millard North plays in his mind.
But pressure for Gretna? Not a chance with this team.
“When you’ve gone through what we’ve gone through off the court, it makes basketball a little easier,” said Pokorski, an unflappable point guard who is set to play at Southwestern Minnesota State. “What we have to do this year. We have already done what was required.
“Our purpose was bigger than basketball.”
(Top photo of Bill Hurd and Gretna’s five senior starters (seated), courtesy of Nicole Stuklik)
