Last Shot for the Royals

Feb. 21, 2018, 6:45 a.m. ·

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Grace head coach Brandon Rogers talks to his team during a practice. (Photo by Mike Tobias, NET News)

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The women’s basketball team at tiny Grace University in Omaha has a winning record (16-13) and have qualified for regionals. But for the Royals this season is about a lot more than wins and losses.


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Head coach Brandon Rogers (R) and assistant John Gregurich (L) talk with players before the start of practice. (All photos by Mike Tobias, NET News)


One player's illness and injury left the Royals with just seven players for this practice.


Loretta Gamboe shoots during practice. She also serves as sports information director for the women's team.


Shawn Kliewer's relatives have been part of Grace University since the school opened in 1943.

Coach Brandon Rogers is going easy on his team during a Wednesday practice. A little shooting, working on some offensive and defensive sets, and a little running. They’ve just played four games in five days, including trips to Arkansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota. And on this night the eight person team is down to seven. One player is sick and injured.

“Let’s get better. Let’s get better today,” Rogers tells his team at the start of practice. “We have tomorrow off, give me a good 45 minutes or so today.”

(VIDEO: Watch the version of "Last Shot for the Royals" that airs on NET's "Nebraska Stories")

For every big money, high profile college sports program, there’s a tiny, low-profile Grace University. They compete in the National Christian College Athletic Association, and banners hanging on the walls of the gym show that they have won a few championships over the years. Unlike their major conference neighbors, Grace athletics doesn’t have things like showers with heated floors, lockers with built-in iPads, charter jets to games. The Royals travel in a rented 15-passenger van.

It’s a small Christian college that started the season with a new young coach and big dreams.

“Our goal is to get to regionals. It's never been done since we've joined the Division One in the NCCAA, so we're excited. We're hungry,” said Rogers, just a couple seasons removed from a standout playing career at a small college in Maine.

Then came a Tuesday morning in October. Loretta Gamboe was at daily chapel with a lot teammates, classmates and teachers. She remembers it was unusually packed, and she remembers what school administrator told the crowd.

“He announces that it's closing at the end of the year,” recalled Gamboe, a junior from Thornton, Colorado. “And just being like, ‘What? Wait. What? No, I'm supposed to graduate from here. I'm supposed to have my four years of basketball here.’”

Blaming low enrollment and financial challenges, Grace decided to shut down after this school year.

“Obviously that hit us all very out of the blue, none of us expected that by any means,” said Tschida Johnson, a junior from Wahoo. “Some days are hard. And it's, ‘Man, like this really sucks. What am I going to do next year?’ And helping each other through that.

“Then some days we joke about it, ‘Oh, our school is closing! What is going on?’ And we make light of it,” Johnson added, laughing. “One of our trips, at the hotel, we were joking about setting up a GoFundMe account, because all of us are like ‘well, now we don’t have a school to go to next year.’”

“Coach will park in two parking spots with our van on trips and be like, ‘Oh, it's okay. Our school's closing,’” Gamboe joked.

“It is dark humor. Very dark humor,” Johnson said.

The players talk about it sometimes while hanging out in their coach’s office or on trips. But most of the time they’re just college kids having fun and playing a game they love.

"It's been bittersweet," said Marissa Brown, a junior who just transferred to Grace this season from a junior college in California. "It's sweet because we're getting closer and we're like "oh you know, let's leave a legacy kind of.' It's bitter because you're getting close to these girls and 'am I going to see you again next year?'"

The Royals are playing with a sense of responsibility to leave a lasting memory of Grace athletics. Because now they’re the only team left on campus.

Empty shelves and marks on the wall where pictures used to hang surround Shawn Kliewer in his office. He was men’s basketball coach at Grace. But he never had a team this year. For various reasons closure led to cancelling the men’s season. So instead of leading a team he felt could compete for a national championship in another year, he’s teaching a couple classes and finding new homes for his players.

“Because I felt like there’s one last thing I can do for my guys, and that’s help them get placed at another school,” said Kliewer, who was also assistant athletic director.

Kliewer played basketball at Grace. He coached the women’s team for a while. His parents met here. Relatives went here when the school started in 1943. Now he and the handful of other Grace athletic staffers are doing something they’ve never done. Trying to figure out how you end an athletic program.

“Everybody wonders that because this is a first for everybody,” Kliewer said. “How do you close a school? How do you close a program? And we are figuring it out as we go because nobody's ever done this before.”

Trophy cases line the walls outside Kliewer’s office. So do “memorabilia sign-up sheets.”

“People are signing up. We're giving out old uniforms, basketballs, and what not, just so people can have a piece of Grace so they can remember it in a positive way,” he said.

“It is very sad and it hits me at random moments.”

Women’s coach Brandon Rogers and his Royals know more about their next game and next opponent than they do about next year. And they’re okay with that.

“It’s something incredible, because everyone's fighting for something right now. You know what I mean? We're fighting for next year, the unknown. We don't know what it is, but we all are doing it together,” Rogers said.

His players are all sophomores and juniors. That means when the doors close at Grace in May they’ll head different directions to finish school. Some also want to keep playing ball somewhere. Right now they’re teammates bonded by basketball, faith and a strange, stressful situation they take in stride.

“There's nothing we can do to change it so, just enjoy the time we have now,” said Brown, who is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“God is good. I know that he has a plan for it, and he’s going to take care of all of us,” Gamboe said.

“It's definitely brought it closer together, and now we really take every game to heart,” Johnson added. “You know before, we were all really looking forward to next season. And ‘oh yeah, this season is great but next season will be even better.’ And now, there is no next season.”

But there are a few more practices. Maybe a few games in the postseason. A few more chances to make lasting memories. The stories of funny things on long bus trips that linger a lot longer than game scores.

A last chance to make the last chapter of Grace University sports history a good one.

"This is the last sports team that's playing," Rogers said. "We're doing this together, and we rallied around each other. We all wanted to finish the season for a reason, and I think we have something special to end this year."

As the Wednesday night practice ended, Rogers gathered his team at mid-court for some last coaching. They tightened their small circle, each putting a hand up in the middle. Rogers left them with this message.

“Let’s finish on a good note. Big things coming. Family on three. One, two, three...”

“Family,” the Royals replied in unison.