Inside a dreary Lincoln East side gym, where the lights high above the court put off a yellow-ish hue, the Fort Calhoun boys basketball team called it a season Friday afternoon.
Moms, dads and grandparents took pictures of their Pioneers, while little kids lined up for their own time with their heroes like 6-foot-3 senior Zane Schwarz.
“It's awesome. It's what you play for,” the guard said in-between photo-ops. “Wins are great, but you know you're in a great community when fourth place feels like first.”
On the opposite side of a narrow hallway, inside East's main gym, FCHS lost its third-place Class C1 state tournament game to Kearney Catholic, 79-65. After an unforgettable 54-52 upset of top-seeded Wahoo on March 8, the Pioneers lost their next two games to Auburn and the Stars, closing a history-making campaign 21-7 overall.
“It's just amazing to see how our community still cares even after losing,” said Carsen Schwarz, Zane's twin brother. “We proved we belong here with everyone else.”
After a 99-year drought between state tournament appearances, Fort Calhoun left Lincoln with a fourth-place trophy and its winningest season in school history.
“It's been a hell of a ride,” Zane Schwarz said. “We can't thank everybody enough.”
“It was just great season,” senior Tyler Eastman added. “I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else.”
“We had a great crowd,” Owen Newbold said. “Great excitement. Great environment.”
“It's just a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Landon Miller concluded.
Many FCHS supporters chose to stand on the bleachers rather than sit Friday much like they had throughout the C1 state tournament. Though Kearney Catholic jumped out to a 14-6 lead, the Pioneers closed out the first period on an 8-0 run with Zane Schwarz and Glenn Hunter hitting 3-pointers and sophomore Grayson Bouwman sinking a 2.
“You can draw up all the great sets. You can draw up all the great plays,” coach TJ O'Connor said earlier in the week. “But, at the end of the day, the kids have to make plays and they've been doing it all year.”
The Stars (27-2 overall) had a definitive response, though. They took a stranglehold of the third-place game, going on a 26-2 sprint to start the second quarter.
Down 45-22 at the half, Calhoun cut its deficit to as little as 11 points in the third when Hunter hit another long-range shot — the Pioneers' fourth of the period. The momentum was short-lived, though, when Kearney Catholic's Turner Plugge hit his own 3-pointer and shushed the FCHS crowd ahead 56-42.
After 17 and 14 points, respectively, Bouwman and Zane Schwarz left the game during the fourth quarter alongside their fellow starters. Substitutes like Zach Nelson, Wyatt Appel and Declyn Otte took their places, getting into the scoring column at the state tournament.
Miller, a scout team senior, was the last Pioneer of the 2022 season to score a bucket. The 3-pointer was his first varsity make of the year.
The FCHS crowd celebrated it on their feet, though not quite as loud as when junior Austin Welchert hit his game-winning 3-pointer to sink Wahoo in the Pioneers' tournament opener three days earlier.
Auburn edges FCHS in OT
At the end of regulation a little more than 24 hours earlier at Pinnacle Bank Arena, Carsen Schwarz went to the foul line with 1.6 seconds remaining. Auburn led by two points Thursday, 37-35, and the Pioneers needed their senior post player to sink both shots he took.
“I was confident in him,” coach O'Connor said. “He's played a lot of ball.”
Minutes after Carsen delivered and pumped his fist toward his home crowd, Zane Schwarz went to the same charity stripe with 3 seconds to go in overtime, intending to go 1-for-2. FCHS was down three points, 48-45, and needed the ball back in play after their senior guard netted his first freebie.
Zane accomplished his objective, but the Bulldogs' 6-foot-5 forward, Bret Baltensperger, pulled down the game-sealing rebound the Pioneers sought.
Auburn won, 48-46, advancing to the Class C1 finals for the fourth-consecutive season. The run started in 2019 when the Bulldogs qualified for their first state tourney in 34 years, besting the then-freshmen Schwarz brothers and their FCHS teammates in the district final round.
Auburn coach Jim Week's slowdown strategy struck again a few years later as the Pioneers made their first tournament in nearly a century. O'Connor said his team's goal was to speed the Bulldogs up a bit, but circumstances on the floor would change its strategy early.
“We were really guarding them well,” he explained. “They were having a real hard time with our man (defense), which we thought they might.”
Fort Calhoun built a 10-5 first-period lead on a Zane Schwarz and-1 play, but it couldn't stay out of foul trouble. The Pioneers were forced to change course defensively because of it.
“We went zone to try and protect fouls there and we lost shooters a couple times,” O'Connor said.
Auburn made shots, tying the game at 10-all after one period and 18-18 after two.
Bouwman later broke another tie with a bucket in the lane as FCHS led after three quarters, 29-27.
Auburn and the Pioneers then traded leads during the fourth with Calhoun achieving the largest, 31-27, when Zane Schwarz hit a free-throw line jumper to start it.
FCHS later a 35-34 advantage with less than a minute remaining before the Bulldogs' Maverick Binder scored and was fouled. He made the subsequent free throw, giving his squad a two-point advantage until Carsen Schwarz delivered from the line and sent the teams to OT with 1.6 to go.
Auburn scored the first bucket of the extra period and led the rest of the way — all the way to the C1 title game.
O'Connor had the unenviable task of consoling his disappointed Pioneers.
“I just told them in there that I love them and that I'm proud of them,” he said. “This is their's and nobody can take it away from them. They're the best team in Fort Calhoun history.”
A special team
“I'll never forget how loud the crowd was,” Newbold said when it was all over at Lincoln East.
The Pioneers accomplished what no other FCHS boys basketball team had since 1923 and their supporters let them hear it.
“I'm just grateful for the opportunity to coach them and to coach with the guys that are our assistants,” O'Connor said. “It's a team effort. It's been a lot of fun coaching them.”
The admiration is mutual. Unsolicited, Zane Schwarz credited his coach for his work and just for being him.
“He's a great person,” the four-year starter said. “Truly a players' coach.”
The Pioneers are bonded.
“There's love on our team, absolutely,” O'Connor said. “They love each other and they know their coaches love them. They know we have their back no matter what.”
