Here Come The Monarchs!

Mercy High School has a nice gymnasium, sunk into the side of the school building.

One of my goals for 2015 has been to seek out any of my former St. Mary's of Bellevue basketball players I coached in fifth, sixth and seventh grade to watch them play their final season of high school ball.

After scouring the rosters, I found two players: Laura Cook and Emma Duman. Laura plays for Papillion-LaVista while Emma is at Mercy. With Mercy virtually "right up the street" and the Monarchs playing a home game Tuesday, I asked the girls if anyone wanted to go with me.

Only Olivia wanted to be a part of this photo.

Julia and Olivia were anxious to see what things were all about, so they joined me. Julia remarked that she wouldn't want to be a "Mercy Monarch" by pointing out that a butterfly can easily be swatted away or crushed. Olivia helped me check the program and figure out what other girls we knew (Nina Theiler, who played with Emily at St. Thomas More, was one of them).

Adding to the fun was the fact that school had already been called off for Wednesday (due to extremely cold conditions) and it was snowing when we drove up to Mercy and parked in the Holy Cross School parking lot. Knowing the girls wouldn't have to be up early the next day made for a nice, relaxed atmosphere.

Elkhorn was the opponent and from the get-go, it was apparent Mercy was going to have a tough time. But Emma got into the game in the first half and got about four minutes of playing time. We wouldn't see her again until the final 30 seconds or so. And though she didn't score, it was nice to see her out there hustling around. Her parents told me at halftime that she's played volleyball and basketball and run track every year. That's impressive considering I would not have forecast her to be one of my team's major athletes in high school.

Afterwards, Emma was surprised to learn I had come out to watch her. (Her parents were also startled and thought I had brought Julia and Olivia along to show them Mercy as a potential high school.) She said she didn't remember anything about her playing days for me but appreciated me coming out to watch her.

Emma stood on a bleacher step for this photo. She's listed at 5-foot-3.