Spring Break Rough Draft

This is a rough draft for my Spring Break column about my trip and experience to Omaha for the Creighton-Kentucky NIT game.


After driving two and a half hours through high winds and tornadic thunderstorms, arriving at the much hyped Creighton Bluejays-Kentucky Wildcats basketball game seemed like a fitting end to a perfect storm of events to cap off a rather boring Spring break.

While most students enjoy exotic trips to South Padre or anywhere outside of Nebraska for that matter, I was stuck in Kearney for the majority of Spring Break working for the Tri-City Storm hockey team. After learning that my favorite basketball team, the Creighton Bluejays, would be hosting the all-time winningest program in NCAA history, the Kentucky Wildcats, I knew that I had to make a pilgrimage to the Qwest Center in Omaha to view a match-up that would almost never happen again.

Now, using my credentials as a sports photographer for The Antelope, I was able to take advantage of a couple of connections I had at Creighton and obtained a press pass to grace the court with my camera. I’m used to taking snap-shots at Division II games, but this would be by far the toughest assignment I had to date. The pure athleticism at the Division I level was going to be very difficult for a newbie.

I made the trip with a close friend and a friend of his, both of whom had tickets in the upper bowl, with myself having a seat within feet of the players. The journey there was perhaps the most difficult trip I have ever made from Kearney to Omaha, traveling through two thunderstorms and fighting winds of up to 60 miles per hour on the interstate.

The second storm we passed through followed us along the interstate and actually ended up dropping two tornadoes, one in Lincoln and one just past Omaha in Iowa. While waiting in a traffic jam in downtown Omaha, the storm had caught up with us, prompting a tornado warning, which sent people that were walking to the game into a full out sprint. We got inside before anything happened and everyone was ushered into the center of the Qwest Center.

After a short while, everyone was allowed into the arena and the spectacle began.

I entered the arena through the southeast corner and upon walking in, I took a look around in pure amazement. For as far as the eye could see, all you could see was blue and the word “Creighton” or “Bluejays”. Everyone knew the importance of this playoff match-up and the magnitude of this team visiting Omaha.

Even the god’s wrath of hell and fury from the skies couldn’t keep the Bluejay faithful from creating one of the most exciting atmospheres I have ever been a part of as a sports fan. There were students with paint all over, covering their faces as a type of war symbol, prepared to go into battle and fight for their team.

The first basket of the game was a three-point bucket from Creighton guard P’Allen Stinnett and the entire gym erupted in a thunderous explosion that put the small rumbling from the skies to shame.

Combining the energy of the student section and the electricity of the rest of the crowd, I found myself down on the court getting just as pumped up as the rest of them. It didn’t matter that this was just a college basketball game, people of all ages came and showed the rest of the country on national television that Omaha can create an atmosphere worthy of recognition.

Despite losing the game, the experience for me was one I will never forget, ranging from giving a high five to a player after he made a shot to a 70-year-old woman “raising the roof” during a timeout, the entire journey was worth risking my life on the road.