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It wasn’t just once.
It wasn’t just twice, or even three times.
Instead, four years in a row Crane captured the class two state basketball championship.
Led by six seniors, the Lady Pirates became just the 5th team in state history to win four titles in a row.
But after their final win in 2016, those seniors went their separate ways and never planned to play together again.
But in sports, like in life, not everything goes as planned.
“I had mentioned to Shelby to come to an open gym shoot-around and she came and I loved it and the chemistry. I felt like we picked up right where we left off,” said Evangel junior Kylee Moore.
Moore committed to Evangel right out of high school. She convinced former Crane teammate Shelby Roder to re-join her after Roder’s time ended at a two-year college in Arkansas.
Then Roder did some recruiting of her own.
“I kind of reached out to Lex and said ‘I’m at Evangel, you should join you know,’” Roder said.
So another Crane graduate, Lexie Vaught, transferred from Drury to Evangel, bringing three members of the Crane dynasty back together.
Meanwhile, another piece of the dynasty was already close-by; playing for the Evangel volleyball team.
“So the three of us got to play together, and then over the season volleyball got done, and we were like ‘Emma, we’re playing too, what about you?,'” said Vaught said.
“After Lexie committed and Shelby had, we have like a group text and I texted them and I was like ‘okay guys, what the heck am I supposed to do now?,'” said Evangel junior Emma Lander. “And I just remember Lexie saying ‘Emma do whatever you want to do,’ and there was no pressure from them.”
Nearly three years removed from a torn knee ligament that ended her high school basketball career, Emma Lander was given the opportunity to play basketball again with three of her former Crane teammates.
“That first day [of practice] I loved it, I air-balled a lot of shots, I bricked a few I think. I couldn’t run up and down the floor but it was so fun, and I’ve loved it ever since,” Lander said.
Since then, the four-time state champions have helped the Crusaders to their best start in nearly a decade.
“It’s always nice as a coach to be able to get girls who have won and know how to win because that’s a culture that can be hard to be established especially when you’re coming into a situation when they’re not used to winning necessarily,” said Evangel Head Coach Megan Leuzinger.
The Crane girls hope to keep bringing those winning ways to the Crusaders, but for Lander it’s about more than just wins.
She knows her return to basketball and this Crane reunion almost never happened.
She’s refusing to take this chance for granted.
“That’s what I want to do, just never wish this game away, never wish this opportunity away, but just enjoy it for all it’s worth,” Lander said.
No matter what, there’s no question it will be worth getting back on the basketball court.
