Lady O riding district final momentum into state tournament

BEATRICE, Neb. - After playing a district final with the same five players the entire 32 minutes and overtime, the Beatrice Lady Orange have found their way back to the state tournament. 

“Credit to our girls,” Head Coach Jalen Weeks said. “They’ve been locked in, they’ve worked through some adversity… Kylie Hatcliff has been awesome for us all year before and after her injury and our girls have done a good job playing hard and playing for her a little bit.”

Known by some as the “Fearless Five”, Beatrice starters Callie Schwisow, Brooke and Sophie Gleason, Miley Loomis and Tatum Tempelmeyer have come together to help Beatrice to an 18-6 season and a trip back to Lincoln. All after leading scorer Kylie Hatcliff suffered a third knee injury in January. 

To get to Lincoln, Beatrice knocked off Skutt Catholic thanks to 34 of their 38 points coming from Callie Schwisow. 

“It was surreal, I just drove the ball and took what they gave me,” Schwisow said. “I also used my physicality to my advantage and did my thing.”

“It was incredible,” Weeks said. “Haven’t seen many performance like that. She’s a kid who’s going to empty the tank on both sides of the ball eveyrtime she goes out. It’s just remarkable and speaks to a lot of her toughness.”

That toughness was on full display - and Schwisow paid the price. 

“Ive honestly never been so sore in my life,” Schwisow said. “Been recovering the past few days, treating my body well and getting good sleep.”

As the six seed in Class B, Beatrice takes on Pius at 7:45 Thursday night in Lincoln. Jalen Weeks says the team goal is not to have that thrilling district final, be their last win. 

“It’s kind of the line where you’re making sure you’re ready to go and taking it one game at a time and leaving it all out on the floor,” Weeks said. “It’s been fun, we’ve gotten a lot out of the season, but it sure would be a heck of a lot more fun to win some more games.”