the
Lance
In-depth To be or not to be politically correct? Read pages 9-12.
8701 Pacific St. Omaha, NE 68114 Volume 60 Issue 5
January 29, 2016
“Liv”ing ON
Basketball team plays game in memoriam
N A TA W A R D
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF For two years, the varsity girls basketball team has played the Bellevue East game for Olivia. On Tuesday, Jan. 5, Olivia’s picture was printed across the white t-shirts that all members of the varsity squad wore for warm-ups. Her memory was everywhere, in the mind of every player on the court and the parents and spectators in the stands. It was her name that basketball captain senior Lynsey Curran called when they went in for the huddle. The pre-game ritual involved laying on the floor by their bench, heads together, a circle. This was the time for talking. All 12 varsity players look at the captains: senior Bridget Mizener, sophomore Quinn Weidemann, and Curran. “Let’s do this for Olivia,” Curran said. They cheered. There was a lot riding on this game. There was a lot of pressure to play for the girl who had died, suddenly and unexpectedly, in the summer of 2013 of a brain aneurysm. This was the second year the team had put on a memorial for Olivia during the Bellevue East game, because the Bellevue coach and the girls on his team knew Olivia too. But this year, Olivia McGinnis-Taylor would’ve been a freshman at Westside, and, in all likelihood, on the varsity roster, according to her friends. The team felt her loss more strongly now. Curran had helped Olivia at basketball summer camp once and remembered her determination and dedication to others. “She was really good,” Curran said. “But she didn’t think of herself like that, so she was always
working and bringing people up with her.” Thinking of Olivia didn’t make Curran play any different, but it made her perspective shift. Her standards for herself were the same — extremely high — but now she didn’t just want to exceed them, she had to. She was playing for something bigger than herself. “It’s hard to play that game because both of us teams are trying to playing for her,” Curran said. “So, it was really sad because of that, and [then]… I, personally, wasn’t playing very good…I was the one who said, ‘Let’s play this for Olivia,’ and I wasn’t living up to that. I wasn’t playing SENIOR my game. I was frustrated with that.” The entire team started off rough; their shots were off, something just wasn’t clicking. At half time, the girls knew that something had to change. The audience, among them Olivia’s family and friends, could feel the tension. As the team left the court, and people began to move around to concessions or to the bathroom, someone started crying. It was freshman Elizabeth Robinson, and other girls immediately came to console her. Robinson, seeing the swatch of white memorial shirts around her, had realized
LY NSEY C U R R A N
suddenly what this game truly meant. Her best friend was dead. The members of the JV team who knew Olivia were given the same white warm-up shirts the varsity squad had, and Robinson was among them. The 15-year-old let her friends and teammates hold her as she cried. It had been two years, but it still hurt. Seeing all the people who cared so deeply about Olivia made the tears start all over again. Olivia and Robinson met at basketball tryouts in elementary school, when Olivia was the only one to approach the new girl Robinson during a drill. “Hi, I’m Olivia, do you want to be my partner?” Then they were inseparable. They hung out whenever they could and went swimming together and threw Olivia’s little sister, Jasmine, into the pool. On the court, Olivia was everything Robinson wanted to be: smart, strong and talented. She always knew where to pass the ball, when to make a play and where everyone was at all times. Without her, basketball was empty. Watching any varsity game was hard for Robinson. Playing any basketball, period, was hard. continued on page 2
“It’s hard to play that game because both of us teams are trying to play for her.”
Senior Lynsey Curran and freshman Lizzie Robinson pose in their t-shirts memorializing Olivia McGinnis-Taylor, Wednesday, Jan. 27. Olivia was going to be a freshman, most likely on varsity basketball, before she suddenly died of a brain aneurysm two years ago. Photo by Mitch Francis