Nebraska Video.

Whenever someone hears the word tornado, Nebraska among other things is what first comes to mind. The Midwest is well known for their weird weather conditions and freaky tornado sightings and touches.
I went to Westgate Elementary. In 1967, so years before I was there, a huge tornado swept through Omaha.It went right past my neighborhood and headed straight for the school I would attend in the future. The school was completely destroyed and so it was rebuilt from the ground up. Now, the new renovation has an underground tornado shelter, which still has yet to be used for real. All schools hear the tornado sirens go off and all of the students head to the bathroom or to a far off corner of the classroom away from the windows. I bet it feels real safe. I on the other hand, got to go down to a basement with everyone from the school and wait out the storm.
Through the 7 years I was there I was only down in that shelter once. Once was enough though. The sirens went off and the whole school headed down there. Since we were all so young the teachers couldn’t leave us to just sit there and wait it out. There were many kids crying and very worried for what was going to happen. For three hours down in that shelter we sang songs, played games and did anything to keep our minds off the storm. It was then that I played the longest game of telephone ever in the history of telephone.
If you have lived in Nebraska you would know that tornados hardly ever actually touch the ground. (Knock on wood) This was the case here too. The weather was bad though. When we got out we went outside to see our school looking very different than it had that same morning. Trees were all over the neighborhood; everything was wet, blown over and damaged.

Today was the big day. Wesleyan’s arch rival school Doane was playing the women’s soccer team today-at home. Tensions were high and endorphins were wild. I walked up to the Weary Center and grabbed the door with my sweaty palms. I had been part of big games before but this one was different. As I get closer to the locker room I can hear a lot of noise coming from inside. Our boom box is cranked up as high as it can go to match the enthusiasm all of us had for the game.
The locker room is insane. Girls are putting on the uniform, some are dancing and some are kicking a soccer ball around. Some are laughing and having a good time, others have complete looks of concentration on their faces. The smell of old soccer gear mixed with perfume fills the room. I get greeted as soon as I walk in but then immediately join them in getting ready.
We get all settled in and the coach comes in for her pre-game speech. We all come in close and sit in a circle around her paying real close attention. She looks nervous. Excited nervous though. She’s ready for us to play and ready for us to do what we know we can do. She scribbles all over the dry erase board our starting line up and then draws a big number 17 with an “x” through it. That girl is to not touch the ball.
We march out on the field to our warm up song and before we know it the game in underway. The smell of rain is in the air but it’s the absolute perfect weather for a soccer game. At least we though it was the perfect weather. A flash of light followed by a loud boom streaked across the sky and decided for us that this game, and Doane’s fate, would be decided another day.