A Season of Hope

THE LINCOLN CHRISTIAN OUTFIELD, OR THE FOOTBALL PRACTICE FIELD, DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ASK — “Run to me, take a knee. Run to me, take a knee.”

Kurt Earl’s words are strong and urgent as his Lincoln Christian football team ends a warm, Saturday morning at the end of the first week of practice.

Part coach, part father-figure, part preacher Earl is the leader of one of the most unique football programs in the state.

Most Class C-1 programs run out linemen who look like they could play in college immediately — the 6-5, 250-pound types — but not Lincoln Christian. Ask the strongholds — Wahoo and Ashland-Greenwood and Aurora and Pierce and you name them — how many players practice each day, and the number surely climbs into the 50s or 60s.

On Saturday, 32 players are at practice for the Crusaders. One, maybe two players, will be listed over 225 pounds on the roster on opening night against Lincoln Lutheran. With their flexbone offense, Earl’s team is one of the most difficult to prepare for in the class.

They have to be, or they wouldn’t survive.

Or, more importantly, build young men. In both strength and faith. Something Earl, his staff and his players learned all about last season. A miraculous — if we can use that word — 7-3 record and 11th trip to the state football playoffs for Earl’s troops since he has been on staff.

See Kurt Earl was trying to prepare his young men for life last fall, while he was preparing for something else.

“I think if you’d have asked me last year at this time what I was doing,” the coach says matter of factly, “in my heart of hearts, I was preparing to be a widower. We were just trying to get through each day.”

In late January of 2024, Kurt’s wife Da’Nelle — for some, the heart and soul of Lincoln Christian football — had a grand mal seizure. Two months later she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor: glioblastoma.

Kurt and Da’Nelle were high school sweethearts in Longmont, Colorado. Standouts on the track team, Da’Nelle a senior and Kurt a sophomore.

“Saucy. Scandalous,” Da’Nelle jokes almost 30 years later.

After graduation, Da’Nelle was off to Liberty where she was a standout middle-distance runner. Two years behind, Kurt was looking for an opportunity to play football, run track and learn how to be a Christian teacher and coach.

“For reasons that we still can’t explain, I ended up at Concordia,” Kurt says. “When I became a believer my junior year (of high school), I knew I wanted to be a teacher and coach.

“And I wanted to do it at some sort of Christian school. Seward is not anywhere like we grew up but it was just a good fit.”

Da’Nelle was set to get her Masters after undergrad and she did what any sane person would do with a boyfriend halfway across the country would do. She broke up with him.

But, by God’s grace, it only lasted eight months. Da’Nelle had found a Master’s program at one of the top schools in the country for her area of study.

“How far are you from Omaha,” she asked the Concordia quarterback.

“About 70 miles,” he said.

They got engaged. Married a year later. Found an apartment in Lincoln. Kurt driving west to be quarterback and Da’Nelle east to complete her Masters in Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics at Nebraska-Omaha. She did some personal training on the side to help make ends meet.

“I don’t know why we thought any of that was a good plan,” Kurt says.

Out of college Kurt got a job at Lincoln Christian and Da’Nelle had latched on as a recruiting assistant for the Nebraska men’s and women’s track teams when her dream job came calling — a job offer to teach and coach track at the University of Maine.

It was Kurt’s first semester at Lincoln Christian. He was ready for the adventure. But Da’Nelle was starting to love Lincoln. The job at Nebraska was fun and coach Gary Pepin was able to get her a full-time role. They loved the community at Christian.

“I am much more a pump the brakes kind of person,“ Da’Nelle said. “We were loving the community here. It was closer to our families.”

“We had made a two decade decision,” Kurt says.

“Raise your hand now if you think we have anyone on our team who is good enough to not give excellent effort.”

Earl huddles with his team after an opening special teams drill that mimics a punt return. It evolves in onto a game of sprinting and tag. He ran the drill earlier in the week, and liked the new effort level, the new amount of learning on Saturday.

“If we can focus on our effort level being high we can win games,” he tells his troops.

Everything is simple in week one at Lincoln Christian. It has to be. The Crusaders have to execute.

A later offensive drill is repped over and over. They are mastering the oldest play in the book — a simple dive. The Rebel Drill might win the Crusaders more games than they think this fall.

It took two months for the Earl’s to get the confirmed news of an inoperable glioblastoma. Most don’t survive the second round of chemotherapy. Life expectancy is 14-16 months; sometimes more but very rare.

All of the sudden, Da’Nelle Earl was fighting for her life. Six weeks of chemo, five days a week.

“Everyday at 2:30,” Kurt says, almost always with a family friend. “We brought people with us all but two days. People had timers to pray for us at 2:30.”

By the end of the 2024 school year, she was done with treatment for a month. The Earl’s decided on a road trip to Arizona. Then in mid-June a regiment of five days of chemo (all pills) and 23 days off. Out of every 28 days, 10 were extremely difficult.

And, the 2024 Lincoln Christian football season was a fog. Neither of them really remember it. Da’Nelle got about one good hour a day to be with friends. She had missed one game since Kurt had taken over as head coach in 2016; but missed two in 2024.

She barely remembers the games though. Brain fog. Friends would take Da’Nelle to the game. Kurt barely remembers the practices and some of the games.

“I was trying to do everything,” he said. “And I can’t cook. At practice earlier this week, the guys were telling me we were running five-cone drill and that we did it five or six times last year. I didn’t have a clue what it was.”

But his team? They were doing everything he asked. When they beat Platteview on October 24, the Crusaders were 7-2, the losses to eventual semifinalist Auburn (22-14) and finalist Central City (52-50). The Class C-1 playoffs were calling.

“In the day to day it didn’t feel like we were making any meaningful progress,” Kurt says. “When we went through last season it felt like the last time we would go through it together.”

But with the playoffs — and the long trip to Chadron — came unexpected good news. On a chilly Wednesday of playoff week, Da’Nelle’s doctors called.

Her MRI showed partial remission. Two days later, Chadron whipped Lincoln Christian 42-18. Too many miscues for Coach Earl’s team.

But in the midst of defeat — and the end of the hardest season of their lives — there was hope.

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.” ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭2‬

It’s Family Day at practice on Saturday morning. Moms and dads. Little brothers and sisters. Even dogs. The “team talk” before practice centers around the litmus test of influence.

“Why are we playing football? Who are we playing football for? What is your real purpose during your time here? It can’t be just football,” Kurt Earl says.

Saturday is the beginning of a long day for Earl’s Crusaders. An earlier film session, then practice and in the afternoon their first-ever media day (the Crusaders social media got over 2 million views last year) and then Leadership Camp.

With about an hour left in practice, a joyful, happy face makes an appearance. Da’Nelle Earl. It’s Family Day after all. She’s excited for the 2025 football season at 84th and Old Cheney Road.

In mid-May she finished that year of dreadful chemo. Her scans stayed with the best news the Earl’s will ever get — partial remission. She and Kurt took a cruise to Alaska for their anniversary. Her most recent MRI was just a few weeks ago; the next one is scheduled for November. Playoff time.

Da’Nelle Earl is ready and thankful.

“Just being there,” she says simply. “Being able to understand what is going on again. So many people helped us last year and that was a blessing. I love football. I watch more football than Kurt does on television.

“To go and watch the games and see what’s going on and to get to see him down there. There are so many times I just enjoy watching him coach and I don’t remember any of that last year.”

They have shared their story of faith because they believe it can inspire others — give many hope. They don’t know that their already strong faith has changed. But they use the word grow.

“Change is a hard word,” Da’Nelle says. “I think growth is a better word. You understand things in a different perspective now.”

They are completing each other’s sentences now.

“Multiple times (Kurt writes updates on a CaringBridge page), I found myself thinking how much more Ecclesiastes, Psalms and Phillipians just make more sense. You can better understand the dependence on the Lord.

“We are all hopeless without him, its now just whether we are aware of it in the moment.”

They know the cancer will someday come back.

“There is only one lady that they talk about who has survived this more than 10 years,” Kurt says. “So you are still dealing with that. It’s out there. But, the reality is she is getting better all the time.

“This year has been awesome. I am working on things and brainstorming things to do.”

Who knows, he might even remember all the drills on the practice plan. Either way, Kurt and Da’Nelle know that life as it is right now is a blessing.

“Most people can’t make it through the 12 months (of chemo), even if they try,” Da’Nelle says. “Our timeframe and God’s timeframe are so different. If I live five years — and I am doing well in five years — on paper everybody would say that is a miracle.

“But even if I make it five years and I am not doing well, it can still be a miracle. When my doctors see me, they are still shocked. This is so uncommon. Our prayer warriors have been so unbelievable.”

Uncommon. Unbelievable. A growing faith. A miracle, maybe.

“One team. One goal. One God.” The rallying cry for Kurt Earl’s football teams. And, this year, a new season dawns. With EVERYONE. A season of hope.

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