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HARTINGTON — Lauren and Brynn Bernecker played their final high school basketball game together in Saturday’s third-place game at the Class D1 State Tournament.
Lauren was a four-year starter for the Cedar Catholic Lady Trojan basketball team, and for the past couple of years, her younger sister Brynn has been a member of the varsity team and has contributed off of the bench.
In fact, the entire Bernecker family has been heavily involved at Cedar Catholic with the siblings all attending school there and three of the five still attending school, although Lauren will graduate this spring.
“We are so blessed for our kids to have the opportunity to learn and grow at Cedar Catholic,” said Miranda Bernecker, the mother of Jayda (Klug), Jaxson, Lauren, Brynn and Mara. “The quality of education, everybody knows everybody, and keeping faith first is very important.”
Jayda and Jaxson have graduated, Jaxson the most recent in 2023, Lauren this spring, Brynn is a sophomore and Mara will enter high school next year.
“It is great to have my siblings here in school,” Lauren said. “When I was younger, Jaxson would drag me with him to play football and basketball with him and his friends, that was really pretty cool.”
Lauren has seen her basketball career come full circle, from her years as a starting freshman to being one of the leaders the past couple of years.
“Lauren wasn’t ready to start when she was a freshman,” said Lady Trojan coach Craig Wortmann. “We didn’t have the numbers when she was a freshman, so she kind of had to start. By the end of the season, she figured it out and never really looked back. She has been a big factor on the team since.”
Cedar Catholic has gone to the state tournament in three of Lauren’s four years on the team, missing last season, but making it to Lincoln in 2021 and 2022.
“When I was a freshman, we had players like Laney Kathol who were really great leaders,” Lauren said. “She would always say, ‘don’t worry about things, just get out there and do it. Try your best and it will be enough.’ I tried to be like her as I took over some of the leadership roles with teammates and classmates.” When Lauren started out as a Lady Trojan, she played a lot of basketball.
“I was on the freshman team, the junior varsity and the varsity,” she said. “I loved it and it was a lot of fun. I learned so much from by teammates and all of our coaches.”
And in her younger years, her coaches included her mother.
“I think this year’s seniors I coached from the fourth grade up through junior high,” Miranda said. “It is like a big family at Cedar Catholic and that’s why we have our kids go there and we support Cedar Catholic.”
According to Brynn, Lauren took the lessons she learned and passed them along as well as she received them.
“Lauren was kind of that calming factor on the court,” Brynn said. “She was always working harder than anyone else, and when she passed on advice, it was always in a positive way, and with a positive tone. She didn’t yell and scream, she just kind of said what needed to be said.”
And the two sisters shared a bond. “We call them ‘sister moments’ on the court,” Lauren said. “She would pass me the ball and I would score or I would pass her the ball and she would score, and we could just look at each other and know we did a good job.”
“In the last game, I didn’t even see anyone around the basket, but I just ‘felt’ like Lauren was there,” Brynn said, “I passed the ball to the spot and she got it and scored. She looked at me and just smiled.”
Lauren was also quick to point out, she wasn’t the only leader on the team.
“We had our five seniors and we have been together for a long time,” Lauren said. “We were all leaders in different ways and add in Addison (Walter) and Anisten (Wortmann) and the leading somewhat took care of itself. But we were always there to help out with questions or offer suggestions on the court.”
And Miranda was quick to pass along credit to the coaches.
“Craig (Wortmann), James (Kaiser) and Matt (Kathol) are great role models and always stressed hard work would get you places,” Miranda said. “I think Bailey (Hochstein) probably said it best when she said they get you to do things you never thought you could do.”
All-in-all, the Cedar Catholic Lady Trojans were a very good basketball team that finished third in a very rugged Class D1 State Tournament, and Lauren probably had the best quote — one all of us could take to heart.
“The number one thing in my life is faith,” Lauren said. “The days I don’t have faith number one, usually turn out to be bad days.”
Wise beyond her years.
