By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Special to Hays Post
Fort Hays State University men’s basketball fans were excited when the annual MIAA Championships seedings were released Sunday.
The Tigers, who earned the No. 2 seed, are set to play their first game of the tournament at 2:15 p.m. Thursday at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri.
No one might have been more pleased with that seeding than Lena Grill, the mother of Tiger sophomore Kyle Grill from Maize.
That time slot fit perfectly into a basketball-packed schedule for Lena, who has two other sons playing (and a husband coaching) games this week.
Starting Tuesday, Lena’s Google calendar shows her scheduled for five games in five days in three different states. And if things go as planned, it will be six days in a row if FHSU advances to Sunday’s MIAA championship game.
Lena’s husband, Chris Grill, is head coach for the Maize High School boys’ basketball team. They are parents to Caleb (a graduate student at the University of Missouri), Kyle (a sophomore at FHSU) and Alec (a senior at Maize High).
While both parents make it a point to attend as many college games as possible, Lena sometimes travels alone or with friends because of her husband’s high school schedule. Chris is a math teacher at Maize High, and Lena works for the Wichita School District and saves all her vacation days for basketball season.
Taking to the road to play and watch basketball games has been a way of life for a lot of years for Chris and Lena, former college basketball players who met while playing at Butler County Community College in El Dorado.
All three of their sons have been involved in sports their entire lives.
However, this is the first season that both older brothers are playing college ball in the same year. Kyle redshirted his first year at FHSU in 2022-23, and Caleb missed last season due to an injury.
Knowing this would be a busy year on the road, the Grills bought a used vehicle to use specifically for traveling to basketball games.
Lena flew to a game just once this season, so she has become quite familiar with their 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport.
Before this week, the Grills had logged more than 18,000 miles to the Hyundai’s odometer. And they will add about 1,500 more this week.
Kyle sold on FHSU
After playing a reserve role for FHSU as a redshirt freshman last year, Kyle worked his way into the starting lineup along with four seniors this season.
Following a standout career at Maize High, where he helped the Eagles reach the state championship game in his junior and senior years, Kyle chose FHSU over other schools.
“Fort Hays showed the most interest in me, and I built a better relationship with their three coaches than any others,” he said. “Then I watched a game where Fort Hays played at Newman, and they played so hard defensively. That’s something I really love, playing that hard, so Fort Hays fit my play style.”
Once here, he says he wouldn’t trade the atmosphere for anywhere else. FHSU is consistently ranked at or near the top of NCAA Division II schools for game attendance.
“We have the best fans in the country. We consistently have 2,500 to 3,000 fans in the stands,” he said. “And I think that makes a huge difference. It gives us energy and makes it a lot more fun.”
FHSU fans also are known to travel well and support their teams on the road, as they will at this weekend’s MIAA Tournament.
The Grill brothers also follow each other well, watching their games online.
And they all have apparel from each other’s schools.
This year made it interesting for the Grills with Caleb’s and Kyle’s mascots both being Tigers.
While they own some shirts with an MU Tiger and and FHSU’s Victor E. Tiger, they also have some gear with just Tigers across the front. And some accessories can be used for both since both school colors are black and gold.
With Caleb and Alec in their final years at their respective schools, Lena prioritizes those games if there are scheduling conflicts.
However, when she looked back at this season’s schedule, she saw her attendance was fairly even among the three.
Considering their location in the Wichita area, the Grills are actually able to attend more FHSU road games than those at home.
However, the Grills always enjoy coming to Hays for games and also catch a lot of Kyle’s games on TV on the MIAA Network.
The family was treated to a fun three days in late February when they were in Columbia to watch Caleb score 25 points and grab 10 rebounds in a 110-98 upset of No. 4-ranked Alabama on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
The following night, they tuned in on their TV to watch Kyle score 20 points and grab nine rebounds in a 79-52 home win over Missouri Southern.
And just one night later, Alec, Maize High’s point guard, helped lead the Eagles to a 79-52 victory over Haysville-Campus.
This week’s schedule
Maize High started this week on a winning note Tuesday night with an exciting 64-62 overtime victory over Garden City in first-round action of the Class 6A sub-state on the Eagles’ home floor.
Dad and Mom Grill are headed to Norman, Oklahoma, today to watch Caleb and his Missouri Tigers play the Oklahoma Sooners in an SEC game tonight.
Following Kyle’s MIAA tournament game Thursday in Kansas City, Alec and his coach will take on Wichita Northwest in the sub-state finals on Friday night in Maize for a shot at making next week’s 6A state tournament.
The next day, Mom, Dad and Alec will be in Columbia, Mo., for Caleb’s Senior Day game with Kentucky.
March madness will continue for the Grills next week when Missouri travels to Nashville for the SEC Tournament.
MU also is on track to make the 2025 NCAA D-I Tournament. And there’s still the possibility for more post-season action for both Kyle and Alec, who also has plans to play college ball like his brothers after high school.
But for now, Lena isn’t looking too far ahead – except to Sunday.
The Grills will miss FHSU’s potential semifinal game on Saturday in Kansas City because of Caleb’s Senior Day activities in Columbia. But they would like nothing better than to stop in KC on their way home to watch the Tigers in Sunday’s MIAA championship game.