Basketball

Schaefer family grateful to God as Mississippi State heads back to the Women's Final Four

By Jason Romano Mar 27, 2018
Mississippi State's Blair Schaefer in a March 2018 game. (Photo Courtesy: Kelly Price/Mississippi State)

Vic and Blair Schaefer are on the way to their second straight Women’s College Basketball Final Four.

Blair, a senior guard had her best season as a Bulldog averaging a career-high 9.9 points per game. She starting every game for the Bulldogs and leads the team in minutes played, 3-pointers made and charges drawn.

In the 2018 NCAA Women’s tournament, Blair helped Mississippi State to victories over Nicholls, Oklahoma State, North Carolina State and UCLA in advancing to Columbus, Ohio to play for the right to be called National Champions.

Vic Schaefer is Blair’s father, and the head coach of Mississippi State. In 2017-18, he was named SEC coach of the year in helping his team to a 36-1 record. His motto following team wins is a staple among the Bulldog faithful — “Praise the Lord and Go Dawgs.”

Prior to coaching at Mississippi State, coach Vic was an assistant coach at  Texas A&M where he was a part of the 2011 Aggies team that won the national title.

But as life goes, sometimes you have amazing moments, and sometimes you have difficult moments. The year prior would be remembered as one of those difficult times.

On July 12, 2010 as Vic was in Cincinnati with his daughter at the 13-U AAU National Championship. Blair’s twin brother, Logan, was at a church camp in east Texas. Early that morning, at 8:35am, Coach Schaefer received a call that his son Logan had been in a wakeboarding accident and was in critical condition.

Logan had bleeding on the brain, was unconscious and a blood vessel had pulled apart and his brain had shifted 60% to one side.

“The miracle is not only did he get the blood off of his brain, that he actually found where he was bleeding from,” Vic told ESPN. “One of the thousands of blood vessels in your brain, he actually found the one that was ruptured. So he’s not only able to get the blood off the brain but he stopped bleeding.”

Logan was in a coma for 4 days and his prognosis didn’t look good.

“At that point, we were inseparable,” Blair told Mississippi State in 2015, “and it was so hard to know like, my other half is probably not going to make it. Because that’s what they said. They said ‘we can’t guarantee that he’s going to have a quality of life.'”

After surgery, the doctors told the family that it would take 6 months to 2 years to fully recover.

And then God intervened.

Logan went through a rigorous rehab that included re-learning how to walk and talk but miraculously, after just 39 days, Logan was able to walk, unassisted, back home to be with his family.

“Seeing him beat the odds was really amazing” Blair said. “Because I was worried at first, especially when I was feeding him ice cream in the rehab facility, it was really scary.”

Logan has fully recovered and is preparing to watch his Dad and sister try to win a National Championship this weekend.

“We’re just really blessed,” Vic said. “I tell him all the time, God’s got you hear for a reason. It just wasn’t your time. He’s a miracle. He’s my miracle, there’s no doubt about it.”

On Friday March 30, Mississippi State will face off against Louisville in the second game of the 2018 Women’s Final Four at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on ESPN2 at 9:00 p.m. ET

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