In Cincinnati, Ohio, Blair Schaefer was playing basketball with a fierce intensity. Her dad watched from the stands, cheering and perhaps even scouting. Although it was just the summer after her eighth-grade season, Blair was already dominating. Diving for every loose ball, battling for every rebound and covering the entire 94 feet of the plywood with the tenacity that only a child of Vic Schaefer could.
Elsewhere in Crockett, Texas, Logan Schaefer, Blair’s twin brother, was unconscious and in the hospital. Logan had fallen off his wakeboard at church camp a couple of hours prior and hit his head, damaging a blood vessel in his brain.
Vic and his daughter, Blair, flew to Crockett immediately. Logan stayed in a coma for four days before remaining in intensive touch-and-go care for an additional 11 days. Logan eventually made a full recovery, but he had to relearn how to walk, eat and talk.
“It was tough,” Blair said. “It was really tough. My parents didn’t even want me to see him because he was not in a good place.”
Blair, at the age of 14, had her life turn upside down. To bring it upright again, she turned to her faith.
Today, Logan sits behind the home bench at Moody Center games with his mom, Holly Schaefer. With a grin from cheek to cheek, he could not be more proud of his sister. At games, if someone introduces themselves to Logan, he’ll put out his hand and greet you with the kind of warmth that can only be inherited.
He might even say, “I’m Blair’s brother, nice to meet you,” but usually, he just sticks with Logan.
The Schaefer’s are a strong-knit family. Every Monday even when Blair played college basketball at Mississippi State, she, Logan, Vic and Holly all sat down at the dinner table. At the time, Vic was the head coach of the Bulldog squad. To limit the discomfort of these meals, Vic insisted on talking in the third person. There was ‘coach,’ and there was ‘dad.’
“Awkward, awkward, awkward,” Holly cackled. “It was challenging at times, but Blair had (the) opportunity to play at several different places. She wanted to play for her dad, she wanted to help him build that program at Mississippi State, and she wanted to help him win a national championship.”
Particularly at the beginning of her career, when Blair was fighting for every minute on the court, those meals were not easy. Sometimes, Blair would call up her mom and ask not to go. Vic was tough on her, but it came from a place of love, and it only made Blair better.
“I was probably harder on her than anyone else on the team,” Vic said. “But for Blair, she certainly earned her way throughout her entire lifetime, either as a player or a coach.”
And it was merely a presage for Blair’s collegiate success. She played four years at Mississippi State, eventually starting all 39 games in her senior year for the 2017-18 Bulldog squad that went to a national championship. She earned all-defensive honors in the Southeastern Conference and was also the conference scholastic athlete of the year that season. Blair averaged nearly 10 points a game by year four, got to fifth on the all-time MSU three-pointer made list, and helped lead her team to back-to-back championship appearances.
Schaefer went back to her alma mater to coordinate player development for Mississippi State in 2019. When her dad moved to the Forty Acres the next year, she followed, but this time as the director of operations. Blair worked her way up to assistant coach in 2022 and has aided Texas to three Elite Eight appearances in the past four years and helped create a preseason No. 4 squad this season.
And through it all, Logan watches from the stands, much like Blair would always look out for him.
Back in high school, Logan was in trouble for getting up from his seat before the bell rang. Blair, ever quick on her feet, insisted that both she and Logan suffered from restless leg syndrome, explaining why Logan was standing.
“Is this true, Logan?” said the teacher.
“Yes, ma’am,” Logan bluffed.
Blair with the assist.
