At 4:30 a.m., Ella Lune and the EIU women’s basketball team pulled into Charleston off the back of a game against Kansas State on Dec. 3, 2024.
After a roughly seven-hour road trip and not much sleep, nurse Lune clocked in.
On the days she has clinicals for her nursing class, she has a wakeup call of 5 a.m., and by 6 she is caring for patients in the Sarah Bush Lincoln hallway.
And by mid-evening, she’s in sneakers, running through drills and practice until nearly 8 p.m.
“I have to wake up at like 5, and then that’s [nursing clinicals] till around 2, and then practice from like 4 to 7, [or] 4 to 8,” Lune said.
For the junior nursing major and Division I women’s basketball player, life operates at two different speeds: scrubs by day, hoops by night.
On her class days, it’s slightly different. But there’s still basketball practice afterwards.
“I have class from 9 to 12 a.m., and then an hour break in between. Then [class from] 1 to 4 p.m. Then, I usually have film, rehab, and practice right after that. So, I’ll have that [practice] from like 3:30 to 7, or 3:30 to 8, and then go home, study, eat, and then go to bed,” Lune said.
Her schedule isn’t always set. With the demanding basketball schedule, and being a nursing student, the two can collide, especially on travel weeks.
Every other week during Ohio Valley Conference play, the basketball team travels to another city for Thursday and Saturday games, which forces her to constantly adjust her schedule.
“My professors are really good about allowing me to miss,” Lune said. “Of course, I have to either make it up, or something has to happen, but my professors and coaches are very understanding of my schedule.”
Eastern’s nursing policy leaves Lune with a little room for flexibility. It allows her to miss two or less classes.
Any subsequent missed class results in a percentage deduction from her grades. Lune says she runs into that issue sometimes during the spring semester sometimes, but she has a strong friend group that sends her the notes before she even asks.
Last week, when the team had a mid-week conference game against Western Illinois, Lune missed class, but her cohort was already on it.
Whether it’s clarifying a lecture slide or going over an assignment, her friends make sure she doesn’t miss a beat.
“We have a group chat, so it’s more like, okay, make sure y’all do this today, we have a discussion post,” senior nursing student Janiyah Riggins-Taylor said. “We get a lot of busy work in between, so just texting in the group chat, kind of making sure everybody knows.”
Lune says the hardest part of it all is the time management. She doesn’t usually have time for most things, since she is constantly studying, in class or at basketball.
“It’s a very overwhelming thing, but I have a great support system, and that has helped me through my entire nursing course,” Lune said. “My teammates, friends, family, boyfriend, everybody, coaches, they’ve just been so supportive.”
Lune’s friends in the cohort see how overwhelmed she can get up close.
“It takes a lot. I do not know how she’s doing basketball and nursing at the same time,” Riggins-Taylor said. “There’s just no way. I feel like you gotta know the playbook, know your plays, and nursing isn’t just something you can remember, leave it out your brain and start over. No, you gotta critical think.”
Senior nursing student Abby Taylor can recall times where Lune was attentive during lecture, and then when the class got a break during the three-hour span, Lune would use that to watch basketball film.
Lune’s nursing cohort started with nearly 40 students, and now 15 students remain.
“You have to lean on people that know the same struggle as you because not every other major is going to understand what nursing is like, [and] how hard it is,” Riggins-Taylor said.
Last year, Lune had the perfect person to lean on. Basketball forward and registered nurse Jayda Johnston has been through both lives too.
“Me and J [Johnston] are very close,” Lune said. “I think last year we were able to create a bond that made us very close. I still call her all the time, and we still keep in contact and update each other about our lives.”
Even with the tight-knit support system, last semester tested Lune and the rest of the cohort in a multitude of ways.
The workload intensified, clinicals started early and the pressure to perform both on the court and in the classroom began to weigh heavy on her.
“It was heavy with clinicals, heavy with coursework, and we were all trying to stay above water,” Taylor said. “I mean, it was something. I work as well as go to school, but that doesn’t even compare to Ella’s schedule. Ella doesn’t have a choice if she can miss basketball. It’s not like she can say, ‘Hey, coach, I’m not going to be there’. She has to be there.”
When the exhaustion started feeling overwhelming, Lune started leaning more intentionally on her faith.
A couple semesters ago, Lune was struggling mentally and said that was one of the lowest parts of her life.
When the discouragement set in, Lune turned to God.
“I get discouraged. I struggle a lot, but I think of how blessed I am to be in the position that I am and how he put me in this position to go through this,” Lune said. “I would not be able to do this without him, just praying, getting in the word, and listening to worship music, that truly has helped me through everything.”
Her favorite scripture, 1 Corinthians 16:14, reads: “Let all that you do be done in love.”
Lune said nursing is an extension of that calling.
During one clinic, she cared for an older woman nearing the end of her life.
She said she only took care of her for a couple hours, but the two prayed together.
“It was just like, wow, I get to serve you. Jesus served us and now I get to serve you and be with you at the end of your life and provide you with special moments,” Lune said.
Her faith is even woven through her friendships, too. Her cohort often attends church together.
“She inspired me to go to church. I would not be going to church if it weren’t for Ella, and she makes me feel welcomed, and those Sundays mean a lot, I think, to both of us,” Taylor said. “We have a stressful week, but going to church together on Sunday, it’s really nice.”
Lune’s faith carries her through the long practices, clinical rotations and late-night study sessions, she said.
“The biggest thing for me to remind myself is that I want to take each day as a blessing and not complain and not use an excuse,” Lune said.
Watching her balance nursing school, basketball and her faith, Riggins-Taylor and Taylor describe the journey in simple terms: A crazy ride full of faith.
Payton Liggins can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
