On Tuesday, Lance and Brenda Woodbury and Tom and Vicki Gesell will load up in their vehicles and travel down the highways across the state of Iowa one last time to watch their son’s play their final home game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

It’s another five hours and nearly 300 miles for the parents of Mike Gesell and Adam Woodbury, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to all the miles they have traveled for their son’s as they have chased their basketball dreams.

From AAU events in Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, and New York City to Hawkeye games in every Big Ten city and places like Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the Sioux City area natives have traveled many miles and their parents have been there in-person and in spirit every single step of the way.

In many ways, Gesell and Woodbury have been tied together for what amounts to most of their competitive basketball lives. From AAU Basketball with the Iowa based Martin Brothers squad to the University of Iowa, it’s hard to even estimate how many games they have played together.

Before they were friends and teammates, they were foes in the youth leagues in the Sioux City area. Mike on one team and Adam on the other.

“We knew about each other, but we really didn’t know each other,” Woodbury said. “I knew right away he was a good player.”

Gesell also remembers seeing his future teammate for the first time on the court,

“We were younger and he stood out because he was taller than everyone else on the court and he was tough to go up against.”

By the time they were leaving middle school and heading to high school, the foes became teammates for the first time.

Hank Huddleson, who runs the Martin Brothers AAU program was looking for players for one of his younger teams and he heard about Gesell at a Future Stars camp and immediately knew he wanted him to play for his squad. It wasn’t long after that when he heard from the coaches at Sioux City East about a young player who was already 6-foot-7 and still growing that was developing into a very good prospect.

He invited both to join his AAU program, they accepted, and the long time partnership was born. At the same time, Tom and Vicki Gesell and Lance and Brenda Woodbury began to get to know each other.

“We obviously knew about Mike from playing against him in the Y leagues, but we didn’t get to know Tom and Vicki until Adam joined the Martin Brothers program and right away you knew they were good people to be around,” Lance Woodbury said.

But, there was still a bit of apprehension because sending your 14 year old son on road trips that sometimes lasted a week at a time is not an easy decision to make. Brenda Woodbury struggled with the decision, but the fact that the Tom and Vicki Gesell would be there many times helped bring ease to her mind.

“Right at the beginning he was so young and we didn’t know if it was the right thing to do,” Brenda Woodbury said. “You are kind of putting your kid out in the world and he’s going to be away from home with a bunch of other boys and he was so young. You just hope you are doing the right thing and that he is in the right hands. Having them around on some of those trips certainly helped us quite a bit.”

Over the course of four years, the Woodbury’s and the Gesell’s logged plenty of miles to AAU events and traveling to meet the Martin Brothers team bus in central Iowa. They would share rides with one parent from either family taking the wheel to either go to the event or meet the bus.

One trip that proved to be memorable for a bad reason was the time Brenda drove the boys to meet the Martin Brothers bus near Williams, IA. They were headed to a Nike EYBL event in Dallas and there was really nothing noteworthy about the actual trip to meet up at the Flying J service station. Adam was riding in the front with him mom and Mike was sleeping most of the way there in the back. They met the bus and Brenda headed back home to Sioux City, but she didn’t get far.

“I had just gotten back on to the highway and got rear ended by another car. It was a pretty bad accident. They bus had not left yet and they saw my car and stopped,” Brenda Woodbury said. “I will never forget the look on Adam’s face. He was really upset and family always comes first for him and he wasn’t going to go on the trip. Eventually a couple of the other parents stayed with me and Lance was on his way, so they convinced him to get back on the bus.”

Thankfully, that was the only real accident in their AAU travels and the Sioux City duo teamed up with players like Marcus Paige, Kale Abrahamson, and Daniel Jansen to build one of the top programs in the country in their time together.

While the spring and summer were filled with games being played together, during the high school season, Woodbury and Gesell were still foes on the court. Each year, Woodbury’s Sioux City East team would play against Gesell’s South Sioux City, NE squad and as much as it pains the big man to admit, the guard got the best of them each and every time.

“Every once in a while I will bring it up,” Gesell said. “He doesn’t like it too much when I do, but I have to remind him from time to time.”

If you don’t think that the Woodbury’s weren’t keep score, they were.

“I don’t think Adam ever beat a team Mike played on until they played in the PTL. I guess if we were going to get beat, at least it was by Mike,” Lance Woodbury said with a laugh.

Eventually it came time to start to think about college and both Woodbury and Gesell were highly recruited players ranked in the Top 100 prospects in the country. There were some schools, including Iowa, that were recruiting both of them, including Nebraska, Stanford, and Harvard.

With all the time on the road together, kids talk. They talk about college and where they might be headed. A decision was made by Woodbury and Gesell during the July evaluation period that their partnership would continue into college.

“Mike had confided in us at some point during AAU that they were going to go to the same college. One of Mike’s goals was to commit before his senior year because he wanted to focus on school and his senior year,” Tom Gesell said.

“I couldn’t tell anyone at the time because Adam hadn’t made his decision, but we basically decided by the end of July that we were going to go to Iowa together. He wanted to go there and I felt really comfortable at Iowa with the coaches and players and wanted to go there as well,” said Mike Gesell.

Gesell committed to Iowa on August 8th and he had to wait patiently for Woodbury to make his decision. After being visited by North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, Woodbury decided to follow his heart and committed to Fran McCaffery on September 14th and as you would expect, his friend and future teammate was there to take in the ceremony.

When you talk about following your heart, that’s exactly what Woodbury did. He grew up a Hawkeye fan. His father is a big Hawkeye fan and he followed right in his footsteps.

“Personally I am not sure Mike would have come to Iowa if Adam didn’t come to Iowa. Even though Mike committed first, I think Adam always knew where he wanted to go. He always wanted to be a Hawkeye. That’s all he ever wanted to do,” Lance Woodbury said.

There was bit of a leap of faith that was taken when they committed to Iowa. The Hawkeye program was one full year into the Fran McCaffery era and hope for the future was simply that, hope. McCaffery had attended basically every Martin Brothers game that summer and his diligent pursuit paid off with the biggest recruiting victory at that point in time.

“It was a great day for Iowa Basketball. Those two were highly rated guys that wanted to come here and make a name for themselves here and be a part of this program. They wanted to play together and they had played so long together,” McCaffery said.

Now four years later this journey together is coming to an end in the arena they have called home for the past four years.

“Everything has just gone by so quickly,” Vicki Gesell said. “They signed with the Hawkeyes to bring Iowa Basketball back and they have done just that.”

“It sure seems like it has flown by. It’s hard to believe because it seems like yesterday we were dropping him off at Iowa,” said Tom Gesell.

Adam Woodbury was on a mission when he signed to be a Hawkeye and that was to bring the program back. Mission accomplished.

“All of the seniors have helped make the team progress each year. When Adam signed he said he wanted to bring this program back to where it used to be and they have did it,” Lance Woodbury said.

Together they have been a part of 87 wins and counting, which is the 2nd best four year win total in Iowa Basketball history. They made the final four of the NIT in their first year at Iowa. They are on track for their third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and helped lead Iowa to their first NCAA Tournament win since the 2000-2001 season.

Adam Woodbury had scored 825 points and grabbed 720 rebounds in his career. He had a career best 18 rebounds in one game this season and is leading the Big Ten this season in offensive rebounds and is second in the league in overall rebounds. He also had nine career double-doubles. Adam is also a three time academic All Big Ten honoree.

Mike Gesell is 41nd in career scoring with 1,046 points. He is 4th in Iowa history in assists with 521 and 10th in career steals with 154. He is one of four players in Iowa history to score 1,000 points, hand out over 500 assists, and have 150 steals. That list includes: Jeff Horner, Dean Oliver, and B.J. Armstrong. He is also a three time academic All American and graduated from Iowa in three years.

And most importantly, their parents have been there every step of the way to enjoy every single second of it. You have to have a pretty understanding boss to be able to make the trips that the Woodbury’s and Gesell’s have been able to make the past four years. While not making it to every road game, during the past four years, they have made it to Carver-Hawkeye for just about every game and numerous road contests.

“I couldn’t even estimate how many miles, but it has to be over 350,000 miles,” Tom Gesell said. “We are on our third van just from Mike being in college. The first one was kind of getting up there and the latest one only has about 30,000 on it, but it adds up fast.”

As you would expect, there are a few harrowing stories from the road as they travel in the winter in Iowa. From blizzards to avoid deer on the highway late at night, there have been more than a few adventures along the way.

One of the more humorous stories happened last season to the Gesell’s. They were traveling to Iowa City on a Friday for a Saturday game. They had stopped to get a bite to eat near Cedar Rapids and were merging on the highway when suddenly a mattress appeared on the road.

“We were getting on the interstate and it was getting dark and there was a car beside me and I was waiting to merge and go behind him and all the sudden Vicki said “look out” and there was a mattress laying on the on ramp. There was nothing I could do but drive over the mattress. It had a pillow top on it and I drove over it and heard this noise that something was dragging and I figured I broke something on the underside of the van,” said Tom Gesell “We pulled over and here’s the mattress sticking out from the front of the van. I get out and it doesn’t come loose. I back up and it still doesn’t come loose. Then it’s starting to smoke, so I think, it’s going to start on fire. I asked Vicki to get out and stand on the mattress and fortunate it came loose. All my friends tell me I was trying to sacrifice Vicki.”

Then there was the time when Tom Gesell and his oldest son drove to Indiana only to find out about 40 miles outside Bloomington that something had fallen from the ceiling at Assembly Hall and the game that night would have to be cancelled. They drove all the way back to Des Moines before calling it a night on that trip.

And then there was the time they were headed to the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis when an accident occurred on the interstate in front of them and caused them to be stuck on the road for four hours with their grandchildren in the van. Eventually they arrived at the hotel in Indianapolis at 5 a.m. to find out their room had been rented and had to wait in the lobby for something to open up so they could get some sleep.

But, that’s what you do for your kids because you love them and you want to be there for them and support them. It’s all part of the journey and one they would do over and over again without thinking twice.

“We have ridden down the road with the Gesell’s a few times and have logged a lot of miles with his dad and brother,” Brenda Woodbury said. “We have driven thru the snow, the blizzards, the rain, and tried to avoid the deer along way, but you know what it’s all worth it. Every single mile is worth it because if you are not there with your kid, you are missing out.”

“It is really important to us and it’s not easy. We didn’t make it to Penn State and felt bad about that because even after a loss when he might not feel like talking, but he is always glad when we are there to just talk,” Vicki Gesell said.

And now it comes to a close on Tuesday night. One final time on the home floor as four years have flown by in the blink of an eye. So many great memories, so many special times, and so many hours on the road for a few hours to watch their son’s play the game that they love.

It’s natural that Tuesday night will be emotional for everyone in the stands. The young men being honored have helped to bring Iowa Basketball back and even in the ups and downs of a season, every Iowa fans should appreciate and be thankful for what Adam, Mike, and all of their teammates have accomplished in the past four years.

For their parents, Tuesday will be one more proud moment as a mom or dad to stand by their son in front of the Hawkeye fans.

“I haven’t really wanted to think about Tuesday and what it will be like quite yet, but here it comes,” Tom Gesell said. “This is what Mike wanted to do and we just want to support our kids in everything that they do. We have been blessed and fortunate to be able to do it and it’s what we enjoy doing. It’s been fun to watch him grow up and it helps them know that we want to help them succeed in whatever they choose to do.”

“I have been thinking about Tuesday. It will be a happy night, but it will also be sad,” Vicki Gesell explained. “I’m probably going to have a few tears. It’s going to be so many mixed emotions of pride and happiness and also being sad that it’s coming to an end.”

For the Woodbury’s the feelings are much the same. Happiness, sadness, and most importantly pride in their son.

“It’s hard to believe this is going to be over soon. I have all kind of emotions heading into Tuesday and I am excited about his future. It will be bittersweet because the people at the University of Iowa have been absolutely wonderful. It has been so much fun for us to be there and be a part of it,” Brenda Woodbury said.

“It’s been a great ride for us and we have enjoyed every minute of it,” Lance Woodbury said. “I have always been a Hawkeye fan, but no matter the jersey he was wearing, I would have been proud of him, but to see him out there with the Iowa jersey on the past four years makes it special, it makes it extra special.”

While Adam and Mike and their parents will be center stage on Tuesday night before the game, their head coach the past four years is proud of what they have accomplished on and off the floor and he credits their parents for guiding them along the way.

“Everything they do is character based and they get that from their parents and their families and where they are from. I couldn’t be more proud to be there coach. I wish it wasn’t their last home game, I can tell you that,” said Fran McCaffery.