Earl Maahs, attorney from Spirit Lake, was watching MSNBC Saturday night with his wife when he heard the news.A small, twin-engine plane carrying 10 people involved with the Oklahoma State men’s basketball team, two of them players Nate Fleming and Daniel Lawson, crashed 40 miles east of Denver following the Cowboys’ loss to Colorado.All were killed.”We were just like ‘whoa,'” Maahs said. “It takes your breath away.”Fifteen years, two months and five days ago, Maahs’ daughter Sheryl was aboard a small, twin-engine plane that carried home herself and six other members of the 1985 ISU women’s cross country team.The plane crashed two-and-a half miles shy of the Des Moines International Airport.All seven on board were killed.”I can appreciate what [the OSU families are] going through,” Maahs said. “Losing a child is as difficult a situation as you can go through.”Sheryl Maahs and others were on their way back from Milwaukee that November evening after finishing second at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.Maahs said his life prior to the crash was like a “300-watt light bulb.” Now, his life is like a “25-watt light bulb.” The light never gets brighter, he added.After losing a child, Maahs believes you have two options.”You can let it consume yourself, or you can move on.”Getting on with life was not easy, Maahs said. But Max Urick helped.Urick was the athletics director for Iowa State at the time. “You want to be supportive,” Urick said. “You need to rally around others.” He said the ISU community provided “terrific support,” in the weeks and months following the crash.Urick would need it initially.He had the same job that OSU head coach Eddie Sutton carried out Saturday – notifying family members of the crash.Urick described it as a “feeling of helplessness.” He added, “it’s difficult to figure out how to ease the burden.”But time helps as well.”Healing comes day-to-day,” Urick said. “First there is denial, then anger and then acceptance.” He said the pain is always there, however.Urick, who is now Kansas State’s athletics director, said he has left messages with the people involved at OSU. So have Bruce Van de Velde, ISU athletics director, and Larry Eustachy, ISU men’s head basketball coach.”Our prayers go out for the families of those involved and the Oklahoma State community,” Van de Velde said in a released statement.”I can’t fathom the pain the OSU community is feeling right now,” Eustachy said in a statement released before ISU’s game Sunday at Texas A & M.In Stillwater, the memorial service is set for tomorrow. W. Robert Parks, the president of Iowa State in 1985, remembers the Cyclone memorial service well.”It was awful,” he said.”None of us could keep tears from our eyes.”

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