This constant support and dedication from Shawn started early in his daughter’s life after his family faced tragedy.

When Gabbi was seven months old, her mother, Lorie, passed away from a heart attack. All of a sudden, Shawn was a single dad with two young children. From that day on, he vowed to always be there for his kids – no matter what.

This has translated to the basketball court, where Shawn has never missed any of his daughter’s games in any of the sports she’s played, whether it was basketball, baseball or soccer. In fact, he coached her in many of these, starting when she began competing at 4 years old. Now, Shawn can sit back and just watch his daughter play ball.

“It was just kind of a pact that Gabrielle and I had together,” Shawn shares. “I don’t even know if it started out verbal. It just kind of grew…I want to be there to support my kid. It’s not that I’m one of those helicopter parents by any stretch. This is just me watching my daughter do the thing that she is most passionate about. It just happens that we are both very passionate about the game of basketball, and that’s really what it is. I just want to see her. She always knows that I’m going to be there, so why wreck a good thing?”

He knows this was my dream, and he wants to see me just live my dream.
Gabbi Ortiz

Being a single father, Shawn picked up both the mother and father roles, Gabbi says, and they have been close her entire life.

“He’s a best friend to me,” Gabbi shares. “He’s coached me my whole life, whether it be basketball or soccer or baseball, every sport that I played, he coached me. He always pushes me to do my best, and he’s always there for me to talk to him. He’s just a great man, and he’s my No. 1 supporter.”

Now, even though Shawn still resides in Racine, Wis., he’s made every single one of Gabbi’s games in her freshman campaign, both home and away. As a flight attendant for American Airlines, he flies standby and hops on planes to wherever the Sooners are on any given day.

This process has created some adventures, from running through the airport to make a flight to sleeping in the airport.

“I know he sprinted down a terminal because he had just got done working and he had to make the flight. They had just closed the door, but he was there in enough time, he just made it by like a minute, and he was sweating from sprinting,” Gabbi says. “Other times he will just be coming from work and there’s no point in driving back home because he would only get two hours of sleep, so he’s slept in the airport. He’s stayed in the airport a couple of times and he’s done some crazy stuff.

My teammates kind of laugh about it like ‘Wow, he’s crazy,’ but it’s all for a good cause.”
Gabbi says the fact her dad is at every game amazes her, and she recognizes his passion for the game of basketball.

“He knows this (playing at the collegiate level) was my dream, and he wants to see me just live my dream. The fact he can be a part of that is so special to me,” Gabbi says. “He still hasn’t missed a game, and he’s going to work his butt off to make every game.”

Due to his schedule as a flight attendant, Shawn looked for help in watching his kids while he was at work. This help came in the form of an incredibly strong support system that included both sets of Gabbi’s grandparents.

“They would call me gypsy lady because I would go from house to house,” Gabbi shares. “My dad was there the majority of the time, but they helped out when they needed to. When he was on the road, but the second he got back I was with him. Just to help out a little bit and make sure I had somewhere to stay or make sure I had food, it was very meaningful to me. It was great that we lived in such a close distance.”

From the lousy neighborhood that I bought my house in with my wife, that’s how she learned to play ball because it was very inner city, to not having her mom, she took those things and never really felt sorry for herself, and she made them into a positive.
Shawn Ortiz

Even though losing her mom was a negative, Gabbi saw many positives coming out of the situation, including spending quality time with her grandparents and developing valuable life skills. Gabbi learned how to be organized, packing her overnight bag, ball bag and school bag to be ready to go to her grandparents’ for the evening.

“All those little negatives are actually making that young lady into who she is today,” Shawn says. “From the lousy neighborhood that I bought my house in with my wife, that’s how she learned to play ball because it was very inner city, to not having her mom, she took those things and never really felt sorry for herself, and she made them into a positive.”

For Kathy, she and her husband enjoyed having Gabbi around when she was younger. Once Shawn and his girlfriend, Carmen, built a house and blended their families, Gabbi’s grandparents still had her over for supper a couple of nights a week and always attended her ballgames.

“Now there’s no games, she’s not here, it’s like the other arm is gone. What do two old people do? We don’t have games to go to anymore. So we sit and watch it on TV,” Kathy says with a laugh. “It almost filled the void of my daughter dying. I had another child in the house. It was cool.”

Surrounded but a solid support system, Gabbi has always had a special home. Now, she’s found another place of comfort at OU.

Initially, when Oklahoma came on Gabbi’s radar, she admits she had no idea where the school actually was. But once she came to a game and then returned on her official visit, she fell in love.

When looking at schools, Gabbi and Shawn used a spreadsheet of about 50 and whittled it down to 12. To match Gabbi’s No. 21 jersey, they listed as many reasons for the schools, then labeled the top five. It kept coming back to Oklahoma.

Throughout the process, Shawn provided Gabbi with constant support and feedback. All he wanted was for her to be happy. Shawn also cares greatly about Gabbi’s classroom success, especially since she is the first person from her family to attend college.

Sherri, this establishment, everybody has welcomed her here, and I’ve heard her say it feels like a second home.
Shawn

“She will be happy on the court with being so happy in the classroom and being happy in the classroom makes her happy on the court. It goes both ways,” Shawn explains. “When she made up her mind for her reasons, she seemed really happy. Now she seems just as happy. I think the team, Sherri, this establishment, everybody has welcomed her here, and I’ve heard her say it feels like a second home.”

One of the main reasons Gabbi eventually chose the Sooners was indeed the relationships she formed with the coaching staff, especially head coach Sherri Coale. She also realized that when the team said it had a family atmosphere, it meant it.

“I think she’s really happy and very comfortable here,” says her maternal grandmother, Kathy. “Knowing that, you feel more comfortable, too. You’re not worried as much about her because I was worried about her being gone. She is OK on her own.”

And OK she is, saying she is satisfied with the choice she made to become a Sooner and a part of the OU team.

“I’ve really gotten to know my team and we’re so close and we’ve just had a lot of fun,” Gabbi says. “One of my greatest things that I take is Coach Coale has grown my knowledge of the game and just of life so much more. She’s an amazing woman and just off the court she’s taught me so much. I couldn’t be more happy and I am so, so happy with my choice to come here.”

Father and daughter relationships are often special, but Shawn and Gabbi’s is arguably extra distinctive with a bond that runs so deep.

“They’re just so close. You don’t see many father-daughter relationships, I was close with my dad, too, but this is something out of the ordinary,” Kathy says. “Even when my daughter died, he wouldn’t let anybody take the kids right after. He had to have them right there. He would not let go of them.”

Not only do she and her father share a deep connection but they also have similar personality traits, Gabbi says.

They’re just so close. You don’t see many father-daughter relationships, I was close with my dad, too, but this is something out of the ordinary.
Kathy, Gabbi's maternal grandmother

“One of the things, he kind of says himself is he is a perfectionist, and so I think I have that perfectionist mentality, whether it be in the classroom or on the basketball court,” Gabbi says. “We don’t like to make too many mistakes. Also, just being passionate about things. He never went to college, but he is an intelligent man. He’s got the street smarts, and I think I’ve picked up on that from him.”

Shawn adds that while he and Gabbi share a lot of qualities, he also reminds him of his late wife in many ways.

“She’s a lot of her mother, innately her mother, so I can smile about some beautiful things about Lori, but we are a lot alike and we enjoy each other’s company,” Shawn shares. “We just get emotional because if you ever met Lorie, she’s just like my kid. She is a spitting image and personality wise.”

As far as what she knows about her mom, Gabbi says she has also been told they are very similar, especially in looks.

“A lot of people, if they knew my mom, if they were a friend and hadn’t seen me in a while, they are like ‘Gah, you look just like your mom,’” Gabbi says. “She also had a sense of humor. I know she was really goofy, and I can have that goofy and quirky attitude to me. I know she was just one of the nicest people that you could ever know. Everyone just says how sweet she was. She’s beautiful and her smile could light up a room.”

That relationship means when they make eye contact to share a wink and a head nod pregame, the moments are far more than routine.

They do have their gameday routine down to the minute, though. It all starts with lunch at Midway Deli in Norman. Next, she heads to shootaround before the father and daughter move to her dorm room to discuss the game plan for the upcoming home contest.

Gabbi then takes a nap, and her father sits and watches his “baby girl” sleep, a ritual he says is a very peaceful moment. Finally, he wakes her up in time to arrive at the Lloyd Noble Center about two hours before tipoff.

After dropping Gabbi off before every game, Shawn, with his superstitious nature, goes and parks in the exact same spot outside the LNC. Then, he takes a few minutes for himself.

“I go and park in the parking lot and say my words to her mom upstairs and the good Lord and thank my lucky stars,” Shawn shares.

Even 18 years after her death, Shawn says losing Lorie is still hard on the family. But his attitude is anything but negative.

“People ask me how I can be so positive and feel so blessed. Well, it’s sad and you cry about it, I cried for years and I still do, but I still believe that I’m blessed,” Shawn explains. “Every time I pull into the parking lot (to attend one of Gabbi’s games), it feels like Christmas to me. I get out of that car and I’m like a little kid. I’m giddy and I realize we are truly blessed. It’s your perspective on things.”

If she said that her old man is her best friend, you know what? It just makes me smile because she’s mine.
Shawn

He’s blessed in so many ways, including with the unique relationship him and his daughter have. Shawn says while they are loving people, they don’t necessarily show it in a “gushy” way, but it is bigger than that. There is no doubt that what they have is special.

“It goes without saying, we are best friends. There is probably nobody that I could bounce more things off of than my daughter. We think alike. We’re a lot alike,” Shawn says. “If she said that her old man is her best friend, you know what? It just makes me smile because she’s mine.”

Before every game, these best friends share that single look, and that’s really all they need. There the message from father to daughter is clear: He will always be there for her. And in that moment, everything is OK.  

A Special Moment

Catching the Plane