Southeast Missouri State University Sundancer Raediance Koonce thought she and her teammates were posing to take a picture because it was the last home football game of the year. When her boyfriend, senior football player Levi Terrell, came over she was confused.

"There's actually a video of it and you can see on my face, we're all standing in like a half circle, and he comes up and I'm looking at him like, 'OK, how rude are you? We're taking a picture. Hello?' And he gets down on one knee, and I actually, like, turned away from him," Koonce said. "I was so embarrassed at first and then I was like, 'Wow, I'm getting proposed to,' so it was kind of cool.

"That was always how I wanted to get proposed to, but I kind of blocked it out of my head, like, 'It's the last home game, it's not going to happen,' and then it did."

Terrell proposed to Koonce after Southeast's last home game of the season, a 31-7 loss to Eastern Kentucky, because football always has been a part of their relationship.

"We met freshman year, and she's been on the dance team all four years and I've been playing football all four years. Just making a change to a new school and still keeping that going and everything, that's really our whole relationship," Terrell said. "It's always been around that schedule and just atmosphere and lifestyle, and so I thought it was pretty fitting."

It wasn't a case of love at first sight for Terrell and Koonce, who met through mutual friends during their freshman year at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

He fell for her, but she thought he was strange -- at first.

"Yeah, I didn't like him at first because I thought he was weird. He would, like, randomly show up everywhere that I was after we met, and it actually wasn't random at all. I found out later that he planned it all just so we would keep meeting," Koonce said as Terrell laughed. "But I fell for him, too, after a little while."

Koonce thought that Terrell was a lot older than her when they first met. But after getting to know him she realized she was wrong.

"I actually found out soon after we met that we are the exact same age down to the day," Koonce said in a text message.

They were both born on March 27, 1991.

Koonce and Terrell started dating during their freshman year but were faced with a decision during their sophomore year. Terrell found out the University of Nebraska-Omaha football program had been cut and within days Koonce found out her major would no longer be offered at the university.

"It was on a Sunday that football got cut," Terrell said. "So that was a big shock to everybody. Nobody was expecting that. They didn't tell anyone -- players, coaches, anybody. Right in the middle of this shock, on Wednesday, they dropped her major, so she didn't know what she was going to do."

Koonce was told that she could complete the courses to earn her early childhood education degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but chose to go with Terrell instead.

"I'm from Minnesota, so I didn't know anybody in Nebraska so it would basically be like starting over no matter where I went," Koonce said.

Terrell, who is from DeSoto, Mo., decided to transfer to Southeast to be closer to home. He played football for the Redhawks for two years and Koonce has been a Sundancer for two years. His junior season he played five games before breaking his collarbone, which sidelined him for the rest of the season. This year Terrell led Southeast in rushing with 1,349 yards.

He became the third player in the Ohio Valley Conference to rush for over 1,000 yards this season when he rushed for 57 yards against Eastern Kentucky before proposing to Koonce after the game.

"I was thinking about [the proposal]. But since I'd kind of got everything taken care of before the game I wasn't worried about something going wrong or anything like that, so I was able to kind of just play," Terrell said. "But it was definitely there in the back of my mind and, of course, right after the game ended and right towards the end of the game, that's when it started creeping back up."

Terrell planned for Koonce's family to make the trip down from Minnesota. She knew her mom was coming to the game but was surprised the Friday before the game when her dad, brother and her brother's girlfriend also arrived.

Terrell planned the proposal and coordinated with Nate Saverino, Southeast athletics' coordinator of marketing and promotions, and Sundancers coach Tatiana Parham to make it work.

"Nate originally wanted to do it before the game during the senior day ceremony thing, but with talking to coaches and everything we decided to do it after so it wasn't a distraction to any of the guys or to the game," Terrell said.

Saverino was contacted at the beginning of the week of the proposal by Koonce's mom and helped coordinate with Terrell so the proposal would play on the videoboard.

"Of course, there was a football game to be played first. As the game was playing out, coach Samuel unexpectedly wanted the whole team to meet in the locker room immediately following the game," Saverino said in an email. "That put a slight wrench in the plans because we were planning for the proposal almost immediately following the end of the game."

Parham made sure her team went to the middle of the field after the game to take pictures.

"Then I came back out, and I wasn't too nervous really up until that point, but when I came back out to actually do it, then I started getting pretty nervous," Terrell said. "It worked out well. It was kind of a bumpy ride and put together quickly, but it worked well."

Terrell and Koonce plan to get married on July 13 in St. Louis.

"We will be getting married in St. Louis because Levi has a lot of family in Missouri, and it's a central location for all of our guests coming from Minnesota, Nebraska and Alabama," Koonce said.

They have started looking at different venues, DJs and photographers and have started putting together their guest list.

"Our friends are kind of making it easy on us because a lot of our friends are coming to us and offering to do things for us because they want to be a part of it. It makes it a lot more special," Koonce said. "My coach, she offered to make our invitations, so I can look back and say, 'Well my coach made these for me' and a bunch of our friends want to do things for us, so that's kind of cool.

"Our wedding party is kind of unique, too, because we have our friends that knew us before, when I was in Minnesota and he was in Missouri, and then we have our friends that knew us when we first started dating when we were in Omaha and now we have our friends here that are really seeing our relationship develop. So it's kind of people from every stage of our relationship."

Terrell and Koonce plan to live in Cape Girardeau after they get married, and both are scheduled to graduate next December. Terrell is studying to become a personal trainer. Koonce will graduate with a degree in communications and hopes to work in public relations.

However, Terrell wants to try to continue playing football in the NFL, Canada or overseas.

"I'm going to chase the dream that every little boy playing football has," Terrell said.

No matter where Terrell ends up, Koonce will be with him and even said she could be able to finish her degree online.

"I am excited to be marrying my best friend," Koonce said. "And I can't wait to be able to share the rest of my life with Levi as my husband."