When the Omaha World Herald rankings came out just before Christmas, Wahoo was ranked 6th in the "Top Ten." The ranking generated quite a bit of controversy, especially among the Class A fans.
Jason Glock scores over a Schuyler defender at the state tournament. Jason would go on to set the career individual scoring record for the tournament -- a record that still stands in 2008. Jason, who Coach Anderson described as a "super player," was one reason Wahoo might have been able to compete at the Class A level in 1990.
"We’re very satisfied about trying to defend our title in Class B. We could care less about those thoughts about whether we should be in the Class A tournament or whatever.” -- Coach Anderson

Introduction -- a lot to talk about
Class A?
How good was Wahoo? Were they good enough for Class A? The fact that the question kept coming up spoke to how good the team was. And it’s as good an indication as any that the Wahoo team of 1990 had entered a whole new world. Wahoo was a veteran team -- two starters and three regular contributors from the 1989 team returned. Jason Glock had already played significant time on two State Championships. But the experience for this team would be quite different from its two State Championship predecessors. This year, Wahoo was #1 from the beginning of the season. This year there was nobody else laying claim to that honor -- by midseason, Wahoo was the only unbeaten team left in Class B. And in the regular season there was nothing even resembling a close game. In the opening game, Wahoo flexed its muscle and defeated David City 62 - 38. Coach Anderson called the game “ragged,” and indicated he was “disappointed” in the performance but of course, glad to get the win. Obviously, Coach Anderson knew the potential of his team. That 24 point win would be the closest anybody would come to Wahoo until the District Tournament.

So when the topic of Wahoo basketball came up, there wasn’t much suspense about the outcomes of the games, and there wasn’t much discussion about whether or not Wahoo belonged at the top of Class B. But that begged the question: What about Class A? The newspapers fueled the debate, especially the Omaha World Herald. When the initial rankings were issued, both state newspapers had Wahoo at #1 in Class B. After the first 4 weeks of the season, Omaha World Herald sports writer Larry Porter issued his weekly rankings and placed Wahoo at #6 in the “Top 10.” Porter acknowledged that there would be considerable doubting by Class A followers, but made a case for the Warriors by pointing not just to Wahoo’s obvious dominance of its opponents, but to the depth of the squad. He noted that “one Class B coach recently said Wahoo’s second five would be good enough to be rated in Class B." When asked about the ranking, Coach Anderson responded, “This is one year we could play with a lot of Class A Teams. Obviously, we would not win them all, but we could play with them. We have good team quickness and team speed. Another key is that we have the one super player -- Jason Glock -- who I think you need.” Anderson also pointed to summer league and camp play where Wahoo had defeated a number of Class A teams, but had also lost to teams like Bellevue West and Lincoln Northeast. But, he pointed out that they were close games. By the middle of February, as Wahoo continued its winning ways and Class A teams knocked each other off, Wahoo had risen to #4. Porter acknowledged that comparative scores were “an uncertainty at best” but in the absence of much direct competition used them to justify Wahoo’s ranking. Kearney had lost to Class B, Lexington. Alliance lost to C1, Bridgeport, while South Sioux City lost to Hartington CC. With those comparative scores and the inconsistency among many Class A teams, at the end of the regular season, combined with Wahoo’s impressive dominance of the second highest class, Porter placed Wahoo at #3 and even indicated that there was a possible #1 ranking in the future should one of the lower rated Class A teams emerge as the Class A Tournament Champion. Lincoln sports writer Mike Babcock got in on the discussion on February 13th when he wrote an editorial in the Journal-Star after watching Wahoo defeat David City Aquinas. Babcock concluded that the Warriors were far and away the class of Class B, but remained skeptical that Wahoo could compete successfully on a regular basis in Class A, commenting, “the Warriors could probably hold their own in Class A, and maybe even compete against the best in Class A on a one game basis. But to suggest Wahoo could play Class A teams game-in and game-out and still rank among the best in the large-schools class is to underestimate the quality of Class A.” Coach Anderson would somewhat agree with Babcock, declaring on several instances that Wahoo probably wouldn’t have been undefeated, but still defending his team’s ability to compete. When the season concluded, Anderson said, “We would have taken some lumps if we had played a Class A schedule. But we definitely would have won our share, too.” Anderson also pointed out that the higher level of competition would have made his team even better. Opinions on the subject were also published in letters to the editors. Predictably, most Lincoln and Omaha residents considered Wahoo’s ranking absurd, especially if their school was ranked below Wahoo. Responding to those criticisms, in a letter published in the World Herald’s “Voice” section in January, Barry Spurgin of Wahoo referred to this as “urban tunnel vision.” Of course, the issue was never resolved. When Porter’s final rankings were published, Wahoo rested at #5 in “All Classes.”

THE STREAK
Lincoln Journal-Star
Preseason Class B
Both newspapers had Wahoo #1 from the beginning of the season. Ryly Jane Hambleton of the LJS commented that "the Warriors will be king of the mountain until dethroned on the court."
Bergan coach Randy Eickmeier: “ ... they wouldn’t win every game they played in Class A, but they could play against all of those schools.”
In the end, Wahoo finished in the #5 position in the Omaha World Herald's "Top Ten." Porter commented that Wahoo would have had to "display overpowering strength at the State Tournament" to stay at #3 or move up.
Platteview Coach John McGill: “I’ve seen the best in Class B and we’ve played against most of those teams, but this team (Wahoo) is an unbelievable team.”
12/26/09