PERSONALLY SPEAKING

by H. Joe Weyand

"Time passes and you must move on
Half the distance takes you twice as long"

– The Eagles*

In 1997 our family was divided between Wahoo basketball games and Morningside games.  It was my son Joel’s senior year for the Chiefs.  He was the starting point guard and hoping to go out as a conference champion.  It wasn’t to be – Morningside didn’t have the greatest season, but did finish with a 19 - 8 record.  Much like the 1997 Warriors, that wasn’t viewed as a big success because the Chiefs didn’t qualify for any post-season play.  Joel did have some individual success as he set the Morningside record for career assists.  There was even an article in the Omaha World Herald by Rich Kaipust.  Joel was quoted, “Coming from a winning school like Wahoo, you think that winning is everywhere.  My first year here I got a rude awakening.  We didn’t even have a winning season and it was an eye-opener.”  Regarding the assist record: “I love being the guy who gets the ball from someone and makes that extra pass to set somebody else up.”

My daughters were sophomores at WHS and started on the varsity basketball team.  Unfortunately, Jill’s season was cut short when she tore her ACL during the holiday tournament.  The Wahoo girls posted a 9-11 record – it was quite a contrast to the boys’ season.  While the girls struggled to make a winning season, the boys “struggled” to be 14-7.

Often Judy and I had to split up on a given night, one of us going to Joel’s game and the other to the twins’ game.  Needless to say, I didn’t make it to a lot of the Wahoo boys’ games.  But I remember being impressed by the quality of play at the games I did attend.  As a former coach, I had an appreciation of how difficult it is to win at the varsity level when you are playing mostly underclassmen.  I quickly came to realize that these underclassmen had talent.  I would agree with Wahoo Newspaper writer Eric Taylor that the 1997 Warriors were “one of the most overachieving Wahoo teams.”

Morningside’s season ended with a thrilling victory.  In fact, it was a joyous weekend as the Chiefs won on the road at Northern Colorado and then at UNO – the double win being something rarely accomplished by Morningside teams.  It was quite a weekend for us as we drove to Greeley, Colorado on Friday night and then back to Omaha on Saturday for the final game.  Adding to the excitement was the attendance of a nice crowd of people from Wahoo – Mike Simons was playing for the Mavericks as a freshman.  But alongside the thrill was a sadness that Joel’s basketball career was over.

Do you play to win, or do you play not to lose?  The 1997 Warriors experienced some significant losses – winning streaks over several teams ended, conference win streak ended, and of course the hardest to accept, state tournament streak ended.  Losses were so rare for these Wahoo teams that they were often playing not to lose.  Unfortunately, that takes the shine off of the accomplishments of the 1997 Warriors. Fourteen wins? – that’s expected.  Seven losses? – that’s unacceptable.  As The Eagles sang, “You don’t care about winning but you don’t want to lose, after the thrill is gone.”

*”After The Thrill Is Gone” by The Eagles