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| Those who looked at the Wahoo schedule after December might have circled three upcoming games as potential challenges to Wahoo. |
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| "Nobody's come close to these guys ... " -- Mike Nannen, Yutan |
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| Randy Hoffman gets a dunk off of a Troy Johnston steal against Yutan -- a five point spree at the end of the first quarter put the Warriors up 11. |
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| "There's not one or two players you have to shut down. They have five, six, seven kids that are capable of scoring points." -- Leon Bose, Syracuse coach |
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| 3 point shooting before January: |
| Opponent |
3's |
% |
| David City |
1/13 |
7.69% |
| Logan View |
7/25 |
28.00% |
| Bennington |
3/13 |
23.08% |
| Arlington |
1/6 |
16.67% |
| Elkhorn MM |
2/10 |
20.00% |
| Neumann |
2/6 |
33.33% |
| R. Central |
2/11 |
18.18% |
| TOTAL |
18/84 |
21.43% |
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| The Raymond Central strategy for dealing with the Warriors had some solid evidence behind it as Wahoo had struggled with its 3 point shooting until January. |
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| Coaches Anderson and Watton may not have "circled" Raymond Central on the schedule, but they had their "game faces" on. |
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| "The person who made the difference in the game was Ryan Eddie." -- Dale Rasmussen, R.C. coach |
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| Wahoo Athletic Director and Ryan Eddie's dad, Paul Eddie, checks out the scoreboard as Ryan netted 4 of 7 three's against Raymond Central. |
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The Journey
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| circles |
Challenges Video
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After disposing of Wahoo Neumann and Raymond Central in the Wahoo Holiday Tournament with relative ease, the team looked forward to the 1990 portion of their journey. The Wahoo coaches and players recited the mantra and consistently gave the same response when asked about the win streak that had reached 45 games at the end of 1989: “one game at a time.” So while they would claim they didn’t, when examining the remaining schedule, they might possibly have circled some upcoming challenges. Immediately after the tournament, the Warriors were to face a ranked Class C1 team, Yutan; a Yutan team that had taken the Warriors to overtime the year before. Then there was Syracuse, always one of Wahoo’s tougher opponents. There would be a rematch with Raymond Central -- still ranked in Class B; it might be tough to beat them twice. Behind closed doors, in the dark of a closet with only a flashlight and pencil, a coach or player might have bent over a copy of the schedule and circled these games. But if they did, we will never know, because they continued to chant the mantra and it certainly didn’t affect their performance.
1990 began with Yutan coming to visit the Wahoo High School gym on January 5th. The Class C1 ranked Chieftains were hanging with the Warriors, only down by 6 with less than thirty seconds to go in the first quarter. Then the dam burst. A technical foul put Jason Glock at the freethrow line -- he made one of two. Glock inbounded the ball to Hoffman who scored. Then the Warrior press struck. Troy Johnston tipped a pass into Glock’s hands and he delivered the ball to Hoffman for a dunk at the buzzer. The six point lead was suddenly 11. Although Yutan tried to keep the score down the rest of the game with a deliberate half court game, Wahoo steadily pulled away, eventually winning 74 - 50. Even after a 24 point loss, Yutan coach, Mike Nannen, commented, “I think as a team we worked hard and have nothing to be ashamed of.” His team would qualify for the state tournament at the end of the season, but in reality, it hadn’t been much of a challenge for the Warriors. Back in that closet, the player / coach was erasing the evidence of that “circle.”
Syracuse was always a challenge and they brought a 6 - 3 record to Wahoo on January 12th. Certainly Coach Anderson hadn’t done any “circling,” but he did comment that “Our kids know when you play Syracuse, you’d better be ready to play.” And with three starters (Hoffman, Glock and Volin) home sick on the Thursday before the game, it might have been Syracuse’s destiny to be the bookends to the win streak. But again, the Warriors made sure early that it wasn’t much of a game. In the first four minutes, Wahoo poured in 13 points and Syracuse answered with none, but did manage to match baskets the rest of the quarter, producing a 26 - 13 Wahoo lead at the end of one. Through the second and third quarters, the lead remained fairly constant, then at the end of the third quarter, the Warriors went on an 11 - 0 run that clinched the victory. The three sick players showed no ill effects as they all scored in double figures: Glock 28, Hoffman 19, and Volin 13. Ryan Eddie chipped in 11 to put four Wahoo starters in double figures. The final 80 - 54 score convinced Syracuse coach, Leon Bose that Wahoo was “one of the best teams I’ve seen because they play both sides of the court so well.” Some had circled the Syracuse game because it was Wahoo’s 47th consecutive win, tying the Class B record previously held by Norris. For that reason it could remain circled, but under the flashlight, on the list of “challenges,” the circle around Syracuse was being erased.
On January 29th, Wahoo journeyed to Raymond Central to face the Mustang team whose only loss was to Wahoo in the Wahoo Holiday Tournament. And although R. C.’s loss to the Warriors was emphatic, this time the Mustangs would get Wahoo on their home court. Also, Raymond coach, Dale Rasmussen, had a strategy that was born of his experience against Wahoo back in December. For Wahoo’s first seven ball games the inside game had dominated, but the expected balance from outside shooting had not materialized like most had thought it would. The Warriors were shooting a very poor 21% from the three point line. Following the Logan View game (a 7 for 25 three point effort), Coach Anderson had commented, “We can’t be a contender this year unless we have an outside game.” After losing to Wahoo, Mount Michael coach, Jim Kane had noted, “They don’t shoot the ball that well outside, but maybe they don’t have to.” When quizzed about the poor outside shooting, Anderson was optimistic, stating “We have too good of shooters to not hit anything and I think they’ll get better.” To shut off Wahoo’s inside game, Rasmussen had the Mustangs in a 1-3-1 zone that constantly doubled down on the posts. Of course that left some outside shots wide open. Ryan Eddie answered the call, connecting on three three’s in the first quarter and going 4 - 6 in the first half. Bernie Inbody nailed three treys in the second period and the Warriors finished the game 7 - 13 from behind the arc. Coach Anderson said he “wasn’t surprised.” Indeed, since the Yutan game in which Eddie had connected for four of the longshots, the Wahoo outside game had been improving. In the Raymond Central game the bombs that had been so dramatic in the 1989 State Tournament final were back. While the R.C. strategy effectively limited Hoffman and Volin, Jason Glock still found ways to score, connecting for 14 in the first half as Wahoo sprinted to a 43 - 26 lead. When the dust had settled, Eddie had finished with 23 points, the Warriors had another decisive win: (88 - 60), and somewhere, somebody was erasing another circle.
a nice accomplishment |
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YUTAN: Ryan Eddie hits a three. Randy Hoffman gets the steal and then the dunk; Jason Glock scores on a baseline jumper; Bernie Inbody passes to Glock who scores on a reverse layup; Joel Weyand gets the ball to Scott Latham in the post and Latham scores on the jump hook.
RAYMOND CENTRAL: Steve Volin to Glock for a turnaround jumper; Troy Johnston drives and dishes to Glock for a score; Latham gets the block and Eddie the layup; Inbody to Glock at the freethrow line for a jump shot; Eddie saves, drives and dishes to Hoffman; Joel Weyand beats the press to Glock to Trent Toline for the score.
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| Yutan |
fg |
ft |
3pt. |
pts |
| J. Glock |
8/13 |
6/7 |
0/1 |
22 |
| Volin |
1/1 |
3/3 |
0 |
5 |
| Hoffman |
8/14 |
0/4 |
0 |
16 |
| Eddie |
5/7 |
3/4 |
4/6 |
17 |
| Johnston |
2/3 |
1/6 |
0 |
5 |
| Inbody |
1/3 |
0/0 |
1/3 |
3 |
| Weyand |
0/1 |
2/2 |
0 |
2 |
| Simons |
0/3 |
0/1 |
0/3 |
0 |
| Dvorak |
0/1 |
0/0 |
0 |
0 |
| Latham |
2/7 |
0/4 |
0 |
4 |
| Total |
27/53 |
15/28 |
5/13 |
74 |
| Yutan |
15/35 |
15/27 |
4/8 |
50 |
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| Wahoo's top three scorers for the season (Glock, Hoffman and Eddie) led the way against Yutan. It was a break-out game for Wahoo's three point attack -- behind Eddies 4 / 6 performance, the Warriors had their best game of the year to date from beyond the arc. |
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| Syracuse |
fg |
ft |
3pt. |
pts |
| J. Glock |
13/18 |
1/2 |
1/1 |
28 |
| Volin |
5/7 |
3/3 |
0 |
13 |
| Hoffman |
9/13 |
1/3 |
0 |
19 |
| Eddie |
3/3 |
4/6 |
1/1 |
11 |
| Johnston |
0/2 |
0/0 |
0 |
0 |
| Inbody |
0/2 |
0/0 |
0/2 |
0 |
| Simons |
2/3 |
0/1 |
1/2 |
5 |
| Dvorak |
1/2 |
0/0 |
0 |
2 |
| Latham |
0/0 |
1/2 |
0 |
1 |
| Toline |
0/1 |
1/3 |
0 |
1 |
| Total |
33/51 |
11/19 |
5/13 |
80 |
| Syracuse |
17/54 |
16/17 |
4/18 |
54 |
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| Steve Volin had his best game of the season with 13. He would reach double digits two more times: 10 vs. Platteview in the District Final and 11 vs. Pius X in the State Tournament. |
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| The win over Syracuse tied the record for consecutive wins by a Class B team -- 49. |
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| Raymond Central |
fg |
ft |
3pt. |
pts |
| J. Glock |
12/20 |
4/5 |
0/1 |
28 |
| Volin |
0/0 |
1/2 |
0 |
1 |
| Hoffman |
6/15 |
2/6 |
0 |
14 |
| Eddie |
9/14 |
1/3 |
4/7 |
23 |
| Johnston |
1/4 |
0/1 |
0 |
2 |
| Inbody |
3/4 |
4/4 |
3/4 |
13 |
| Dvorak |
1/3 |
0/0 |
0 |
2 |
| Latham |
1/3 |
1/1 |
0 |
3 |
| Toline |
1/2 |
0/0 |
0 |
2 |
| Herrmann |
0/1 |
0/0 |
0/1 |
0 |
| Total |
34/66 |
13/23 |
7/13 |
88 |
| Raymond Central |
17/58 |
22/34 |
4/17 |
60 |
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| Bernie Inbody had one of his best scoring games with 13 against Raymond Central. He would score 14 against North Bend and have 13 against Schuyler in the opening round of the State Tournament. |
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| Jason Glock, the Warriors' leading scorer, answered the challenges of Yutan, Syracuse and Raymond Central by averaging 26 points per game. |
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| 12/26/09 |
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