“We’ll do anything.”  That was Coach Mick Anderson’s comment concerning his team’s changes of defense during the District B-3 championship game against Omaha Roncalli.  The Warriors started off in what Coach Anderson and his staff had referred to for years as a “slime” defense – a triangle and two designed to contain the Crimson Pride’s two primary threats, guards Greg Gargano and Ryan Woodard.  While Roncalli coach Doug Woodard indicated that Wahoo’s switch from its bread and butter 1-3-1 zone defense was “no surprise,” he also noted that his team needed to prepare primarily for the 1-3-1 zone as their semi-final opponent, Mt. Michael, also used the aggressive zone. The Roncalli coach did admit that the Wahoo “slime” was quite effective – “I think the kids were confused by it.  It took us a full quarter and two timeouts to get any sense of rhythm.”  The Warriors did indeed get off to a good start, forcing six Roncalli turnovers in the first quarter and claiming a 29 – 12 lead.

However, for the next two quarters, Roncalli showed it was an opponent worthy of Wahoo’s best effort.  The Crimson Pride kept pace with the Warriors as both teams netted 22 points in the second period. Then, in the third quarter, Roncalli made a run.  A seventeen point halftime lead was reduced nine when Roncalli’s Adam Hurt netted a three pointer with 3:30 to go in the third.  Wahoo called timeout and switched defenses again, this time going to a straight man-to-man.  The Warriors then went on a run, outscoring the Pride 20 – 4 over the next eight minutes.  Coach Anderson noted, “A good team can respond.  You have to fight off their runs and meet their runs with your own runs.”

Wahoo left the Papillion court with an 84 – 59 victory and an eighth consecutive district championship.  It was a convincing win over a quality opponent.  Roncalli finished the season with a 17 – 10 record, the loss to Wahoo being only the second in their last seventeen games.  All five starters for Wahoo reached double digits, led by Mike Hanock’s 29.   Coach Woodard summed up the challenge Wahoo presented:  “Wahoo is a cut above.  They are a cut above us, a cut above the rest of the field.  Somebody’s going to have to play up, sustained up, and Wahoo’s going to have to be down a little bit.  We were up, but not long enough.”

With the district championship, the Warriors had taken a major step toward their ultimate goal.  The district tournament had begun with “no game.”   It ended with the promise of a chance for Wahoo to win another state championship.  Mike Hancock expressed the seniors’ determination:  “We knew that this would be a game where we would have to come out and take over.  So we tried to step it up, especially later in the game.”  Many players express such resolve, but Hancock and his teammates had the game to back it up.  In the state tournament, the other seven teams would express their own single-minded intent to unseat Wahoo as Class B Champions.  But Wahoo had a history of achievement and this Wahoo team had demonstrated, perhaps more than any of its predecessors, an ability to rise to the occasion.  For those that might have thought they knew how to defeat the Warriors, for those who thought they had what it took to defeat a 1-3-1 zone, for those who thought Wahoo had no inside game, for those who thought they could shut down the Wahoo shooters; they would have to try and match the Warriors’ commitment and intensity.  And if they doubted that commitment and intensity, they needed only to take a look at Wahoo’s victory over Omaha Roncalli and heed Coach Anderson’s words:  “We’ll do anything.”