Wahoo had followed the scripted send-off for its retiring coach through the semi-finals of the 1994 state tournament.  The script said the Warriors would prevail in the final act and the coach would go out a winner.  But their opponent in the championship game had their own script.  The Norris Titans were the only undefeated team in Class B and were number two behind Wahoo in the top ten since the end of January. For the Titans, a win over Wahoo would cap a perfect season and give Norris its first title since 1979.  It remained to be seen whose script would be followed.  While Wahoo had an advantage in tournament experience, playing in their eighth consecutive tournament with three starters returning from the 1993 championship game, Norris hadn’t been to state since 1986.  The Titans had breezed by Ogallala in their first round match-up and had survived in double overtime against McCook to get their chance at Wahoo.  The Titans felt they were up to the task.  Norris Coach Curt Carlson:  “Wahoo gets a lot of the recognition in Class B, but I think there are a lot of other programs that don’t get the respect they deserve.”  Coach Anderson recognized that Norris would be highly motivated:  “I’m sure Norris has pointed to us all year.  They might be one of the few teams that compares to us in quickness.”

Norris met Coach Anderson’s expectations.  The Titans held a 19 – 16 advantage at the end of the first quarter.  Wahoo had abandoned its usual 1-3-1 defense to play some “junk defenses” against Norris.  Coach Anderson, reflecting on the 1992 upset of his team in the state tournament by Ogallala, believed that Norris would be prepared to face Wahoo’s traditional zone and wanted his Warriors to give Norris a different look.  A triangle-and-two defense focused on Norris’s leading scorers, Chris Boesiger and Chad Otto had been semi-successful – Otto had only scored two, but Boesiger had put up seven and Russell Isaak had taken advantage of his opportunites with eight first quarter points.  But the Warriors continued to mix up defenses and defenders and the second quarter produced what would be a game winning run.

With three minutes gone in the second period the score was knotted at 21 – 21.  Thirty-nine seconds later, Wahoo led 27 – 21.  Greg Hain scored on an in-bound lob from Mike Hancock.  Hancock stole a pass and scored, then knocked the ball away and again scored. Hain took over for the rest of the quarter, scoring Wahoo’s next nine points, including a bucket at the half time buzzer to give Wahoo a 36 – 23 lead.  Wahoo’s shifting defenses held the Titans to four second quarter points.  Coach Carlson noted Norris’s confusion:  “They did a lot of switching up on defense.  They confused us.  They throw a lot of different looks at you.”  Hain had been relatively quiet in the first quarter (four points) but he netted sixteen in the second on eight of nine shooting.  Hain commented, “I didn’t want to watch my last game go by without doing anything.”

Although Norris was able to cut into the Wahoo lead a little in the third period, the Warriors still held an eleven point advantage – Norris never got closer than eight points the rest of the game.  There were still some tense moments as Travis Toline, Mike Simons and Hain all had four fouls half way through the fourth period.  But with a double digit lead, Wahoo slowed the game down and ran time off the clock with each possession.  Hancock connected on seven of nine freethrows in the final stanza and in the end, Wahoo prevailed 62 – 47, led by 26 points from Hain and 21 from Hancock.  It was the lowest point output of the year for Norris, and the second lowest points scored by Wahoo (perhaps partially due to Wahoo’s ball control when they had the lead).  Coach Anderson proclaimed the Warrior defense as the difference in the game:  “I’ve always stayed with the fact that defense wins state championships.  We had the highest scoring team in the state a couple of times, even this year, but it was our defense that won this game and the semifinal game against Omaha Gross.”

The Wahoo band blasted out the school fight song; the fans and students joined in the annual chant of “We’re number one.”  The nets came down again and Coach Anderson again handed out championship medals to his players.  The 1994 team accepted the Class B Championship trophy and hoisted it in the air as Wahoo teams had done five times before.  There was jubilation all around.  But on the fringe of the celebration there was a slight tinge of sadness.  This team was done.  As Travis Toline expressed, “It’s real exciting.  But it’s kind of sad at the same time.  For a lot of the seniors it’s their last game.”  And in some corners of the crowd the small placards were still being waved – “Thanks for the Memories, Mick.”  It was Coach Anderson’s “last dance.”  But if there was some gloom, it was quickly dispelled because the players of 1994 had done it exactly how they had said it needed to be done – the script had been followed, the coach had gone out a winner.  There would always be a smile when “Looking back, at the memory of …. the dance.”