A 25-year look back at area basketball

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 8/11/21

The 1995-96 and 1996-97 basketball campaigns were seasons of “firsts” for Mid-Prairie and Lone Tree. 

Don Showalter had been to the state tournament as a player in 1970, and took …

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A 25-year look back at area basketball

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The 1995-96 and 1996-97 basketball campaigns were seasons of “firsts” for Mid-Prairie and Lone Tree. 

Don Showalter had been to the state tournament as a player in 1970, and took Central in 1982, but hadn’t coached the Golden Hawks to the Barn until 1996. The same year, Lone Tree reached the state quarterfinals for the first time under coach Tom Squiers.

The following season, the Golden Hawk boys made it back-to-back trips, while the Mid-Prairie girls made the first state tournament appearance in program history, finishing the 1996-97 season in the state championship game. 

“Interstate 80 from Wellman, Kalona, and West Chester to Des Moines was well traveled that week,” Showalter said about the 1997 state tournaments.

 

The 1995-96 Mid-Prairie boys

EIHC conference champs

2A - 4th place (21-5)

Entering the 1995-96 season, the Golden Hawks had not made a state tournament appearance since assistant coach Bud Bender was a player in 1972. 

EIHC first-team all-conference sophomore Randy Jirsa led the team in scoring, but the Golden Hawks weren’t a one-man show. 

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” Showalter told The Kalona News in ‘96. “If you watched our teams over the years, we have had very few star players.” You can look at the individuals and you don’t think that they are as good as they are, but they play as a whole.”

The Golden Hawks won four games in postseason play to reach the state tournament. Just one of those victories came by double figures. 

“We score off of turnovers and our set offense,” Showalter said. “That makes it a little deceptive. One person is not doing it all. We are scoring off of different people in a lot of different ways. We have given up points, but we pride ourselves with the pressure we can put on teams and how hard we play defense.”

Golden Hawk junior Jorey Bailey was the Golden Hawks’ leading rebounder, and was second on the team in scoring. He was also a first-team all-conference selection. 

“Our ‘96 team had great senior leadership with Andrew Wiles, Casey Christner, Torrey Ginergrich, and Jeremiah Gingerich to name a few,” Bailey said. 

“We grew up scrimmaging those guys, and all of a sudden in ‘96, we were all on the same team. And it took their leadership for us all to come together. We had Randy, myself, and either Jake Fisher or Caleb Yoder were the starting underclassmen. And it takes serious leadership, serious strength to take us on and allow us all to come onto their team and to make it all work out by the end of the season.”

After clinching an outright conference championship with a 85-71 win at Solon, the Golden Hawks dropped the last two games of the regular season to enter district play at 16-3. 

Mid-Prairie defeated Eddyville 67-59 in the opening round and blew out Sigourney 71-54. Christner made five of Mid-Prairie’s ten 3-pointers and finished with 17 points. 

The Golden Hawks held off Columbus 74-68 to reach the substate final against Pella Christian. 

Neither team led by double digits and the score was tied 62-62 when the Golden Hawks inbounded with three seconds left. Fisher passed the ball to Jirsa, who took one dribble and put up a shot from 14 feet away. The horn sounded before the ball fell through the net. 

“It was chaos,” Bailey said. “Because it’s been quite some time since we had a state tournament team. 

“It was a great feeling. You know, it’s something that many classes, many teams strive to do. My cousin Josh was on a pretty good team with Matt Larson and they thought they had the team to go but they didn’t make it and I watched that happen. And we got ourselves in position, and it was literally down to the last second that got us there. So, it was quite the moment.”

For the first time in 24 seasons, the Golden Hawks were in the state quarterfinal. Bailey had watched many games from the seats in Veterans Auditorium, but in 1996 he made it to “the Barn’s” hardwood court. 

“My family had made it a tradition every year to go to the boys state tournament to spend the championship weekend,” Bailey said. “Just to be able to come out of that tunnel there and to experience the locker room, it felt like another level. As high school kids, we didn’t really travel that far, we didn’t spend overnights or take Greyhound busses. At first you’re kind of awed by it, then you get through that first game, and, you know, the nerves kind of go away and you least try to get down to business.”

The Golden Hawks secured a top-four finish with a 62-55 win over Applington-Parkersburg in the state quarterfinals. 

After trailing by five points early, Mid-Prairie finished the first quarter on a 15-5 run and led the rest of the way. Fisher and Jirsa each scored 16 while Bailey had 12 points and 11 rebounds as the Golden Hawks advanced. Mid-Prairie was edged 68-65 by Westwood in the state semifinal, coming up just short of a chance to play for the state title. 

Showalter explained that Mid-Prairie’s quest to return to the state tournament was helped significantly when the IHSAA expanded the tournament to the current four-class system in 1985. When Mid-Prairie reached the tournament in 1970 and ‘72, there were only two classes. A third class was added in 1975, but the Golden Hawks were still running into much bigger schools until ‘85. 

Showalter finished with five state tournament appearances in 28 seasons at Mid-Prairie. 

 

The 1995-96 Lone Tree boys

SEISC North champions 

1A state tourn. qualifiers (20-5)

After an undefeated state championship season in 1985, Lone Tree had gone 10 seasons without an appearance in the state basketball tournament. The Lions finished the 1994-95 season with a loss to Highland in the district final. 

“We were 12-9, but we really struggled early,” Lone Tree coach Tom Squiers said. “As the season went on we got a lot better. I think getting to the district final helped us a lot in terms of advancing to that state tournament because we had gone at least that far on the trail. And I think if you want to get to the state tournament, that’s kind of important to be in those big games.”

In 1996, the Lions were ready to play in some more big games, and win them as well. 

In the regular season, Lone Tree knocked off the defending state champs and top-ranked Winfield - Mt. Union Wolves, who ended up sharing the conference title with the Lions. 

Lone Tree had a team that loved to play basketball. 

“They had a great work ethic and they were really coachable,” Squires said. “And they just played a lot. When they got into high school, it’s all those guys wanted to do. We had open gyms and they were always there. Any time we went to team camp or anything like that, they were always there. 

“So, it was it was a special group in that way — they just worked so hard on the game of basketball.”

In the postseason, many anticipated a matchup between Lone Tree and No. 6 Bellevue Marquette, coached by Tom’s brother Jim Squiers. 

In Lone Tree’s district final against North Linn, Tony Hazen kept the Lions in the game early with four first-half three-pointers. He finished with 23 points, while Chris Berry scored 19 to lead Lone Tree to a 67-62 victory. 

Jim Squiers’ team would have to wait until the next season to reach the state tournament. After Robbie Sieverding scored all 15 points for Marquette in the first quarter, Durant coach Gary DeLong threw a box-and-one at the Mohawk star. The Wildcats held Sieverding to just eight points the rest of the way in a 71-57 win and Marquette finished the season at 20-2. 

“A lot of people in the press thought this is going to be the big matchup of Squires vs. Squires in the substate game and, probably fortunately, that never happened just because Marquette had had all kinds of experience in that game,” Squires said. 

“We had to play Durant and it did not look very good for us at halftime, we were down 13.”

 Hazen hit a pair of 3-pointers and Berry stole the ball and scored with just two seconds left in the third quarter to cut the lead to five. 

Lone Tree took its first lead of the game with three and a half minutes remaining. 

“Tony Hazen hit another big three  to put us up one and then we got the ball to Chris Berry, who made a couple shots. And it was fortunate that our kids really responded to being down that much in a big game.”

Lone Tree outscored Durant 25-15 in the fourth quarter of the 60-55 victory. The senior trio of Hazen, Berry and Kevin Spears each scored at least 15 points in the substate final. 

“This team had put in so much work. And then to finally get there, especially in that substate game where our backs were really against the wall — to have them fight back and then to get to the state tournament was great. It just really showed the resiliency of that team,” Squiers said.

“To get that group to the state tournament was special, not only for me as a coach, because it was our first time getting there. But the fact that these guys had worked so hard and set that as a goal, and then to meet that was huge.”

In the state quarterfinal, the Lions came out on fire — taking a 17-5 lead after one quarter against No. 10 Guthrie Center. 

“Our sixth man off the bench was Darren Yoder,” Squiers recalled. He was a really good outside shooter and he hit a half court shot at the halftime buzzer to put us up 11, but we just weren’t able to hold on to that lead because we missed so many free throws in the second half,” Squiers said.

Guthrie Center took the lead with a 20-4 run and held on for a 53-47 win. But the Lions still took some positive memories home from the trip to Veterans Auditorium. 

“It was a great experience for those guys and for me as a coach and my assistant Tim Navara,” Squires said. “It was fun time.”

 

The 1996-97 Mid-Prairie girls

2A State Runner-up (22-4)

The Mid-Prairie girls basketball program had never reached the state tournament, but that didn’t diminish the expectations that the Golden Hawks had for themselves in 1997. 

“I just remember being super confident,” said Jessica Larsen, who was a senior at the time. “We knew we were good. In the district game, we felt very confident. I think we just knew we were going to go all the way. We just had that mindset.”

Mid-Prairie lost just three times in the regular season, including twice to the conference champion Solon. 

The Golden Hawks opened the postseason with a 58-19 blowout of CCA, and then faced a tougher test in the next round against Pekin. Mid-Prairie led just 61-59 with three minutes left, but closed the game on an 11-5 run to win by eight. Larsen led Mid-Prairie with 21, while Sarah Court scored 20 and Julie Brophy scored 16 to hold off the Panthers. 

Mid-Prairie also used a strong fourth quarter to beat Wapello 61-52 to reach the regional final after trailing at halftime. 

The Golden Hawk girls, who had been playing together since sixth grade, were one game away from the state tournament. Larsen explained that the team’s athleticism and cohesiveness were key in reaching that point. 

“What was interesting was that there were so many girls on the team where basketball wasn’t necessarily their strongest sport,” she said. “We had one girl that was stronger in softball, one in volleyball — so, I think the biggest thing was just athleticism. And then we had that cohesiveness because we all played all the sports pretty much throughout the year.

“Give a bunch of credit to Don Showalter for all the camps and activities he kept going for us at that really, really young age. And we just had fun, it wasn’t just about winning. Learning those fundamentals is so key at a young age.”

After a couple of tough games, Mid-Prairie led wire-to-wire in a 65-50 win over Pella Christian to clinch a state tournament berth. The Golden Hawks led by as many as 20 points before celebrating on the court in Ottumwa. The celebration continued all week. 

“It was just a fantastic group of girls and an amazing community that was just so supportive,” Larsen said. “We had a parade in Kalona, and people were coming out of the businesses screaming and waving at us. It was crazy. You almost felt like a star in the small town. We had all kinds of people throwing us banquets and doing all sorts of things for the team. It was really neat.”

The Golden Hawks faced a tough road to the state championship, starting with the defending state champion, third-ranked Sibley Ocheyedan. 

The Golden Hawks trailed 51-48 with less than four minutes left, but Larsen scored seven of her 14 points during an 11-4 Mid-Prairie run to close out the game. 

“This was a total team effort, as it has been all year,” Mid-Prairie coach Deb Kahler told the Kalona News in 1997. “Julie (Brophy) hit those two big shots to get us rolling in the fourth quarter. Abby (Greiner) came off the bench and played some more great defense and Rebecca (Larsen) filled in for Sarah (Court) when she was in foul trouble and gave us some great minutes off the bench.”

The Golden Hawks defeated No. 2 Algona Garrigan 64-58 in the state semifinal to set up a rematch with No. 1 Solon. 

Mid-Prairie lost the regular season matchups 56-49 and 67-56, but foul trouble kept them from being competitive in the state championship game. Solon outscored Mid-Prairie 24-9 in the second quarter on the way to a 70-47 win. 

“I just still don’t understand what happened — how we got pulled out of it so quickly with the fouls,” Larsen said. “It was almost like we couldn’t move without being called. It was so strange. 

“We just never felt like we were able to give it our all, like we had in the games leading up to it. It didn’t feel like it was like a full game. Like, we barely played and all of a sudden the game was over.”

Larsen was named to the all-tournament team and was a first-team all-state selection by the Iowa Newspapers Association. 

The Mid-Prairie girls have made seven appearances in the state tournament, including a championship in 2002, but 1997 was special — as the first. 

“It was kind of a bonus that came along with it, that we were the first group of girls to do it,” Larsen said. “It was meaningful to us, but I think it meant a lot to the community and brought the community together in a way that we hadn’t ever seen. You could just feel the whole town behind you every step of the way. I think that was the most meaningful part of it all, more than just the title of being the first group. It was the community and how it came together and stood behind us.” 

 

1996-97 Iowa Mennonite Boys

SEISC North Champions (22-2)

Iowa Mennonite went 20-1 in the regular season and claimed the SEISC North title with a perfect record in conference play. It was a big turnaround from the previous season, when IMS finished with a record of 6-11.

In the postseason, Brad Miller led IMS with 25 points in a 69-61 win over Lone Tree. He made seven straight free throws and scored 13 of those points in the fourth quarter as IMS came back from a nine-point deficit to avoid the upset. 

Stephen Bender scored 22 points in a 57-47 win over WACO in the district semifinal, but the postseason run came to an end as IMS blew a nine-point fourth-quarter lead in a 49-48 loss to Preston. After the season, Bender was named the SEISC North player of the year.