MUSCATINE

Kelby Bender had waited more than 30 years for this moment.

He jumped out of his assistant coaching seat on the Mid-Prairie boys basketball bench last Saturday night in anticipation of a celebration. Two minutes and change still remained in the Golden Hawks’ victory against Northeast in a Class 2A substate final at Muscatine High School, but It was over. The moment had arrived.

As Golden Hawk starters Carter Harmsen, Will Cavanagh, Jack Pennington, Ethan Kos and Alex Bean came out of the game, Bender high-fived each one of them, both of his hands stretched into the air.

He hugged head coach Daren Lambert as the place erupted with noise from the Golden Hawk spectator sections.

Soon, the court turned into a Mid-Prairie basketball party with Golden Hawks players, students, alumni and fans everywhere.

“It was insane,” Pennington said. “We’ve got a 4A gym packed full of our fans.”

Standing in the middle of all this was Bender, a gym teacher at Mid-Prairie’s elementary school who still remembers the night in the same gym in 1991 when an unbeaten Mid-Prairie team lost out on a trip to the state tournament with a loss to Davenport Assumption in a substate final.

That game was Bender’s last as a Golden Hawk player. He was a senior.

“For me,” Bender said as he watched the celebration, “it erases some of the heartache.”

The Golden Hawks had won 21 straight games that year. Bender was an All-State forward for the second consecutive year. But the loss to Assumption kept Mid-Prairie out of the state tournament. The year before, it was Washington in the district final.

All those memories disappeared last Saturday night, at least for a few high-fiving moments that will carry the Golden Hawks into the 2A state tournament beginning March 8 in Des Moines.

Mid-Prairie has won 24 consecutive games. The Golden Hawks are the only unbeaten team in all of Class 2A. And Bender has enjoyed the ride from his assistant coaching chair.

“We couldn’t do it without him,” Lambert said. “He’s a great assistant coach. He’s been a part of a lot of success. He’s stuck around through thick and thin. He’s one of the reasons we’re in the situation we are in.”

Oh, Bender has made that state trip before. He has been an assistant coach since the early 2000s. He coached with Don Showalter, the Golden Hawks’ legendary coach. He was with the Golden Hawks when they had three state tournament runs from 2005 to 2010 under Showalter.

But this is different, this year and this team. These are the Golden Hawks who chased after that 21-game unbeaten streak posted by Bender and his teammates in the 1990-91 season, and then surpassed it. He saw these kids in middle school, in elementary school. He coached them at the high school.

“This team reminds me of our [1990-91] team,” Bender said.

After losing by one point, 57-56, to Washington in the 1990 district finals, the Golden Hawks were motivated by that the next season.

“We had that number written on our shorts, just ready for our senior year” Bender said. “We worked hard, put it together. And these kids kind of did the same. We lost that one to West Branch last year. We would have won the conference title if we had beat them. They took that to heart, they remembered that, put in a lot of hard work to get to this point.”

Bender has played a huge role in this historic season.

“He’s everything,” Cavanagh said. “I think he’s the backbone of our team. He’s definitely got the most experience.”

And he has the passion for a game he has always loved. He is not really a man of silence.

When Mid-Prairie was down to just a three-point lead and struggling in the third quarter of its postseason opener against Mediapolis on Feb. 17, Bender’s verbal fire erupted during a timeout. The Golden Hawks responded with a 24-point run.

“He definitely gets intense,” Harmsen said, “and just encourages us to get better.”

“He puts on a calm, quiet demeanor,” Lambert said, “but he can get going. He’s a competitor, just like all of us.”

And he’s a teacher.

“It’s so fun to coach them,” Bender said. “They want to get better, they want to be pushed.”

The result is what we’re seeing now. An unbeaten team. School record. Pushing for a state championship, which has never happened in boys basketball at Mid-Prairie. And for an assistant coach, a 30-year memory that is being brought back to life.

“It’s fun days,” Bender said. “When you’re a basketball player, you just live for things like this. The crowds are just tremendous, our student section is awesome. That’s the way it was way back then.”

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: a@bowkerpaul.