The pressure of it all was perfect.

Jack Pennington, a senior at Mid-Prairie High School, stood at the free throw line with 6.4 seconds left in a game against an opponent the Golden Hawks hadn’t beaten since Pennington was in elementary school.

It was Senior Night, an evening that began last Friday with Jack and four other Golden Hawk seniors on the boys basketball team joining their parents at mid-court for a pregame ceremony.

As Jack stood there, staring at a basket he had practiced shots hundreds of times, looking to clinch a victory in a three-point game, perhaps his mind wandered back a few years. Perhaps it went back to those days when he and Will Cavanagh and Justice Jones and others were playing in all those youth basketball games, just dreaming of this kind of a night.

“Ever since third or fourth grade,” Pennington said.

Senior Night. Game on the line. Unbeaten season on the line. Dads and moms watching from their seats, furiously biting their nails, also remembering those days of little Jack and Will and Justice going through the Iowa snow just to play ball.

“My dad, Will Cavanagh’s dad and Justin’s dad have been coaching us up through AAU,” Jack Pennington said. “Then we go to school ball. It’s means a lot.”

Pete Cavanagh, who is now the head football coach and a teacher at Mid-Prairie, remembers those days with the kids and Marc Pennington, Jack’s dad, and Kurt Jones, Justice’s dad.

“Those were fun times,” Pete said. “In my opinion, we did it right, coached the fundamentals and emphasized sharing the basketball.”

Marc Pennington, who is now a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual Life, was a boys and girls basketball coach at Mid-Prairie and was an assistant in football.

The boys started in third grade. They played in the Lone Tree League, Pete Cavanagh said. A family partnership was built. The camaraderie remains as solid as a brick. They were all on the football team, last season featuring Will Cavanagh as quarterback, Justice Jones as the team’s leading tackler at linebacker and Jack Pennington as a receiver who often seemed to be in the right place at the right time.

“He tends to be a big-time player,” Cavanagh said.

Pete, Marc and Kurt all played basketball in high school. So coaching the kids was a snap. But it was more than that.

“All the boys come from great families with a great perspective on winning and losing,” Pete Cavanagh said. “I know a lot of kids go and play with kids from other schools, but there is something to be said about playing with your own classmates. Builds chemistry.”

So there stood Jack Pennington with the ball in his hands with everyone in the packed home stands at Mid-Prairie staring only at him.

A basket by Pennington with 50 seconds left in the River Valley Conference showdown against traditional Class 2A power Camanche had given the Golden Hawks a 48-44 lead. Now it was 49-46 and the Storm was just waiting for a couple of missed free throws, a rebound and a chance to tie the score.

“Jack is the biggest competitor I know,” Will Cavanagh said later. “He’s one of the hardest workers. He’s always in the gym, always shooting. He works so hard.”

The moment is a dream.

The referee gets the ball to Jack at the free throw line.

The first shot bounces off the rim, rattles around and falls into the net.

“I kind of pointed up at the sky after that first one,” Pennington said.

And then he hit the second shot.

Game over.

Perfect. Just the way you’d draw it up in the third grade.

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