This year was so awesome that Derek Martin decided to highlight the top 25 area sports from this past season rather than the usual 10 and I thought it would be cool to sift through the 101 events that I covered in the 2018-19 season and list the top moments. Like Derek, I originally intended to just include 10, but there were just too many to choose from, so I decided to go with 15. I would love to write about all 101 events (again), but that's a lot of writing and you probably don't want to read all of that. So instead, I will divide this list into three parts. Moments 1-5, 6-10 and 11-15.
Before I dive into my 15 favorite moments from the 2018-19 school year, I have a confession to make. I vastly underappreciated the lesser publicized sports such as cross country, soccer, and tennis prior to this season. The only high school sports I cared about growing up were football and basketball, but that has since changed. I covered many tennis, cross country, track, and wrestling meets this season and had a blast doing it. I hope to cover many more throughout my career and will hopefully learn more, too.
Now to the list, here are the 15th through 11th most memorable moments from the 101 events that I covered this season.
DISCLAIMER: This list only includes events that I physically covered. I did not cover Treynor girls basketballs' state title run or state track, so those are not on the list.
#15 The most exciting (and exhausting) week of my young career
Covering postseason sports is as close as I will ever get to drug addiction. I love covering postseason events regardless of the sport. There's just something about postseasons that gives me a huge jolt of excitement. It nearly kills me to sit at home of an evening during the postseason, especially when it's postseason basketball. I did not have to worry about that on the week February 25th-March 1st. Here is what I did.
Monday, Feb. 25: Class 4A Substate Semifinal: Lewis Central at Sioux City East
Tuesday, Feb. 26: Three Missouri postseason games at the St. Joe Civic Center; Worth County/Wellington-Napoleon girls, Mound City/Jefferson boys, and North Andrew/Stanberry girls.
Wednesday, Feb 27: Missouri Postseason: Maryville vs. St. Michael the Archangel boys at Excelsior Springs.
Thursday, Feb 28: Four Nebraska girls state tournament basketball contests; CWC/Sterling, Falls City Sacred Heart/Ewing, Pleasonton/Weeping Water and Fillmore Central vs. Lourdes Central Catholic.
Friday, Mar 1: Worth County/Stanberry girls and Jefferson/Winston boys at the St. Joe Civic Center.
That equals approximately 1,000 miles and 11 games in a five-day span. The entire week was fun, but the Nebraska state tournament might have been the most memorable because of the challenge. The first game I covered began at 9 a.m and the final game did not begin until 8:45 p.m. I left my house at 6:15 a.m. and returned home at nearly 1 a.m, but it was a blast.
Challenge and exhaustion aside, there were also a handful of great games during this week, which is ultimately why it made the list. On Tuesday, Worth County had to hold off a Well-Nap comeback and Jefferson avenged three regular-season losses to Mound City. Wednesday saw Maryville squander a 17-point halftime deficit to a hot-shooting St. Michael the Archangel. Thursday's edition of the Nebraska state tournament was nuts. Sterling relied on a pair of sisters (Ella and Malayna Wingert) to squeak out a nailbiting victory, Falls City Sacred Heart relied on a pair of freshman to avoid an upset. Weeping Water's Grace Cave gave it her all with an awesome 32-point performance in defeat while Lourdes ultimately fell short despite a valiant effort.
I wish every week was like that week, sleep is overrated anyway.
#14 Ryan Leath three-peats as Hawkeye Ten Golf champ
Glenwood's Ryan Leath is good at golf. You have to be to become a Hawkeye Ten champ, but doing it three times means you are really good. I, unfortunately, could not find any documentation as to how many three-time conference champs there have been, but I'm guessing it's not very many. Leath had to win his first two conference championship by a playoff, but there was no playoff needed in 2019. Leath played an amazing round in Council Bluffs and finished with a score of 71, but it was his front-nine score of 34 that ultimately clinched his third conference title in four years.
#13 Treynor/Atlantic play the most exciting and crazy basketball game I've ever seen
This should have just been an ordinary game to end the regular season for a red hot-Atlantic and state-ranked Treynor, it was anything but. I broadcasted this game despite barely having a voice and the excitement of the game did not help my problem. Atlantic raced out to a double-digit lead and led 59-49 with only a minute remaining. The ensuing 60 seconds were the most insane and awesome basketball I've ever seen. Treynor clawed their way back into the game with a pair of low-percentage, tough three-point shots from Jack Stogdill and Tim Zimmerman to trim the deficit to 62-60.
Treynor had an inbound pass intercepted in the waning seconds, only for the Atlantic defender to step out of bounds and give the Cardinals the ball across half-court with two seconds remaining. The problem was, that officials were not certain how much time was remaining, so they chose to discuss the issue with the scorers' table. During this time, a confusing technical was then assessed to Treynor during their defacto timeout. The technical allowed the Trojans to run out the clock and grab the upset. I'm still confused and appalled by the final 60 seconds of that game. I'm not sure anything will ever top it.
#12 Johnson-Brock dominates anyone and everyone en route to a title
While Treynor and Atlantic played the most exciting, crazy basketball game I've ever seen, Johnson-Brock played one of the most dominant football games I've ever seen with a 76-0 win over Allen in the D2 state quarterfinals. The Eagles scored five touchdowns in their first 13 plays and put up 64 first-half points. They also recovered six fumbles and turned all of those turnovers into touchdowns.
I did not know what to expect when I rolled into Johnson, Nebraska on that chilly Halloween evening, but the complete domination I saw certainly was not what I expected. The Eagles then followed up that performance with a 72-32 state quarterfinal win over Bloomfield and were never really threatened in that game. Johnson-Brock then pulled away late in their state semifinal against Humphrey St. Francis and turned a 20-0 deficit against Mullen into a 56-26 victory and their first state championship in school history. This year's Eagles' team is one of the most dominant teams I've ever seen, along with the 2011 Fremont-Mills and 2017 Worth County squads.
#11 Justin McCunn's magical run to the state finals
No wrestler impressed me more this year than Red Oak 160 pounder Justin McCunn. I had predicted prior to the state tournament that McCunn would make it to the finals. I don't know that many people agreed with my prediction, but McCunn proved all the doubters wrong. The junior, who was two years removed from not even qualifying for districts, won his first-round and quarterfinal matches by major decision and fall. He then became Red Oak's first finalist since 2012 with a 7-1 semifinal victory over Osage's Zach Williams. It was in that match where McCunn hit the sickest fireman's I have seen in my four years of covering wrestling.
McCunn's run might have come to an end one spot shorter than he would have wished after dropping an 8-3 decision to Ballard's Skyler Noftsger, but it was still an impressive weekend. However, it might not have been as impressive as the respect and class that McCunn showed me during his interview after the match. He could not have been happy about the end result, but he gave me his full attention and answered all of my questions with the utmost respect. He will be motivated next year and he's been putting in the work this offseason, so it should not be a surprise when he's in the finals next year.
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