Small Iowa boys basketball team snaps 114-game losing streak in style

When the final horn sounded, the Whiting boys basketball players – and their families – cut loose. 

“The parents were rushing the court,’’ head coach Heath Vanden Bosch said. “The kids? You would have thought they’d won the championship game. The kids just knew how much this meant to their school, to the boys basketball program.’’

Jan. 4 on their home floor, the Warriors snapped a 114-game losing streak that spanned nearly six years, blowing out Storm Lake St. Mary’s, 52-25. Their last previous win had come on Feb. 2, 2018, a 38-37 decision over Cornerstone Christian of Bellevue, Neb.

It was also the first time in 128 games that the tiny school 30 miles south of Sioux City in northwest Iowa scored at least 50 points in a game.

“They’re proud of themselves,’’ Vanden Bosch said. “I’ve heard from parents who said they came home and just cried. They just couldn’t believe that they’d won.’’

None of the current seven players on the roster had experienced a boys basketball victory in high school. They entered the Jan. 4 contest with an 0-9 record and had lost their previous two games by scores of 86-11 and 98-10.

Vanden Bosch said it’s hard to explain to outsiders the feeling of winning if you haven’t lived through the years of blowout losses.

“When teams come in and want to hang a hundred points on you, I know how hard that is as a coach, as a player, as a parent to watch that,’’ he said. “When we meet some of these bigger teams, and we’re down big at halftime, we try to set (smaller) goals instead, just to keep them positive.’’

A Rock Valley native who has lived in the Whiting area since 1997, Vanden Bosch has been both the head boys and girls coach at the school for the past two seasons. One team will practice right after school, and then the other team will come in for its workout after that.

Whiting is tied for the fourth-smallest school in Iowa that fields a varsity boys basketball program, with an average of 11 or 12 students per high school class.

Although the school has cooperative agreements with other schools in order to compete in several high school sports, the Whiting school district has remained fiercely independent despite outside whispers for decades that its closure was imminent.

“Whiting is very proud of their school,’’ Vanden Bosch said. “It’s a sense of pride, having their own teams. The parents get behind their kids and the whole team. … This win means a lot to them.’’

When the Warriors turned the opening tip into a basket, the coach said he felt good about their chances of breaking the streak. The team captain, junior Cole Bethune, led the way with 18 points.

Vanden Bosch said Bethune is “the best player on the team. He’s the ball handler. He’s the one that gets them in the right positions on offense. The kids look up to him because he’s got that basketball knowledge.’’

The Whiting coach said sophomore Caleb Glynn also supplied some scoring punch in the win, and he praised junior Julian Rivas for his work on the boards.

“The boys had a good feeling that they could win this game,’’ Vanden Bosch said. “We put together a game plan and the kids executed it very well.’’

You’d better believe the Warriors and their supporters stayed around long after the final horn to savor the triumph.

“I huddled them up at half-court and just talked about their hard work and dedication,’’ Vanden Bosch said. “We looked at the scoreboard and I told them how good of a job they did. … I think we have a few more games that if they play hard, they might pick up another one.’’

--Kevin White I @SBLiveIA