March 28, 2024

Hoops homage

Red Out event includes tribute to 1997 Creston state champions

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A high-scoring basketball team that captured the hearts of an entire community will be honored when Red Oak visits Creston for a varsity doubleheader Saturday, Jan. 7.

Creston’s 1997 boys basketball state championship team will be recognized at halftime of the 5 p.m. boys game on the 20th anniversary of their incredible run through the Class 3A competition at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. Also at that time, the 1996-97 Panthers will be the first basketball team to be inducted into the KMA Sports Hall of Fame. Derek Martin of the southwest Iowa radio station based in Shenandoah will lead the induction ceremony.

Fans are asked to wear red for a “Red Out” promotion for three local games that day — the Creston-Red Oak girls game at 3:30 p.m., the boys game that follows and a showdown of nationally ranked men’s teams when Southwestern hosts Indian Hills for the first time in 15 years in a 7 p.m. tipoff.

“Indian Hills is a pretty big game for SWCC, too, so we’re trying to get as many people involved that night as possible in both venues,” said Taylor Phipps, Creston boys basketball coach. “Last summer we as a staff realized it was 20 years ago that Creston won the championship. So, it’s kind of a special anniversary. We wanted to honor that team as part of the tradition of Creston basketball.”

The varsity squad that year consisted of Conor Reed, Ben Gerleman, Jeff Finn, Kyle McCann, Eric Owens, Todd Stalker, Ryan Taylor, Brady Steenhoek, Brian Bucklin, Cory Gerleman, Lucas Darby, Nick Nevins, Scott Jackson, Darin Schlapia and managers Dusty Kilgore, Cory Bailey, and Marty Healey. Head coach Mike Gerleman was assisted by Vic Belger and Matt Somers.

The JV also included Jared Freml, Taylor Monday, Blake Moore, Josh Seddon, Matt Stibbs, Steven Peterson, Caleb Kralik and Mike Mansour.

Ben Gerleman, a longtime high school basketball coach in Iowa, is currently head coach for Central Lyon of Rock Rapids. He said the entire roster was valuable in the Panthers’ championship season.

“Playing on that team, and working with some teams I’ve had since then, I’ve come to appreciate what sort of depth it takes to be able to sustain that level of performance,” Gerleman said. “You need that level of competition in practice every day to win six (tournament) games against the best teams in the state on the way to a state title.”

Somers was an assistant to head coach Mike Gerleman during that 23-1 season, along with longtime Creston coach Belger. They and most of the players are expected to attend the reception.

“The guys are excited about getting together,” said Somers, father of current Panther senior Kyle Somers.

Matt Somers said the 1996-97 Panther team ranks among the best Class 3A champions of all-time. The previous year a shot from the baseline at the final buzzer hung on the rim and fell off as time expired in a 62-60 loss to 3A champion Western Christian in the semifinals. Creston was that close to claiming back-to-back championships.

“I can’t imagine there being too many teams being that good in 3A,” Somers said. “They beat a Pella team (in the finals) with Kyle Korver on it and he’s still playing today, so they had to be pretty good.”

Korver, a sophomore then for Pella, is playing for the Atlanta Hawks in his 15th season in the NBA.

Creston, averaging more than 80 points per game, sailed through a 23-1 season, losing only at home to Atlantic before avenging that loss in a resounding 88-66 victory at Atlantic to lock up the Hawkeye 10 title. Afterward, Creston native Steve Blazek said it was impossible for his Trojan team to duplicate Creston’s height and athleticism in practicing for the Panthers’ pressing style.

“We were a pressing team that liked to run, but I did not press at all in that first game,” said coach Mike Gerleman. “I knew the conference championship could be decided later at their place, and I didn’t want to give them any film. Jared Hoegh hit four 3-pointers for them near the end of the first half. Losing that game gave us greater incentive, I believe. We went up to Atlantic in their new gym and thumped them pretty good.”

Signature rally

The explosive nature of Creston’s team in that era was never more evident than in a spectacular rally from a 19-point deficit with 6:30 remaining in a substate final game against Pella the year before at Southeast Polk High School. Second-half scoring bursts became a trademark of the Panthers.

“What stands out to me about that team was how we just destroyed people in the second half, even if they tried to slow us down and keep it close in the first half,” Somers said. “We had basketball savvy kids who knew what was going to work, with Ben (Gerleman) and Kyle (McCann) leading the way. And, the other guys were such good role players.”

Creston’s half-court trapping press created problems for opponents with the 6-5 McCann and 6-4 Gerleman — both all-staters and co-captains of the all-state tournament team — and the quickness of 5-10 Brady Steenhoek at the top. Inside, the duo of 6-6 Jeff Finn and the force in the middle, 6-6, 260-pound Eric Owens, provided effective screening and rebounding. Owens was an all-state football player who played at Missouri State University, and Finn played basketball at Grinnell College.

Depth was provided inside with 6-2 reserves Conor Reed and Nick Nevins. Guards Todd Stalker, Ryan Taylor and Lucas Darby provided perimeter help, along with some others as Gerleman went deep into his bench many times in the fourth quarter of lopsided victories. Reed made all eight shots in scoring 16 points in the state championship game as Pella concentrated on slowing McCann and Gerleman.

“We just wanted to win,” Ben Gerleman said. “We didn’t care how we did it.”

Ben Gerleman went on to play for Northwestern College and McCann was an invited walk-on one season for Iowa basketball coach Tom Davis while on football scholarship as a quarterback.

“The way we played fast had a cumulative effect and we’d make a run in the second half,” McCann said. “Teams would try to slow the pace down and be more methodical. As the game went on we kept pressing the tempo. We took advantage of some of our length and played the passing lanes and got people in traps. We’d get some deflections and trigger our offense by scoring in transition.”

Pella trailed 33-28 at halftime of the championship game. Creston got its fast break going early in the third quarter to widen the gap, including a scintillating dunk by McCann. The score was 52-41 near the end of the third quarter when McCann sank a long 3-pointer before the buzzer that seemed to deflate the Little Dutch. McCann finished with a team-high 21 points.

“We got the ball with time running down and pushed it ahead to Kyle,” coach Gerleman recalled. “He pulled up for a three and swished that baby. You could see the two Pella guys hustling back on the play just drop their heads. That put us up 14 going into the fourth quarter. The guys were so much fun to watch play.”

That seemed to be the prevailing opinion throughout the community. The pep band played a rousing rendition of Van Halen’s “Jump” as the Panthers took the court for every home game in front of a jam-packed CHS gym. It was a local happening every Tuesday and Friday night, much like the wrestling crowds filling the gym for big meets during the past decade of their own championship runs.

“For home games that season, if you weren’t in your seat by halftime of the JV game, you might not get in,” coach Gerleman said. “People stood out in the lobby looking through the doors. They’d been playing together for me since fourth grade and they knew how to play.”

Community welcome

Support was strong right through championship night when Creston received the Class 3A sportsmanship award, and later, when the team bus was met north of town on Cherry Street by a caravan led by emergency vehicles. Cherry and Townline streets leading to the high school were flanked by cars with flashing lights and honking horns.

The two team leaders both said this week that reception for the team, including an official welcome-home ceremony in the gym that began at 11 p.m., is a lasting memory.

“When we came into town and people were yelling and showing their appreciation for something that we had accomplished, it really felt like it was bigger than just our group of guys,” Ben Gerleman said. “An entire community needed something like that, and they showed their appreciation. It was all surreal in that moment.”

The previous year was Creston’s first appearance in the state tournament since 1949. The only previous championship was in 1939 in a 25-20 victory over area rival Diagonal in the title game.

“What sticks out to me is how important it seemed to be to different people, not just the players,” McCann said. “It was community-wide.”

In that reception, McCann thanked seniors from the previous season — John David Weber, Will Carroll, Kelly Keenan and Marc Jackson — for leadership in substate and state competition. It was also a strong team in 1994-95, when the Panther team led by senior Brian Gerleman and a host of underclassmen lost a close substate game to Carroll Kuemper in the Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln gym.

“It was more than just a couple of players, and more than just one team,” McCann said. “It was a system that everybody understood and believed in.”

McCann and Gerleman were the leading scorers in the 3A tournament in 1997. The Panthers dispatched Carroll 71-61 and rolled over Mount Pleasant in the semifinals, 75-52, before finishing with the 74-57 win over Pella.

McCann became Creston’s all-time leading scorer with 1,857 points and Gerleman passed Dale Gordon (1968 graduate with 1,009 points) for third place at 1,141. He trailed only McCann and Randy Long (1965 graduate with 1,258 points.)

Lasting memories

McCann went on to pass for 4,349 yards and 23 touchdowns as a University of Iowa quarterback, finishing his career by completing 19 of 26 passes for 161 yards in the Hawkeyes’ 19-16 victory over Texas Tech in the 2001 Alamo Bowl. Yet, he still cherishes his memories as a Panther.

“We played a lot of basketball together from third and fourth grade all the way through high school,” McCann said. “That’s a long time to be with the same group of guys. That’s what makes high school sports special to me. It’s about the people you grow up with. It should be fun to see everyone again.”

Coach Phipps is asking any team members to RSVP their plans for attendance with their families so the current staff can properly prepare for the informal reception in the library before the game. They can email to tphipps@crestonschools.org or call 641-782-2116 (ext. 2320) when school resumes Tuesday.

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Saturday, Jan. 7

Creston High School

• 1997 Creston boys championship team gathering, 3-5 p.m., Creston High School library.

• Girls basketball, Creston vs. Red Oak, 3:30 p.m.

• Boys basketball, Creston vs. Red Oak, 5 p.m.

• Recognition of Creston 1997 state championship team and KMA Sports Hall of Fame induction, halftime of the boys game.

Southwestern Community Colege

• Men's basketball, NJCAA Division II No 2-ranked Southwestern Community College (15-0) vs. Division I 19th-ranked Indian Hills Community College (13-2), 7 p.m.