maly, too: The Principal Knew the Numbers: Valley's 23rd Basketball Victory Of the 2015-2016 Season Resulted In the School's First State High School Championship Following a 23-Year Wait. After the Tigers Defeated Iowa City West, 46-39, Coach B. J. Windhorst Told Me His Team Was Very Unselfish and Played Its Best Basketball Of the Season In the State Tournament. After Being Held Scoreless 2 Years Ago In a Valley Loss To West In the Title Game, Quinton Curry Led the Tigers With 16 Points and 9 Rebounds In the Finale Of His Junior Season

Saturday, March 12, 2016

The Principal Knew the Numbers: Valley's 23rd Basketball Victory Of the 2015-2016 Season Resulted In the School's First State High School Championship Following a 23-Year Wait. After the Tigers Defeated Iowa City West, 46-39, Coach B. J. Windhorst Told Me His Team Was Very Unselfish and Played Its Best Basketball Of the Season In the State Tournament. After Being Held Scoreless 2 Years Ago In a Valley Loss To West In the Title Game, Quinton Curry Led the Tigers With 16 Points and 9 Rebounds In the Finale Of His Junior Season

By RON MALY

The celebrating didn't end until a few minutes before midnight Saturday in the Bill Coldiron Fieldhouse on the Valley High School campus.

It's no wonder.

Everyone had a lot to celebrate after the Tigers won the state class 4-A basketball championship with a 46-39 victory over Iowa City West at Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines.

Lots of pictures were snapped as players, coaches and family members huddled around the state championship trophy.

Valley fans had been waiting for this a long time.

Tim Miller, Valley's principal, pointed that out when he picked up the microphone to start the celebration in the school gym.

"I noticed the banner on the wall that said Valley last won a state basketball championship in 1993," Miller told the huge gathering of players, coaches and fans.

"That meant it happened 23 years ago. And tonight was the team's 23rd win of the season!"

Valley wrapped up a 23-3 season by winning it all in B. J. Windhorst's second season as the coach.
.

In my newspaper years, I wrote stories about Windhorst when he was playing basketball at Drake.

There were no championships in those years.

I reminded B. J. of that when I talked with him during last night's celebration.

He told me how good it felt to be back coaching high school basketball, and how good it feels to be at Valley, after leaving coaching for three years following a stint at Southeast Polk.

But he doesn't teach classes at Valley. His primary source of income is in sales work. He somehow juggles the coaching responsibilities with the other job.

He credited assistant coach Brian Frick with providing plenty of support.

Although it might sound like Windhorst's coaching job is a parttime deal, you know and I know the time he spends at practices, games, team meetings, etc., during the season means he's a very busy guy in the winter months.

This is Windhorst's first state championship.

"I took a couple of my Southeast Polk teams to the state tournament," he said, "and we got to the championship game once.

"The trouble was, we had to play the Ames team that had Harrison Barnes and Doug McDermott, so we didn't win."

Windhorst said this Valley team "is the most unselfish group of players I've ever been around. I'm very proud of them."

Windhorst said his team improved as the season progressed, and "we played our best basketball this week" in the state tournament.

It took some doing to accomplish all of that.

B. J. Windhorst and His Family

Indeed, the situation did not look good a few weeks ago.

Peyton Long, a 6-4 inside force, had arthroscopic surgery on a knee, and 6-5 Carlo Marble broke a bone in his left wrist during a game against Ankeny.

"Doctors told Carlo he wouldn't be able to play any more this season," Windhorst said. "He sat out one game, then decided 'the heck with this' and had the wrist taped up and resumed playing."

I asked Marble about that, and he confirmed the story.

"I didn't want to miss the rest of the season," he said, "so I went against what the doctors said and decided to keep playing."

Marble has had more than a broken wrist to battle as a high school student.

There was lots of emotion involved. Lots of sadness.

He spent most of the 2014-2015 school year in Michigan, where his father, former University of Iowa standout basketball player Roy Marble, was dying of cancer.

"After my dad died, my mother decided we'd move back here, so I was able to play both football and basketball at Valley as a senior," Carlo said.

Marble finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds Saturday night.

Valley's Quinton Curry led both teams with 16 points [he was 6-for-7 on field goals] and 9 rebounds in the final game of his junior season.

He'll be quite a building block when Windhorst starts practice for the 2016-2017 season.

Curry was a member of the Valley team that lost to Iowa City West two years ago in the 4-A championship game.

"I didn't score any points that night," he recalled. "I remember that game very well. We wanted this game tonight more than [West] did."

Valley's defense was superb throughout the tournament, and it definitely had an influence on the outcome against Iowa City West.

West made only 10 field goals all night and shot only 28.6 percent against Valley's stifling variety of zone defenses.

West [21-5] had only 14 points at the half. Valley had 23.

As usual, 5-10 senior guard Turner Scott ran Valley's offense, and contributed 10 points. He had a game-high five assists.

VISITORS: Iowa City West 21-5
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
10 Parks, Wali......... *  3-3    0-0    5-5    2  3  5   2  11  1  0  0  0  32
12 Henderson, Alex..... *  2-8    2-6    2-2    0  2  2   4   8  0  2  0  2  32
14 Lane, Devontae...... *  4-13   1-4    5-8    3  0  3   3  14  1  4  1  4  32
20 Lohaus, Tanner...... *  0-3    0-0    2-2    1  1  2   5   2  0  2  0  2  24
30 McCaffery, Connor... *  1-6    1-6    1-3    0  2  2   4   4  3  4  0  1  32
22 McCaffery, Patrick..    0-2    0-2    0-0    0  2  2   0   0  0  0  0  0   4
24 Majors, Dallas......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   1
32 Barnes, Nate........    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   3
   TEAM................                         2  1  3
   Totals..............   10-35   4-18  15-20   8 11 19  18  39  5 12  1  9 160

TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  4-13 30.8%   2nd Half:  6-22 27.3%   Game: 28.6%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-7  28.6%   2nd Half:  2-11 18.2%   Game: 22.2%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  4-6  66.7%   2nd Half: 11-14 78.6%   Game: 75.0%    3


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Valley, W Des Moines 23-3
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
04 Economos, Pete...... *  1-1    1-1    1-2    0  3  3   2   4  0  4  2  0  30
10 Scott, Turner....... *  2-9    2-5    4-4    0  1  1   1  10  5  4  0  3  32
22 Marble, Carlo....... *  3-9    1-5    3-6    2  5  7   3  10  2  1  0  1  32
30 Long, Peyton........ *  2-3    0-0    0-0    5  2  7   4   4  0  4  0  0  29
44 Curry, Quinton...... *  6-7    0-0    4-4    1  8  9   5  16  1  3  0  1  32
02 Hinkle, Austin......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0  0+
12 Skinner, Reese......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0  0+
32 Crowley, Charley....    1-3    0-0    0-0    1  0  1   1   2  0  0  0  0   5
   TEAM................                                             1
   Totals..............   15-32   4-11  12-16   9 19 28  16  46  8 17  2  5 160

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-18 55.6%   2nd Half:  5-14 35.7%   Game: 46.9%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  3-5  60.0%   2nd Half:  1-6  16.7%   Game: 36.4%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  0-0   0.0%   2nd Half: 12-16 75.0%   Game: 75.0%    1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: Royce Ranniger, David Schonrock, Jason Slaughter
Technical fouls: Iowa City West-None. Valley, W Des Moines-None.
Attendance:
Score by Periods                1st  2nd  3rd  4th   Total
Iowa City West................    8    6   12   13  -   39
Valley, W Des Moines..........   12   11    9   14  -   46
Fouled Out - Iowa City West - #20 T Lohaus (2:02)
            Valley, W Des Moines -#44 Q Curry (:14.7)

Points in the paint-IC-WEST 8,VALLEY 18. Points off turnovers-IC-WEST 21,VALLEY 16.
2nd chance points-IC-WEST 8,VALLEY 6. Fast break points-IC-WEST 2,VALLEY 2.
Bench points-IC-WEST 0,VALLEY 2. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-2 times.
Last FG-IC-WEST 4th-00:41, VALLEY 4th-03:34.
Largest lead-IC-WEST by 1 1st-04:29, VALLEY by 11 2nd-04:57.

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.