Mt. Pleasant, IA- No need to pack up the bus for our final destination, we will stay in Des Moines for today’s episode of “Championship Road.” For today’s episode we revisit a team that put high expectations on themselves but were not expected to produce the result that they did. It’s now time for an education on how playing together can produce a championship, here’s the story of the 2012 Mt. Pleasant Boys’ Basketball team.
Although, to get the full picture, we have to start back a few years before, as the Panthers were in the midst of a program resurgence, earning state tournament berths in 2010 and 2011. Mt. Pleasant head coach at the time, Paul Rundquist, knew to get there you had to start young,
“Well, I think, yeah, I think you need to trace back a lot earlier for when I was able to, you know, take the job at Mount Pleasant. We were able to begin a youth basketball program. We had our high school players work camp at that time. And then we started to have players play a little bit more. They played AAU basketball, players by the name of Spencer Shellman, Matt McCabe, really started to gain, you know, a lot of interest from our younger guys. And we started seeing some success. And I also think you need to look back to our administration. Bob Jensen was the athletic director at the time and allowed us to play a little bit more in the summer… But yeah, to answer your question, we had some really good runs there in 2010, 2011. And you know, without a couple bounces going against us, you know, we’re playing in the state championship game a couple of those years.”
Expectations were high for a team seeking their third straight state tournament appearance and returning two key starters from the 2011 squad, including Jordan Ashton, who would go on to be named to the All-State team by the end of the 2012 campaign,
“Yeah, it definitely was especially for our senior class. It was myself, Blake Vandenberg, and Nick Lyon for us three, especially just being at state two other times and not being able to get it done. So, expectations were very high for us.”
However, the outside perception was that the Panthers had missed out on their championship window after graduating three of their top seniors in Scott Hahn, Henry Kreiger-Coble, and Darian Cotton from a 2011 team that went 24-3 and lost to Bishop Heelan in the semifinals, 64-63, in overtime. Even the perception within the program was one of heartbreak,
“I mean, I’ll tell you what, after that 2011 team graduated, I was devastated. Because those guys had, you know, been through the wringer with us for so long. And, you know, we were so close to reaching that championship game, losing in the semifinals and double overtime on two last second shots. That was rough. And it was hard to take…”
Someone just forgot to tell Ashton those sentiments, but even if you did, he would not have listened to you,
“I honestly thought we were gonna be better. Just kind of because of the dynamic of things. I guess, I’m kind of just more so a confident person in general and I was ready for a bigger role. But I thought we were going to be better. I thought our team chemistry was going to be a little bit better, and it was a group that you know, we had been, at least me, Blake, and Nick, we have been playing together since the third grade and really developed. And I know the work that we put in in the summer going into it as well guys like Cam Frank and Dalton Conrad. So yeah, I had felt like we were gonna have a better group than we did the year before.”
It did not take very long for everyone else to change their tune on what the 2012 Panthers could eventually accomplish,
“…So, really wasn’t quite sure what 2012 would be like until we played in the summer, played some really good competition this summer. I remember playing a very good Cedar Rapids-Jefferson team in Cedar Falls and beat them. And my assistant at the time, Eric Rawson, said, you know what, I think we’re gonna be better this year. I’m like, you gotta be kidding me. Because we had lost so much. But, you know, just super team chemistry, great, great, great senior leadership with that group, you know, led there by Jordan Ashton. And also, we had such a good staff, Eric Rawson, Caleb Akey, Ray Stigge, just a group of guys that were really putting a lot of time to help this team.”
Mt. Pleasant did not start the year with a cupcake schedule, edging past Xavier, 68-65, in the season opener and defeating Pella, 66-41, two games later. However, in just the 4th game of the season, Mt. Pleasant stumbled,
“I hate losing. So, did it benefit us? I don’t know. I just know that losing isn’t enjoyable. I remember going to the locker room after that game and just saying, you know, we don’t have to lose again. And, you know, and we didn’t.”
A 55-53 loss to Prairie provided some scarring, but Ashton knew those lessons would pave the road towards the state capital and an eventual title,
“No, I felt like that loss is what we needed at that point I think we had felt like we had a good team early on obviously. You know and we were actually up most of the Prairie game and then kind of lost it late. And I feel like just having that early in the season, you know, really showed us like we have to keep our foot on the pedal. We have to stay together. We have to figure out how to close out all these games that come down to these situations. And I think having that loss really taught us a lot of things that helped us moving forward. You know, especially like you look at the state championship game and that goes into double overtime, you know If we don’t have that Prairie loss maybe we don’t really know how to handle that situation, and it doesn’t go our way. So, I think it was good for us.”
The Panthers simply dominated the rest of the season, winning 21 of the next 23 games by double digits. Coach Rundquist put it simply, this was team basketball at it’s finest.
“They played really well together. I mean, Jordan was probably our leader offensively, but he was a super leader led by example. But we also, you know, you look at Blake Vandenberg and Nick Lyon, the two 6-7, 6-8 players who had played a lot the last, the previous two seasons. So, there was a lot of experience there. And we also played a couple guys, Dalton Conrad, Cameron Frank, and Ryan Hanna, guys that would start or come off the bench just really understood their role. So, I think when you have really good teams, they know their role, and they get along, and we just took it one game at a time.”
That cohesiveness would come into play later and perhaps at what appeared to Mt. Pleasant’s final hour. Still, the Panthers rolled into the state tournament, having just beat Centerville, 72-40, before being matched with ADM in the quarterfinals where they dominated to the tune of a 62-32 final.
Grinnell did not provide much resistance either as Jordan Ashton turned in a 22-point performance and a 53-33 victory, placing the Panthers against Western Dubuque in the championship bout. Interestingly enough, Mt. Pleasant had beaten the Bobcats two years before in the quarterfinals, 60-50. This was also the time that Ashton was starting to feel that it was possible to come away with the season’s prize,
“I honestly don’t feel like it felt real until it actually didn’t even feel real after we won it. But, I don’t think it really started to like set in like hey, we can really win this thing until probably in overtime or double overtime honestly of that championship game. I think we won the first two rounds pretty handily. Um, I think it was ADM if I remember right and then Grinnell And won those two games pretty big but even then it was still like no we still have more to prove You know, we still have a lot more to do and we’re not there yet because we had been we had won at least one game every year at state So we knew that you know, the mission definitely wasn’t complete But yeah, I think I think probably late in that game in that championship game is when it kind of finally started to be like, okay, we can really win this thing and then thankfully was able to get it done.”
What proceeded was one of the most entertaining championship games in Iowa state history. Mt. Pleasant held the lead for most of the game, including a 44 to 34 advantage at the end of the 3rd quarter. Yet, the game was far from over. Ashton, who was dealing with cramps, was out for most of the 4th quarter, allowing for Western Dubuque to stage a comeback and even held a three-point lead in overtime when TJ Lake, their All-State guard, shooting two. Somehow, he missed both, ushering in Dalton Conrad to drill a three at the buzzer to force a second overtime. That’s when the Panthers were met with another setback and needed the team to truly come together,
“Yeah, it’s huge. It’s huge and especially I fouled out in the game, and I believe it was the first overtime. So, I mean guys had to come together even more, you know, going into a second overtime. I wasn’t, unfortunately, able to be out there with them but definitely still had all the faith and trust in those guys just because of everything we had been through before all the work we had put in. And like I said, it’s a group that I had been playing with these guys since I was in the third grade. So, we had great chemistry. We knew what we needed to do and those guys got it done in the second overtime.”
Ashton’s 20 points was helped along by his other two senior teammates’ 16 points for Blake Vandenberg and 11 points for Nick Lyon, who also finished with a double-double. But, through a complete team effort, the Panthers bashed their way to a 66-62 double-overtime victory, and there is no greater feeling than winning,
“It was a feeling that I’ve honestly never had, you know, besides that I would say winning state is probably the pinnacle of my playing career. You know, there’s no there’s no better feeling doing that in front of your home crowd, your family, all your friends, everybody that you grew up with and I just remember I was on the bench. Like I said, I had fouled out and the ball kind of rolled I think it was kind of like a loose ball and it rolled and once the buzzer went off and I can’t remember what we were up. We were up four or five maybe at that point and I just ran to the center court. I didn’t really know what to do I found the first person which ended up being Logan Mulford and just tackled him to the floor. We were just extremely happy and just excited like I said, it was like a surreal feeling.”
For coach Rundquist, it was a whirlpool of emotions,
“Yeah, I mean, you’re giving me goosebumps just thinking about it right now. So, you know, what was really cool is my dad, his team, he was coaching at Iowa City West, and his game was directly after us. So, we were able to share quite a moment there together as father and son. So, that really stands out. And then, you know, you think about, yeah, I remember after the game walking in the tunnel and seeing the opposing coach walking with his wife and just thinking how close, you know, we were to that feeling. And I had known that coach for many, many years, good friend of mine, and just felt bad for him. You know, as great as I felt for our kids and for our school and community, that really just, that set me back and put things in perspective.”
The team finished the year 26-1 and as the Class 3A champions. An early season loss eventually led to a resilient victory. Jordan Ashton, who has been coach Ashton for some time now, utilizes the lessons learned from that 2012 season into his work now,
“Yeah, I think just like certain lessons that you take with you like I was saying that you just gotta just be process focused. Just focus on today and we preach that in our program now here at Purdue Northwest with our guys like don’t look ahead, focus on getting better today. The results will take care of themselves, but we got to really lock in and get better today. Whatever happens down the road will take care of itself. But, we’re so just process driven and I think that that going all the way back since, you know, since high school I think that’s something that I learned there and then just being humble, the work ethic that it takes to get to that point, the chemistry, the camaraderie that it takes, you know, to win a state championship and to make it that far to make a late-season run. I think there’s a lot of things you can take away from that and that I was able to take away as a player that I use now as a coach.”
Through his four years, a packed Mt. Pleasant gymnasium never witnessed a lost when Ashton was on the team. He’s hoping that it has helped inspire the next generation of Panthers,
“It means everything. It’s big. It’s always something obviously Mt. Pleasant is always going to be home. It’s always something that I know our team is going to be proud of and I hope that, you know, the community and anybody that was able to be a part of that journey, I hope they’re proud of it. I hope it’s great memories for people and I hope like younger generations as well kind of look at that and they’re like, you know, this is something that we can do…”
Mt. Pleasant made it four consecutive state tournament berths in 2013 and even added two more in 2017 and 2018. The tradition is still alive, helped along by a squad that gave the community their first state championship on the hardwood since 1918.
This has been our route through “Championship Road.”