Bluejay Boys Improve on Record with New Coach

Northeast Nodaway's boys improved on their record with a 19-8 mark this year despite having a new coach and losing much of their size to graduation. They lost 62-43 in the semifinals to Jefferson in a game that Coach Ryan Madden said was too much like the first game. "We had too much trouble with Jefferson; we threw the ball away too much and we didn't match their intensity," he said. "But we did pretty well for a year of change and Bryce Farnan and Colby Wiederholt are going to be tough to replace." But Madden said that the Bluejays would still be good next year. "We've got a strong sophomore class coming up with Kevin and Aaron, so we'll still be a good team next year."

Northeast burned two timeouts in the first quarter trying to stop the Jefferson onslaught as the Eagles built up a 22-12 lead after one quarter in which Aaron Patton picked up three fouls. Northeast came back to play evenly in the second as they were able to slow them down and Bryce Farnan scored eight points in the period. But Jefferson pulled ahead by 18 after three; Farnan continued to score for Northeast but the players were exhausted after the highly physical battle and Jefferson was able to run out the clock in the fourth quarter for the win.

The Bluejays grew up in a big way from the start of the year. Having lost two of their big players in Tyler Davis and James Burns, they had to find a way to play together with some new faces. But they still had some horses in Bryce Farnan and Colby Wiederholt and they were able to step up and take over the load. After two ragged wins, they came from behind to beat Tarkio by four as they were able to put everything together for three quarters in the win. They lost to Stanberry as they got into too much foul trouble as they went into an up and down stretch. They got a rare blowout win over North Nodaway, followed by a loss to Maryville JV in which they were outworked.

But then Northeast finally seemed to hit their stride as they beat West Nodaway by 15 for 3rd place in the Northwest Missouri Tournament and then opened with wins over Worth County and Stewartsville to start the new year off. They lost by 22 to class 2 powerhouse Putnam County, but Coach Ryan Madden was not too disappointed -- Bryce Farnan played one of his best games of the year, getting 24 points against a 6'8" kid in the loss. They then played their best game of the year up to that point according to Madden, getting a 62-54 win over Princeton. Then, they grew up in a big way against a team in Trenton that had hung 31 points in the third quarter on them the year before. Northeast fell behind by 9, but fought back to take the lead at halftime and then made some big-time plays to stay ahead as they beat Trenton by 5 for the 3rd place trophy at South Harrison.

Northeast went through another tough stretch as they needed a last second shot from Kevin Stoll to beat a rapidly improving South Nodaway squad and then fell behind by one against North Andrew at their Courtwarming before Colby Wiederholt went to the hole to put Northeast up to stay. "That play turned things around completely," said Coach Madden at the time. "He just said, 'to heck with it, I'm going to the rim.' We need that all the time from our players." Forced to play North Andrew in back to back games, they went to overtime before pulling out a one point win over the Cardinals.

They got into foul trouble and lost to Stanberry in the semifinals of the King City Tournament but then proceeded to play one of the epic games of the area. The Bluejays trailed by double digits against King City but fought back to tie it and send it to overtime despite losing Bryce Farnan late to foul trouble. Northeast had many chances to put King City away, and King City would come right back. The Wildkats hit a shot from behind the half court line to stay alive in one overtime and then got a heavily guarded 3-pointer from one of their reserves to force another one as neither team could put the other away. Finally, Northeast emerged from the battle with a 100-93 win in six overtimes. Bryce Farnan had a career high 28 points in the win before fouling out. Colby Wiederholt had 26, Aaron Patton had 23, and Kevin Stoll had 19. It read more like an NBA box score than a high school box score.

They went into a slump from there as they ran into Jefferson and lost by 22. Then, Coach Ryan Madden was ejected for arguing with an official, but Northeast came back from nine down and lost by one to DeKalb 49-48. Assistant coach Brent Behler coached in Madden's absence in a solid 58-46 win over West Nodaway, but then Northeast lost by six to Elwood. But then Northeast grew up some more, starting with a 44-33 win over CFX that avenged last year's district loss. "There was one difference between Elwood and this game; we hit our free throws against CFX and we didn't against Elwood," said Madden at the time. Northeast and CFX were tied with three minutes left, but relentlessly attacked the basket in the final minutes for the win. From there, they outscored an explosive Nodaway-Holt team 21-1 in the third quarter to win handily, put away an improving North Nodaway school by 28, and then won going away from Albany on Senior Night.

With the graduation of Farnan and Wiederholt, the Bluejays will be much more guard oriented as they will have Kevin Stoll and Aaron Patton back to lead the Bluejays. Garrett Jackson will provide instant offense as a freshman and Dalton Welch and Tyler Schmitz hope to develop into solid role players for next year's squad.