North Celebrates Storied Basketball Season, School Year

North’s Chad Ryan was named the state’s Class 4A Coach of the Year by the Iowa Sports Spotlight.

If there is any place in town where the winter may have seemed too short it’s got to be North High School. Okay, so North’s storybook basketball season ended in March sadness instead of the state championship trophy. But they’ll never be able to take away the CIML Championship banner. Besides, the truth is that trophies tarnish in time and memories do not.

Typically, teams mark the end of their seasons by gathering together for an awards banquet. But last night it was fitting that the whole community was invited to bring closure to a Polar Boys’ season that felt like the culmination of so many rising tides at the school.

Dave Welshhons, “The Voice of the Polar Bears,” presided as the emcee in the school auditorium after everyone chowed down in the cafeteria. He was the PA announcer who introduced the starting lineup all year to the packed houses in the gym. Besides the trio of senior stalwarts Teyontae Jenkins, Terrance Bush Jr. and Sam Williams and their teammates he could as well have included senior Michael Pham and the rest of the Bears Den student pep section Pham assembled. And Vanessa Brady, North’s choral director. After all, didn’t coach Chad Ryan point out that besides the best team in the Metro, North also had the best National Anthem singers? No surprise at a school where the Marine JROTC program under the leadership of Gunnery Sergeant Michael Gettler is winning regional titles of its own. How about Mark Rixner who heads the Drama Department and his trio of award-winning protégés, Forrest Mathison, Hatte Kelly and Hebelin Sanchez? They’re All-Staters, too, just like Jenkins and Bush, as proudly noted on the scrolling message sign in the school’s front yard.

There are lots of good things happening at North that all seemed to coalesce in this magical season of boys’ basketball. Before last night Jenkins and Bush in particular had already reaped plenty of individual accolades and Coach Ryan had absorbed enough pats on his back to make it ache. But Tony Atzeni from the Iowa Sports Spotlight was there to present some special awards in addition to the ones being passed out within the team. ISS named Bush, the unabashed shooter with the range of cannon fire, to its Class 4A 2nd Team All-State. Jenkins, the playmaker who Welshhons described as looking like “he was salsa dancing with the ball,” was named the ISS 4A Player of the Year and Ryan received 4A Coach of the Year honors. This was his seventh season at North. “When I came I think North had won maybe four games in five years,” he recalled. “Everything here is different now.” He wasn’t just talking about boys’ basketball.

So last night was a goodbye of sorts to Williams, Bush and Jenkins, each of whom looks to continue playing (and here’s the important part) IN COLLEGE. Seasons, even the most special ones, all flow into the sea of the past, just as unstoppably as Jenkins flowed over, under, around and through defenders to the basket all year. Does one particular memory stand out for the player who created so many for others?

“Even though we lost our last game (to Southeast Polk in the sub-state semifinals), that’s the one for me,” Jenkins said without hesitation. “The last time on the floor with my brothers,” he added with a sweep of his arm toward the teammates surrounding him. Then the guy who drew defenders all year the way celebrities draw paparazzi was besieged instead by small kids, polar cubs, wanting to get their picture taken with him.

There are lots of good pictures to be had these days at North.

Photos from the North Basketball Community Celebration