New Bloomfield senior Jak Kitchens puts up a short jumper during the team's home game with New Haven on Tuesday night. Kitchens totaled 21 points and 14 rebounds, while junior Jalen Martin dropped in a game-high 22 points, in the Wildcats' 64-59 win over the Shamrocks as New Bloomfield improved to 8-3 heading into Friday night's home game with Centralia.
Loeffler's Link
Photo courtesy of Paula Allen
Back to future: Wildcats may be
poised for special run this season
Jan. 4, 2018
NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. --- Rod Haley and Ken Walker built an athletic dynasty at New Bloomfield in the 1980s and 90s, a time when the Wildcats and Lady Wildcats almost became four-letter words across the state.
Oh no, not them again.
But when Haley and Walker left, the dynasty left with them.
It's taken some time and it's taken some suffering through some lean years, but New Bloomfield is once again a factor on the state stage--- from baseball to softball to boys and girls basketball.
In other words, it's back to the future ... no time machine or DeLorean required. Tim Gilmore has certainly done his part with the boys basketball program.
"When we began six years ago," Gilmore said, "we were taking over a program that I think had won two games (2-22) the year before. We knew it was going to be a building process --- we've had some great assistant coaches, but it's really hats off to the kids."
After that brutal two-win season in 2011-12, it's not hard to see a pattern for Gilmore's teams ever since --- five wins in 2012-13, followed by 10, 13, 24 and 16.
It's getting better all the time. Okay, that 24-win team two years ago didn't follow the exact mathematical pattern, but you get the point.
"These kids have put in the work and they've bought into what we're trying to preach here," Gilmore said. "They get the credit. And a lot of it has been on a volunteer basis during the summer, but the kids have shown up and they've put the work in.
"That's been our theme, you're going to get what you put into it. We weren't going to win a ton of games when we started, but now we've built it up to where we're winning between 16 and 20-plus games a year.
"That's pretty nice."
Winning sure beats losing, and other sports have followed suit. Not too long ago, New Bloomfield wasn't good at anything; now, it's good at everything.
Again.
"It's an overall athletic idea," Gilmore said. "All our athletes are starting to feed off each other and they're working together to make each other better in all sports. Once you start seeing a little success --- and kids kind of get the idea of the work ethic that's gone into it --- they start to buy into it, in all programs."
Winning teams can so often lift the overall attitude and spirit of a school, making it better in all aspects and reaching far beyond the courts and the fields--- from shop class to science club and everything in between.
"Success breeds success, it's true," Gilmore said. "You have success in one program and it seems to spill over to other programs, and it just keeps going like that.
''Kids are attending games, they're excited to go to games. I remember five or six years ago, you wouldn't see any kids at games. But now, we have a big student section; we have kids coming to all kinds of different events. It's good for everybody, our athletes and non-athletes.
"I think it's a huge thing to get involved in some aspect, because it makes the whole school better."
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NEW BLOOMFIELD'S DREAM SEASON IN 2015-16 ended with a district-championship loss to Iberia, a team that would go on to finish second in the state.
What a district that was ... more brutal than the current weather on the East coast, with four teams ranked in the Class 2 Top 10.
"It was nuts," Gilmore said. "We figured whoever won that district had a good chance to go to the Final Four. Hats off to Iberia, they had a great team that year."
The next year, the Wildcats had to start over from scratch, as they lost all but one key component to graduation. But on the bright side, it may have produced Gilmore's best season of coaching, 16 wins.
"When we began last year, we kind of knew it was going to be a two-year process with these guys," Gilmore said. "Because besides Jak (Kitchens), everyone was pretty green stepping onto the varsity floor.
"We ended up winning 16 games, which we thought was pretty decent. But we also felt like that built our confidence for this year."
This team is basically back intact from last season, but the conversation still starts with the 6-foot-6 Kitchens. Now a senior, Kitchens been a fixture on varsity for four years, and he's coming off an All-State season when he averaged an eye-popping 24 points and 14 rebounds.
"He's had a tremendous four years and has left his stamp on the program, no doubt," Gilmore said. "When he started as a freshman, he was a squeaky-voiced kid who wouldn't talk at all. He was shy. But he's become a great leader for our program and our school ... off the court stuff, like being a great student (he's a member of the National Honor Society)."
In other words, Kitchens is smart and he's talented ... playing basketball and otherwise. The strides he's made on the court are significant.
"When we got him as a freshman," Gilmore said, "he was a true post player, a back-to-the-basket type of kid who wouldn't shoot anything outside the lane. But the last two years, he's really put the work in to become more of a swing-man who can step out. And he really had to, because he was getting double-teamed in the post all the time.
"Now, he can go out to the 3-point line and he shoots the ball really well."
Kitchens is having another huge season for the Wildcats (8-3), averaging 24 points, 11 rebounds and four assists a game. And he's gotten a big, helping, inside hand with the emergence of 6-5 senior Cole Hazelhorst.
"Cole put so much work in over the summer to develop himself and become the player he is today," Gilmore said, "because he'd never played organized basketball before he got here. He's tremendous on the boards and he makes life a lot easier for Jak.
"Last year, we solely relied on Jak to get rebounds on every play, it seemed like. That labored on him. And now, it's harder for Jak to get double-teamed in the post because you have Cole down there."
Hazelhorst is averaging eight points and seven rebounds, while two other players supply scoring punch from the outside. Jalen Martin, a 6-foot junior, is shooting a blistering 47 percent on 3-pointers and is averaging 15 ppg., while 5-9 senior Kyle Emerson is also sharp-from the arc and is averaging 14 ppg.
"We solely relied on getting the ball into the post last year --- we actually did too much of it." Gilmore said. "Those guys make it a lot easier on our inside guys."
There are two other players Gilmore has been "crazy impressed" with ---- Nick Hamman, a 5-11 senior and four-year varsity player who just returned after missing time with a broken ankle; and defensive specialist Bailey Crane, a 5-10 junior who regularly draws the other team's best player.
"Without him," Gilmore said of Crane,"we couldn't play defense. He doesn't have the stats some of the other kids have, but without him, we wouldn't be where we are."
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ALL THE PIECES SEEM TO BE IN PLACE for a special run by the Wildcats, starting with the district tournament they'll host next month. This promises be a tough test ... but that's still an improvement over the basically impossible test of two years ago.
"Two years ago," Gilmore said, "our district was nasty, nasty. This year, it's just nasty (with teams like Harrisburg, Eugene and Fayette).
"We have lofty goals and we've talked about them since the beginning of the season, to not shy away from those. You should expect to have those lofty goals, but you have to put the work in. We want to have that same consistency we had in November and through December, into January, and when districts get here.
"Because if you can win this district, you probably have a decent chance to make a run (to the Final Four)."
Back to the future.