The West Platte boys’ basketball team walks off the floor at Plattsburg High School following the fourth consecutive district championship loss on Feb. 24.
PLATTSBURG – The decade-long quest to bring home the first district title since the best two-year stretch in program history has been a tough task for West Platte, which just became a district runner-up for the fourth consecutive season.
In a rematch against the same opponent at the same location and on the same date a year later, West Platte (14-11) once again lost to Plattsburg (24-4) in the Class 2 District 15 Championship at Plattsburg High School on Feb. 24. This was the fourth consecutive season the Blue Jays played in a district championship with each one resulting in a loss.
It took some time for West Platte to get back to relevancy after being spoiled with deep postseason runs in the early 2000s. To understand the full context, time travel back to the 2012-13 season is necessary.
Led by coach Zane Tanner at the time, the junior all-state tandem of 6’5 forward Adam Roe and 6’10 center Bryce Cashman took Class 2 by storm, winning the first 30 games of the season and making it to the Final Four. Towards the end of the 57-48 state semifinal win over Iberia, Roe had a season-ending ACL tear.
Cashman and company came up short against Salisbury in the 2013 Class 2 State Championship and the Blue Jays were determined to make another run the next year. For the second straight season, Roe didn’t lose a regular season game and led the way to another district title.
West Platte did have one loss in the regular season, coming against Mid-Buchanan in a game that Roe sat out of, which snapped a 44-game regular season winning streak. The game prior, Roe received a technical foul in for retaliating after being undercut on a rebound attempt an intense matchup with East Buchanan on a night that the Bulldogs’ head coach was ejected, and the Blue Jays survived.
Fast forward to the postseason and Roe’s only loss as an upperclassman, West Platte rematched with Sacred Heart in the quarterfinals a year after winning by 10. However, this time the private school had an entire new starting lineup of players that weren’t on the roster in 2013 – due to recruiting – and won 64-61.
The Blue Jays won 58 games and only lost three total from 2013-14 and had won three consecutive district titles at the time, but it took the program awhile to get back to that level of play. Roe went on to deal with injuries on the court at Army whereas Cashman played at North Dakota State University and is currently playing professionally overseas.
As for West Platte, there’s been three coaches and 10 seasons since then and no more district titles. The Blue Jays were 16-12 in 2014-15 then went five seasons before finishing above .500 again.
West Platte senior Miles McHenry scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half in the Class 2 District 15 Championship loss to Plattsburg.
The first of the four recent district championship appearances came in 2021 in the final year of Ryan Nichols, who is the athletic director, being the head coach. West Platte was tied at 48 with St. Pius late in the game and was outscored 12-0 to earn the first of four district runner-up plaques.
The next season, Tyler Funk was brought in as a first-year head coach and he went on to lead his team to three straight district championships, all of which they had to play against the school the tournament was held at. In 2022, there were six seniors – Mason Montez, Trent Taylor, Tanner Rowe, Ryan Pattison, Dalton Hill and Ty Lawson – with four of them being starters.
That team clinched the No. 1 seed in districts and is the only West Platte squad to win 20 games since 2014. Gallatin won the district championship by 16 points in a game that the Bulldogs opened the second half on a 9-0 run and the Blue Jays went scoreless in the final 1:44.
That brings us to the last two seasons when West Platte was tasked with taking on a Plattsburg team led by North Dakota State University commit Isaia Howard, whose averaged 30 points per game over the last two seasons. In 2023, senior guard Charlie Kinslow – who is the only Blue Jay to earn all-state honors since 2014 – led the way in the postseason but wasn’t enough to take down Howard and the Tigers, who won 53-47.
The district rematch this season wasn’t as competitive and was the only one of the four championship appearances that West Platte didn’t have a chance to win in the second half. Plattsburg had 18 offensive rebounds, 13 steals, scored the first 11 points and had seven made 3-pointers in the first half opposed to West Platte’s four total field goals.
Miles McHenry saved arguably his best game for last, ending his high school career on a high note, scoring nearly half his team’s points. McHenry had 26 points, which included a second-half outburst of 20 points, a dunk and a 3-pointer.
Cohen Kite is one of five seniors who led the Blue Jays to four consecutive district championship games.
The Blue Jays had an inconsistent start to the season but picked up the pace late, going 5-2 to close out the regular season and earn a first-round bye in districts. Along with McHenry, there are four additional seniors that suited up one last time: Cohen Kite, Gunner Smith, Will Shafer and Westin Sinclair.
The roster will look different next season and so will the coaching staff. Assistant coach Ryan Ramey – who has made an impact on the basketball program for years – is retiring, having spent the last 20 years on West Platte sidelines.
The Blue Jays current streak of four straight district championship appearances is the most the program has seen since winning six district titles in a row from 2003-08, which included three Final Four appearances and a second-place finish in 2003. That era had many notable players, ending with 2008 graduate Erick Roe who went on to play basketball and football at Central Methodist University and now runs a youth basketball program in Platte City, called Erick Roe Academy.