In his first year at West Platte, head coach Tyler Funk, above, has led the Blue Jays to their best regular season since 2014.
In the Blue Jays’ first year with head coach Tyler Funk, accomplishments have been made that the program hasn’t seen in nearly a decade.
They West Platte boys’ basketball team (19-7) has finished the regular season with its most wins since the 2014 team that finished 27-2 and made a trip to the Class 2 State Quarterfinals – which was a season after the Blue Jays won their first 31 games before falling in the Class 2 State Championship. Since the 2013 and 2014 seasons, the Blue Jays haven’t had much postseason success.
With six seniors this season, the Blue Jays have continued to grow and gain more experience throughout the year and have finished in second place in a competitive KCI Conference with a 7-1 conference record. Mid-Buchanan (18-6) has seemingly been West Platte’s kryptonite as the Dragons are responsible for half of the Blue Jays’ losses – one in the KCI Tournament, one in conference play and one in the North Platte Invitational.
Other than the 59-49 season opener loss to Bishop LeBlond (16-8), the other two teams who have beaten the Blue Jays were tournament opponents who are in different classes. In the Lawson Invitational, West Platte fell 46-39 to a Class 4 team in Chillicothe (15-6) and in the North Platte Invitational, one of the top teams in all of Class 1 and the eventual tournament champion Mound City (24-1) beat West Platte 78-70.
Throughout the year the Blue Jays have played in a lot of close games, including three contests with at least one overtime period, and have pulled out some big wins. West Platte has a 3-0 record against opponents in its district with defeats over No. 2 seeded Plattsburg (18-7), No. 3 seeded Gallatin (18-6) and No. 5 seeded North Platte (9-17).
Since falling 45-41 to Mid-Buchanan on Jan. 29, West Platte has rattled off six consecutive victories to end the regular season – which is the longest winning streak the program has had since the 2014-15 season. Another accomplishment that the Blue Jays match the 2013 and 2014 squads with is that they are the top-seed in the Class 2 District 15 Tournament.
West Platte will open postseason play against North Platte or Maysville (16-6) on Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. If the Blue Jays come out on top in that contest, they will advance to the district championship for a chance to win West Platte’s first district title since 2014.