The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Lanny Massey spent four years as a player trying to help the Northern Heights boys reach their first ever State basketball tournament.

While it never happened for Massey when he played for the Wildcats from 1982-86, he’s more than happy to get there as a coach.

With Heights’ 82-64 victory over Erie on Saturday in the Sub-State title game in Wellsville, the Massey-led Wildcats earned the program’s first State Tournament berth. It was a proud moment for the homegrown coach, as he was able to help guide his team to the goal he had chased years before.

“I put in four years as a player trying to make this happen, and it never did,” Massey said, “but it was such a great thing to be able to lead these kids to State for the first time ever at this school. It’s a pretty special thing.

“(In the locker room) after the game, it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever been a part of.”

The history-making win over Erie set off an electric buzz around the Wildcats’ program, as the team will enter the Class 3A tournament in Hutchinson as the No. 3 seed. Heights (23-2) will face sixth-seeded Galena (18-4) in the first round at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.

The mission now, Massey said, would be to guard against contentment — the contentment that with a State berth in hand, the team could now go on cruise control.

So far, the coach said, it hadn’t been an issue.

“I think they (the players) realize that our job is not finished,” Massey said. “They seem down to earth, and they’re saying all the right things. They know that we still want to win three more games. I think they’re approaching this with the mentality that we still have some business to take care of out in Hutchinson.”

With their lofty seeding entering the tournament, the Wildcats are one of the favorites to challenge for a State title. Led by 6-foot-6 center Haydon Parks and a surrounding cast of quality guards like Levi Hizar, Kenneth Bronson and Michael Glass, plus scrappy forward Pete Symmonds, the Wildcats appear to have the balance needed to make a serious run at Saturday’s championship game.

The goal will be making sure things run as smoothly as possible once the players step out onto perhaps the biggest stage of their basketball careers.

“Now is not the time of the year where we can add anything new,” Massey said. “We just have to clean up the things we already know how to do and make sure we are able to perform at our best once the State Tournament begins.”