The Last of the Bulldogs: Orient-Macksburg hosts last home hoops game

The lights went out on the Orient-Macksburg gym’s scoreboards for perhaps the last time for a competitive game Thursday, Feb. 13, ending in a heartbreaking loss to Madrid.

The game was close the entire way, tied at 38 until the closing possession, when the Tigers sank a long-range shot for a 41-38 win.

The game was surrounded by many memories shared of a proud tradition of athletics at Orient-Macksburg, which will whole grade share next school year with Nodaway Valley and dissolve, if a March 4 vote passes, after that.

The Adair County Free Press reached out to several past athletes for their stories for a report in an upcoming Adair County Living magazine that will be all about Orient-Macksburg’s strong today and proud past.

Brett Ray wore a gold medal around his neck in 2003, winning the state wrestling title in Class 1A at 112 pounds. Five seasons later Trent Tucker did it for Creston/OM.

“Being in the finals, I didn’t wrestle real well. I think nerves got to me a little bit just knowing it’s your last match. You shouldn’t let that stuff get to your head, but it did. State finals and never having been there,” the final score of 3-2 is not indicative of how dominant Ray was that night on the mat.

State tournament teams in history begin in 1963, when Orient-Macksburg softball made it to state. They went four times again in that sport, in 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1991. Stacey Cass is a paraeducator at Orient-Macksburg now and was on the last two of those teams, coached by John Dunlevy. The 1991 team has the most wins in school history at 39.

“A lot of people didn’t think we had what it took to be successful. We would read the paper and some coaches were saying we were just getting by on tradition,” Cass said, “but going to state is every senior’s dream.”

Girls basketball teams, both during the 6-on-6 era, went to state in 1973 and 1985. Deb Harry and Patty Vetterick Roberts were on the first of those teams.

“It was an exciting time and we worked hard for it. Not all of us were all that athletic, and I was the least athletic, but he drove us to go,” Harry said, singing the praises of head coach Cary Griffith. “When we went, it was one of the most exciting times of our lives. “

In 2011, the Bulldogs got a boys team to state when the baseball program made it to Principal Park, using a big sixth inning to knock off Nishnabotna in Bedford. The Bulldogs had made it to the penultimate game the year before but came up short. The team was coached by Louis Cruz, who now owns The Dugout Cafe.

Top to bottom, swinging away made the difference for the Bulldog hitters in the win.

“I’m all about bunting sometimes, but when the kids are feeling it, I don’t want to take that away from them,” Cruz told the Creston News Advertiser after the game. “They felt it and they hit the ball.”

The team ended up losing in four innings in the first state game they played.

Looking back, three-time state rebounds leader Emma Boswell, who has played other sports at Orient-Macksburg as well, including a state track berth in high jump, said she knew it would be tough walking off her home court with her teammates for the last time.

“That will be our last home game here,” she said a few days before the game. That will definitely be hard to walk off our home court for the last time.”