Former Bulldogs meet in POI clash

GREENFIELD — Sitting on opposite benches for the Lenox vs. Nodaway Valley boys basketball game Tuesday were two head coaches who share a history of excellence in a program just nine miles south on Highway 25.

And, one of the Nodaway Valley assistants was their head coach during a rich period of Orient-Macksburg basketball that included four conference championships and a record of 103-17 over a five-year span.

And, two other Nodaway Valley assistants — elementary principal James Larson and Justen Shannon — were players on Nodaway Valley state tournament teams during the heyday of coach Darrell Burmeister’s incredible run of 13 Pride of Iowa Conference titles and two appearances in state championship games.

Now, all of those coaches are involved in rebuilding programs at Lenox and Nodaway Valley as they met Tuesday, both seeking their first victory of the young season. The Tigers prevailed, 65-42, but it was a battle most of the way with the Tigers holding a slim 25-22 advantage at halftime.

“His team is winless only by their record. They were the best winless team I’d seen on film and I knew they’d be playing good basketball,” said Nodaway Valley coach Thad Tussey about the Lenox team coached by his former Orient-Macksburg teammate, Michael West.

“They gave us a battle, no doubt,” West said about the Wolverine team that returns only high-scoring senior Dawson Nelson from last year’s varsity rotation that went 14-9 under coach Jeremy Blake, now an assistant coach at Atlantic. “In the second half we started to hit our threes, especially Carter Reed, and we have two guys in Gabe Funk and Brody Brokaw that you just can’t box out. They’re athletic and position themselves so well.”

There was mutual respect between the two coaching staffs, and the mentor for both West and Tussey — longtime O-M coach Steve Tussey — was seated on the end of the Nodaway Valley bench as a volunteer assistant for the Wolverines.

“I’m proud of both of those guys,” Steve Tussey said before Tuesday’s game. “At our JV game recently, they (Lenox Tigers) were running some of the same things on offense. I take that as a compliment that he’s still using some of the things he learned at Orient-Macksburg.”

Steve Tussey, an Orient native, led two state tournament teams at Woodbine and coached at Perry before returning to his hometown in 2002 when son Thad was a sophomore.

“That first year we won eight or nine games. We had high turnovers and didn’t play that well,” Steve Tussey said. “I knew if we could clean things up we could be successful. The second year, Thad’s junior year, we went to the substate final against North Mahaska. We had kids that listened and worked hard, supportive parents, and several sets of brothers so we had consistency. Our practices were very competitive.”

The Bulldogs were 21-4 that year and began a run of four straight Rolling Hills Conference championships. It was the first O-M winning season since 1983.

In the 2004-05 season, West was a freshman reserve off the bench and Thad Tussey was a senior. The Bulldogs went 22-3, best record in O-M history at the time. Tussey averaged 13 points and five assists with only 1.4 turnovers per game, making 68 of 182 3-pointers (37.4%). He made second-team all-state and appeared in the Goalsetter All-Star game. He ended with 299 career assists and went on to play one season at Southwestern Community College before getting into coaching.

“We were post-oriented so Thad fed the post a lot,” Steve Tussey said. “In one particular game he had a lot of points at halftime, but I don’t even know if he shot in the second half. Then to beat Adair-Casey to win the conference, he hit several threes. He did what was needed for the team to be successful.”

O-M won two more league titles during West’s sophomore and junior seasons, the latter a 22-1 season that ended in a district final loss to Murray, who had lost to the Bulldogs earlier that season.

State scoring leader

When West was a senior, he scored 49 points in a game against Adair-Casey as the Bulldogs sought another title, but A-C prevailed 78-73, ending O-M’s reign in the Rolling Hills.

West was a scoring machine, leading the state in all classes with 784 points and averaging 30.8 points and 10.6 rebounds as senior. He finished with 1,674 career points and made the Iowa Newspaper Association’s all-state first team in Class 1A. West was also named the Southwest Iowa Player of the Year by the Council Bluffs Nonpareil. Four times as a senior he exceeded 40 points in a game.

West played two seasons at Central College before returning to Adair County to farm. He also works at golf courses in Lenox and Creston and is accomplished in that sport as well.

Before Tuesday’s game, both West and Thad Tussey reflected on what they’ve taken from Thad’s father’s program at O-M.

“Just that mentality of of being accountable,” West said. “He put that on all of us. You have to show up and put in the effort. The trademark of his teams was that we were just smart. We had basketball IQ. We knew who should score. Stay disciplined on defense and get every defensive rebound. We didn’t beat ourselves.”

Thad Tussey has his father’s help, as well as that of Shannon and Larson, the program’s junior high coach now, in trying to instill those values in a young, inexperienced Nodaway Valley roster.

“I’ve been going to his practices since I was old enough to go to school,” Thad said. “I take anything I can from him — practice stuff, scouting reports, pre-practice routines, practice schedules, working on the fundamentals. With our group this year we’re hitting the fundamentals hard like passing and cutting, using screens, defensive stances, boxing out, pass fakes and shot fakes.”

Larson, the elementary principal who was involved in hiring Thad as a school counselor two years ago, said the sounds in practices are familiar. Steve Tussey was his assistant coach during his final year at Clarke of Osceola in 2016-17 when Steve was a counselor there.

“The Tusseys have a plethora of basketball knowledge,” Larson said. “They know the game very well. I know Steve has gotten a lot out of a little with his teams. They can produce success with whatever they have, and develop players. Thad is a replica of his dad, almost. He says things when we’re talking that seem very familiar to when Steve was my assistant.”

Larson said Thad’s intent to build the program up from the bottom rings familiar to Burmeister’s successful approach. Larson played on teams that placed second, first and third at the state tournament in the mid-2000s.

“A lot of our great teams started playing in third and fourth grades,” Larson said. “Thad had a nice youth camp over the summer working with over 40 kids. That’s what you have to do these days to keep up.”

O-M program ends

Ironically, on the night these two former O-M teammates met as opposing coaches in Greenfield, there was only a girls basketball game in Orient. Last year two bjoys from O-M joined the Nodaway Valley program. There are no boys players from O-M this year. Likewise, there is no boys basketball program this year at Diagonal, the traditional boys powerhouse from decades ago under legendary coach Dennis Tassell.

That development saddens West and the Tusseys. West coached three seasons at his alma mater before taking over the program at Lenox last year.

“It’s a shame because of the success we had and the groups of good players we had come through there,” West said. “It’s too bad the numbers are that way.”

Thad Tussey noted that many of the former Rolling Hills teams are combined with other schools now, such as Adair-Casey with Guthrie Center, Walnut with AHST (Avoca) and Exira with Elk Horn-Kimballton.

“Boys basketball at Orient-Macksburg is done, probably,” Steve Tussey said. “I’m proud of what we accomplished. I would like to see it continue, but you look at the small schools in our district from the years we were at Woodbine, and almost none of those schools are by themselves anymore. We had bigger rural populations and smaller farms back then. Now farmers are farming thousands of acres and rural Iowa is shrinking. Everyone is going to Waukee, Ankeny and Johnston.”

But, he thinks his two former players are coaching in good situations now. Steve, 59, also drives Nodaway Valley activity buses in addition to working part-time in seasonal work for Agriland FS in Orient.

“I think Lenox and Nodaway Valley have steady enrollments,” Steve said. “They have traditions of supporting their athletics. They should be able to be successful moving forward.”