Boys’ basketball notebook: Keota is a small school winning big

CEDAR RAPIDS - 65.

That’s Keota High School’s official enrollment number used by the Iowa High School Athletic Association for classification purposes in boys’ basketball.

That’s small, really small. Keota ranks 328th out of 353 schools in the state that way.

But small doesn’t mean impossible to compete and succeed, as this program proves continually. A look at state statistical-keeping website Bound, and you discover Keota has had only two losing seasons since 2006-07, and those were still decent seasons of 10-12 and 11-12.

The school has had nine seasons of 20-plus wins in that span, with a 10th highly likely on the way this season. Keota is 18-0 with three regular-season games remaining, ranked No. 6 in Class 1A.

“I think it’s just the little kids come to our games, they’re excited, they come to basketball camp,” said Keota Coach Dan Stout, in his 24th season at the school. “We’ve got awesome parents that take these little kids to tournaments. There are many basketball tournaments around now. We’ve got kids who see this, and it continues to feed. You don’t want to be the person who plays on a team that isn’t successful.

“You took at some of the top programs around, like North Linn. It’s the same thing up there. They just keep bringing those kids in, and it’s neat and exciting. At a small school, it’s tough because you go in cycles.”

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Keota’s varsity roster of 14 consists of nine seniors, four juniors and a sophomore. Cole Kindred, Sawyer Stout (the coach’s son) and Evan Vittetoe are seniors who have started since they were sophomores.

Senior Tanner Waterhouse and junior Billie Kindred are the other starters. Keota regularly employs defensive pressure at the three-quarter or half-court marks, and can comfortably go with an eight or nine-player rotation.

Again, with the exception of Kindred and sophomore Chase Haifley, that rotatation is all seniors. What a luxury at the small-school level.

“We’ve played so much basketball, have a senior-dominated group,” said Sawyer Stout, who leads the Eagles in scoring at 21.3 points per game. “Most of us, we came in playing our sophomore year. We were young, we kind of got beat up ... We’ve put so much time in the gym. Me, I put up 500 shots every day. We have put so much time into this sport, and we’re just glad to see what we’re getting out of it right now.”

A lot of these guys have been integral parts of a Sigourney-Keota football program that wins year in and year out. That success definitely has got to aid in other sports.

Keota has made the boys’ state basketball tournament twice: winning the 1A championship in 1989 and qualifying in 2014. Its last unbeaten regular season was in 2011-12.

With a South Iowa Cedar League title already clinched and an overall SICL championship one win away, the remaining goals for this group are obvious.

“I think the sky’s the limit for this team,” Sawyer Stout said.

“We’re shooting for the moon,” Coach Stout said. “Our first goal was to win the east side of our conference, which we accomplished (Tuesday) night beating Belle Plaine. We now have a share of the overall conference championship ... The next goal would be the state tournament. Like the kids have said, you get there, you might as well go and win it.”

Around the hoop

* Lynnville-Sully has wrapped up the SICL West Division championship. North Linn has clinched at least a share of the Tri-Rivers Conference West Division for the 10th straight year and can win it outright with a victory over Starmont in its regular-season finale.

Bellevue Marquette is your Tri-Rivers East winner. Lansing Kee has won the Upper Iowa Conference title.

* Cedar Rapids Kennedy is 16-0 and has won 36 consecutive regular-season games. The Cougars are one of four undefeated teams in the area, joined by Bellevue Marquette (20-0), Solon (16-0) and Keota (18-0).

Other teams with significant win streaks are Waverly-Shell Rock (14), MFL MarMac (12), and Alburnett (11).

* Schools have been scrambling to make up games postponed earlier in January by bad weather. In that vein, Northeast and Camanche played games against each other on consecutive nights, one at home, one on the road, as did Monticello and Maquoketa.

Iowa Valley will play games five consecutive nights: Monday through Friday. The Tigers have Saturday and Sunday off, then conclude their regular season with back-to-back games this coming Monday and Tuesday.

* Expect the IHSAA to release postseason pairings for Class 1A and 2A early next week. Pairings for 3A and 4A will be released the following week.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com