To me, it's part of the allure of the beat — the chance to cover that budding star a few years before he's on the tip of every basketball fan's tongue in the Midwest.

It's been nearly nine years now since I watched a skinny junior named Nathan Funk swish a 22-foot fadeaway against two defenders and force overtime in the Iowa Class 3-A state championship game.

Sioux City Heelan lost that game in OT, but from that point on, Funk officially was on everyone's basketball radar. He averaged 24 points and six rebounds in the state tournament, and despite playing for a runner-up team, was named the overall MVP of the 32-team tourney. (Some of you remember him better as Nate Funk, leading Creighton to great heights during his time in Omaha.)

That dramatic shot by Funk was just one of many memorable western Iowa moments on the hardwood in the decade of the 2000s, which officially ended at midnight on New Year's Day. We thought it would be fun to honor some of western Iowa's top basketball players in that 10-year span, which leads to today's unveiling of The World-Herald's All-Western Iowa All-Decade Teams.

Players who graduated from 2000 to 2009 were eligible. We selected five-player first and second girls and boys teams in three divisions: Class 4-A/3-A, Class 2-A and Class 1-A, which is similar to the way we select our annual All-Western Iowa teams.

I started this beat in 2000, so I've seen just about every one of these players do their thing. And in doing the research for this package, it didn't take long for the memories to start flooding back . . .

In January of 2002, I sat in a coaches' office in Carroll, Iowa, and interviewed a remarkably mature young man named Adam Haluska. He was a few days away from becoming the first Class 3-A player in Iowa to score 2,000 points in his career.

“Adam's got the skills and athletic ability to be a professional,” Carroll coach Keith Stribe said that day. “He's not your normal athlete.”

Haluska made the All-Big 12 freshman team while playing for Iowa State, then controversially transferred to Iowa in the wake of the Larry Eustachy debacle. Haluska led the Big Ten in scoring as a senior and was picked in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets.

March 2004 signaled the start of a remarkable four-year run in which all of the Iowa Miss Basketball selections hailed from The World-Herald's coverage area of about 60 schools. All four signed with Division I programs. Underwood's Jamie Boyd (2004 graduate; signed with Kansas) led her school to two straight state titles, while Tri-Center's Wendy Ausdemore (2005; Iowa) and Battle Creek-Ida Grove's Kelsey Bolte (2006; Iowa State) helped their teams to runner-up finishes. Carroll's Shellie Mosman (2007; Iowa State) finished her career with nearly 1,900 points.

Also in March of 2004, the remarkable high school career of Harlan's Joel Osborn was in the homestretch. Trailing Crestwood by 13 with 6:05 remaining in the 3-A championship game, Osborn helped Harlan rally to an improbable 60-54 win.

“We can do this, and if we do, it will be the biggest comeback we've ever had,'' Osborn said he told a teammate before the final spurt.

Maybe in basketball, but Harlan's comeback in football the previous fall rivaled it. The Cyclones trailed Mount Vernon 35-23 with 5:38 remaining in the 3-A championship game, and rallied to win 38-35 on two long touchdown passes from Osborn to Greg Applegate. Osborn went on to quarterback Northwest Missouri State to a pair of Division II national runner-up finishes.

In March of 2006, Charter Oak-Ute's Kala Kuhlmann (who would go on to play at Nebraska) and Irwin-Kirkman-Manilla's Margo Muhlbauer squared off in the Class 1-A championship game. Conference rivals who lived a few miles apart, both girls attended the same dance studio in Denison.

The game came down to one play involving the two all-staters. With her team trailing 62-61 and less than 10 seconds remaining, Muhlbauer drove hard to the baseline, and there was plenty of contact. The most difficult call in basketball, block or charge? Kuhlmann drew the charge and Charter Oak-Ute won its first state title. A year later, Muhlbauer led I-K-M to the championship.

There were so many more moments. Tri-Center's Kurt Spomer willing his team to back-to-back state trips in 2007 and 2008. Michelle Lund burying a 24-footer and a 20-footer 50 seconds apart in the fourth quarter to help Sioux City Heelan win the 2008 3-A title. In that state tournament, Heelan beat the defending champion, the No. 1 team and the No. 2 team.

We could go on and on. But those were some of the highlights. Check over the lists, see what you think. I count nine Division I boys and 16 Division I girls players. Not a bad decade for a 60-school area.

There was no scientific formula used to determine them. Did you have to be a college star to make it? No. Did it help if you had a notable college career? Probably. Did it help if your team won a lot, especially at the state tournament? Absolutely. Although remarkably, Haluska's Carroll team never reached Des Moines.

Let the discussions begin. If you have some thoughts, send them my way.

And finally, let's hope this decade is as much fun as the last one.

Contact the writer:

444-1055, kevin.white@owh.com

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