Jack Meyerkoth, a sophomore Rock Port Blue Jay, was named the KMAland Missouri Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
By KMAland Trevor Maeder
For the second time this week, a member of the Meyerkorth family has collected a KMAland yearly honor. Jack Meyerkorth’s basketball skills took a massive leap. And with it, so did the success of the Rock Port boys basketball program.
Meyerkorth’s stellar season helped the Blue Jay boys basketball team make its deepest postseason run in over 30 years. For that, Meyerkorth is the first Blue Jay to win KMAland Missouri Boys Basketball Player of the Year. He joins his cousin, Audrie, who claimed the girls award after leading them to their first state semifinal trip in 44 years. ”I thought it was a good season,” Jack Meyerkorth said. “We worked hard all year and loved the game. The state championship was the ultimate goal, but it was a good year.”
Rock Port compiled a 25-5 record and reached the state quarterfinals for the first time since 1994 before dropping a heartbreaker to Braymer in the Class 1 quarterfinals. “It all came back to the team and coaches,” Meyerkorth said. “Our coaches were on us to work hard. We loved each other and loved the game, so it was easy.”
Meyerkorth put in 23.2 points per game for 695 total points while shooting 48% from the field. “The guys had a lot of trust in me to get my shots,” he said. “And I had trust in the guys to get me open. I just happened to be the guy that led the scoring. They set screens for me and we communicated well. The trust was there. I got opened and scored a lot of points.”
Meyerkorth nearly doubled his scoring output from last year after recording 12.3 points per game as a freshman. “I spent a lot of time on my jump shot and ball-handling,” he said. Elsewhere, Meyerkorth con-trib-uted 4.5 steals, 3.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
As Meyerkorth reflects on his breakout year, it would be easy to pick one of his team’s many wins. However, he looks to one of their losses – the January 28th defeat at the hands of Worth County – as the turning point to their season. “What stands out is our loss to Worth County,” he said. “Immediately after that game, we grew as a team. That was a highlight.”
Meyerkorth will enter his junior year only 11 points shy of reaching 1,000 on his career. He and the Blue Jays’ other top four returning scorers all return next year, meaning the 2025-26 campaign could be one for the ages in Atchison County.
“We’ve all played with each other since elementary ball,” he said. “It stinks we lost earlier than we wanted to but we’re excited to get back in the gym and hopefully make a deep runner.”
