By KMAland’s Trevor Maeder

A finish 45 years in the making and a new school record for wins is honored with Rock Port’s Austin Alitz landing the latest KMAland Girls Basketball Coach of the Year award. Alitz helped guide the Blue Jay girls to another Show-Me Showdown before equaling the school’s highest finish in third and nabbing its record 29th win.

“It was good to be playing basketball in mid-March,” Coach Alitz told KMA Sports. “That was our goal coming in. We talked about March 12th a lot and I was hoping to be playing in the other game on March 12th. That doesn’t really take away what the girls accomplished. We had a really good year and it was very enjoyable.”

While Rock Port did not quite get into the Class 1 state championship game, they bounced back from their semifinal loss by taking a third-place finish with a win over Cairo. It was a scenario the coaching staff and team did not shy away from talking about throughout the year.

“Basketball is such a long season and then you take into account that I was confident that we were going to win several games this year,” Alitz said. “It’s easy to get complacent and we might have had a little bit of that at times throughout the year. I remember last year, the excitement and enjoyment that team got from going down to Columbia. I just wanted that to be a constant reminder that we were capable.”

Rock Port spent much of the season atop or near the top of the rankings and they did little to disappoint. An early-season loss to a higher-classed Mid-Buchanan was followed by 18 straight wins. A tight defeat to Stanberry quickly got the Blue Jays re-focused, as they won seven straight to earn another trip to Columbia.

“Around that Stanberry game, we played Mound City on the Tuesday before that and held them to 17 points,” Alitz said. “We had a very good defensive game, and they kind of slowed the game down. I just thought that was a really good game for us and then that’s where I thought we might have got a little complacent. I don’t think anyone was pleased with our performance (against Stanberry and then East Atchison), but that next week we played King City and North Andrew and I thought we performed well and got locked in there.”

Much of last year’s team returned for this season, although they did replace a pair of strong senior starters in Avery Meyerkorth and Addy Maifeld.

“(This team) definitely had some similarities, but I thought we had a ton of growth in our sophomore class,” Coach Alitz said. “Braylyn Wood is a player that made tremendous strides from last year and throughout the year. We saw her have some confidence with the ball in her hands there towards the end of the year. Stevie Gaines and Leah Meyerkorth also stepped in and didn’t really miss a beat, especially once we got into January, February and March. They both had some really good games as freshmen.”

The improvements of sophomore star Audrie Meyerkorth and senior Ella Meyerkorth were also evident throughout the year. The younger Meyerkorth picked up her second straight KMAland Missouri Girls Player of the Year honor.

“It really comes down to basketball IQ, knowledge, I guess, of the game,” Alitz said. “And that’s something that’s kind of hard to teach because it’s all situational. The book is pretty deep on situations, so just every chance we get talking about (situations) were important. I’m hoping we continue to take a big step in that part of the game next year.”

When the dust settled on the season, the group equaled 1981’s third-place finish and bested any other Rock Port girls or boys basketball team before them with 29 wins. Alitz is the first KMAland Missouri coach to earn the KMAland Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.