Matt Levins - The Hawk Eye/ Photo credit- Jen Levins
IOWA CITY — Amidst all the hoopla, picture-taking and handshake, Notre Dame High School boys basketball coach Dan Kies passed a milestone.
Notre Dame’s 63-53 win over Calamus-Wheatland in a Class 1A substate final on Saturday at Iowa City High was Kies’ 200th win of his career.
It may have gone largely unnoticed on a night when the Nikes earned their first trip to state since 2009, but it was a major milestone for Kies, who is finishing his 13th season with the Nikes.
It was Kies’ ability to stay calm and in the moment down the stretch as Calamus-Wheatland was making a comeback which helped calm the Nikes’ nerves.
“You have to stay confident and deliver a message and let them go do their job,” Kies said. “Not try to do too much. Try to stay cool. Try to get through the moment. It’s a lot of adrenaline going on for everybody.”
After watching his team let a game it led from start to finish slip away in last year’s substate final loss to North Linn, Kies tried to keep everything in perspective this year.
New year, new team, different results.
“It’s hard to even think back about that,” Kies said. “Last year was obviously a huge disappointment, but we’ve had losses that hurt more than that, too. It wasn’t the end of the world. We were still proud of what we did. We got beat by a really good team. It was more about, ‘Hey, keep your heads up and let’s see if we can get back.’ This year it’s ecstatic that these guys could get over the hump and get Notre Dame back to Des Moines.”
Fourth-ranked Notre Dame (24-2) will play sixth-ranked Bellevue (22-3) in a Class 1A state quarterfinal game at 3:45 p.m. March 10 at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines.
For Kies, it will be his first experience coaching in the state tournament. He will do what has got him to 200 wins.
“A little experience. Making a few free throws. Just understanding how to play together. Part of it is just experience, too,” Kies said. “There’s a point there where we had a big cushion and we kind of let them back in. It looks like the walls are collapsing around us. We didn’t panic. We need to rebound. We need to play a little better defense and then just take care of the ball.”