How Blue Valley Northwest seniors are embracing pressure as defending state champs

Across the past decade, Blue Valley Northwest boys basketball has reigned as one of the premier programs in Kansas.

Collecting all six of their state titles since 2013, the Huskies have progressed into this season as the defending 6A state champions — defeating Wichita Heights last season for the title.

But the Huskies knew this season would bring new challenges. It’s not the same roster that beat the Falcons back in March, with six seniors graduating from that 2023 squad.

The change, however, has been ushered in by three seniors who lead the quest for a repeat.

Under Aaron Ihm in his third year as head coach — after taking over for the legendary Ed Fritz — seniors Joey Matteoni, Jake Fritz and Jaxon Klein have stepped into the senior leadership roles for the Huskies. They have used all their experience from the state title win — as well as losing to Wichita Heights in the 2022 championship game — to mentor the younger players.

“It’s what you do every year, try to win the state tournament,” Matteoni said. “Last year’s whole goal was to get back and finish what we started and win it. And then when we finally did, it’s just a relief.”

That’s one change moving into this season.

Matteoni said BVNW’s goal for “our whole season” last year was to “go back and get revenge on Wichita Heights.”

“How this year changes is now we have to defend it,” Matteoni continued. “We have a higher standard and now people come for us, so we’ve got to lock in to continue to keep the ring.”

Ihm says that Matteoni, who averages 20.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, has had the help of both Fritz and Klein in a prominent leadership role for the Huskies this season.

“They do a good job acting as role models to not only work hard, but to also enjoy that journey,” Ihm said. “Because there is a lot of that weight and pressure that that goes along with trying to do what so many of those guys have done in the past, and sometimes teams get caught up in that and it can weigh you down or drown you. But our guys have done a good job so far in enjoying that and kind of finding the joy in some of that hard work.”

And the three seniors certainly feel a bond in doing so.

“We’ve been playing with each other for such a long time and I think we’ve been prepared to be able to step into this leadership role,” Klein said. “I think we’re completely ready for it, and us being those leaders is going to help this team go as far as we went last year.”

The Huskies, now 12-1 on the season after suffering their first loss to Owasso (Oklahoma) in the Bill Hanson Memorial Tournament championship game last week, sit second in KSHSAA’s Class 6A East standings and No. 2 in the 810 Varsity top 25 rankings for the KC metro.

In getting to those heights, the seniors credited the 2023 class for helping prepare them. That group included former Kansas 6A Player of the Year and current Omaha freshman Grant Stubblefield, who averaged 17.9 points per game.

“His junior and senior year, he was a leader in the team,” Matteoni said. “He was always bringing the energy and we always knew we had him.”

“We definitely learned from the best,” Klein added.

Matteoni also noted Stubblefield, when given the chance, still comes out to support the Huskies, even in the midst of his own college career.

“He’s awesome. He really loves Blue Valley Northwest and loves basketball,” Matteoni said. “It’s always good to have him and we loved him, I loved him. He’s a great teammate and obviously I won a state championship with him, so we’ll be friends forever.”

Among the other players who have departed from that 2022-23 team was Landon Braun, who joined Stubblefield at Omaha. Braun, the younger brother of another Blue Valley Northwest alum and former Kansas Jayhawk in Christian Braun, averaged 8.4 points for Blue Valley Northwest in his senior season.

Last year’s team went 21-4 en route to winning the state title.

But even with all the love for last year’s seniors, the message from the coaches has been to “hit the reset button,” according to Fritz.

“That was last year’s team, even though we’ve got some of the guys from the winning team last year,” Fritz said. “The guys that graduated, they helped us win last year. And we’ve got to kind of forget about the win last year in order to keep that hungry mindset and think that we’ve got to earn everything.”

That hunger, naturally, also brings pressure, as does playing for a program as prominent as Blue Valley Northwest. That pressure only becomes a problem, though, if you let it.

“I would say I embrace it. I love it,” Klein said. “I know that our program has produced such high level players all the way to the NBA (such as Christian Braun, now with the Denver Nuggets). I love that. Me and my boys are able to be a part of that and be the next guys.”

”We’re not really worried about the pressure that comes at game time,” Fritz added. “We’re just ready for any challenge.”

Ihm is well aware of the pressure that surrounds his team and tries to coach around it. But the biggest way to alleviate it has been the team’s culture, which involves the players taking ownership day to day.

“Once they learn to follow and once they know the expectations, as long as you have guys that continue to mature and grow like Jake, Joey and Jaxon, then they kind of take the reins from there,” Ihm said. “Then we get to just manage it and enhance it where they can.”

And one more thing.

“They know that we’re not going to be as good as we can be,” Ihm said, “if we don’t have fun while we do it.”