Setting a state record for consecutive wins can be an arduous task when you're a high school basketball team. Unlike the pro ranks where you can keep the nucleus of your team together for an extended period of time -- assuming you have the money -- in high school, you have to deal with players graduating, transferring or leaving the school for other reasons. No doubt about it, chemistry is a precious commodity.
That's exactly why Wichita (Kan.) Heights High's boys' basketball team deserves a lot of credit for setting a state record on Tuesday evening when they captured their 60th consecutive victory of the season in a 54-42 win over Bishop Carroll Catholic (Kan.) High.
As KSN-TV and the Topeka Journal reported, Heights broke the old record set by Moundridge (Kansas) High, who set the previous mark with 59 consecutive wins from 1990-93. Heights is now 16-0 on the season and hasn't lost a game since 2009 when, among other things, Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States.
"It's an unbelievable accomplishment," KSN-TV caught Heights coach Joe Auer telling his players in the locker room following the win.
"For those who know where we came from to get to this point, what this mean to our program, our school, to our community. To do it in this league, guys, is unbelievable."
While Heights may own the may hold the record for the longest winning streak in the 101-year history of Kansas High School basketball, their mark falls just a little shy of the national mark set by Passic (New Jersey) High back in 1925, when the school won 159 straight games.
The winning streak started during the 1919 season and lasted seven years, which is almost laughable when you think about all the graduating classes that went through the school during that time period.
But that's neither here nor there. Heights still deserves a ton of credit for setting an incredibly impressive winning streak, and based on the way their season is currently going, they have a pretty good chance of running the table again this year.
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