10 years ago Valley City didn't need another class

Pretty ironic that a week after the 3 class system which VC begged for was shot down, the Fargo Forum runs a story about Jeff Boschee lighting up the Midwest. I'm curious as to what the enrollment disparity was in 1998 between VC and Fargo South or Bismarck Century? It seems it's more about having players, coaches and a system then it is about adding a class. At least in 1998 it was.

It’s been about two decades since Floyd Boschee built a makeshift basketball hoop in the basement of his Valley City, N.D., home.

The white-painted wood backboard with an attached orange rim that was less than regulation height was one of the first places Jeff Boschee started to hone his shooting skills.

His shooting touch would help Boschee score the most career points in North Dakota Class A boys basketball.

“He wouldn’t quit until he won,” Floyd Boschee said of his son. “I would just have to let him win or he wouldn’t stop. At that point, I thought he would be real competitive.”

Jeff was just starting grade school when he started to play shooting games on that hoop with Floyd, substituting a little blue rubber soccer ball for a basketball.

“We had a game that we’d call free throws and we would shoot the best out of 25,” said Jeff Boschee, 28, who is now the head boys basketball coach at The Barstow School, a private school in Kansas City, Mo. “When my dad would win, I would want to keep on playing and playing.”

Boschee finished his high school career with 1,994 points, averaging 20.8 points in 96 varsity games. He is the only player from North Dakota to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game. Among other honors, Boschee was named North Dakota’s Mr. Basketball for his senior season.

He went on to have a standout career at the University of Kansas, where he was a four-year starter for the storied NCAA Division I program. He is the Jayhawks’ career leader in 3-pointers made with 338 and No. 13 in career scoring with 1,560 points.

A 6-foot-1 guard, Boschee is arguably the top boys high school player North Dakota has ever produced.

“He has to be in the top 10, I would think,” said Mandan’s Don Hanson, who has published The Hoopster North Dakota basketball preview for 25 years and coached for more than two decades before that. “He could score from anywhere on the floor. I think he could have scored more, but he was so unselfish. He worked within the system and got his teammates involved.”

Boschee shot 57 percent (339 of 600) from the field in his prep career, 39 percent (265 of 674) from the 3-point line and 82 percent (243 of 295) from the foul line.

While his shooting ability and scoring garnered the most attention, Boschee was not a one-dimensional player. He is the Hi-Liners’ career leader in assists with 422, an average of 4.4 assists per game.

Boschee made sure he worked on all his skills, not just his shooting. He carried around a backpack that held two basketballs, a jump rope and cones, which he used for drills.

“He set up regimens of drills that he would do all alone,” said Al Cruchet, who was Valley City’s head coach when Boschee was a freshman. “He was one of those guys who would come into the gym and work on ballhandling for 20 minutes before he would start shooting.”

His focus on basketball was so sharp that it once landed him in trouble.

When Boschee was in junior high, school was let out to allow students to help sandbag because of area flooding.

Boschee instead went to the Valley City Rec Center to play basketball.

“Our senior high principal walked in and asked me what I was doing. I got a week of detention for that,” Boschee said. “It was a way for me to play more basketball, I guess. I look back and laugh at it. The right thing to do was probably go sandbag, but that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to play basketball.”

His older brother Mike Boschee – who played basketball at the University of North Dakota from 1987-90 – was Jeff’s biggest influence.

When Jeff was in grade school, he can remember spending basketball weekends at UND with Mike.

“I was always watching the games and practices pretty intently,” said Jeff, who tied a Valley City record by scoring 45 points in a game his senior season.

“I think he was influenced by his older brother a lot about what it takes to be a player,” Floyd added. “The thing that stood out in my mind was how dedicated Jeff was to getting better.”

One of Boschee’s most memorable performances came in the 1997 East Region tournament championship against Fargo Shanley.

A junior, Boschee scored 39 points – including 7-of-15 shooting from 3-point range – to lead Valley City to a 75-71 victory.

He scored the first nine points of overtime, all on 3-pointers, to help the Hi-Liners overcome a 39-point game from Shanley sophomore standout Nick Jacobson. Jacobson would later play Division I basketball at Utah.

“Jeff just turned around and said ‘Guys, just jump on my back. Let’s go.’ ” said Fargo South head boys coach Mike Hendrickson, who was head coach at Valley City when Boschee was a sophomore and junior. “The biggest part is just his competitiveness. He was going to do everything he could to get better and he brought kids up with him.”

His senior year in high school, Boschee scored 40 points in the first round of the 1998 Class A state tournament to lift Valley City to a 63-56 victory against Minot.

Valley City finished third at state that season. That was the highest the Hi-Liners placed at state in Boschee’s career.

“He was just fun to go watch play, not so much as his father, but just as a fan,” Floyd said. “I was amazed at the things he could do. How he could handle the ball, shoot the ball and pass the ball. I didn’t go and watch him practice, so I was like everybody else. I would show up to watch what he could do. Wherever Valley City went to play in those years when Jeff played, the gyms were packed.”

That legend had its genesis in Floyd’s basement.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Eric Peterson at (701) 241-5513.

Peterson’s prep sports blog can be found at www.areavoices.com