NastySlot
02-25-2010, 01:21 AM
Good luck to these guys in the future...Memorial has had rough in all sports for a while maybe this will help turn not on the athletic teams around but also academics and community
Web Posted: 02/25/2010 12:00 CST
Memorial plays out a movie script to the final minute
Lorne Chan - Lorne Chan
You've seen this movie before.
The inner-city team finds a way to win basketball games and rally a community.
Then comes the big playoff moment, against a local power from the richer part of town.
Pause it with a couple of seconds left.
With the ball in the hands of the 5-foot-9 senior and the hardest-working player.
With the kid taking a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Snap back to reality, where the scene played out Tuesday night.
For the first time since 1997, Memorial was in the playoffs, facing Alamo Heights.
The Mules have won at least 20 games in 28 of the past 29 seasons. The Minutemen haven't won a playoff game since 1979.
Memorial's athletics only had been notable lately for the football team's 41-game on-field losing streak.
Three years ago, the Minutemen boys basketball team finished 3-30.
Senior Jacoy Reed remembered coming home from games that season. The first question his mother would ask was, “Y'all lost, right?”
“She didn't mean anything by it,” Reed said. “There just wasn't a point in asking if we'd won.”
Second-year coach Clyde Schmittou constantly talks about Memorial's history. A 1992 Judson graduate, he'd always been around winning sports teams.
His goal was to change the school and the community's perception of the basketball team. For the first time, players wore dress shirts and ties on game days. Players worked tirelessly to get fans to attend.
The biggest catalyst, of course, was when the Minutemen started winning.
With Jay transfer Justice Godley-Williams leading the team in scoring, Memorial finished second in District 28-4A.
Stores on Culebra Road started putting up signs supporting the Minutemen.
Tuesday, about 900 attended Memorial's first playoff game in 13 years. Heights coach Charlie Boggess said the impressive part wasn't that they filled up Lanier Gym but that they filled it up 45 minutes before tipoff.
Schmittou said the game was the best effort he's seen from his team all season. When Heights' John Misquez banked in a shot to put the Mules ahead 67-66 with eight seconds left, it set up the dramatic finish.
Steven Aguillen, who led Memorial with 27 points, couldn't get an open shot because he was being double-teamed.
So he passed to senior Kevin Reyes, the team's hardest worker. A freshman “B” team member-turned-two-year-starter, he suddenly was the potential hero of this drama.
Reality, though, is never as kind as Disney.
The ball hit the front of the rim and missed as the buzzer sounded.
At Memorial on Wednesday, there wasn't much dejection over the loss. Only congratulations about the season.
Memorial's playoff victory will have to wait, but the perception of the team has changed in many ways. Seven of Memorial's nine varsity players are on the school's A/B honor roll.
Reed is ranked sixth in his class and will attend Texas on an academic scholarship next year.
Maybe that's why there hasn't been a perfect ending yet.
Their storybook script is just beginning.
lchan@express-news.net
Web Posted: 02/25/2010 12:00 CST
Memorial plays out a movie script to the final minute
Lorne Chan - Lorne Chan
You've seen this movie before.
The inner-city team finds a way to win basketball games and rally a community.
Then comes the big playoff moment, against a local power from the richer part of town.
Pause it with a couple of seconds left.
With the ball in the hands of the 5-foot-9 senior and the hardest-working player.
With the kid taking a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Snap back to reality, where the scene played out Tuesday night.
For the first time since 1997, Memorial was in the playoffs, facing Alamo Heights.
The Mules have won at least 20 games in 28 of the past 29 seasons. The Minutemen haven't won a playoff game since 1979.
Memorial's athletics only had been notable lately for the football team's 41-game on-field losing streak.
Three years ago, the Minutemen boys basketball team finished 3-30.
Senior Jacoy Reed remembered coming home from games that season. The first question his mother would ask was, “Y'all lost, right?”
“She didn't mean anything by it,” Reed said. “There just wasn't a point in asking if we'd won.”
Second-year coach Clyde Schmittou constantly talks about Memorial's history. A 1992 Judson graduate, he'd always been around winning sports teams.
His goal was to change the school and the community's perception of the basketball team. For the first time, players wore dress shirts and ties on game days. Players worked tirelessly to get fans to attend.
The biggest catalyst, of course, was when the Minutemen started winning.
With Jay transfer Justice Godley-Williams leading the team in scoring, Memorial finished second in District 28-4A.
Stores on Culebra Road started putting up signs supporting the Minutemen.
Tuesday, about 900 attended Memorial's first playoff game in 13 years. Heights coach Charlie Boggess said the impressive part wasn't that they filled up Lanier Gym but that they filled it up 45 minutes before tipoff.
Schmittou said the game was the best effort he's seen from his team all season. When Heights' John Misquez banked in a shot to put the Mules ahead 67-66 with eight seconds left, it set up the dramatic finish.
Steven Aguillen, who led Memorial with 27 points, couldn't get an open shot because he was being double-teamed.
So he passed to senior Kevin Reyes, the team's hardest worker. A freshman “B” team member-turned-two-year-starter, he suddenly was the potential hero of this drama.
Reality, though, is never as kind as Disney.
The ball hit the front of the rim and missed as the buzzer sounded.
At Memorial on Wednesday, there wasn't much dejection over the loss. Only congratulations about the season.
Memorial's playoff victory will have to wait, but the perception of the team has changed in many ways. Seven of Memorial's nine varsity players are on the school's A/B honor roll.
Reed is ranked sixth in his class and will attend Texas on an academic scholarship next year.
Maybe that's why there hasn't been a perfect ending yet.
Their storybook script is just beginning.
lchan@express-news.net