Winning By A Long Shot — St.Roch’s1997CYC Basketball Championship

Historical June 1997 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

In every type of competition, particularly in sports, there are two types of champions: the Goliath and the David. Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Microsoft and now Tiger Woods are all Goliaths-larger-than-life characters who hold the masses spellbound by their extraordinary skills- “gifts” the Ancients believed were proffered by the gods But it is David. the underdog. who compels us more-Billy Mills. the 1969 New York Mets. Ben & Jerry’s, the 1980 U S Olympic hockey teamfor it is the underdog whose glory is rarely foretold, whose talents are not universally revered and whose power seems to Ile In wait: the praying mantis In the black widow’s web, the supple filly in a field of colts, “Spud” Webb in the land of giants.

The underdog commands our attention because. rather than overwhelming. its power is realized in but one sweeping moment Not so much God-given. its shining victory is simply magical-the mysterious granted wish of a long. quiet dream So it is with the 1997 St. Roch School 8th-grade boys’ basketball team.

On the evening of Sunday, April 13, at approximately 7:30 p.m., before a fanatic crowd at St. Louis University, St Roch, South City District champs• beat the odds and beat topseeded St Michael’s School of Shrewsbury, South Central County champs. 50-43, to win the 1997 St Louis CYC Archdiocesan Intermediate Division Basketball Championship. Now, for the rest of their lives, the eight boys who played for Coach Jerry lmming (most of them since 3rd grade)-Mike Bowe, Chris Imming, David Godar, James Grigsby, Chris Vanderbeek, Andrew Whiteman, James Wright and John Rice (unavailable for the championship, but present in spirit), will be able to say that they were not only the best in their field this year in all of St Louis, but were also the first St Roch boys’ team in any sport to win a CYC championship Five months and 44 games earlier. when the 1996-1997 basketball season began in mid-November. the prevailing belief among many opposing coaches and players had been that St. Roch would finish second or third among the five schools that comprise its regular-season league.

After all, though team quickness was a proven asset. boy-for-boy the St. Roch squad was one of the area’s shortest In this game in which height bears the same relative Importance as strength in weigh/lifting.

To add to this liability. the prognosticators also insisted that. because of its small 8-player roster (most other teams fielded 10 players or more). St. Roch would often suffer from fatigue or foul trouble But per haps most significant of all, St. Roch, a “perimeter” team known for its low of the long-range. 3-point shot-the “trey–would not be able to match up score-for-score with the bigger. stronger teams, who would win inside with higher percentage “short-ups- and layups In sum (so it was believed). St Roch would be. at best, a long shot for league or post-season honors.

All season, the St. Roch basketball team lived by the trey-and won by the trey. Game after tense game, often falling behind early, sensing, and usually seeing, little opportunity beneath the basket-which is to say beyond the often gangling, flagging arms of its opponents-the St. Roch boys would. time and again, simply arrange themselves into a protective battery far from harm’s reach-at the 3-point arc. And there. they would conduct a clinic Spread like medieval infantry, and as if in perpetual game warmup, working the ball one to the other with intermittent quickness and grace, as beautiful as their rainbow shots. they would pliantly taunt the scuttling opposition until, ultimately-the basket seen as like the sun through a dark woods-the ball would suddenly wing into its long. sonic arc. an eagle in perfect flight… rising, rising along a perfect trajectory…. Swish’ In one game, coincidentally against Si Michael’s. the St Roch boys had landed nearly a dozen 3-point shots in the first half alone-a feat that would envy most NBA players In another game. Bowe and Imming sank five consecutive treys between them before missing; and in another. Vanderbeek went six for six. Ever since 6th grade, when St. Roch and St. Michael’s had first metal a Chaminade-sponsored tournamentthese two teams of contrasting stylesthe one fast and short, the other fast and tall-had maintained a respectful, yet intensely competitive. rivalry Their games were always fast. always physical and usually decided by but a few points-the ball-work. set plays and defenses of each so sophisticated that either team could have matched up well against several high-school squads. Yet, in every one of the nearly dozen meetings between them over the last three years, including five this season before the Final Game-St Michael’s had always prevailed To marvel at the Championship Game is to marvel first at how proficiently St. Roch conducted its pregame warmups. Like hounds in pursuit of the fox, the boys ran their short sprints and passing formations, like painters, their fingers seemed to stroke the mesh with their shots, seemingly cocked and released in a unison of waving palms.

In looking back. this performance seems now to have been a significant foreshadowing.

For even at their best before, the boys had never appeared so ready for a game. “Psyched!” one of my generation might have described them 20 years ago. “In a zone!” these boys might have proclaimed that day. Within three minutes of the game’s tip-off, this good omen turned to proof. Having built an 11-7 lead-ironically, largely on short-range shots and layups-and thanks to solid team passing and the strong forward defense of Imming, Whiteman and Wright-St. Roch suddenly converged into a fullcourt”trap” defense. Says Coach Imming, “We knew if we set a fast pace, they might try to set a faster one. So, rather than assign one player to the opponent with the ball, we assigned two, the strategy being to box them out-take them out of their inside game.” The strategy paid dividends almost immediately, turning St. Michael’s uptempo into turnovers. Within minutes of St. Roch’s initiating the full-court press, Bowe, Grigsby, Imming, Vanderbeek and Wright all stole St. Michael’s passes. Between them, Imming and Whiteman blocked four St. Michael’s shots. “We simply rattled them-forced them to make mistakes,” says Coach Imming. “Any momentum they may have started the game with, they lost before the middle of the first quarter, and never fully regained.” Before first quarter’s end, St. Michael’s had turned the ball over some half dozen times, and St. Roch was winning the pace game. More significant, the team was matching St. Michael’s point-for-point at its own game-scoring more short-range baskets than long-. Bowe, Imming and Vanderbeek, the team’s most consistent 3-point shooters during the regular season, dribbled and passed with relative ease through St. Michael’s usually stalwart baseline defense. Godar and Whiteman, alone, combined for 10 points inside, or just beyond, the key. Remarkably-perhaps less so to the St. Roch players than to their coach and the dozens of gaping supporters in the stands-the team led by half a dozen points at intermission, despite having attempted half as many treys as usual. “The wonderful thing,” says Coach Imming, “is that the boys consciously cut down their 3-point attempts in favor of a more disciplined attack. Even for the greatest 3-point-shooting teams, this shot will always be risky.

The boys worked on reducing riskgetting the ball inside, taking the higher percentage shot.

They knew they had to do this to win.” Though its inside scoring increased in the second half, St. Michael’s could not solve the riddle of St. Roch’s own continuous successes “down deep.” The closest the County Goliath got to the City David was five points; otherwise, with ease St. Roch matched St. Michael’s bucket-for-bucket. At one point, St. Roch amassed a 12-point lead.

In the end, it won by seven. “Unbelievable!” whooped a beaming James Wright after the victory. “Like a wonderful dream!” noted one of the parents. “One out of six-that’s how many games we beat St. Michael’s this year,” said David Godar. “But it’s this one that counts!” “Quite a story, isn’t it,” mused Coach Imming afterwards, too drained by joy to yet fully comprehend what his team had accomplished.

In years to come, in all the reflections and recountings of “The One,” it may perhaps be remembered most that what felled Goliath in April, 1997, was not the long-arcing projectiles of a sling-shot, but a beautifully crafted flurry of perfectly placed punches…in close.

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, June 1997.

Read this article in the original newspaper issue.

Original source: SD_Times1997_06.pdf, printed page(s) 3, 6; PDF page(s) 3, 6.