The Basketball Diaries

Fourteen basketball games in ten days.

Sounds like a fun buddy trip, except I wasn't there to watch - I was doing the play by play for Sun Sports. For all fourteen games.

And we're not talking about the NBA or Division I college hoop, with comprehensive stats available on the internet and miles of videotape footage to watch in preparation. We're talking about six Florida high school girls' basketball state championship games, followed by six title games for the boys, followed by the mens' and womens' finals in the Division II Sunshine State Conference.

Here's the assignment: prepare for each and every one of those 14 games as if it were the Final Four. Remember, these games may seem "small" to the average sports fan, but to the parents, coaches, students, and players involved, they are the biggest events of the year - maybe the biggest events of their lifetimes. Each one must be treated as such. Fourteen games in ten days. Go.

The odyssey started at the Lakeland Center, where the Florida High School Athletic Association conducted the girls' and boys' state finals. Mark Wise and I were assigned to work all fourteen of these games together, and the first one presented a unique challenge - Shekinah Christian of Jacksonville against Sarasota Christian for the girls' 1A title.

Ever try to get accurate stats for a 1A girls' basketball team? And did I mention that Shekinah Christian is all of three years old? Shekinah's roster featured a 6th-grader, three 7th-graders, one 8th-grader, three freshmen, and five sophomores. No juniors or seniors on the roster. They won by 29.

If you're thinking "Danny Almonte" at this moment, let me assure you that during her postgame interview, Shekinah star Loliya Briggs acted every bit her age. State record for giggling. As Mark stated during the broadcast, "1A teams in Florida better start working out now, because this team is going to be around for a looooong time."

The 2A final on Saturday featured The First Academy of Orlando against North Florida Christian of Tallahassee, the top two teams in 2A. The NFC Eagles won their district championship game by 46, their regional quarterfinal by 56. First Academy beat Daytona Beach Father Lopez - the team that knocked them out of the state semifinals last year, a game that the Lady Royals watched on tape before every single contest this year - by 44 in their district tournament.

Among the interested spectators at the 2A title game was Jack "Goose" Givens, whose daughter Jaimie is a star for the Lady Royals. Goose keeps the stat book for his daughter's team, a job he takes very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that when the final buzzer sounded on a 23-point win for First Academy, our cameras caught Goose with his head down, diligently completing his scorebook.

Jaimie Givens' postgame comment: "He's a great dad."

Before the 4A final, one of Titusville Astronaut's assistant coaches told Mark and I to keep a camera trained on head coach Greg Hostetler, "because he's the best defender on the team."

Hostetler, who would go on to win his first state championship since 1991, literally adopts a defensive stance and crab-legs up and down the sideline while his team is on defense. Utterly priceless. When we showed him the videotape and asked him about it during his victory interview, Hostetler grimaced and said, "well, I think I crossed my legs a couple of times there." Coaches never stop coaching.

One week later, the boys' finals started with a 1A title for Miami's Calusa Prep, who handily beat Lake Mary Prep behind an all-Puerto Rican starting five. Calusa Prep was this tournament's version of the 1989 Illinois Final Four team - "The Clones." Picture five copies of Guillermo Diaz running the floor together.

Jones High of Orlando won the 3A title over Boca Raton St. Andrews, who brought just about the entire student body to Lakeland. The Benjamin School from North Palm Beach was also notable for a big crowd in the 2A final, as was Milton High in the 4A game. Sadly, they both lost. Kudos to the six kids from Milton who painted themselves in school colors. Being a fan is hard damn work.

Best uniforms of the tournament: Sarasota Booker, your 4A boys' champs, who wore purple-and-gold replicas of the LA Lakers' road jersey. Accurate in every detail, from the style of the collar to the white numerals to the text on the chest, which reads "Booker" instead of "Lakers." Very cool.

How about a nod to Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, who flew to Florida in time to see his son Jeremiah play in Winter Park High School's Thursday 6A semifinal, flew back to Boston in time for the Celtics to beat Indiana on Friday, then back to Lakeland to see Miami Norland beat Winter Park in the state championship game on Saturday, then on to Toronto to catch up with his team against the Raptors on Sunday. Being a parent is hard damn work, too.

When in Lakeland, try Molly McHugh's on Kentucky Avenue. If you're lucky, you'll get there on a night when the Irish trio is booked. They've got a teenaged fiddle player who's got five-star skills.

Pack up from Lakeland, drive 45 minutes to Wesley Chapel, check into Sleep Inn. Stay up until 12:30 on Saturday night preparing notes for the NCAA Division II Sunshine State Conference Finals at St. Leo University the following day. 7th-seeded Barry University would play top seed Rollins College in the men's final, while the Rollins women, who were a perfect 28-0, would play the second-seeded University of Tampa.

Men play first. Barry has a 5-9 point guard named Ryan Saunders who has, as his coach once described, "a Division I mind in a Division III body." Split the difference, and you have a Division II guard, one that made the game terribly entertaining to watch. Barry was playing four men down due to injury, with only one reliable player available off the bench, and they managed to take the Tars to overtime (only because Saunders' crashing layup through four defenders at the buzzer rolled off). Rollins wins, giving head coach Tom Klusman his second SSC tournament title in 26 years at Rollins, and sending the Tars to the Medium-Sized Dance of the Division II Tournament.

Women play next. I've been looking forward to this game, if only because I wanted to see what 28-0 looks like. On this day, it looked vulnerable. Tampa comes out swinging, crashing the boards and preventing the Tars from running, and completely throws Rollins off its game. Head coach Tom Jessee had reminded his players beforehand that THEY were a pretty good team, too, and they took him to heart and took it right at Rollins. Upset City on the campus of St. Leo. The Spartans get the automatic bid into the Division II tournament - but Rollins would learn later that they got in, too, via an at-large berth.

The Tars didn't know that at the time, of course, and you can imagine the emotions after the loss. I walked onto the St. Leo soccer field - doubling as a parking lot on Sunday - to see one of the Rollins players sitting on the grass, face in her hands, sobbing. I saw a lot of that over the last ten days.

Across the field, beyond a fence, I could hear the distinctive "tink-tink-tink" of batting practice. A lazy Sunday on a rural campus. Nothing left but a two-hour drive back home through the dying sunlight of another glorious Florida weekend.

Fourteen basketball games in ten days. Each one has a story.