Pirates win 22nd annual MICDS Christmas Classic
Knock off two time defending champion Jennings
By: Mike McMurran
Sports Editor
Photo by Bob Barton
Down by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter, the St. Charles Pirates steadily, slowly, yet surely chipped away at the Jennings Warriors in the Championship game of the 22nd annual Mary Institute Country Day School Christmas Tournament. By the end of regulation play, with 45 seconds remaining in the contest, the Pirates finally pulled even with Jennings. As the buzzer sounded the two squads were knotted at 60 each.
Playing against Jennings meant trying to stop the region’s leading scorer, junior forward Sanjay Watts, who is averaging just over 30 points a game. Watts got his 29 points before fouling out in overtime. The real surprise of the game came from senior guard Jonathon Wilson who nailed five 3-pointers on his way to a career high 21 points. “Coach told me to quit shuffling my feet, to get set before shooting, and it worked.” Worked it did as the senior scored almost 14 points over his season average. “The shots just starting falling, and the more they fell, the more confident I became, offered the 6’3” senior swingman.
The Warriors main concern entering the game had to be on how to stop junior forward Josh Harrellson, who finished the contest with 23 points. Warriors assistant coach Danny Thomas, who scouted the Pirates said, “We knew he was good, we knew he would be a force to deal with, we just didn’t know how good he was.” They found out, as Harrellson was just about unstoppable once he got the ball down low. In fact, Jennings used three different players to guard the 6’ 8” Harrellson. All three, including Watts fouled out.
The game should have been decided in regulation play. Both Harrellson and senior forward Clay Zerr (6’6”) missed wide-open dunks, which prompted head coach Gary Wacker to institute a new rule. “Effective immediately,” Wacker offered, “no player will be allowed to dunk unless we have a 20 point lead.” Not sure if he was serious or not, he went on to suggest “three games, against three quality opponents (Miller Career Academy, Westminster and Jennings) tends to make the legs a little tired. Both of those young men have no problem dunking the ball. Usually.”
The Pirates opened conference play Wednesday as they traveled to Warrenton. They will host Zumwalt North Friday evening before traveling to Mizzou Arena in Columbia to take on always powerful Hickman.
MY COLUMN By Mike McMurran
It seems loyal readers of this column are divided between my “sticking to sports” and “continue telling us about your family.” Equally divided they are not; unfortunately it is about 60% family, 40% sports. That doesn’t mean I will write about my family 60% of the time. The fact is I know not what I am going to write until I write it. I have tried writing columns in advance, only to be disappointed and rewriting the narrative. There seems to be something about that word “deadline,” I’ve always made the deadline - but until the deadline gets close I seldom know what I am going to write.
This week I will try and balance sports and family. First sports. It seems there resides in St. Charles City a retired public school teacher who knows a whole lot more about basketball than one might suspect. Bob Schleinat taught instrumental music at Zumwalt North, St. Charles High and Howell North before landing his current gig of teaching band to private school students and playing piano at Nordstrom’s. My daughter has been studying clarinet under him now for a short four months, and I am nothing less than impressed with her development. She really can make music.
Well, just prior to Christmas break, Maggie had a performance for her classmates at ASH. It was around 2:45 p.m. when I ran into Bob in the parking lot at Sacred Heart. “Nice performance Saturday,” I said to start the conversation. “Saturday?” he responded, “where was I Saturday?” Of course what I meant to say was Sunday – so right off the bat I am impressed with his attention to small detail. We talked for sometime and eventually got on the topic of high school basketball – a topic I thought I knew something about.
“Gary Wacker is the best high school basketball coach around,” offered Schleinat. Ah, time for me to name drop, “Have you ever heard of a guy by the name of Terry Hollander, from St. Charles West?” I asked Schleinat. “Sure, great guy and a great coach,” he said, “difference is he gets some remarkably talented players year in and year out.” Schleinat just might be right. Who wouldn’t win with the Robertson brothers; what about their sophomore guard duo presently leading the Warriors. “Wacker takes the players dealt him and works miracles year in and year out.”
Now I am thinking to myself maybe Schleinat knows St. Charles County basketball, but time for me to bring out the big weapon: “Ever heard of a guy by the name of Randy Carter?” I asked, thinking I was setting him up for the kill. Carter of course is the head coach at Jennings, and has produced such players as Kelley Thames, Nick Benson, Darren Brooks, and the current leading scorer in the entire region, Sanjay Watts “I knew Randy Carter when he was winning no more than 5 games a year at Zumwalt High,” he said matter of factly. “I’m the one who told him if he ever wanted to build a program he would have to leave Zumwalt – leave before they fire you, I told him.” Could this guy be for real? “Nah, Gary Wacker is the best coach I’ve ever seen, give him the talent other coaches get and just watch what he would do with it,” he concluded.
As fate would have it Wacker and Carter met, or at least their teams did, in the Championship game of the Mary Institute Country Day School Christmas Tournament. Oh sure, St. Charles was the number 1 seed, but most everyone in the gym knew Jennings was the favorite.
Without going into great detail (see related story) Jennings started out like a house on fire and left the Pirates for all but dead. Wacker’s Pirates stuck to their game plan, even though it seemed they were destined for defeat. Jennings built a lead of as many as 14 points – Wacker’s Pirates didn’t flinch. As a matter of fact, the only time St. Charles even managed to tie the game was the final 45 seconds or so – they forced the game into overtime.
As the “leader of the band,” Bob Schleinat suggested, Wacker’s Pirates hung on for the win and the tournament title. Did I mention Jennings had won the last two tournament titles? Did I mention going into the game against High they had won 11 of their previous 12 games played at Country Day? Did I mention they had won more Championship trophies at MICDS than any other team, hands down? None of this impressed Schleinat, none of it. He stood by his guns, “Nope, for my money Gary Wacker is the best high school basketball coach there is.”
And for those who enjoy reading about my family I would like to share a couple of Christmas stories. First of all, those of you who have grown or teenage children, I suspect what I am going to tell you is old news; that is it happens to every parent. That being said, it was a first for me. First my story about Dee, my 6 year-old son.
It is a rather well known fact that I am mechanically ignorant – that is being kind. Only recently have I learned the old saying “lefty: loosey; righty: tighty.” Whenever my children receive gifts with the magic words “assembly required” I tell the gift giver it is their responsibility to do the assembling. It usually works. This Christmas my wife and I purchased a tread mill for ourselves. Of course there was some assembly required. Together Dee and I put together the monster, as best we could. We were 99% complete, all that was remaining was the wheels – of course I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. As I was doing my best to not loose my temper, Dee was looking through the directions. Finally Dee said, “Dad, these words look like some foreign language, I can’t read them, but the picture shows you how to put the wheels on, just look.” Man was he right! The directions were in fact in Spanish, at least the page he was trying to read. But the picture showed us exactly how to complete the beast. Have I mentioned Dee in only in kindergarten? Anyway, it was one of “those moments,” my son is growing up.
An equally moving moment occurred on Christmas Eve as I was trying to carry in the many gifts my kids received from their aunts and uncles. Once again, for those of you with grown kids it’s no big deal, but for me, well, as I was struggling to carry the large, awkward box from the van into the house, my other son Joe walked up and said “Dad, let me give you a hand. Together we should have no problem carrying that box in.” Together we complete the task at hand. It was one of those moments, one of those special, special moments.
RAGE GEAR UP FOR EXCITEMENT AT SAVVIS IN 2006
By Mike Thompson
It won’t be long….it’s getting closer and sometimes in terms of workload for everyone here at Rage Headquarters, it seems like the walls are closing in, as coaches check jerseys, helmets and pads, sales calls are being arranged with new and eager sponsors ready to hop on board, and Operations Manager Morris Groves finds himself wishing he were Michael Keaton’s character in the movie ‘Multiplicity’……already, Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt spends nights in his office, rubbing his eyes, burning the proverbial midnight oil as he diagrams play after play, looking for ways to attack a Cover Two defense or open some daylight in a defensive line to allow running back Sha-Ron Edwards to skip untouched into the end zone. The second round of NIFL league meetings are on tap for Wednesday and Thursday of next week…..Houston, we’re coming to see ya, and this time around, it looks like I, too, will be part of the Rage contingent heading south to offer help and encouragement to the new expansion teams ready to serve up some indoor football excitement in their respective cities. Yes, the 2006 NIFL season has moved into the red zone and stands poised and ready to strike pay dirt in just two short months.
It’s crunch time, baby!!
And we couldn’t be more ready….Since the announcement last Fall that Savvis Center was waiting to embrace The Rage and it’s fans, this team has worked diligently to insure success at every layer and level of operation, from on field productivity to pre-game and halftime entertainment, to something as simple as measuring the tunnel for player pre-game intros. As Morris said the other day at lunch (yes, we DO make time for that) “we only get seven chances for success. Every game counts, big time.” The home schedule is etched in stone, the away dates will be formalized at the league meetings next week, and when the chute opens the third weekend in March, this bull will be ready to ride to a title.
And it’s an angry and somewhat restless bull, too. Angry because it was roped and tied way too soon last July, in an opening round upset loss to Cincinnati. Restless, because after 6 months of stewing and snorting on that one loss, it’s ready to charge full speed and cause some major damage this time around. Guaranteed, it’ll be like the rest of the league is wearing red in 2006!
The most recent player call back tryout was held this past Sunday, and Coach Wyatt was particularly impressed with a defensive lineman and a receiver. Those players most likely will be signed by the team and their names and football backgrounds revealed in the next 10 days. The final open-player tryout will be held on Sunday, January 29th, at the Velocity Sports complex in Chesterfield, Mo. Registration will be at 10am, and it is the final opportunity for any player to tryout for a spot on the 2006 roster.
Cheerleaders will get one final chance, as well, to show their talents. The cheerleader auditions will be on Saturday, January 28th, at the Club Fitness in Creve Coeur. Aspirants for the 2006 Rage cheerleading squad must be at least 18 years of age. Both prospective players and cheerleaders can register on-line at www.ragefootball.com.
The Rage welcomes John Aebischer to the indoor football family. John comes to us with a background in sales and promotions and will even double as the Raggie mascot in the coming year, both at games and outside activities. And, he already has made a big time contribution to our young Rage fans. John has put together the RiverCity Rage Student Super Bowl, a character building assembly program, for use in elementary schools all over the metro area. Teachers and Principals have already embraced it, and it’s sure to be met with future success.
Finally, coupled with the excitement of the post-season playoffs, both pain and sadness found some playing time in the NFL this past week. Long-time St. Louis Rams radio color analyst and former player Jack Snow passed away on Monday, January 9th, due to complications from a staph infection. His hospital stay and the events leading to his passing have been well documented, thus no need to belabor them here. As an on air-personality at KLOU, I had a few dealings with Jack, though infrequent and brief. At the risk of sounding self-serving, my first was about 5 years ago, when he and Steve Savard came up to KLOU in July to meet with Jim Stassi, our producer for Rams games on the station. I was on-air, doing the midday show, when Jack tapped on the glass of the studio and motioned for me to come outside. “Hey, I’m Jack Snow,” he said, “I just wanted to stop in and tell you, I’ve been hearing you for the last few days, and I really enjoy your show. You’re a funny guy on the radio, really enjoy it, really!” I could only stand somewhat stunned and offer my hand in thanks, and watch as he hustled out the door without another word…and was gone. I turned to Victoria, our receptionist, winked, and said something like “See there, somebody knows what’s up”…..we both laughed, but I remember walking into the studio suddenly feeling better about what I did for a living.
Over the next few years, we would run into each other, mostly at Ram games, usually in the hallway that connects the press box with the announcer’s booth. ‘Hey, big guy, what’s going on” was his usual greeting, and if time permitted we would make mostly small talk about the Rams, the Rage or radio. Once in passing, I mentioned I did the play-by-play for the Rage. The next thing I knew, I was in the Ram’s broadcast booth, with Jack showing me everything he and Steve used and employed to make the Ram’s broadcasts a ‘go’ on KLOU.
I know the sense of loss and sadness I feel, as a mere acquaintance, pales in comparison to that felt by his co-workers, true friends, and certainly his family. But it is there, nonetheless.
The last time I had contact with Jack Snow was early November….I was on the air on a Saturday morning at KLOU when the hotline phone rang. “Is this Mike?” the voice asked…Yes, I replied….’Hey, buddy, this is Jack Snow. I need you to play that Ray Charles song ‘Hit the Road, Jack’…play it as soon as you can, because I’m headin’ outta town.” And before I could even reply, the phone buzzed, and he was gone.
Sadly now, forever.
And certainly, far too soon for a good man.
Godspeed, Jack.
