|  |
 |
|
PAGOSA PAST: Coaching Junior High, Part Two |
Jerry Driesens | 5/13/08
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Read Part One
Smiley Junior High was undefeated for the whole season and had beat us very badly the first game we played them. They had a boy named Sammy Maestas, who was a deadly shooter. He scored over 30- points against us! The next time we played them, I changed to a man to man defense and assigned Clifford Lucero to guard him. I told Cliff that I did not care if he scored or not as long as he kept Sammy from scoring. Smiley barely beat us ( by one point) in that game, but Clifford was Sammy’s shadow the entire game, hardly even allowed him to get off an unblocked shot and limited him to one free throw, total.
 Smiley hosted the tournament and we came in seeded 4th out of the four teams that made it to the tournament, so we had to play them first. These kids played an incredible game and we actually beat Smiley in their own gym, after their undefeated season - by one point! We advanced to the championship game against Miller Junior High. We had beaten them twice during the season, but they had this huge kid who was 6’1’’ in 7th grade. He was still clumsy, but was getting better every game and he could rebound flat-footed higher than any of my kids could jump.
They beat us by one point as a last second heroic offensive rebound by Ronnie Archuleta rolled around the rim but would not go in.
We went into the locker room and I started to tell these boys how incredibly proud I was of them, when I broke out and wept right in front of them. At first they thought I was crying because they lost, but after I regained my composure I explained that I was so proud of how they just played their hearts out and came so close to the championship after being 4th in the league standings and that I really felt they deserved it.
Clifford Lucero still calls me “Coach” to this day and quite often it brings tears to my eyes!
These boys went on to be coached by Larry Lister the next year in basketball, but I had them again in football. Plus I got some great additional talent to add to them the next year with twins Mark and Matt Aragon and Billy Manzanares. During their 8th grade year we ended up undefeated for the season and unscored on in league play. In the last game of the season, and my last as a football coach, we beat Cortez, a much bigger school back then, here in the town park field 28-0 and we had 5 other touchdowns called back for clipping penalties by an over-exuberant boy half a field away from the ball carrier. Mark could throw a perfect spiral 45 yards as a junior high quarterback, and Billy, who was very fast, also had great hands and could catch those passes on the dead run just as smoothly as a college receiver.
I had Matt and Mark and Billy in basketball for two years. Mark was a very smooth and accurate shooter and we were a team to be reckoned with by their 8th grade year. We still managed to get every boy on the team some meaningful playing time in every game. Our arch-rival, Ignacio had beaten us pretty handily in our first match-up against them in Ignacio. I was not fond of their coach and what bush-league comments he might make to me after beating us again in our own gym, which I was afraid would most likely be the case. I asked the team in practice that week what they thought about letting the second five get to start a game — a home game, where their parents would actually get to see them, and let those five play the entire first half, no matter what the score might be.
I don’t think any of those kids figured out that I was essentially sacrificing a game that I thought we probably couldn’t win anyway, and giving myself an excuse for the other coach if he mouthed off, again. However, I had worked with these guys on developing a new defense; a 1-3-1 zone half-court trap. Essentially, after we scored, we would let the other team get over the half court line when we would press them from that point on — double-teaming the man with the ball. It left one man wide open, and a good passing team with composure could tear it up — but that is rare in high school and almost unheard of in junior high. But it takes kids that can run and really hustle and who can anticipate the panic pass from the opponent who is being double-teamed.
These kids were great ball handlers for junior high players and they would steal the pass and we would fast break and these boys already had developed the soft-touch to make a lay-up at full speed. Run right, the defense scored most of our points. The kids unanimously voted to let the second five start and play the whole first half.
What happened next amazed me. We had gotten this new defense down so well that the second team ran it beautifully. After the first quarter, we were ahead 18-2 and Ignacio didn’t know what hit them. It was something like 30-6 at halftime. Now what was I going to do? Running up the score is really poor form, particularly on such young kids. But this was Ignacio! I asked the boys in the locker room what they thought about letting the game’s starters go ahead and start the second half also as a reward for having done such a remarkable job, and then I would give the normal starting five a chance to play the rest of the game. Again, they all agreed.
Midway through the fourth quarter, I finally pulled these heroes out of the game, telling them that they deserved a rest, plus we had all agreed unanimously at the beginning of the season that everybody would get some meaningful playing time, and that we were running out of time. The first five finally went out and Mark Aragon could not miss! He actually scored 32 points in just the second half of the third quarter and the fourth quarter - and we only played six minute quarters in junior high.
I got to coach Matt and Billy (as well as Clifford and Mark Young) in high school baseball a few years later, but that’s another story. |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|