Class acts leads Metro to great season
Metroās basketball teams complete storied season, serve as role models
by Kyle Ringo
the Metropolitian
Itās over and I feel like smoking a cigarette.
The best basketball season in Metroās history ended March 7 in a Brookings, S.D. arena when the Metro menās team lost its Regional semifinal matchup with South Dakota State on that teamās home floor.
The Metro womenās team lost its first round Regional game March 6 to the University of Northern Colorado in Grand Forks, N.D.
Two losses to end the season might disappoint on other campuses. But at Metro, these losses amounted to the finale of a helluva fireworks show and a season worth watching for more than just the game.
Both teams made it to the Regional round of the NCAA Division II tournament in the same year for the first time. And each team matched Metroās best previous efforts in the tournament.
The women posted their best record (25-5) in history. The men went 13-13 last season and were not highly regarded by the top teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
This season they became the top team in the regular season RMAC.
But the winning is only a small part of a special season in this corner.
If you werenāt inspired by these teams you werenāt paying attention.
There are the five menās players who decided to stick to their end of the bargain each made by accepting a scholarship from Metro.
DeMarcos Anzures, Adrian Navarro, Sidikie Kamara, Chris Tiritas and Kevin Gill stayed. The rest of last seasonās team quit.
It is tempting to stick a fabulous adjective before these five, but Iāll just call them men and move on.
This season, the Metro men began practice at 5 a.m. They went to class. Some read poetry in campus coffee shops. Others raised families when they werenāt shooting hoops.
Collectively this group reflected and represented well a student body that doesnāt care about them.
This team didnāt showboat. It didnāt pat itself on the back. It didnāt saunter around campus ÷ when it should have been studying ÷ looking for trouble or glorification.
Its coach, the Savior, demanded more of them. He taught them to care about each other and respect people in general.
He taught them to win and do it graciously. He insisted they remain humble after blowing through opponents to a record best start.
If the Roadrunners lost, it was dignified. This team became its coach.
ćI donāt sit around and piss and moan when we lose,ä he said. ćAnd Iām not a chestbeater when we win.ä
It is these qualities that made this team successful. And these qualities made this team one any Metro student, professor or administrator can and should be thankful for.
The womenās team has the character thing down. It has the winning thing down ÷ six-20 win seasons in the last eight years ÷ and it too mirrors its fiery coach.
But even this program managed to reach new heights this season.
A collection of women came together in the seasonās Spring and pronounced themselves ready to conquer a conference.
It amounted to more than a goal.
It was a mission.
They dived for loose balls. Elbows in the face opened gashes in foreheads, but they wiped away the blood and pressed on.
Post players guarded point-guards ÷ well. Freshman sang the national anthem.
Torn ligaments, black eyes and bruised thighs proved a small price to pay.
They did it all for 10 minutes at mid-court in Auraria Events Center arms raised high trophy in one collective hand.
ćI donāt know that I recall having as much fun watching a group of kids play,ä coach Darryl Smith said.
If it all reads dramatic for a relatively little-known college, if it reads like a script made for TV, it should be.
It has been said that athletes receive adulation undo them in this culture. Many do.
It has been said that purity is lost in sports played above the little-league level. I generally agree.
But this season, in a small gym shadowed by a city, two teams, 30 athletes in all, proved something else.
Not every athlete is a head case waiting to happen. Not every athlete is a comment away from strangling their coach. Not every athlete spits on admirers. Not every athlete fumes at an autograph request.
There is still purity. Some still deserve the adulation.
This was the best basketball season in this schoolās history because a lot of games were won but also because the right people were winning them.
