Little Big Man, Bautista carrying surprising Hillers to unthinkable heights
Before the 1999-2000 high school basketball season began, there wasn’t a single soul in the world who gave the Union Hill basketball team any chance of competing for anything this year. The coaching staff had their doubts, secretly hoping for a .500 record. The team’s followers weren’t much more enthusiastic _ especially after a 40-point blowout loss in just the second game of the season.
But there was one person who kept the faith, namely the lone major holdover from last year’s team, 5-11 junior guard Harold Bautista.
“With everybody else gone, I figured I had to step it up a little,” Bautista said. “I had no other choice. But I thought that if I could play well, the rest of the team would follow along. People said we weren’t going to be good, but I knew as time went on, we would get better and better.”
Union Hill head coach Dave Settembre had a lot of faith in Bautista’s abilities.
“I expected Harold to be the go-to guy,” Settembre said. “He had no problem stepping up and taking over, especially with the game on the line. He likes being the one to take the shot, to make the big play. It’s nice to have someone who can do that. I don’t think you can teach that. Either the kid has it or he doesn’t. Harold has it.”
Recently, Bautista and his underrated and overlooked teammates have been more than doing well. They are right now the biggest surprise of what has been a season of surprises, with Bautista acting as the catalyst.
After defeating Memorial, 58-53, Tuesday night