Friars: Simply the best…once again
St. Anthony captures second straight NJSIAA Tournament of Champions crown
The final horn had just sounded, putting an exclamation mark on St. Anthony’s second straight NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title at the Continental Airlines Arena last Sunday, when legendary Friars head coach Bob Hurley walked up and down in front of his players, offering one last precious morsel of advice.
"Do you hear me?" Hurley barked for the last time this season. "This is the best we’ve ever played in a big game. Ever."
Considering that St. Anthony has played hundreds of big games in Hurley’s incredible three-decade tenure at the tiny school on Eighth Street, the usually hard-to-please coach was offering his team quite a compliment.
Hurley’s song of praise was well deserved. The Friars were downright brilliant in coasting to a 69-49 trouncing of Neptune – the only team to beat the fabulous Friars in 30 games this season. They definitely saved their best for last and sent their three-headed senior backcourt of Elijah Ingram (18 points), Donald Copeland (16 points) and Dwayne Lee (10 points) off into the sunset in the finest fashion known to a teenager.
"It was as well as a high school team could play," Hurley would say later in a press conference, sitting next to the seven players who saw the most action. "I’m amazed at how well we played. We went out and made it look like a scrimmage."
"Everyone was shocked," said Ingram, the Friars’ All-American, who was ready to scurry off after the game to a national All-Star showcase in Chicago before the sweat on his brow dried. "This Neptune team was a very good team and we beat them by 20. We just came out with a lot of enthusiasm and intensity. We were aggressive and ready to play."
Maybe because Hurley has prepared his teams to play so many big games over the years, going back to the first time Hurley guided a St. Anthony team to an NJSIAA state championship in 1974.
Since that time, there have been 23 NJSIAA state titles – by far the most in the state. They trail only Cheyenne Central in Wyoming for the national record. To capitalize on the popularity and rock-star status of the 1989 St. Anthony team that won the mythical national championship, the NJSIAA instituted the T of C format, with all the respective state champions playing down to one true winner.
In the 14 times that the T of C has been held, the Friars have won the tournament an astounding nine times. No other New Jersey school has won more than once.
"I’m not that much of a historian," Hurley said, when asked if he ever gets amazed at his accomplishments, the state championships, the 775 career wins, the .900 winning percentage, the aura of invincibility. "I’d love to say that I reflect on it all, but honestly, I really don’t. We just pick up and keep going. I enjoy each one as they’re going on. You never take them for granted, because you never know if you’re ever going to get back."
Just two years ago, a lot of people thought that the Friar dynasty was dead. The Friars lost eight games that year, which were more games than Hurley was accustomed to losing in a decade. They went to Trenton to the Prime Time Shootout in February of 2000 and lost two games in the same weekend. The whispers had become roars.
But Hurley knew back then that his time was coming with this group. The doubters might have been laughing at the Friars then, but the laughs were soon going to dissipate.
"We’ll be back," Hurley said that weekend in his best Arnold Schwartzenegger impersonation. "Count on it."
"I knew that we had a team of underclassmen that when the time came for them to get older, we would win," Hurley said about that fateful weekend at the state capital. "It was just a matter of time."
And maturity, especially for the three senior guards, who were part of that team that lost eight games and now leave with a legacy of back-to-back T of C titles.
"We knew we had a couple of doubters back then," said Lee, who will go to St. Joseph’s University next year. "We always kept that in the back of our minds."
"I think I matured a lot," said Copeland, who has played himself into a big-time college basketball product this year. "I didn’t have leadership quality back then. I think we all had a good mindset that if we worked hard, we could go out on top."
The victory was a bittersweet one for Copeland and Lee, who have played on the same team, side-by-side, every year since they were seven years old. Now, they will go their separate ways.
"I remember that first year we played together," Copeland said. "We didn’t win a single game."
Copeland’s father, Donald, Sr., was the coach of the Jersey City Bondsmen team, featuring his son and Lee, that played in the Jersey City Boys Club developmental league – a league that featured 12-year-olds. That got the long-time friends ready for the challenge that culminated in last weekend’s state championship.
"It’s going to be different playing without Dwayne," Copeland said. "The main thing was that we never had a fight and always remained friends. We’ll always be friends."
"I have a lot of memories playing with Donald," Lee said. "I can’t pick just one. I will miss playing with him. We grew up together and accomplished so much together. He was always like a brother to me."
Hurley said that he will remember this team and their incredible accomplishments, just like the rest.
"I’m going to miss these kids an awful lot," Hurley said. "It’s the end of an era."
Or maybe just a beginning.