HBO DOCUMENTARY ‘Prayer’ gets inside high school hoops

October 24, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

When it comes to sports, Catholic high schools usually get no sympathy because they can lure the best athletes from a wide area.

It’s not hard to find examples. But the best might be in the dense urban jungle of northern New Jersey where two such schools — St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth and St. Anthony’s of Jersey City — rule the state, and even the nation, in basketball.

“Prayer for a Perfect Season,” an HBO documentary that premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday, follows one of those teams in its quest for an undefeated 2010-11 season and a national championship.

It doesn’t delve into the public vs. private animosity that’s usually simmering in Northeast Ohio.

Instead, it paints a sympathetic portrait of the struggle for survival that the cash-strapped school faces, even suggesting that hoop revenue might be the only thing standing in the way of closure.

With a camera in every huddle on the court and family gathering off-court, the 90-minute film candidly follows the team’s inner circle through the season, building raw excitement as it unfolds in crammed gyms.

Interviews with school officials, sports reporters and an aged nun provide insight and engender admiration for the school and its hoop squad.

At the heart of “Prayer” is Kevin Boyle, the fiery and profane dynamo of a coach at St. Pat’s. The on- and off-court focus also is split between the two stars of the team — Kevin Gilchrist and Derrick Gordon. Gilchrist is now playing at the University of Kentucky, while Gordon is at Western Kentucky.

Gilchrist, of Camden, took a train each day to St. Pat’s, 70 miles away.

The coach, the players and their families are a tight-knit group, and their pressure-cooker closeness is burnished in St. Pat’s cramped and antiquated gym.

Similar to when Lebron James’ Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary High School squad went on the road a few years ago in Northeast Ohio, the media follows St. Pat’s.

The team’s March 9 state-playoffs game against neighboring archnemesis St. Anthony’s — which was ranked No. 2 in the national standings, just behind St. Pat’s — has a Final Four frenzy. St. Anthony’s, incidentally, is led by legendary coach Bob Hurley Sr.

While St. Pat’s quest for perfection comes up short, “Prayer” is about more than just a perfect season.