Friday, March 21, 2014
Photo
New Castle’s Micah Fulena dribbles down the court as Drew Allen (left) and Malik Hooker guard him during a practice at New Castle High School on Monday.
NEW CASTLE
His team was a little over 48 hours from playing in the biggest game in school history, yet New Castle boys basketball coach Ralph Blundo’s demeanor told a different story Thursday afternoon.
While most of his players were practicing free throws at various hoops around the school’s gymnasium, Blundo was sitting on the first row of bleachers — leaning back with his elbows resting on the row of seats behind him — talking with his superintendent, John Sarandrea. In just his fourth season at the forefront of the Red Hurricanes basketball program, Blundo has amassed a 106-10 record, including three consecutive undefeated regular seasons.
On Saturday, New Castle (30-0) has a chance to do something that’s eluded every other Red Hurricanes team — including those under Sarandrea during his 15 years on the sideline.
So naturally, when the coach-turned-superintendent had one last piece of advice for Blundo before his team left for the Pennsylvania Class AAAA boys basketball state championship, he leaned forward attentively.
“Make sure you enjoy the moment,” Sarandrea told him with a smile.
That message goes for the Red Hurricanes players, too. For four of their five starters, Saturday will mark their last competitive basketball game. This New Castle senior class has been running through its competition since sixth grade and would love to end the run with a state title.
“We’ve been doing this together for so long,” guard Anthony Richards said. “That means so much, and not just on the basketball court. I mean we’re all friends, we eat together, we laugh together, we have fun in the locker room together. When you love your teammates, you’re willing to do that much extra for them.”
Blundo calls Richards the heart and soul of the team. He doesn’t stand much taller than 5-foot-8, but the Red Hurricanes’ catalyst averages 13 points per game and is deadly from 3-point range — exhibited by his 300-plus career 3-pointers.
The biggest matchup nightmare for opposing teams is do-everything guard Malik Hooker. An Ohio State football recruit, the team’s leading scorer (23 points per game) and rebounder (nine), and a kid who is all smiles when he has a basketball in his hand, Hooker is the Red Hurricanes’ go-to guy when they need a basket.
“The thing is, [he] might be going to school for football, but his first love is basketball,” Richards said of his teammate, Hooker. “I joke with him all the time saying, ‘You know this is the last basketball game you’ll ever play.’ And he just shakes his head like, ‘Don’t even tell me that.’”
Hooker said he’s going to have mixed emotions when we walks off the floor at the Giant Center in Hershey, whether the Red Hurricanes win or lose. But having one last chance to “soak it all in” with the teammates he grew up with, isn’t an opportunity that’s lost on the future Buckeye.
“This is like a family to me,” Hooker said. “They’ve taught me a lot of stuff on the court, off the court, school, and just how to be a man overall.”
Blundo took over the New Castle program when this year’s graduating class was beginning its freshman year. The boys varsity team had gone 31-37 the previous three seasons and needed a culture change. They appear to have found their man.
Blundo has all the things you look for in a basketball coach. When he talks, not just his players, everybody within earshot listens. He carries with him a sense of purpose that’s intoxicating for a community sometimes lacking it.
“When you live in an old steel town, with the economy struggling, and things aren’t just what they were, people are all just looking for something to rally around,” Blundo said. “You know our kids have given them that.”
To finish what they started, the Red Hurricanes are going to have to beat what Blundo calls “the best team they’ll play all year.” La Salle College (23-6) plays in the Catholic League in Philadelphia, which its considered by many the best league in the entire state.
Blundo’s biggest philosophy is centered around focusing on the process, not the result. So with that in mind, enjoying the moment like his superintendent reminded him to do at practice shouldn’t be too difficult a task.
“Whatever it is we’re doing at the moment, that’s what’s most important to us,” Blundo said. “That’s where our success has really come from ... besides having good players.”