The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The CC Sweeting Cobras returned home to a “hero’s welcome” as the school population held a special assembly at their Oakes Field campus for the senior boys’ basketball team that won the inaugural National High School Basketball Championships.

The Cobras’ storied 2016 season came to an end Monday night with a 60-55 triumph over the St George’s Jaguars at St George’s Gymnasium, adding the national title to their repeat Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic. The only title they didn’t win in their dominance this year was the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association.

Head coach Mario Bowleg said they only lost that title, which was won by the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins because they were “still on vacation.”

However, as the Cobras returned home from Grand Bahama, they were greeted at school by the administration, faculty, staff and the student population as the celebrations began. Howard Newbold, assistant superintendent of the Northwest Division, said they intend to take the Cobras on a series of courtesy calls on the Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling and Prime Minister Perry Christie and will be feted to a luncheon at one of the exclusive restaurants in Lyford Cay.

“They deserve the recognition and even more because this is a tremendous accomplishment by this team,” said Newbold, who noted that he attended the tournament and watched the Cobras perform from their slow start against the Teleos Cherubims in their first game until they soared “like eagles” in the championship game against the Jaguars.

“This team has been evolving over the past two years and one of the things I want to say is that sports teaches us some valuable lessons and one of the things coach Mario Bowleg has always told the students is that they have to trust each other with the ball. You can have talent, but if it’s not properly coordinated, you’re not going to go very far. We’ve seen this team do some things that are almost a miracle and we hope that some of them will take the lessons that they learned in their life as they move on.”

Bowleg said he can remember when CC Sweeting made history as the first runners-up in the Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic when they lost to the LW Young Golden Eagles in 1982. But while he said people probably won’t remember their downfall, they will remember this historic feat when they go into the record books as the initial national champions.

“It just feels great to come home to these celebrations,” Bowleg said. “We had the school support, we had our superintendent over there and we had teachers over there. So moving from the Hugh Campbell to this, it’s a tremendous feeling to be crowned the national champions. I don’t know if we will have another team that won both the Hugh Campbell and the National Championships in the same year. This has been five major championships in five years for this school. That’s a hell of a feat. I don’t know who will come behind us and surpass us, but we’ve had a successful run at it.”

And looking at his team, which comprised of most valuable player Anderias Blacks, who hailed from Eleuthera, to all of the other additions who joined the returning squad that included Adrian Thompson, Michael Bethel and cousins Corey and Tyrone Sands, Bowleg said he couldn’t ask for a better group of players, who went out and followed his instructions and they prevailed as champions once again.

As for next year, Bowleg said he was contemplating retirement, but because there are some 10th and 11th graders who want to come back for an encore, he’s looking forward to staying around to work with his assistant coaches and Dereck Cummings.

Thanking God for their achievement, Cummings said it was a rough season, but the sanctification is in the trophy they hoisted in the air.

“We had a lot of losses in this school with kids getting shot and some fights, but it was so gratifying for these young men to prove that they don’t have to let their environment determine their destination,” he said. “We can’t top the first. That’s what we have been preaching to the boys. They can’t never top being the first champions of the national championship.”

One of the players, Lorenzo Riley, whose game was compared to that of Cummings, summed up the team’s performance.

“It’s a great feeling. We had to bring it home. We couldn’t lose. I don’t like losing and we played like true champions,” Riley said. “We had a good team this year and we will be leaving behind some good players, so we are looking forward to them coming back and doing it again next year.”

An elated principal Joan Gray put their performances into perspective.

“Absolutely fantastic. It gives you goose bumps particularly after the sad news that we had over the weekend,” said Gray of the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old 12th grader over the weekend. “These boys dedicated this game to Stephan. I can tell you, watching the game, I was on pins and needles because it was really shocking to see what happened in the first quarter and even part of the second quarter and going into the third.

“Our boys just pulled through. I just love their tenacity. Coach Mario Bowleg was a man with a plan, he had a heart for the young men of CC Sweeting. We really and truly appreciate him. If I had a million dollars today to give him, that would not be enough. To all the other coaches, Wayde Adderley and Wayde Watson, who assisted in the past, they are absolutely wonderful. So is coach Cummings.”

Gray said a lot of people have taken the Cobras for granted, but she assured the public that CC Sweeting is possessed with a wealth of talent.

“There are a few persons out there doing some negativity, but it’s not who we are,” she stated. “We are a powerhouse academically, athletically, culturally and spiritually. So I thank God and I am so humbled to work with people who have the vision and are willing to work the vision and taking CC Sweeting to the next level. CC Sweeting is the public senior high school of choice and our motto is striving for excellence and we went into Hugh Campbell and the first National High School Championships and we struck it out with the two championship titles. I love my children. I love this school.”