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By Steve J. Rogers
December 10th, 2007
Masters in Journalism course at Iona
If there is one thing you can say about Mount Vernon
Boys’ Varsity basketball, it is that they are head and shoulders the
most dominant program in southern Westchester County.
The records speak for themselves; 24 Section 1
titles in the last 38 years, eight New York State Public High School
titles in the last 29 years, including the last two, and four New York
State Federation titles since 1991. Knights alumni include NBA players
like active star Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls, Ray and Gus Williams
who played in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily with the New York Knicks
and Seattle SuperSonics respectively as well with Rodney and Scooter
McCray who both played in the NBA during the late 1980s.
And the 2007-08 season does project to be yet
another banner year for the program. After finishing in USA Today’s
Super 25 Ranking of high school squads in the nation at the end of last
season, the Knights are projected as the top team in Section 1, Class AA
by the Journal News in their pre-season rankings.
The Knights have cultivated a basketball tradition
like none other in the county, and like most things, it starts from the
top. “The success that the program has had comes from the dedication of
coaching,” Assistant Coach Paul Roland, who also is the webmaster of
MountVernonBasketball.com which chronicles the last eight seasons, said,
“We have a large coaching/support staff and everyone plays their role.”
Head Coach Robert Cimmino has been the caretaker of
the tradition over the last 14 seasons, plus another six as a coach with
the Junior Varsity squad. “It’s fun.” Cimmino said about keeping the
tradition and basketball culture going, “we believe that the coaching
staff, players and the community as a whole contribute to the natural
mix, and we strive to make it a family like atmosphere.”
Another component to the success at Mount Vernon is
that the basketball culture is taught at an early age in Mount Vernon.
“They get a lot of kids from all over the place, to come in, in their 2nd,
3rd and 4th grades, and they start to develop
them.” Scarsdale Boy’s Varsity Head Coach Jon Feld said about Mount
Vernon’s program, which is something Feld said that the Scarsdale
program is starting to do in the last few years, “That is one of the
great things that Mount Vernon does.”
The program on the High School level is also a very
intense one, as Cimmino feels that hard work is the backbone of the
program, and that the players really have to buy into it in order to
keep up; “They have to understand that if they want to be part of it,
they have to buy into the work ethic. If they want to stay, they have
to buy into a 12-month program; Regular season, postseason, summer
season [This past summer’s team related activity included a trip to
China!], and there is a preseason. And they have to buy into their
ability to keep at it and keep working.”
One of the things that helps the Mount Vernon
program is that Cimmino has taken from what he feels were successful
college programs. “The goal of any good high school players is to get
to a good college.” Cimmino said, “So we try to bring in attributes
from good colleges here.” Cimmino lists former Manhattan College and
Saint Johns University coach Fran Fraschilla, and Fordham coach Nick
Macarchuk as his influences at Mount Vernon. Cimmino also praised the
University of Connecticut’s program as well as Ohio States’. Cimmino
also listed the way drills, practices and strength and conditioning
programs are run by the more successful college programs around the
nation as things he has instituted in Mount Vernon. “I have found that
all coaches are thieves,” Cimmino joked, “we take each others ideas and
those are some who I have taken from.”
Cimmino also is the caretaker of quite a tradition
at the school. Journal News high school sports reporter Kevin Devaney
explains, “They have a rich history, and they carry it on year, after
year, and when you have that to work on as a foundation, it is easy to
get kids to play your way.” And Cimmino does very well in his caretaker
role. This is easier for him to do considering he is also a history
teacher at the high school. Cimmino explained about why his day job is
so vital, “Since they are student athletes, you become a liaison between
[other] teachers and students, a facilitator between the two to make the
optimum benefit.”
“[Cimmino] is a guiding force,” Devaney said about
the coach’s leadership skills with the program. “He is taking them from
a force on the local level to one on the national level.” In doing so,
Cimmino has made sure his kids go on to further their educational
endeavors. In his previous 13 years, only two students have ever not
gone on, whether full scholarship or partial. One went into the
military, and the other had family issues to tend to upon leaving Mount
Vernon High School. Devaney explained why this was such an important
reason for so many students trying out for the team as walk-ons year
after year “Because it is such a launching pad to their future, a lot of
them most likely wouldn’t be able to do so otherwise.”
The other remarkable thing about Mount Vernon’s
basketball dynasty is how well received and embraced they are by the
Mount Vernon community. Civic pride is generally boosted on National
Letter of Intent Day in communities across the country when a football
or basketball star makes known what college they intend to go to in the
coming fall, however on November 14th when senior star
forward Kevin Jones declared that he was going to go to West Virginia
University (spurning several schools including Indiana University who
were interested in the star ranked in the top 100 senior basketball
players in the nation) next fall several civic leaders, including state
senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, and Mayor-elect Clinton Young showed up.
“We are treated very well by the community,” Jones
said when questioned about the relationship between the team and the
Mount Vernon community; “Every game everyone shows up, whenever we try
to raise money or have a benefit, everyone shows up. Not only for my
four years, but in the years before, so we get a lot of support from the
community.”
Certainly Mount Vernon Boy’s Varsity basketball is
akin to a religion among the community of Mount Vernon. “The community
is so willing to embrace the program.” Devaney said; “Mount Vernon
could win a state championship in any other sport, football, whatever,
and the reaction would not be the same as it is with the basketball
team. If you asked anyone in the street what Mount Vernon is most known
for, and they will say basketball, you don’t see that anywhere else.”
To further illustrate that point, Devaney talked about how the team
actually invaded the mayoral race, one of the closest in Westchester
County’s history between incumbent Ernest Davis, and the eventual victor
Clinton Young and how both candidates tried to position themselves as
the mayor of the basketball team. To that end now that he is
Mayor-elect, Young is already becoming a regular at Knight home games. |
