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Yellow Jackets lose Class 6A state championship
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| Leesburg High School fans remain composed as the boys basketball team fails to close the point gap against Miami Norland during the FHSAA Class 6A basketball championship game at the Lakeland Center in Lakeland Saturday March 4, 2012. |
Koch, William
FRANK JOLLEY | Staff Writer
frankjolley@dailycommercial.com
LAKELAND - The final few miles on the road to the Class 6A state championship turned out to be littered with potholes.
Too many for a scrappy swarm of Yellow Jackets to navigate through.
As the final seconds ticked off in Saturday's title game at The Lakeland Center, a 64-36 loss to Miami Norland, players and fans of the Leesburg High School boys basketball team were forced to face the reality that a second straight championship would not be coming to Lake County. The magic that was present in many of the Yellow Jackets first nine postseason games under coach Marcel Thomas - the ability to make a critical shot or a defensive stop in crunch time - was gone.
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| Leesburg High School fans cheer despite losing against Miami Norland during the FHSAA Class 6A basketball championship game at the Lakeland Center in Lakeland Saturday March 4, 2012. |
Instead, Leesburg was outshot and outrebounded by the Vikings. Miami Norland beat the Yellow Jackets to nearly every loose ball and open space on the floor.
Still, fans of the program said players should walk away from Saturday's finale with their heads held high. Their overall accomplishments, including the Class 4A state title in 2011, offset the disappointment of a single loss.
The Yellow Jackets Nation made the 60-mile trek on Saturday just as it had on Friday. It was a boisterous, raucous and supportive group, many of them dressed in orange-and-black shirts proclaiming their allegiance.
As the final seconds of the clock ticked off and the final outcome was all but decided, many Leesburg fans turned from cheering for a victory to showing their appreciation for two years of near excellence in the postseason.
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| Leesburg High School's coach Marcel Thomas watches as the point gap increases against Miami Norland during the FHSAA Class 6A basketball championship game at the Lakeland Center in Lakeland Saturday March 4, 2012. |
"They're still a championship team as far as I'm concerned," said Shon Roberts, a Yellow Jackets fan who travelled from Fruitland Park for Saturday's game. "One loss is not going to change that. They played a very good team, but that doesn't take away from everything they've done the last two years.
"I hope they keep holding their heads high, because every Leesburg Yellow Jacket fan is proud of them."
Telling a player to hold his head high after a difficult and painful loss is easy. Getting that player to look proud and stand tall instead of being overwhelmed with dejection is another thing.
Thomas had that unenviable task.
"It may take a few days for the hurt to go away," Thomas said. "I'm hurting, too. It never feels good when you lose, especially after we made it our goal to win a second state championship. Our goal wasn't just to make it back to Lakeland this year, but we came here expecting to win. And we fell short of our goal. Plus, I think these guys feel like they let our city down. They came carrying the honor of the city of Leesburg and they couldn't win another state championship for the town.
"In reality, they brought so much pride to our community. They were great ambassadors and nearly accomplished something that not many schools have ever done - win back-to-back championships. They deserve our praise."
On the Yellow Jackets bench, faces grew longer as the team fell farther and farther behind the Vikings in the second half. Thomas never stopped searching for an on-court combination that could stop the onslaught of points from Miami Norland, and the players never gave up hope that a miracle comeback was possible.
While pride prevented most Yellow Jackets from seeing the big picture as the deficit grew to 15 ... 20 ... and eventually 29 points, many likely understood their championship run was over. For the seniors, it meant their final high-school game would end in a loss.
A painful loss.
One of those seniors, D'Mauri Jones, spoke after the game in a somber tone with eyes filled with emotion. His pain was evident, but Jones seemed to know it would go away and the sun would rise today as prepared for a new chapter in his life - as a future student-athlete at the University of Miami.
"I think we'll be fine after a couple of days," Jones said. "Probably by the time we get to school on Monday. The student body will make us all feel better. The administration will probably say some nice things over the intercom and we'll get over it. This is not how I wanted my high-school career to end, but that's how everything has worked out.
"I'm going to turn this into a positive. I want to remember how bad this feels and do whatever I can to keep from feeling like this again."
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FRANK JOLLEY | Staff Writer
Leesburg Public Library
100 East Main Street
Leesburg, Florida 34748
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