Open Letter to the Haldane Boys Basketball Team

Guys, what an incredible run you went on. It’s a testament to not just your basketball ability, but the bond you formed with each other, and your character—specifically how you responded to adversity.

It may to be tempting to think about that title game and replay in your minds the one or two things you could’ve done differently to help the team. You certainly can go down that road, but here’s another road.

Think about how much you accomplished by trusting each other and your coaches. Envision your teammates and ask yourself: are we collectively greater than the sum of our parts?

You could’ve cashed out in the Section One semifinal game against long-time nemesis Hamilton. You were down five late in the 4^th. You didn’t cash out. You tied it up at 33 and sent it into OT, where Overtime Ben took over, scoring 13 clutch points in the two overtimes, driving through traffic, doing some kind of magic-jiffy-pop in the air, through all those taller players and getting to the rim and spinning the ball up and off the glass and in.

Let’s remember: you’re playing a sport where someone is trying to toss an orange orb that weighs 22 ounces and has a 9.5 inch diameter through a hoop

with an 18-inch diameter, elevated 10 feet in the air.

Think about the Section One final versus Tuckahoe. Can you believe how hot you were in the first two quarters? Can you believe the script writers ended the half with Matt on the break and throwing it down like Cherokee Parks with two hands as the buzzer sounded? How many teams get to ever enjoy a half like that? You did. You’re the ones who made it happen.

Think about the blistering press Tuckahoe unleashed in the second half. All hands on deck! If anyone ever asks you in life if you can take a punch, you now have multiple reference points. And the answer is always yes. Sure, the second half wasn’t pretty, but you held together as a group and weathered the red storm. Think about Evan in the fourth quarter, hustling for a rebound off an errant free-throw and lunging out of bounds and flinging the 22-ounce orange over his head, keeping it in play and then scrambling back into position to strip the ball and hit Matteo for the bucket.

Let’s get something straight now: the definition of a team is every single player on that roster. Not just the starting five. The starting five isn’t on this run without a dedicated bench pushing them hard in practice. The unity you created radiated outward from that bench, from the connection in the huddle.

So you beat Hamilton and Tuckahoe to bring the Gold Ball back to Cold Spring, the first one in seven years. When people say smell the roses, this is one of those moments to inhale. Think about all the Haldane boys basketball teams that came before you. Don’t go all the way back to 1937-38, when the school started. Just think about the last four years. Matteo’s freshman year, when the talented 2019-20 squad got sent home from County Center by Tuckahoe, a team they beat by 20 in Tuckahoe gym earlier in the season. Think about Alex, Matt, and Mam walking off that court for the last time, denied the opportunity to battle Hamilton for the chip.

Think about the pandemic year, the 2020-21 squad that didn’t get a chance to compete for the gold ball, but went 10-0 in the regular season and almost had an undefeated year, except for a crazy chuck of a bucket at the end by Class A Lakeland in the championship game. Think about the Santos twins. Christian. Vincenzo.

Think about last year. A team loaded with talent. Arguably one of the most talented teams in school history on paper.  Think about how that team was dominating bigger schools earlier in the season, unstoppable when firing on all cylinders. Think about how they beat Hamilton in their gym in December. And that sting of losing in the last minute. Think about Soren. Ryan. Tristan. Robert. All walking off the court for the last time.

Think about how good all three of those teams were. Think about where their seasons ended and how you are the ones who brought home the gold ball and got to keep playing.

Let’s go back to the beginning of this season. Let’s not sugarcoat it. Things were a little dicey early on. Let’s be real. That first game against Tuckahoe in their gym was a little hectic. A lot of turnovers. You were still finding your groove. You didn’t come pre-assembled. Think about all the work you put in to grow from December. You’re not the same players you were in that first Tuckahoe game. You had to work to get to where you are now.

How did you grow so much in one season? How impressive is that? You could’ve been pointing fingers at each other and unraveled early on. That was an option. You could’ve gone rogue, gone every man for his self. But you stayed together, trusted your coaches, trusted they had a plan for you.

Take a moment to think about your coaches, how much they gave you. Think about the time they put in. The passion they brought. The level of instruction they gave you. Think about the other coaches you had on modified and JV and in other sports, who prepared you for this moment. Playing CYO for the Loretto Knights with Derek Kisslinger for the 12th graders, and playing CYO with Tommy Willis for the 11th graders. All the crazy CYO gyms you played in. And the Rec Ball games. And Skills and Drills with John Froats. Some of you have been balling together for ten years. And your parents driving you to and from games and practices since before you knew how to multiply, the vacations sacrificed. A lot of people laid the foundation for you to be in a position to succeed. Always be grateful for that, how they always believed in you.

Think about the Rhinebeck game. Will coming out and draining threes. You were playing with house money at that point, but you also were coming to believe. One more game and Glens Falls.

Think about that long bus ride out to the Island, the Bermuda Triangle of Section One Hoop Dreams. You played an away game in hostile terrain against a sharp-shooting opponent and you took metaphorical body shots and you punched back. Think about Nate going to the basket from the left wing and bullying that kid in the paint for a bucket. Think about that second half sequence where Matteo got a basket, and then pulled a Ben and snuck back in from behind on defense and caused a steal on the inbounds. Think about that dance that Matteo did in front of the bench, that roar he let out, that primal release of energy. How it vibrated through the team. Your leader, showing uncooked emotion, saying his version of let’s do this.

Think about all the chemistry your team had and the clear sense of shot hierarchy. How you worked within the offense. Players knew what shots they should and shouldn’t be taking, and from where. That may sound obvious, but it doesn’t always happen. In fact, it’s pretty rare. You all dreamed big as a group and believed in yourself, in ways that others maybe didn’t. But you were also realistic and played within yourself.  That’s such a great dichotomy: to be able to dream big and believe on the one hand, but also be realistic. If you bring that capability into your professional life, you will be well-positioned.

So you extinguished Pierson. Now you’re going to States. Glens Falls. A place that only three previous Haldane boys teams have ever been. Coach Virg’s team back in 2001. Peter Hoffman’s powerhouse squad in 2015. And the underdog team in 2016 that made it to the title game, with Nick, Daniel, Will, Tucker. Suddenly you are one of the top four boys teams in school history. This is another pause and smell the roses moment.

Think about the team dinners you had in that week leading up to states. How did you even pay attention in class with all that possibility in the air? Think about the team send off. The whole school out there rooting you on. Think about when you were that little and you would go into the gym and see the varsity kids and how gigantic they looked. Think about with you were in fourth and fifth grade watching the 2015 and 2016 teams get the send off off to states. Can you imagine fifth-grade you looking at twelfth-grade you at the send off?

Take a moment to remember that Beacon game? Fans lining up hours before tip-off. A gym at capacity. Falling behind and second-half storming back. Matteo getting his 1000 and that five-point play at the end of the third, and high-fiving with the fifth graders. A storybook evening. Who knew that the script writers were just getting started?

Think about the state semi-final game versus Canton. You were confident going in, but wow, that 6’8” kid was tougher than he looked on film. Think about how he threw down that dunk from what felt like 6 feet from the basket. Think about how you were down 10 in the fourth quarter. You could’ve packed it in there. We all would’ve said: hey, you made it to states. You tried hard. You could’ve gone home then. The game was practically over, but Matteo went on a five-point run and started roaring, and Matt drained a couple buckets and lo and behold—suddenly you take the lead. Great comeback, but wait, hold on, what?!  The ref blows the whistles and Matteo goes out with five fouls. That has to be the end of the story, right?  

This is where the script writers got really creative. Everyone in the arena thinks it’s over, that without Matteo, Canton is going to dominate. Everyone but you and your coaches, and maybe your most devoted loved one. Your defense holds tough, and then you have the ball and a chance to win with twenty seconds left and you hold it to the buzzer for one shot, and… you don’t get off a shot.

Now it’s really over, people are thinking. No way you can beat Canton without Matteo. Not in four minutes of overtime. But you must not have got the memo. Overtime Ben gets to the basket for two. Then Evan gets a couple of huge buckets. And then a coronation sequence: Ben makes a free-throw, and Ryan charges in from out of nowhere as Canton is lollygag inbounding and he snatches the pass as easy and in sync as if he’s in a lay-up line and Bang! Canton comes down the other way and Matt smothers a shot out of bounds. Game over.

Seriously—how in the world did you do that? Did you suddenly forget you were in an arena, playing for a spot in the state title game, in front of hundreds and hundreds of people? Did you have immunity from the pressure, pulling a blue overtime victory rabbit out of a hat, with your leader on the bench?

Now we’re at the final game versus Randolph. You know you can compete with this team but holy smokes—they’re having the night of their life. Literally shooting 50% from three in the first half: 8 for 16. You knew number 3 and number 12 could shoot, but where the heck did number 30 come from? A 6’5” football player who drains threes from 25 feet?! Hitting nothing but the bottom of the net, except for one time from the corner when he kisses it off the backboard at a ridiculous angle that seemed designed by God. Randolph must have script writers too!

The third quarter is more of the same. When you go man, Randolph drives, but they’re not even looking to shoot from inside; the little buggers just draw help so they can kick it outside for the three.  On one possession, you play great defense for the whole shot clock, and then number 3, the coach’s son, just drills a 30-footer with a second on the shot clock. You could’ve packed it in then. Down 48-30 with 6:30 left in the game. Game must be over, right? But your script writers had other ideas.

Matteo went on a 6-0 run and the lead is down to 12. Ben makes a bucket. Matteo hits 2 free throws and it’s 48-40 with 4 minutes left. You trade buckets, but then Klay Thompson, in the body of number 30 from Randolph, drills his 8^th three of the game, and the lead is back to 11, with two and a half minutes left. Must be over now.

I watched with my own two eyes and I still don’t even know how it happened. I think it was something like Bang. Whap. Steal. Wham. Swish. Clank. Swipe. Steal. Swish. Bang. I remember Ryan went into soccer-title-game beast-mode. And we are all thinking: is this real? Did they really just do that? Is it really a two-point game with thirty seconds left? What is real right now?

You had the ball and a chance to force OT in the final seconds. The 22-ounce orange ball that you tossed from twenty-plus feet away didn’t cooperate. It didn’t drop inside the orange metal circle. The script writers made the ending the original Bad News Bears, where Kelly Leak gets tagged out at the plate. But wow—you went out swinging. I mean, holy smokes boys—the way you fought back, how you won as a group and lost as a group. We want to live the way you play. We want to face adversity the head-on way you faced adversity. Do you know how many Haldane elementary kids you just inspired with what you did? A friend texted me that his first-grade son was in the driveway the next day, shooting for four hours straight.

Your bond is something that you will have forever. You gave the community so much and you accomplished so much under the tutelage of your coaches: Virg, Powers, Nick, Joe, James, Daniel. You’ve had the kind of season that other high school players dream of. Seniors Matteo, Julian, Will, Ben, Thomas, Jesse, and Ryan; Juniors Evan, Matthew, Michael, John, Ryan, and PJ; and sophomore Nate. You were the ones writing this storybook script all along. Greatest run in school history.