By JOSHUA MCKINNEY, Staff Writer
Athlos Leadership Academy’s young basketball teams makes history just about every time it steps on the court.
In the course of three days, the Athlos Titans hosted their first playoff game, earned their first playoff win and qualified for state, also for the first time. Not bad for a group of kids playing in only their second year of varsity basketball.
Oh, and the oldest players are just sophomores. A secret to their success is familiarity with what coach Alex Lucio wants the boys to do.
“I’ve had around six of the boys who’ve been with me since they were in the seventh grade, and they’re with me now so we’ve been together for four years,” he said. “Just seeing the new kids who’ve came along with them, and we only have about 60 boys here in the high school. For them to be doing what they’re doing right now as sophomores, competing against juniors and seniors, it’s pretty good. That’s all them. I don’t want to take any credit at all. They’ve been busting their butts all summer long. All they do is ball up, every single time.”
Cristian Hernandez, Jonathan Robinson, Manny Tejada, Paul Barrera, Aaron Barrera and Zeith De La Garza came over with Lucio from Livingway Leadership Academy, which serves as a feeder school for Athlos.
Lucio has known Damian Maldonado, a 6-4 eighth-grader who plays varsity for Athlos, since he was 8 years old.
“We’re together as a team,” Madonado said. “We’re well coached and we play unselfish basketball.”
The genesis of Athlos basketball began four years ago when Lucio served as Livingway’s first coach. His first act was to start a basketball team that had several of Athlos’ current players. The team’s humble beginnings have helped the Titans get to where they are today by playing anytime, anywhere.
“We got a lot of games under our belt when we were in middle school, so they knew our philosophy,” Lucio said. “We run the same stuff since they were in middle school. I just made it a little bit more. I just added a couple more wrinkles to everything. They already know our sets pretty sound, so they’re kind of little coaches themselves when they’re on the court. I don’t really have to look at them. They already know what I’m expecting.
“That’s something that I think is key when we play against other teams. ‘You know what we’ve got to do.’ ‘Yes coach, we’ve got to press.’ ‘Yes we’ve got to find the big man down low because we’re mismatched.’ It’s something we know between us.”
Hernandez, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, credits growing in Lucio’s system to his development as a post player.
“When I was younger in the Boys & Girls Club, I would sit on the bench,” Hernandez said. “I wouldn’t even see the court. I would just sit out the whole game.
“Putting in the hard work and having Lucio always there, helping me out every step of the way (helped him get better),” he added.
Athlos’ experience in its first season of play in the TCSAAL served as motivation for the team.
Lucio said the team had an option to play in a freshmen or junior varsity division, but rather than ease them into varsity, he decided to throw them to the wolves.
“I told our boys, ‘You guys are freshmen. You’re 14 years old. You’ve got to earn your respect, and get your bumps and bruises right now because in the next three years I want you guys to be the top dogs. So I want you to feel all that pain and go through all that stuff so you could be ready for next year, to do what we’re doing this year,’ “ Lucio said. “I think our philosophy worked out last year playing against all of those varsity teams and we competed. There was a four-way tie for first and we lost by two points (to San Juan IDEA).
“It hurt them a little bit. There’s a little salt on the wound there, so I know they worked pretty hard because they don’t want to feel that again.”
It’s safe to say that the Titans have licked their wounds and moved on to give Athlos its first state tournament berth.
The hope is that this will be start of something special for a young school.
“It’s an honor to be at the start because you’re going to look back at this in 10 years and you say you started the legacy of Athlos basketball,” Maldonado said.
Joshua McKinney covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @joshuabvherald.