CHICAGO - In May of 2009, brothers Peyton and Eli Manning showed up in Easton Pa., to coach and were absolutely flabbergasted that more than 15,000 people showed up in 95-degree heat to watch a bunch of 35-year-olds relive their glory days from high school.
Carlos Boozer was instant hit during Brother Rice pep rally.
Photo courtesy of Gatorade.
“I don’t go to many football games any more,” Peyton said after watching
Phillipsburg (N.J.) beat their rivals across the Delaware River. “The chance to be on that sideline for this game today was special. You could honestly feel the energy, the players getting into."
Said Eli: “The fans, the cheerleaders, the band and everyone came back to cheer it all on. And then to top it off, the way the guys played the game was really amazing.”
A year later, in Plymouth, Mich., Gordie Howe dropped the puck and honoree coaches Scott Bowman and Brendan Shanahan marveled much the way the Manning brothers gushed following a 4-2 hockey victory by the 1999
Trenton (Mich.) team over its arch-nemesis
Catholic Central (Novi, Mich.).
The coaches noticed the blood on the jerseys, the crispness in the skating and shooting and Bowman said he was flat-out “amazed” by the goalie play.
“I can’t believe goalies could be that proficient in that short of time,” he said. “The goalies made it an enjoyable game. I was amazed by the stops and their efforts.”
Said Shanahan: “I don’t think people realized how hard these guys worked. But with the hitting that went on, the laying down to block shots, they showed all the sacrifices it takes to win.
“I know we played this game because there wasn’t a winner in the past. But I can assure you both teams were winners.”
And now we‘ve arrived in the big city of Chicago.
Dwyane Wade clowning around while helping to coach Bloom.
Photo courtesy of Gatorade.
And the sport has morphed to hoops and the headliners that will no doubt pack St. Xavier University’s Shannon Center tonight at 7 will be honorary coaches Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard, along with Chicago’s new favorite Bull, Carlos Boozer, who will act as the game’s commissioner.
Once again, we have a pair of rival high schools – the
Bloom (Chicago Heights) Trojans and
Brother Rice (Chicago) Crusaders – from the teams of 1999-2000 squaring off to settle an old score.
If you haven’t figured out by now, this is no ordinary little let’s-get-together alumni fund-raiser or social, but Gatorade’s highly-publicized, major-resourced, no-detailed-left-unturned Replay Series.
This is Replay 3.
THE GOLDEN TICKETThe 30 players who make up both rosters must feel like they’ve landed a Golden Ticket from Willie Wonka, or a gift basket from Oprah or just a good old fashion winning lottery-scratcher.
Like the other Replays, these gents have been given an eight-week fitness and training program developed by the Gatorade Training Council in partnership with the Gatorade Sports Institute and instructed by Velocity Sports Performance professionals, in this case from nearby Willow Springs and Tinley Park.
Far more enticing than getting into tip-top shake for these late 20-something men, is a chance to play before 3,200 fans who will jam the place – all the tickets are sold out – in front of a ComcastSportsNet television audience (the game will be replayed – no pun intended – Saturday and Sunday) and re-due a game that was shrouded in controversy.
Like all the Replay events, the original contest really wasn’t decide on the respective playing field or ice. In this case, Bloom did prevail 42-40 in the state’s Class AA supersectional win, the result was hardly satisfying.
Joe Chapman, one of two players in tonight’s game still playing professional overseas, made an acrobatic tip-in (before, during, around) the final buzzer to give Bloom the victory.
Boozer didn't win the H-O-R-S-E competition, but he won a lot of fans.
Photo courtesy of Gatorade.
But, as you might guess, opinions vary if the tip actually beat the buzzer.
In a terrific and almost hilarious video piece the Gatorade folks produce, players, coaches and journalists from both sides claim they know “100 percent,” “1,000 percent,” and even “100,000 percent,” the call was either right or wrong.
The only person who mattered that night was the referee, who told the videographers he was 100 percent sure that the shot should have counted and that he made the right call.
As far as everyone’s recollection of the final moments, the ball rolled around anywhere from “forever,” to “an eternity,” to “time standing still” to “the ball hit the rim again and again and again and again…” Once it went in the referees gather and according to one player, “It seemed like it took an hour but it was probably on five minutes.”
The referee said: “I made the call and I remember it like it was yesterday and I still believe I was right.”
And as one Brother Rice player said, “the score is 40-40 and we’ve had 10 years of overtime.”
And as Brother Rice standout Mark Telander said, “Gatorade is giving us a chance to finally figure out who was the winner.”
‘THAT’S NOT GOING TO WORK”Both teams felt like winners when Wade and Howard showed up at their respective practices recently. Both scrimmaged and engaged in scrimmaged with the troops.
In one hilarious clip, Howard was teaching post moves and one of his Brother Rice players went up for a jump hook. The 7-foot-1 defensive stalwart didn’t even jump and blocked his shot.
“That’s not fair,” the player said. Howard, like he did most of the day, just laughed.
Wade was a little more serious when he surprised the Rice group. The first words out of his mouth: “That’s not going to work.”
He worked out with the team an hour or so, and when he got them together he actually had a serious message.
“You get a second chance to right a wrong,” he said. “This will be something you, your family, your kids will remember for the rest of your lives. Take this moment and run with it.”
Wade has a major tie with the game. He played with Boom guard Robert Davis at DePaul. Even more important, he played at Richards High, which Brother Rice beat in the playoffs.
Wade told his team at practice to seize the moment.
Photo courtesy of Gatorade
Boozer recently attended a Rice pep rally and was given the heroes treatment. He played a game of H-O-R-S-E with Bloom’s Chapman and Brother Rice’s Vince Greene and lost both games.
Gatorade donated $5,000 apiece to Greene and Chapman for scoring the victory to donate to each school’s athletic departments.
“That’s the most important thing,” Chapman told southtownstar.com. “Helping the school out.”
Asked if he had a game or moment he’d like to replay and one came immediately to mind: Indiana 74, Duke 73. Boozer missed a last-second shot in the 2002 NCAA Tournament semifinal contest.
It was his last college game.
“Jason Williams misses the free throw, I grab the rebound and like eight Indiana Hoosiers jump on my arms. I miss the layup, no foul call. I wish I could go back.”
Roster notes: Chapman, a 6-foot-4, 218-pound forward still plays ball in Europe and was reportedly the MVP of his league last season. … Brother Rice counters with Sidney Holmes, a 6-6, 230-pounde who the MVP of the Portugal Basketball League. He’s also the cousin of NBA standout Quentin Richardson. … Telander, a 6-2, 190-pound guard, who is now words at the Chicago Boards of Trades, was a two-time All-American at St. Xavier. … According to their bios, eight Brother Rice players earned spots on college rosters. Only three played collegiately at Bloom, including Phillip Alexander who played football and basketball at the University of Toledo. … Brother Rice appears a tad more fit than Bloom, who sport such dimensions on its rosters: 5-9, 215, 5-8, 209 and 6-foot, 275. … Bloom has some very cool nicknames, including Aaron “Dub” Austin and Antonio Snugg Cool . … Among the professions, Bloom is big on corrections work and the military including Larry Bledsoe who is in the Air Force and DeMario Evans, who was with one of the troops that captured Saddam Hussein.
Mitch Stephens is covering his third Replay and will write a story Saturday for MaxPreps.com. More information on the Replay series,
