Waltrip's 98 State Championship Run

[BLUEDOVE3]

I read this article with some interest.  It kinda shows how  high school school  ball  has changed since then.

1. The competition in Houston ISD at that time, Grayson said, was[color=red] excellent.[/color]

2. The Rams [color=red]had a star for each grade level [/color]— Taylor was a senior, Antonio Falu was a junior and Field Williams, who would later play for Bob Huggins at Cincinnati, was a sophomore.

3.[color=red] Everybody was coming in the gym and working out that summer.[/color] It paid off for us that following year.”

4. Taylor, who now lives in Houston and has recently [color=red]started giving basketball lessons and coaches an AAU team,[/color] played professionally in Sweden and Kuwait, but he’ll never forget when the Rams celebrated their state crown in the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.

http://www.theleadernews.com/?p=8043

Waltrip’s ’98 state championship team worthy of recognition
April 4, 2013 | Filed under: Sports | Posted by: admin
By Michael Sudhalter

[email protected]

I’m not usually one to promote high school reunions, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve never attended one myself.

However, I’m about to promote one in a paragraph or two. Perhaps it’s because I graduated high school 15 years ago or because I enjoy sports nostalgia.

But I think it’s important that the 1997-98 Waltrip High boys basketball team, UIL Class 4A State Champions, are honored — or at least reunited — to discuss the only athletic championship in school history.

This group of Rams has to be included in the conversation about the top prep basketball teams to play in the City of Houston, a precursor to the great Jack Yates teams of recent years.

Some of the Waltrip stars, such as Cedric Taylor, Field Williams and Antonio Falu have played professional basketball overseas and enjoyed great success beyond their roundball roots at 34th and Ella.

The team was coached by the late Fred Smith, who passed away last summer at age 59.

Booker T. Washington head boys basketball coach Vincent Grayson, Smith’s assistant on the state championship team, has great memories of that season, which he has archived in a detailed scrapbook.

“Cedric Taylor was arguably the best guy in the State of Texas,” Grayson said. “Most people who saw Taylor play said he was better than (two-time NBA All-Star and Alief Elsik graduate) Rashard Lewis at that time.”

“We were deep. I think we had five guys that came off the bench that could start for any other team.”

[color=red]The competition in Houston ISD at that time, Grayson said, was excellent.[/color]

“Teams like Wheatley and Kashmere and Worthing — who almost beat us in the fourth round — were good,” Grayson said. “A team from our district was going to win state that year.”

[color=red]The Rams had a star for each grade level — Taylor was a senior, Antonio Falu was a junior and Field Williams, who would later play for Bob Huggins at Cincinnati, was a sophomore.[/color]

“It was like a roller coaster year,” Taylor said. “Most of the guys grew up in the same neighborhood and went to the same middle school. My junior year, we had high expectations and had a bad season. We did a complete turnaround.[color=red] Everybody was coming in the gym and working out that summer. It paid off for us that following year.”[/color]

Just four years earlier, Taylor led Black Middle School to an undefeated season.

“Half of those guys were on the (Waltrip) state team (in ’98),” he said.

[color=red]Taylor, who now lives in Houston and has recently started giving basketball lessons and coaches an AAU team, played professionally in Sweden and Kuwait, but he’ll never forget when the Rams celebrated their state crown in the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.[/color]

“Just to be there on center stage with all of the lights — it was a major adrenaline rush,” Taylor said.

Most of the Rams’ losses that season were against Dallas area teams. They lost on the road to the eventual Class 5A champion, Dallas Kimball, by six points during the regular season.

Those losses benefited the Rams when they defeated Highland Park in the 4A state title game.

“What I remember was one of the best teams to come through the Houston area — it was pretty nice,” said Williams, who resides in Houston and works at a plastics plant.

After Cincinnati, Williams played professionally in Germany and Argentina after his career at Cincinnati.

Grayson said the[color=red] community support[/color] was excellent, because the Rams were in unchartered territory.
================
*Edit*
================
One of the possible reasons why there hasn’t been much talk about the team over the past decade and a half is due to what transpired in the 1998-99 season.

Falu, who declined to comment for the story, was ruled ineligible that season for being a year too old for high school and the team had to forfeit games, according to longtime former Waltrip athletic coordinator Anthony Zuccarini.

“The controversy wasn’t during the state championship year…everything was legit for the state championship year,” Zuccarini said.

The community should be proud of the Rams’ accomplishments in the 1997-98 season, and they shouldn’t be forgotten as time passes by, or clouded by the events of the following season.

*Edit*

[stevenash]

Were there any special "player acquisition programs" back then?

[Honest Abe]

[quote name="Stevenash" post="1392383" timestamp="1365429734"]
Were there any special "player acquisition programs" back then?
[/quote]The article said that most of the team grew up together and went to middle school together. How times have changed...

[BLUEDOVE3]

[quote name="Honest Abe" post="1392389" timestamp="1365431542"]
[quote author=Stevenash link=topic=110910.msg1392383#msg1392383 date=1365429734]
Were there any special "player acquisition programs" back then?
[/quote]The article said that most of the team grew up together and went to middle school together. How times have changed..
[/quote] Yes!!! I saw that and started to make a note of it. But by the 1970's , many HISD schools still had players from different neighborhoods playing across town. It was just easier to write down an address and go that zoned school if you wanted to.

But in theory, you would think schools who have their own turn-key operation (community youth programs, 2-3 middle schools & with all going to one high school) would be powerhouses.

[stevenash]

[quote name="BLUEDOVE3" post="1392392" timestamp="1365432416"]
[quote author=Honest Abe link=topic=110910.msg1392389#msg1392389 date=1365431542]
[quote author=Stevenash link=topic=110910.msg1392383#msg1392383 date=1365429734]
Were there any special "player acquisition programs" back then?
[/quote]The article said that most of the team grew up together and went to middle school together. How times have changed..
[/quote] Yes!!! I saw that and started to make a note of it. But by the 1970's , many HISD schools still had players from different neighborhoods playing across town. It was just easier to write down an address and go that zoned school if you wanted to.

But in theory, you would think schools who have their own turn-key operation (community youth programs, 2-3 middle schools & with all going to one high school) would be powerhouses.
[/quote]

Cant be powerhouses in all sports at the same time as the Yates girls proved against the HJ girls

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

What that article didnt state was how Waltrip was trying to get a [b]certain PA player[/b] on their team the championship year.  ;)

[stevenash]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

[quote name="Stevenash" post="1392427" timestamp="1365438195"]
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
[/quote]I guess they just "edited" that part out.

[BLUEDOVE3]

[quote name="Mr. Buddy Garrity" post="1392422" timestamp="1365437620"]
What that article didnt state was how Waltrip was trying to get a [b]certain PA player[/b] on their team the championship year.  ;)
[/quote] As I said earlier, it was easy to get a player from another zone. Didn't know about the PA kid.

[Dick Vitale]

[quote name="Mr. Buddy Garrity" post="1392422" timestamp="1365437620"]
What that article didnt state was how Waltrip was trying to get a [b]certain PA player[/b] on their team the championship year.  ;)
[/quote]
Certain PA player? it was THE player in PA at that time!! Elaine Jones, AAU She-Devil, made that move happen, because Boutte had accepted the Ozen job the previous summer.. IMANNUEL MCELROY was an HISD student for about 3 weeks at Waltrip!!  ;)

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

[quote name="Dick Vitale" post="1392489" timestamp="1365447210"]
[quote author=Mr. Buddy Garrity link=topic=110910.msg1392422#msg1392422 date=1365437620]
What that article didnt state was how Waltrip was trying to get a [b]certain PA player[/b] on their team the championship year.  ;)
[/quote]
Certain PA player? it was THE player in PA at that time!! Elaine Jones, AAU She-Devil, made that move happen, because Boutte had accepted the Ozen job the previous summer.. [b]IMANNUEL MCELROY[/b] was an HISD student for about 3 weeks at Waltrip!!  ;)
[/quote] ;)

[BLUEDOVE3]

[quote name="Dick Vitale" post="1392489" timestamp="1365447210"]
[quote author=Mr. Buddy Garrity link=topic=110910.msg1392422#msg1392422 date=1365437620]
What that article didnt state was how Waltrip was trying to get a [b]certain PA player[/b] on their team the championship year.  ;)
[/quote]
Certain PA player? it was THE player in PA at that time!! Elaine Jones, AAU She-Devil, made that move happen, because Boutte had accepted the Ozen job the previous summer.. IMANNUEL MCELROY was an HISD student for about 3 weeks at Waltrip!!  ;)
[/quote] Okay, memory is faintly coming back. Elaine is why yall think AAU is the devil  ;D

[Dick Vitale]

[quote name="BLUEDOVE3" post="1392528" timestamp="1365450746"]
[quote author=Dick Vitale link=topic=110910.msg1392489#msg1392489 date=1365447210]
[quote author=Mr. Buddy Garrity link=topic=110910.msg1392422#msg1392422 date=1365437620]
What that article didnt state was how Waltrip was trying to get a [b]certain PA player[/b] on their team the championship year.  ;)
[/quote]
Certain PA player? it was THE player in PA at that time!! Elaine Jones, AAU She-Devil, made that move happen, because Boutte had accepted the Ozen job the previous summer.. IMANNUEL MCELROY was an HISD student for about 3 weeks at Waltrip!!  ;)
[/quote] Okay, memory is faintly coming back. Elaine is why yall think AAU is the devil  ;D
[/quote]
When I was coaching at Kashmere that year, she came in the gym in mid season inquiring about kids, and my dad told me to PUT HER OUT OF THE GYM!! It was MY PLEASURE!! ;D ;D

[BLUEDOVE3]

[quote name="Dick Vitale" post="1392535" timestamp="1365451213"]
[quote author=BLUEDOVE3 link=topic=110910.msg1392528#msg1392528 date=1365450746]
[quote author=Dick Vitale link=topic=110910.msg1392489#msg1392489 date=1365447210]
[quote author=Mr. Buddy Garrity link=topic=110910.msg1392422#msg1392422 date=1365437620]
What that article didnt state was how Waltrip was trying to get a [b]certain PA player[/b] on their team the championship year.  ;)
[/quote]
Certain PA player? it was THE player in PA at that time!! Elaine Jones, AAU She-Devil, made that move happen, because Boutte had accepted the Ozen job the previous summer.. IMANNUEL MCELROY was an HISD student for about 3 weeks at Waltrip!!  ;)
[/quote] Okay, memory is faintly coming back. Elaine is why yall think AAU is the devil  ;D
[/quote]
When I was coaching at Kashmere that year, she came in the gym in mid season inquiring about kids, and my dad told me to PUT HER OUT OF THE GYM!! It was MY PLEASURE!! ;D ;D
[/quote] I never met her but I know and see her nephew often. So I will  :-X

[PA4Life]

I remember the Region III Final was at the Campbell Center.  Waltrip vs. PA Lincoln.  And I can tell you this.  Immanuel McElroy put on a show both years 97 vs. Wheatley and 98 vs. Waltrip.  I know he had 40 points in that game against Waltrip. The Waltrip fans where cheering for him. 

[Dick Vitale]

Dropped 37 against Wheatley the year before too... ;)

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

[quote name="Dick Vitale" post="1392597" timestamp="1365464588"]
Dropped 37 against Wheatley the year before too... ;)
[/quote]I still say if T. Mann would have been able to play Lincoln would have won state in 97.

[freeze 1914]

I remember Mac being at Waltrip to. Wasnt Falu like 20 years old when he was at Waltrip? That was the story going around at the time.

[BLUEDOVE3]

[quote name="freeze 1914" post="1393639" timestamp="1365774862"]
I remember Mac being at Waltrip to. Wasnt Falu like 20 years old when he was at Waltrip? That was the story going around at the time.
[/quote] I thought he 21... ;D

[BLUEDOVE3]

Could not resist this one:

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/011199/LD0629.shtml

[freeze 1914]

[quote name="BLUEDOVE3" post="1393642" timestamp="1365775996"]
Could not resist this one:

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/011199/LD0629.shtml
[/quote]

I knew I wasnt tripping. Because that was my era and that was all over Beaumont and Houston. Did they ever find out the truth?

[BLUEDOVE3]

I bet DV may have more details. DV??? Where you at?

[stevenash]

[quote name="BLUEDOVE3" post="1393642" timestamp="1365775996"]
Could not resist this one:

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/011199/LD0629.shtml
[/quote]

Hey Dove, probably none of that stuff was true.  It as just some jealous people trying to stir things up, right?

[BLUEDOVE3]

[quote name="Stevenash" post="1393661" timestamp="1365778210"]
[quote author=BLUEDOVE3 link=topic=110910.msg1393642#msg1393642 date=1365775996]
Could not resist this one:

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/011199/LD0629.shtml
[/quote]

Hey Dove, probably none of that stuff was true.  It as just some jealous people trying to stir things up, right?
[/quote]I didn't know the guy. No comment!!!!!

[Dick Vitale]

YES, it was true!! He was 20 years old at the time and was a teammate of then Duke freshman William Avery, when they were featured as juniors at Oak Hill Academy, TWO years prior to his arrival at Waltrip..He was declared ineligible during the 98-99 season.