PETE AND REPEAT
Marshall, BC alums battle pandemic to play hoops tourney for Frates, ALS
When Sean Marshall and Team Challenge ALS assessed how to safely get to The Basketball Tournament in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic, they had a couple of options.
One was to get the team together and quarantine for a training camp, but that would put them at a greater risk to have a positive test and be forced to withdraw from the competition. The other, which Marshall and his team chose, was for everyone to individually work out alone before convening in Columbus, Ohio, days before their first game in the tournament.
Doing so would limit the risk of that positive test. So, Team Challenge ALS traveled on Thursday to Ohio, where TBT’s health and safety plan requires teams to quarantine for five days before their first game. Players are tested four times in that five-day period, and one positive test results in a team’s disqualification.
For Marshall and Team Challenge ALS, who have the benefit of a first-round bye in the tournament and will practice a few times before their first game on Tuesday, it was even more crucial to stay qualified because of what this year represents for them.
Marshall, a former Boston College basketball star, created Team Challenge ALS in 2017 in honor of his old college roommate and former BC baseball captain Pete Frates’ fight against the disease. Frates, the inspiration behind the “Ice Bucket Challenge” who revolutionized the fight against ALS, died in December after a sevenyear battle with the disease, which has made Marshall’s mission this summer even more important.
“It means everything,” Marshall said. “That’s why I took the precautions that I felt I needed to take, to make sure that our team was playing this year, regardless if we have a training camp or not.
Because I felt like with Pete passing, and the battle he had with ALS, the team needed to be out there this year. I needed to be out there wearing his name on my back, because it means so much to me. This year more than any, it’s huge.”
Frates, as the inspiration behind the creation of the team, has always been front and center of Team Challenge ALS’ movement.
In 2017, every player wore his name on the back of their jerseys as they made a run to the tournament’s championship game.
Marshall has continued to wear Frates’ name on his jersey each year — which he will again this year — and this year the team will honor Frates by wearing jerseys that will feature BC’s maroon and gold colors.
But it was after their 2017 run that Marshall realized the full scope of the impact he and the team could make. Marshall received countless messages, emails and photos from people being impacted by ALS, whether it was those who were fighting the disease or their families, all giving thanks and support to Marshall and his squad for bringing awareness to a disease that is still incurable.
So, in 2018, Marshall and his team came up with the idea to honor more people who were battling the disease.
While Marshall continued to put Frates’ name on his back, every player on the team had a different name on their jerseys to represent someone who’s been affected by ALS. That will continue this summer.
“I realized that Pete was my boy, my friend since college, but this was much bigger than just him,” Marshall said. “The overflow of messages we got from other people who were watching our team and following our team and all these families and people who were battling ALS, it brought them, even if it was for a short second, a moment of joy and something to look forward to, and something to keep their mind off of that everyday battle.
“I realized that we needed to do more and we needed to reach out to more people and honor more people and talk to those people and show them that we care about
them, and that somebody out there is also fighting for them while they’re fighting this disease.”
The team has galvanized an entire community that has followed them and even come to their games to support. It’s something that’s become bigger than anything Marshall expected when he created it in 2017.
“The messages, the emails that I’ve gotten, the pictures of people battling this disease sitting in their wheelchair, can’t speak, can’t move, just sitting there watching our games, literally rooting for us to win because they know we’re playing for them,” Marshall said. “It touches my heart. When we first started this, I would have never thought that would be the outcome of this team, but for me, I just look at it like this. I get to play basketball in a tournament for a whole bunch of money with my friends and for me, I’m living a great life compared to what these people are doing. There’s nothing for me to complain about.
“These people are literally trapped in their own body and for them to share those stories and the families to show how appreciative they are that we’re doing this for them because just as much as those people are battling, those families are going through the same kind of suffering, maybe not physically but emotionally. It just brings joy to people.”
Three years after that championship run, they think they have a good chance to win it this year, too. Marshall added his former BC teammate, guard Tyrese Rice, who has excelled in Europe over the last decade, and he’ll join Casper Ware to make up what should be an electric backcourt. He also thinks new forward Stephaun Branch is a sleeper, and they also boast another former BC teammate in guard Marquez Haynes.
“We think we have the best team that we’ve ever had being in this tournament,” Marshall said. “I think we have the best guard play in the tournament. … It gives us for sure an advantage of getting into the paint on every possession and if we have (Rice and Ware) together, they can both create their own shot and create shots for other people. I think that’s what the TBT is all about. Having guard play like that is the ultimate advantage.”
They’ll certainly have their work cut out for them to win a TBT title and the $1 million prize. Former NBA players Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack have joined four-time champion Overseas Elite, Aaron Craft and William Buford have returned for defending champ
Carmen’s Crew and Malachi Richardson and Eric Devendorf lead Boeheim’s Army.
But Team Challenge ALS has experience, talent and something deeper they’re playing for. With TBT being the first basketball competition to return on TV since the pandemic began, they’ll be broadcasting their message on a bigger stage than they ever have, and winning the tournament would mean everything to Marshall and his squad.
“It would just finish off our story,” Marshall said. “That’s the one thing that I just truly want is to win one time. It would just finish off what we started. We’ve had the team, we’ve had the run, everyone knows what we play for, we’re bringing joy, but to win that championship and lift that trophy and to honor those people as being the winners, ALS on the front of our jerseys and the names on the back of our jerseys, it would just be the icing on the cake. It would just complete a picture-perfect story. So we’re going to keep fighting for that.”