GLORY DAYS
Event connects current Pats with program’s legends
LINCOLN – In his heyday back in the early 1990s, Paulito “Piz” Barboza Jr. ran the floor for the Davies Tech boys basketball team with the speed and agility of a jaguar.
As the squad’s point guard, he continually paced the Patriots to winning records due to his shooting prowess and uncanny ability to find open teammates, namely twotime All-Stater Calvin Bridges, for the minimum of a layup and the max of a soaring jam.
Now, over a quarter century later, he has issues walking due to an emotion- and spirit-crushing 2013 car accident that left him in a perpetual limp. Still, there he was on Thursday night, April 13, trying to relive old dreams-come-true on his old gym floor during Davies Tech’s “The Past Meets the Present” Alumni Basketball Extravaganza.
Barboza admitted he only made a couple of “jogs” down the hardwood due to the severe back injury, but wouldn’t have missed this opportunity for the world.
It was of the volition of Bill Meekins, the veteran health and physical education teacher/head hoop coach, to organize such a bash for the current varsity Patriots to meet the architect of all Davies’ playoff-clinching and championship-winning squads, beginning with those nearly three decades before, legendary mentor Laverne Gaskin.
He, however, also wanted to assemble a reunion of those who had carried out Gaskin’s wishes – at times with “tough love” – in every practice, every game, even in life. Simply, Meekins hoped the kids meeting long-ago Pats’ stars would help them understand the phenomenal heritage of Patriot basketball.
“Coach Gaskin helped us so much; he was a leader on and off the court. He put the ball in my hands because he had faith and trust in me. My goal was to motivate everybody and make sure we were all on the same page, and that came from him.” – Davies graduate Paulito Barboza
According to Meekins, 34 men and 18 women of all ages (the oldest was Bob Brown, Class of 1976, who also served as the disc jockey) flocked to pay homage to Gaskin, who had made the trek northeast from his Bridgeport, Conn. home to reacquaint himself with his beloved Pats.
It had little to do with playing against the varsity clubs (the male alums reigned, 47-43), but the telling of stories as to how Gaskin’s coaching philosophy directs their lives even today.
His fabled three-word message – “Pride, Desire, Respect,” one plastered all over the hall that bears his name – has a lasting impression on all. The evidence is in Barboza, for one.
“I’m 44 now, and I graduated in 1991,” he explained, wiping two tears from his cheek. “I came to Davies the end of my sophomore year. I transferred in from Central Falls because it just didn’t fit me. I had approached Mr. Gaskin, who was retired at the time, and told him that me, Calvin Bridges and Doug Samuels wanted to transfer in, but only if he’d be the coach the following year.
“Davies had been 0-93 (over the previous four-plus seasons) at the time,” he continued. “He saw us, freshmen who had started at CF and were blue-chippers, and I guess he saw something he felt he could work with.”
Gaskin returned to the helm, and – with the talented trio on the hardwood – squelched that lengthy skid.
“In my two years here, we went 663 and won two divisional championships,” Barboza said proudly. “To be honest, we even beat every Division I team we faced, including Mount Pleasant and Central; I know we scored over 100 points against Central, which was something else.
“Coach Gaskin helped us so much; he was a leader on and off the court. He put the ball in my hands because he had faith and trust in me. My goal was to motivate everybody and make sure we were all on the same page, and that came from him.
“He’s like a second father to me, to all of us,” he added. “He knows how to bring out the best in what he has. In my two years, we had seven guys on the team, and five started, two rode the bench. We never came off the floor. You may think we got winded pretty easily, but no. We were so well-conditioned.”
Barboza’s mood changed when he brought up a serious car accident, one that nearly killed him.
He had traveled to Providence to visit cousin, Humberto Neves, the morning of July 9, 2013, and was walking across Admiral Street when he was struck by a vehicle.
“Some guy driving an ice truck had asked me for directions, and I didn’t hear him clearly, so I walked over to him,” he recalled. “I had just got to the window when – ‘Wham!’ – I was hit from behind. I went flying. I didn’t know where I was, I was in such a state of shock.
“It took me nine months to learn how to walk again; I had suffered a spinal cord injury, and all I could do was drag my left leg. I fell into a deep depression, and I didn’t want to do anything. Before that, I was starting my own reggae magazine, so I was driving back and forth to New York from Warwick to get it going. I also was still playing hoop three or four times a week to stay in shape.
“After I got hit, I was in such a bad state emotionally and mentally; I just sat at home and did nothing,” he added. “One day, months later, I stopped feeling bad for myself. I figured I might as well get off my butt and give back to kids by coaching them.”
His luck quickly turned. He became the head coach of the Launch AAU Basketball boys’ eighth-grade team, a travel contingent based at the Pawtucket YMCA and sponsored by New England Patriots’ Hall of Famer Ty Law.
“Our motto is ‘family’ and ‘loyalty,’ and it’s based on the same recipe Coach fed us all the time – Pride, Desire, Respect,” he stated. “Coaching has changed my life, and he’s got everything to do with it. Thanks to Vern, he helped me get into St. Joseph’s College in Vermont on a scholarship, and I started my first three years at point guard before getting hurt my senior year.
“I owe my comeback to him. He means the world to me. After I was hit, I thought about all he taught me – the willingness to go on, the fight, how to be hungry and drive myself. I speak with him by phone from time to time, ask him for help with organizing team practices, but I haven’t seen him in four years. It’s so great to see him.
“Like I said, I don’t play anymore (because) I can only stand for 20 minutes, but I played in this game out of my passion and respect for Vern. I walked up the court twice, just so he could see me, and (Alumni coach) Meko (Washington) took me out. That’s the first time I’ve played since the accident.”
**
When Calvin Bridges, one of two players in Tech history to surpass the astonishing 2,000 career points mark (the other is 2000 grad Rohan Russell), discovered Meekins was assembling an Alumni game, and that Gaskin would be the guest of honor, he was excited.
“Bill called and asked, and I said, ‘Of course, I’ll come back!’” grinned Bridges. “I wanted to give back, as this was a fundraiser for the athletic department, but I also wanted to see all my old teammates again. When I was playing, alumni would come to our games, and they would tell me what I was doing wrong, what I needed to work on.
“Vern is the best coach ever, but he also was our father, brother, doctor, minister, even cab driver,” he added with a laugh. “I can’t tell you how often he’d drive guys home after practice or games if their parents couldn’t; he’d even feed them. If they couldn’t get a ride to school, he’d pick them up.
“I also remember when he’d make us walk home to Central Falls if he was upset with us for being irresponsible. Or, if we were walking to school because we missed the bus, he’d drive right by us, then slow down and say, ‘Get your (butts) to school! If you’re smart, you’ll beat me there!’ so we’d start running.
“I’d be dead or in prison if I had stayed at Central Falls High School. I wasn’t listening to the coaches or the teachers. I’d be rude and show disrespect, was getting into trouble, but then I heard about a coach at Davies who was a harda--. I heard about him from guys like Brian Daily and Joe Brandon.
“I was with them every day, and he made us work so hard. I still loved him because he taught me discipline … What I’m thinking right now is how far I’ve come, how much I’ve grown as a man, what he turned me into. I’m a family man and a basketball referee now for men’s leagues, and I love it.
“We’re a brotherhood here at Davies; that’s what we all have, and I owe a lot of what I accomplished to him.”
Bridges, a 1992 grad, didn’t have the luxury of having one of his teams nicknamed, a Gaskin tradition during the earlier seasons.
On this night, Gaskin sits in the front row of the bleachers and scans the many gold-and-black banners gracing the hall’s walls. The one above the entrance reads, “Davies Pride,”and informs the audience of the 1974-75 team that finished 12-6 in Class C play and earned the then-young school’s first-ever playoff bid. (It opened in 1971).
It included Brown, Steve Barry, Chris Kelly, Al DeCorte, Dave Gardner, Steve Roderick and Arthur Monteiro.
Then there’s the one that details the 1981-82 “Davies Respect” contingent, which – with the likes of Washington, John Coderre, Jeff Davis, Steve Gomes, Greg Howarth, Tim Dailey and Jeff Tucker – became the first team to snag a berth in the state finals. Naturally, they did so under the tutelage of Gaskin and assistants Bill Murphy and Roderick, both former players.
Another happens to be the most curiously-named of the bunch, “The Iron Five” of the 1982-83 season. It consisted of brothers Mike and Brian Daily, Washington, Todd Kulacz and Tom Burlingame, who collectively fashioned a premier 18-5 mark, but failed to win a state crown.
“They we were called that because we only had five guys,” mentioned Murphy, a 1973 graduate who – because of Gaskin and then-principal Norman Eichner – later became a longtime teacher, assistant coach and athletic director. “All the others quit because they couldn’t deal with all the practices and off-season conditioning sessions.