San Jacinto could eliminate sports programs
Board of trustees set to vote on whether to eliminate team
San Jacinto College’s board of trustees will vote Monday on whether to phase out half of the school’s sports programs, including a basketball team that has won four junior college national titles.
Scott Gernander won’t be anywhere near campus Monday when San Jacinto College’s board of trustees votes on phasing out more than half of the school’s sports programs.
The San Jacinto men’s basketball coach will be about 300 miles away with his team for a regularseason game at Ranger College in west-central Texas. Gernander’s team could be one of the causalities along with soccer, volleyball and women’s basketball.
So will Monday’s game be followed by a collective sigh of relief or will it mark the beginning of the farewell tour for one of the most
storied junior-college basketball programs in the country?
“Like somebody told me, taking San Jac basketball away from junior college is like taking the Yankees away from baseball,” Gernander said.
Several of the school’s athletic programs will be gone by May 2018 if there are enough votes by the trustees to eliminate them. Eliminating some of the programs is part of the school’s efforts to redirect resources to academics and cut costs in athletics. The school already has said that it will continue with its baseball program, which is based out of the north campus, and softball, which is played at the south campus.
Junior-college dynasty
The idea that the school was even considering ending the basketball program came as a shock to many.
Gernander, whose father Scott coached the Ravens from 1987 to 2011, knows what kind of impact the basketball program has had in making a name for the school nationally.
In its 54-year history, San Jacinto College has been to the junior-college national tournament 20 times, played for the national championship eight times and won four national titles, including an undefeated run to the 1986 crown. The program is fifth in the nation in victories with 1,535 heading into this season.
The Ravens had no shortage of great players, including Ollie Taylor, whose 30.7-point scoring average during the 1967-68 season leads the National Junior College Athletic Association.
Walter Berry, who played at San Jac from 1983-84, went on to star at St. John’s, helping the Red Storm reach the NCAA Final Four in 1985 and winning the John Wooden Award in 1986 as the most outstanding player in the country.
Future Rockets Steve Francis and Sam Cassell also starred for the Ravens.
The program’s heyday was in the 1980s with backto-back national titles in 1983 and 1984 and the undefeated team in 1986.
Several members of those teams have been lobbying the school’s trustees with the hope of changing their minds.
Ronnie Arrow, who was the program’s coach from 1977-1987, hopes there is enough influence to at least force the administration to explore ways to keep men’s basketball at the school.
The former Ravens coach has many fond memories from his days at San Jac and said they have less to do with wins and national titles and everything to do with the impact junior-college basketball can have.
“The biggest thing is that the older I’ve gotten, you stay in touch with some of these players and you remember how some of them came to us with different issues and were able to go on and get degrees from San Jac and four-year schools,” Arrow said. “Now to talk to them when they have their own families, they have good jobs. I think that’s the icing on the cake as a coach, period.”
Long list of greats
Berry was one of those players. He went from San Jacinto to St. John’s to being a first-round draft pick of the Portland Trail Blazers in 1986.
Berry can rattle off name after name of players who helped put the school on the national map.
“Ledell Eackles, Sam Cassell, Boo Harvey,” Berry said. “Some great players came through there. For them to close this program down, I think is a disgrace. It changed my whole life. It was either me sit out college another year or go play basketball. I decided to go play.”
Is it too late for the program to be salvaged?
Gernander worries that it is, but the fact there is a vote to be taken leaves some hope. This year’s team is bracing for the potential bad news.
“I think they’re all onboard, and they’re kind of pumped up,” Gernander said. “If the vote doesn’t go in our favor, to be the last goaround for San Jac and just leave it all out on the court and know whatever we accomplish this year could be the last accomplishments San Jac ever has.”