Desert Vista players reunite to get rings
Not long after Phoenix Desert Vista’s boys basketball team captured the 6A state championship, its trip to the jewelry store was placed on hold by the coronavirus pandemic.
More than two months later, the players were at Ganem Jewelers in Ahwatukee to be sized for their championship rings.
Before entering the store, they stood behind signs off of Ray Road that reminded them of that memorable night on March 3 when the Thunder beat rival Mountain Pointe 75-55 for the title.
Twelve days later, they spent the remainder of the school year at home, because of the virus that closed schools and shut down sports.
This was the first time back together for most of them, with 6-foot-10 Marquette-bound forward Osasere Ighodaro standing out among those getting fitted for rings.
“It’s good to see my team all together again,” Ighodaro said. “It was a great season. It was good to see them.”
Guard Marcus Wady will have one more season left at Desert Vista. He said he had talked to some of his teammates on the phone and in group chats during this pandemic.
“It’s nice to see my team in person,”
Wady said. “This was the first time since that legendary game.”
Coach Gino Crump brought out season commemorative T-shirts for the players to wear. There were scores of the games from the 2019-20 season on the back with the score of the Mountain Pointe game having the biggest font size.
“COVID-19 slowed everything down,” Crump said. “After the championship game, I took a trip to Cabo (Mexico). I’m glad we made it back.
“We wanted to do something special for them. We wanted to have a ring ceremony for them before everybody is gone.”
There was no graduation ceremony, so this was something to feel good about in a gathering with social distancing.
Guard Desean Lecque, who will return for his senior season next year at Desert Vsta, was all smiles during the ring-fitting ceremony as he caught up with teammates.
“I knew we were going to win ever since I got here,” said Lecque, who moved from New Jersey with his family last summer. “It feels good to get rewarded for all of those hard nights in the gym.”
Crump said the title still hasn’t sunk in yet.
“I knew we had a special group from the beginning,” he said. “They bought into a system.
“We had a perfect playoff run.”