[OSUBasketballJunkie]

DDN

3/27/06

Wolverines and fans march trail of triumphs

By Tom Beyerlein
Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | The Dunbar High School Wolverines basketball team got a heroes' welcome Sunday, as hundreds of supporters turned out to cheer the Division II state champions.

Horns honking, a motorcade with police escort accompanied the champs in a parade from downtown to Dunbar High, where 600 to 700 people gathered at the gym to pay tribute to the team and its coaches.

"We are just so very proud over what has happened over the last few weeks," said Mayor Rhine McLin, a Dunbar alumna. "It is more than a championship for these young men. It is community pride. It's a way of saying, 'Public education is alive and well.' "

The team won the championship in Columbus Saturday. It was Dunbar's first state title since 1987, and the first basketball title by a Dayton high school since Colonel White's win in 1990.

"They have played with precision and class all year," Superintendent Percy Mack said, saluting the squad's sportsmanship. "We have been told by people all over the state that we have defeated that we are a team of class."

Head coach Peter Pullens also remarked on the players' professionalism and sense of teamwork. He said the journey to the championship has taught them valuable lessons.

"They know it's a work in progress to be successful," Pullens said. "They played well through all kinds of obstacles ... and that's something to be proud of."

Team member Darran Powell, 17, said Sunday's show of support was "awesome — it's a feeling I've never felt before," the senior point guard said. "It felt good to win in Columbus, but it felt even better to bring it on home."

COMMENTARY
Tom Archdeacon: Dunbar basks in victory

By Tom Archdeacon
Dayton Daily News

The woman at the Sunoco station recognized them and started cheering. So did the three old-schoolers at the Tasty Bird and the guy in front of the Subway, who tried to grip a jumbo sandwich and flash an index-finger No. 1 sign.

It was the same when they turned off West Third Street onto Paul Laurence Dunbar, where they were greeted by a couple of partiers in front of the Waldorf Lodge 76, a toothless guy holding milk crates a few doors down and then three young kids in blue Dunbar shirts who rushed the street to see the conquering heroes.

It was when they turned onto Germantown Pike — at the DeSoto Bass housing project — that one Dunbar player cracked: "Everybody's coming out. They see all the police cars and they figure something's going on."
Something was going on, but it wasn't the reason folks in this neighborhood too often see police cars with flashing lights.

The Dunbar High basketball team — which had won the Division II state basketball title Saturday in Columbus — was getting a police-escorted Victory Parade back to the high school Sunday afternoon. The players, cheerleaders and coaches — with head coach Pete Pullen holding the championship trophy and Schottenstein Center net — were crammed into the Wright Flyer trolley, as local politicians, fans and family members all joined the procession.

While it's too bad the celebration wasn't held today — when downtown wouldn't have been a ghost town — there were enough well-wishers, bystanders and street people along the route that the players got the idea.
And assistant coach Albert Powell made sure they did: "Say what you want about your neighborhood, but your people are proud of you."

They were for a lot of reasons, some written right there in bold lettering on the green walls of the KJ Carry Out at Germantown and Dennison: "Don't let drugs take you down ... Follow your dreams. Be all you can be. Stay in school."

This team had done all that and more. And once it got to Columbus, it played in such spectacular fashion and with such class that it won converts, many of whom flocked to the team as it sat in the Schott Saturday night and tried to root Trotwood-Madison to victory in the D-I game.

"It seemed like every other person congratulated us," Dunbar guard Norris Cole II said. "People asked for autographs and everybody told us how they liked our team."

But the real love-fest began when the trolley pulled up to the school and the players saw the hundreds of cheering people waiting for them.

In the gym, the players were given a homespun and heartfelt "welcome home" by their fans. The only player missing was Daequan Cook — already in San Diego for his McDonald's All America appearance — but he spoke to the crowd via cell phone.

The players were told they'd be getting championship rings and special letter jackets and then athletics director Frances Winborn took the microphone. Someone from the crowd reminded her she once was a Wolverines cheerleader.

"Yeah, I was skinnier then," she said quietly. But then, slowly, she began a melodious chant from years ago: "Hey, hey team ... You sure look good to me."

The older people joined in and soon the young people did, too, and suddenly the whole gym was rocking.

"Like one of our guys said, 'It feels like we're NBA players,' " Cole said. "All this, just for us."

The guy on the bus was right — something was going on.