Moments in Santa Fe Basketball History - Will they listen before it's too late Part 1 (2006)

[Mike DaRoza]

Will they listen before it’s too late?

Now, before I come off as some sort of authority figure on high school basketball, let me be the first one to say that I know squat about press breaks, triangle defenses or moving screens.
But, since I happen to be the only sports writer that I know of that has exclusively covered Santa Fe High sports for the past 12-straight years, maybe I do know what I’m talking about when I say that the current Santa Fe boys basketball team has an identity problem.
Who are they?
Are they the team that beat Palatka?
Or, are they the team that lost by double digits to Fort White?
Are they the team that led by more than 40 in the first half against Ridgeview?
Or, are they the team that held an early, 20-point margin against Newberry only to lose to the Panthers at home?
Sure, I’ll admit that I’m not your run of the mill basketball aficionado, not even close.
But, I can assure you that I have seen Santa Fe teams in the past with far less talent that would beat this team five out of ten times out on the floor?
But, the question is: Why?
Obviously this is a young team.
Only two seniors grace the roster, and only one of those is a regular starter.
But, is that really the reason?
Tell you what, I’ll be the one who goes out on a ledge and says, no.
Several times this season I have had trouble recognizing the team with “SF” on their jerseys when they are on the court.
Too many times have I seen huge early leads blown to inferior teams, some of them ended up becoming devastating losses.
And, the same thing seemed prevalent each time – there was no one player everyone else looked to when the chips were down.
In fact, I would make a fair wager that if asked, not one Santa Fe player can honestly tell me who their team leader really is.
They might be able to tell me who can handle the ball the best, who has the sweetest shot from the perimeter or who has the most minutes, but who is the leader of this team?
Not that there needs to be one single team leader, many great teams have more than one.
But, I just can’t point to a single guy on this team and – with a clear conscience – say, “That guy, or those guys, are definitely leading this team.”
Maybe that’s where the youth comes into play.
Perhaps playing time is not where most of this team is deficient.
Some guys just have no clue what leadership is all about, much less how to obtain it.
Again, I am not an expert on the subject, but I can share with you – and this bunch of talented, yet misguided individuals – what I’ve seen.
The first thing one must realize is that true leadership is everything that happens before the bleachers are filled and the ball is tipped off.
Seriously, do you honestly think Florida’s basketball team waits until they hit the floor to become leaders?
Leadership is more a way of life, the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you see how your every move – from the time you wake up in the morning, until you fall asleep each night – directly effects those around you.
The second thing one must know about leadership, and it’s possibly just as crucial as the first thing, is that one must always want to be better, therefore making those around him better.
So, that brings up the next question: Does this team really care about being better this season?
I mean, heck, next year should be their year? Right?
Dead wrong.
Sorry to keep using the Florida basketball team as an example, but did they wait until they were juniors or seniors to band together and fulfill their potential?
Absolutely not.
Be honest, which of you out there could – with a straight face – tell me you knew Joakim Noah was going to be a stud as a sophomore?
He barley saw any meaningful minutes as a freshman.
And yet, Noah clearly made the decision early on that he wasn’t going to wait until later to commit every waking moment toward not only being better, but also helping everyone around him be better.
Bottom line is this: On Friday night, Santa Fe will enter the district tournament as a number-one seed.
That’s the good news.
The bad news, unfortunately, is, if the wrong Santa Fe team shows up, it could very well be the last game they play this season.
And, since no one can guarantee what the future holds – injuries, failing grades, etc. – next year just might not be the slam-dunk some of these players expect it will be.
Maybe I’m being too harsh.
Who knows, maybe this team – the one who plays spectacularly one minute, and like a bunch of underachievers the next – is as good as it’s ever going to be.
But, that’s a question each one of those players will have to ask themselves.
I’m not trying to paint a gloom and doom picture for this team; they are truly a great group of kids.
They already know that.
But, do they know how good they could be if they all decided they were going to be the team leader on this team?
They would still know who could dribble better, shoot better and block better, but what else they could learn about themselves may just surprise them.
Hey, I’m just a middle-aged guy who couldn’t dribble a basketball and run if my life depended on it.
So, what do I know?
Well, I’ll tell you what I know.
I know that later on in life, most of us wish we could go back in time, knowing what we know now.
Every one hears that when we’re growing up, but so few of us ever listen before it’s too late.