On January 20, 2000 the dream was shattered by Nicholas County when we saw a seven point fourth quarter lead dissolve and the Bluejackets, who would lose in the tournament finals, emerge victorious and eliminated us from the All “A” Regional tournament.

Many thought that our season was over. Thoughts began to turn to spring and the upcoming baseball season, and after losing to Boone County in our homecoming game and losing five of our last six regular season games it appeared as though the Brossart Mustangs had packed it in for the 2000 season. Our regular season ended with a mediocre 13-12 record.

District and regional tournament time is known as the “second season” for a number of reasons. One is because it renews the interests of the players and fans alike and defines very clearly the ramifications of winning or losing – Win or go home.

Former Scott and Grant County Coach Carl Wenderoth used to say that it took a “Good Draw, a Good Call and a Good Bounce of the Ball” to win at tournament time.

The Mustangs drew opposite cross-town neighbor Campbell County in the District, which eased the mental aspect of a sudden death shootout with the archrival Camels in an early round. We defeated our first and second round opponents and then the Camels in the District Finals to claim the 38th District championship.

As we rode to Maysville for the regional tournament draw I think that we as a staff were happy to be in the tournament but far from considered ourselves favorites by any means. Again we received another a good draw, opposite Clark County, who were ranked fifteenth in the state and heavily favored to win the Tenth. Clark County would play Mason County the home team in the opening round.

Things suddenly turned dead serious when Mason upset Clark Co. It was a somber ride home that night from “The Fieldhouse” as we realized that we had defeated the remaining teams in the tournament at one point or other during the season. We were suddenly contenders and began daring to think… What If??

The rest as they say is history. We defeated Harrison County and St. Patrick in the opening and semi-final rounds, then were faced with the task of defeating the home team, Mason County in the title game to earn the trip to Rupp. Tied at 50, the game came down to the final 18 seconds. Senior Justin Seiter had scored 26 points on the night and had ended each previous quarter with a bucket. This last quarter would be no exception. Coach Schlarman ran a clear out for him and the senior captain delivered with an off-balance underhand scoop shot which rolled around and around the rim before dropping through and sending the Brossart Mustangs to the promised land of high school hoops.

If I live to be a thousand, I will never forget that moment, the onslaught of our fans storming the floor, we coaches embracing for what seemed like minutes as Coach Schlarman repeatedly squealed “We Won It” over and over again.  Justin Seiter was hoisted upon the shoulders of his teammates as the Fieldhouse PA played “We Are the Champions” in salute to the new Tenth Region Champs.

Following a rowdy celebration and reception back at school that night, we were informed that Louisville Ballard, the predominant season-long Number One team in the State had been upset and were out of the tournament. We would play Graves County from Region One on Thursday afternoon as our first round opponent.. Graves County was a team who had made eight trips to Rupp, was 27-3 and had lost only once this season to a team from the Commonwealth. That night we couldn’t have cared less. We were 10th Region Champs and were going to Rupp. How ironic, Ballard was out, Brossart was in.

For the next few days it was quite hectic, we had no busses and the cost of a charter was out of the realm of our budget. It first appeared as if we would make our first trip to Rupp in the Barleycorn’s Land Yacht, an old bus owned by a local eatery which was used to shuttle customers from the restaurant to Reds and Bengals games. It seemed as though every team that we had ever played called or sent notes of congratulations, there were rosters and stats sheets to be filled out and returned by deadlines. Every major newspaper TV affiliate across the State was calling for information and interviews. Reporters and cameramen were sitting in and filming at practice. We were selling “We’re Going To Rupp” tee shirts faster than our silk-screener could produce them. All hell had broken loose at Brossart High School.

On Tuesday afternoon, the day before our departure, some local businesses had pitched in and provided us with an Executive Charter bus. We were now to travel in style.

We had elected to depart on Wednesday morning, and following a pep-rally sendoff we were on our way to Lexington, complete with a police escort. After checking into our hotel, we fed the troops at McDonalds and bought up some Lexington Herald-Leader previews and passed them around. There we were featured among the elite of the state.

We attended the opening round of the tournament so that our players could get the feel of the tournament atmosphere. Since many of our guys had never been to Rupp, it was especially enjoyable watching their eyes light up as they first strode into the massive arena. Newport Central Catholic was playing the second game vs Louisville Male and since we play NCC and our kids are familiar with theirs it did us good to see familiar faces out on the floor.

That evening we experienced an awesome event in itself. Mr. Ron Heiert, our school’s Development Director had pulled a few strings with his connections at UK and landed us a practice slot in Memorial Coliseum. As we walked into this venue made sacred by Kentucky teams past, the house lights were all out with the exception of those which shone directly onto the playing surface. For we followers of the Big Blue, this was truly a near-celestial experience. This may sound corny, but you could almost visualize Adolph himself standing at center court directing the Runts or the Fab Five who earned fame on this very floor. To practice in the shadows of all of UK’s NCAA National Championship banners, lent a special solemnity to the Brossart Mustang practice that night.

On game day the team was up early and had breakfast at 8am at a local Bob Evans. Again we bolstered the stock of the Herald-Leader and Courier Journal absorbing all we could about games played the previous day and those to take place today.

The team was in a very serious mood. Reality had set in. We were really going to do this.

Prior to our departure for Rupp the players gathered in the hotel lobby, while the seniors and Chris Ryan stepped outside for a brief pow-wow. I have no idea what was said and didn’t ask, but I’m sure it wasn’t about what video they were going to rent at Blockbuster that night.

At 11:00am Coach Schlarman appeared in the lobby and asked his usual – “Are we ready to go?” and thirteen players, three managers, four coaches, one trainer and our athletic director boarded the bus for our date with destiny in Rupp Arena.

I’ll never forget that ride. Dead silence… You could have heard a pin drop. Each player and coach was alone with his thoughts. I reflected upon the events that had evolved over the years which had brought us to this day.

At 11:30am, one hour and thirty minutes before we were to take the floor, we arrived at Rupp Arena. Much like the scene in “Hoosiers”, we were welcomed, told that they were happy that we were there, wished good luck, and escorted to our locker room.

The players dressed quickly and quietly while Coach Schlarman jotted some notes about Graves County on the chalkboard.

Willie then left to give the first of many interviews he would grant the media over the next few days.

Our locker room was located just down the hall from that of the Kentucky Wildcats, which was doubling today as a training facility. Several of the coaches, managers, and myself spent some time ogling the private sanctum of the Big Blue. This was just another in the long line of incredible experiences associated with playing in the State Tournament.

At 12:15pm Coach Schlarman delivered his pre-game talk. He was direct and confident. He went over their starters and diagramed some of their key plays. He would later appear prophetic when he told our boys that the team who would make the fewest mistakes would win the game. We would need to beat Graves by being smarter, tougher, and more disciplined than they were. We simply needed to “Play Like Us”. Coach Rowe interjected a quick dose of instant intensity and we were ready to take the floor.

As the first game of the day, the arena was just beginning to fill up, and since we were playing at the same time as UK who was doing battle in the NCAA Tournament, the Rupp crowd was a bit sparse. But the Mustang rooting section was rocking. Our Brossart Mustangs took the Rupp hardwood to a thunderous ovation that stretched from the designated cheering section behind the basket and overflowed upward to the upper deck and wound around to the left of the top of the arena. We were complimented by Commissioner Julian Tackett on our fans turnout, which outnumbered the supporters of Graves County who more than tripled us in enrollment.

Following the pre-game and last minute instructions from the coaches I stood with chills running down my spine as the PA Announcer Randy Mills spoke the words I never thought I would live to hear… ” and now let’s meet the Champions of Region Ten, the Mustangs of Bishop Brossart!”.

How many times before in the thirty some years I’d attended the State Tournament, either here in Rupp or over at Freedom Hall, had I heard great teams introduced, never daring to dream that someday I would stand on the floor of Rupp Arena, having my Mustangs introduced to the crowd here and to a statewide radio audience. Our time had finally come.

As the game began it was obvious that we were deep under the influence of the “diarrhea factor.” We turned the ball over, not playing a bit like us, falling quickly behind 5-0. I’m sure many in the crowd were already thinking how nice it was for a small school like us to get to play in the state tournament, but anticipated our fate of an early exit. Our Mustangs quickly regrouped and when Scott Ruth hit a free-throw with forty-one seconds in the quarter we were tied at nine. However, hitting on just six of nineteen shots in the first half caused us to face a 23-16 halftime deficit.

The fact that we had only scored sixteen first half points was a major concern to me. Another sixteen point half would tally thirty-two, and thirty-two does not win games in the “Greatest Show in Hoops” or back home on Tuesday night for that matter.

The coaches met briefly outside the locker room and I remember Coach Schlarman as being extremely agitated that we were taking bad shots, failing to play good defense, and that with the eyes of the Commonwealth upon us, we were not “Playing Like Us”.

Willie himself described his halftime tirade as “peeling the paint off of the walls.” In no uncertain terms he challenged the manhood and character of this team. I suspect that things were not so intense in our opponent’s locker room. Graves County had won twenty-seven games and felt that they were in complete command of this one…perhaps already looking ahead to Friday night.

Many times I have witnessed halftime leads evaporating in the state tournament and it was about to happen here. The Mustangs came out of the locker room with fire in their eyes. Our “Junkyard Dogs” Jon Lloyd and Nick Ziegler, two guards who stand 5’5″ and 5’6″ respectively, reaped havoc on the mighty Eagles for the next sixteen minutes, forcing sixteen turnovers and triggering the most pronounced comeback in our school’s history.

If we hadn’t played like us in the first half, we were playing like us now and would outscore Graves 31-17 in the second half. Scotty Ruth was on fire and Zig brought the house down when he “bottomed out” two clutch three-pointers. The general population of Rupp was eating it up. In the fourth quarter the lead changed hands five times before the Champions of Region One had had enough.

When Jeff Clark knocked in two free throws with 11 seconds remaining in the contest, we had won our twentieth game of the season and the heavily favored Eagles were sent packing back to Mayfield with a 27-4 record. The Brossart Mustangs were in the Elite Eight. True to Willie’s word, the team which made the fewest mistakes won.

A hoard of reporters descended on Willie as we headed back to a delirious Brossart locker room. We now basked in the unfathomable realization that we had won our first game in the State Tournament. In his post-game talk Willie congratulated his team on going farther than either of the two teams that he had played on at Highlands which came to Rupp. He re-emphasized his belief in them and told them how very proud they had made him, the school and our community. He told them to savor the moment, to celebrate for the next half hour and then get themselves mentally focused once again to take on either Corbin or Russellville the next night.

I truly savored the moments in the locker room immediately following that game and will count them among my fondest lifetime memories. It was so gratifying seeing my Mustangs so very happy. The monkey was off their back, the memories of a somewhat bittersweet season were buried forever. We were twenty game winners and had just won our first game in Rupp.

Willie and three of his players were ushered off to the post-game press conference where Willie would tell anyone who would listen that “we had just gone above Cloud Nine”. When asked about our turnaround, Willie sheepishly rehashed the story of our failure in the All “A” Regional and the “not so pleasant” weeks that followed when he was about as “popular as onion breath”.

Following the interview pandemonium broke out. I was assigned the task of finding us practice time for the next morning. There were practice gear and uniforms to be washed and we were commissioned by the players in no uncertain terms that our post-game meal would be held in the “Weight Room”, the name the players had given to Gold Star Chili, which had become a post game ritual throughout the district and regional tournaments.

The players wouldn’t under any circumstances see their tradition broken by the fact that we were in Lexington, and the city’s only Gold Star was located clear across town. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the staff of that Gold Star when an Executive Charter Bus pulled up with forty-five players, coaches, and cheerleaders.

Friday’s activities mirrored those of Thursday’s. Up early, breakfast at the Cracker Barrel at eight. Once again we conducted a raid on the local paper racks, this time to read about us. Full color pictures of our bench erupting adorned the front page of the Herald-Leader sports page next to a bold headline which read “Brossart surprises Graves”. The Courier-Journal was even more emphatic, “Little Bishop Brossart Stuns Graves County” with a quarter page action shot. Back home the Kentucky Post sports sheet was a full page of Brossart. A page-wide headline screamed “Brossart Plays Giant Killer” with another quarter page photo.

Many well-wishers stopped by to congratulate us. We were impressed with all of the attention. As senior Justin Seiter said, “We’re being treated like Gods.”

At 9:45am we were back on the bus headed for Transylvania College for a 10:30am walkthrough and shoot-around in preparation for our encounter with Russellville and their 6’10” behemoth, Tony Key.

After lunch, the players returned to the hotel for a rest period prior to setting off to Rupp for our 7pm game. The mood was somewhat lighter on the trip over to Rupp at 5pm. After all, we were now seasoned veterans of the State Tournament and had found the Rupp hardwood to our liking. I couldn’t help but think of the myriad of cars presently heading southbound towards Lexington, armed with signs, face paint, green hair spray, foam beach horses and all of the items necessary to root for the Mustangs in the State Quarter-Finals.

Tonight a few knees bounced due to nervous tension as Coach Schlarman delivered his pre-game talk. It showed that this team took our opponents very seriously and that the players were ready to give their best efforts.

The Mustang faithful seemed to have increased and multiplied from yesterday’s mob. Those who had to work or were unable to attend on Thursday afternoon found Friday night to be more accommodating and traveled south to see their heroes play in Rupp.

The Green and White clad Mustangs entered the arena on St. Patrick’s Day to yet another boisterous ovation from their fans. On the floor there could not have been two more diverse styles. Our Mustangs were very structured and very fundamental in readying our bodies for combat, while at the opposite end of the floor, Russellville looked more like they were preparing to choose up sides for a pickup game. Whatever, we had both made it to what were now the final six teams in the commonwealth still playing for a state championship.

In final instructions our coaches were very positive and confident that if we could handle their 1-2-2 press that we could have some success going inside despite the presence of big Key and if nothing was there to kick it out to an open shooter. Willie also told them not to be intimidated that if we didn’t have a few shots blocked that we had no chance to win the game. Coach Schlarman and I also knew that the Rupp crowd was probably about to witness a few massive thunder-dunks as well. Big Key had already destroyed three backboards this season and we sincerely hoped the reinforced rims at Rupp would spare us the dubious distinction of having him shatter one on us in the State Tournament.

This game wasn’t really David and Goliath, unfortunately it was actually more like the Christians and the Lions. After going out to a 4-0 lead, we would fall behind 28-16 at the half. Russellville was shooting 70% while we were en-route to another sixteen point half.

In the second half at one point we cut the deficit to ten with a Chris Ryan three-pointer airborne which would have cut the lead to seven, force a Russellville timeout, and get the Rupp crowd into the game, but that night it was not to be. For an instant, the ball was in, then out. Russellville cleared the rebound and scored in transition. The game was all but over. At the :45 second mark, Coach Schlarman cleared the bench and allowed the remainder of the team to experience forty-five seconds that they would tell their grandkids about someday…When I played in the State Tournament at Rupp.

The final score was 60-46. Russellville had earned the right to advance.

After congratulating the victors, most losing teams in the tournament are met with the sight of the backs of their fans climbing the steps in an attempt to beat the Rupp traffic. No so tonight, each and every member of he Brossart contingency were on their feet in tribute to this unlikeliest of Brossart teams which brought so much joy and excitement into their lives over the past three weeks. Their Mustangs had played on the next to last day of the basketball season in Kentucky. Senior Jeff Clark summed it up best for all by stating, “You can’t ask for more than to end your career in Rupp Arena.” This Mustang team that wouldn’t be denied now possesses a slice of immortality. A team which wasn’t ranked in the top ten poll of Northern Kentucky teams and earned only a seventh place Tenth Region ranking in the pre-season had just finished its season sixth in the State. I was reminded of the words of Jim Valvano, “Don’t Give Up … Don’t Ever Give Up.”

Although only one team in the state would return victorious after their last game, there was ton of heartbreak in our locker room following our loss. Our kids sincerely believed that they could win and were devastated when they didn’t.

Amidst tears and broken hearts a choked up Willie Schlarman circled his Mustangs one last time and gave thanks for the wonderful experiences that we had shared together. Again, he told them how very proud he was of them. He wished the seniors the best of everything in the future and promised never to forget them. We then allowed them to be alone with their teammates one last time as he departed to give yet another interview.

When we returned to the locker room, the initial emotions of being out had subsided and a sense of pride over what we had actually accomplished had begun to set in. Coach Schlarman once again reiterated his pride in them and how well they had represented our school and conducted themselves in the State Tournament. He then looked at Coach Rowe and asked him if he had any last words. Bob looked up rather sullenly and then broke into a smile as he announced that baseball practice would start in forty-eight hours.

Basketball season was now officially over. One last time our team joined hands and shouted an enthusiastic, MUSTANGS!!!

I am not normally an emotional person and often scorn those who are, but there were many times over the course of our Regional and State Tournament run that even I experienced flashes of emotion, mostly out of sheer joy for our players and program and then here in the end a sense of emptiness and hurt that it was over for our seniors and satisfaction that our little school which once bore the unflattering moniker of “Cow Pie High” had ascended to the pinnacle of high school hoops and had done so well. I was so happy for Willie whose sole goal since he arrived at Brossart was to share some of the wonderful experiences that he had as a player himself, with our student-athletes.

Upon our return home, our conquering heroes were again treated like royalty with another police and fire truck escort back to school. What a fitting end to an incredible journey and a somewhat roller-coaster year.

Before the coming of Willie Schlarman I never, ever, honestly believed I’d live to see the day when my Brossart Mustangs would play in the Kentucky State High School Basketball Tournament. But enthusiasm and confidence are contagious. In spring of 1998 we entered “The Fieldhouse” to actually play for a trip to the Big Show in the 10th Region Championship Game. We were playing a heavily favored Fleming County team that night which was the best team from Flemingsburg since 1954. While I dared dream that night, we came up short, but it was then that I began to feel that maybe someday off in the distant future this ’98 team might reinvent itself and we might actually grace the floor at Rupp Arena or Freedom Hall.

I hadn’t a clue that it would happen this soon. For this particular team with no household name superstars, to reach the Big Dance was unthinkable, and then to defeat a veteran State Tournament team with a 27-3 record in our first appearance was even more unfathomable.

For those of us who have followed this program from its infancy when we were known as St. Mary High, through the tough early days as Bishop Brossart before 1986 when we had no gym, and are now fortunate enough to have seen this program come of age and the crowning achievements of the 2000 season, the comments of alum Connie Spaw pretty much sums it up… ” I guess we can die now!!!”

To those of you who find yourself in the position we were in during the early days of our program, I guess the best encouragement I can give is to continue to work hard and never quit believing in the dream, and some day when you least expect it, it may happen for you as it happened for us. Perhaps the most appropriate quote of all is the old Tug McGraw – “Miracle Mets” quote – “Ya Gotta Believe!!!”.