Wellington High School Basketball Celebrates A Stellar Season
The Wellington High School boys basketball team claimed the regional championship for the 2016-17 school year, marking the team’s second regional championship in the past three years.
Head coach Matt Colin was on the sidelines for both achievements, but this year’s championship belonged to a strong team of young men, who slotted into roles that propelled the Wolverines to yet another championship banner.
The Wellington Wolverines defeated Coral Springs High School 82-62 in the finals to win the regional title.
“It makes the game so much easier when you’re able to control the game the way we were able to control it,” Colin said. “We always had four players out there who could handle the basketball. It made it so that we were the team that dictated what was going on, not the other team. Anytime you do that, you get the momentum.”
This latest accomplishment was all about the team working together and playing within the system that Colin and his assistant coaches set up for Wellington’s program. In years past, the game might have relied on the play of individuals, but this year was about everyone getting their hands on the ball to make plays for the team.
“That was something that we stressed. We always talk about team basketball,” Colin said. “Obviously, we have some good players on this team. But good players alone don’t win you championships. I think this group was mature enough to understand that.”
Trent Frazier, Miguel Peart and Sage Chen-Young were team captains this past year, and they fit right into their roles. They led by example, and therefore were able to be strong leaders for a young team.
“The years before, we were so used to winning. This year, we lost a lot of talent, so we had to work with what we had and play smaller,” Chen-Young said.
This year was about building off last year’s weaknesses. Coral Springs kept the Wolverines from repeating in the regional championship the year prior.
Chen-Young said the team took the loss hard last year, and the rematch was a must-win for the season and for pride.
“We were already state champs, and it was the game to go back to states, to go back-to-back, and they beat us,” Chen-Young said of the 2015-16 season-ender. “They ended up winning states.”
So, facing Coral Springs at the regional final, the Wellington boys came back and emerged victorious.
“My sophomore year is when we had a lot of talent. We were a good team,” Frazier said. “That’s what made us get our run into the state tournament and get our first ring, but this year was mostly off of everyone playing their roles.”
This was a year when Wellington basketball’s system worked.
“That’s what helped us out, because we were young and little,” Frazier said. “A lot of guys, we weren’t big. We didn’t have a lot of skill, but everyone played their role, and everyone trusted each other, so that’s how we did it.”
Peart agreed that roleplay was much more important for winning games than making plays for glory.
“I just felt good knowing that I was able to get out there and do everything I could,” Peart said. “That’s what I felt like I was, just the everything guy. If you needed a rebound, needed effort, I just went out and gave it my everything.”
A younger athlete on the team this past year was junior Bryan Williams. Colin saw room for growth and contribution from him on the varsity squad. He also looks to fill a captain’s role next year, helping the team continue to match the gameplay of the previous year.
“I felt like I was a good player, but the coach saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Williams said. “The chemistry that we had — I want to continue to grow and keep leading on throughout the years because I’m going to miss my seniors, and I just want all that to stay. I hope nothing changes with it.”
The players embraced their coach and all that came with being a winning team.
“I think toward the second half of the season, as a team, every player, especially the starters, we all toughened up,” Peart said. “We stopped letting little things get to us. We kind of really started to just play.”
Colin finds power in preparation, and this season was about making strengths better and eliminating weaknesses, particularly in rebounding.
“I was always looking to find new rebounding drills, whether it was going online, whether it was calling former colleagues or college coaches,” he said. “Whatever it may be, throw at me a rebounding drill that you do in practice, so I can apply it to my guys, so they don’t get stagnant with what we’ve been doing. We can still accomplish the goals with what we’re trying to do by winning the rebounding battle out there every night.”
The night before the finals, Colin said the team was ready for the highly anticipated rematch against Coral Springs.
“I think there was a lot of emotion going into that game. Trent [Frazier], actually, and he still has it saved on his phone, has got a picture of me picking him up off the floor after we lost the regional final last year, and it was in the paper. It was front page of the sports section, me picking him up and walking him into the locker room because he was so devastated by that loss,” Colin recalled.
It was in the team’s group chat that Frazier sent a message to everyone, including the coach. “The night before the game, he put that on our team chat about how that wasn’t going to happen again,” Colin said.
After a long season of play, a record of 34-3, a lot of rebound drills and dedication, the Wolverines recaptured the regional championship.
Heading into next season, Colin is ready to help turn the next Wellington High School boys varsity basketball team into champions and keep the tradition alive.
“Every season is a journey. You don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but this was, by far, one of the most pleasurable ones I’ve been on,” Colin said. “We have about four or five returning guys who played for us last year, along with the junior varsity group that’s coming up. I’m just looking forward to learning as much as I can about them and seeing what our strengths and weaknesses are.
