Joey's Dunk: A True Cougar Classic

    This particular season, 1998-1999, the Cougars were loaded.
    The Saints…well, when these two long-time rivals competed, the records and relative strength of the teams meant very little.
    Amidst the fervor, Joey Rackley, Collegiate’s 5-9 point guard, directed his teammates up the court as the incessant din of the crowd reverberated off the cinderblock walls.
    A deft ball handler best known for his passing and Zen-like leadership, Rackley recognized that the Saints were sloughing off him, daring him to shoot.
    Now, he decided, was the time.
    “The kid guarding me was already back in the lane,” Rackley recalled one day recently. “It was an interesting game plan.”
    Philip Janney started at the other guard spot.
    He and Rackley had been best friends since kindergarten.  They’d played pick-up hoops in the driveway.  They’d been teammates in the Bon Air league, AAU ball, and, for six years, each level of Collegiate’s program.
    They knew each other’s instincts.  They read each other’s moves perfectly.
    Rackley gave Janney a quick glance.  
    “I was on the right side,” Rackley continued.  “I threw the ball to Phil a little bit to the left of the top of the key.
    “I was just hoping that the kid (guarding me) would continue playing off.
    “Everything fell into place perfectly.”
    The defense rotated to the ball and left the baseline vulnerable.
    Rackley swung far to his right, hesitated for a brief moment, then made a back-door cut.
    “I just threw it up to Joey,” Janney recalled.  “It wasn’t an excellent pass, but he caught it and dunked it.  Unbelievable play.
    “Nobody saw it coming. The place went crazy.”
    The alley-oop was a mere chip-shot amidst a barrage of Collegiate three-pointers.
    After Rackley’s dunk, the Saints quickly pushed the ball up-court and missed a jumper.  
    The Cougars rebounded and hit the outlet, and a moment later Janney jacked a stunner from behind the arc.
    The Collegiate faithful were delirious.
    The Saints called time.
    “Unbelievable,” said Michael Brost, the head coach from 1996 through 2004. “The camera shook, because the whole gym was shaking.”
    The specter of a 5-9 point guard dunking wasn’t the only highlight for the team that entered Collegiate’s Athletic Hall of Fame this past November.
    The Cougars finished 28-4 that year, won the Prep League title, and reached the championship game of the VISAA tournament.
    Their signature win – certainly their most publicized – was a 63-53 decision over Highland Springs in the inSync Holiday Hoops Tournament before 5,000 fans at the University of Richmond’s Robins Center.
    Since they were undefeated and ranked first in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Top 10, the odds favored the Springers.
    Self-confident and ultra-competitive, Brost’s guys ignored the odds and didn’t even consider their victory an upset.
    The Cougars played a 2-3 zone, which slowed high-octane, high-profile Springers, and Rackley’s defense on Jonathan Hargett, the area’s top player, never allowed the favorites to get into their offensive rhythm.
    Kristian Middleton scored 20 points, Chad Davis 15, and Philip Janney 14.  Rackley, the point guard and undisputed floor leader, added 10.
    “A month doesn’t go by without somebody saying, ‘What a great game you played!’” said Brost.  “It warms your heart.  It meant a lot to our community to knock off the top-ranked team.”
    There were other memorable nights for the Cougars, who rose as high as second in the T-D poll.
    After falling to Benedictine in overtime on the road, they defeated the Cadets 57-43 before 5,500 spectators in their second visit to the Robins Center.
    “It was so exciting,” said Janney, one of eight seniors who had played together at Collegiate and in AAU ball for years. “There was a ton of chemistry.  
    “There was pressure, but we were prepared.  Not to sound cocky or arrogant, but we felt like, every time we stepped on the floor, we were going to win.”
    When the state tournament began, the Cougars found themselves walking the fine line between good health and fatigue, the by-product of a long, arduous season.
    “We played some tough teams and grinded through wins against Blue Ridge and Paul VI,” Janney said.  “I was proud of those wins.
    “Then, we came up short against Episcopal in the finals, but it was a great game.”
    Individually, the Cougars were duly rewarded.
    Janney, Rackley, and Kristian Middleton earned All-Prep League recognition and made the inSync all-tournament team. Davis joined Janney and Rackley on the league all-tournament team.  Janney and Rackley made all-state. Middleton was honorable mention All-Metro.
    The 1998-99 Cougars were talented – that’s for certain – but they also possessed balance, a willingness to share the basketball, and an awareness that team success trumped personal statistics and accolades.
    “We had a very mature group of young men who knew their roles,” Brost said.  “They knew what we wanted to accomplish and knew we wouldn’t get it done if we focused on the ‘me’ rather than the ‘we.’
    “What a great group they were…and are today.”
                -- Weldon Bradshaw