A True Cougar Classic

No way could they win.
Not with talent, though there was plenty. Not with grit, though that was their calling card. Not even with magic, though wouldn’t that be nice?

Norfolk Academy was just too good, too tall, too skilled, and, actually, too everything, so when Collegiate’s boys varsity basketball team squared off against the Bulldogs in the semifinal game of the 1985 Prep League tournament, the outcome, it seemed, was a fait accompli.

Although they would be competing on the Jacobs Gym court, there was no way, you see, that Coach Bill Chambers’ 11-10 squad could match up with NA, which had already amassed a 28-2 record including a 62-51 victory over Collegiate earlier that season in Norfolk.

Then they played the game. Wow! What a game it was!

Before a packed house that February night 36 years ago, the underdog Cougars jumped out to a 16-11 first quarter lead, went into halftime up 32-29, used a 20-14 third quarter run to take a 52-43 advantage into the fourth, then for eight grueling yet energizing minutes, fended off the Bulldogs’ vaunted pressure to claim a 70-62 victory.

“Collegiate just played super,” NA coach Dave Trickler told a Richmond News Leader reporter afterwards. “We made them play a great game, and they did.”

So how did it happen? How did a team that would finish 12-11 take down a 31-4 powerhouse that would become known in NA lore as the Dream Team?

Luck? No, there was no luck that night. Luck doesn’t play a role in a game contested passionately from baseline-to-baseline for 32 minutes. Intensity? Certainly. Poise? Of course. Focus? Sure. Calmness? Absolutely. Amidst the tension, against the Bulldogs’ relentless attack, and despite the odds, the Cougars displayed a Zen-like calm that was, perhaps, the difference.

“Dave Trickler was a really good coach,” Chambers said. “Whenever we played them, it was always a challenge. That year, they were awesome. We wanted to keep the game under control at our pace rather than getting into a run-and-shoot with them. We laid it all out there that night.”

Truly, but the laid-it-all-out-there narrative actually began the afternoon before when the Cougars defeated St. Christopher’s 46-44 in overtime in the quarterfinals at Trinity Episcopal.

That game had come down to a Saints’ inbounds play from midcourt following a timeout with 16 seconds left and the score tied at 44. Michael Brost, who was fronting the SC player for whom the pass was intended, stole the pass and deftly delivered the ball to point guard Brian Justice, who had broken upcourt from his defensive spot at the top of the key when he anticipated the steal.

“I looked over my shoulder,” Justice recalled, “and there was the ball. All I had to do was lay it in. As you can imagine, that kind of victory can really propel a team forward. The next night, we brought a lot of momentum, a lot of juice, a lot of confidence to play Norfolk Academy.”

Chambers and Trickler knew each other’s styles and tendencies well.

“Dave always liked to pressure,” Chambers said. “He had a 1-3-1 half-court press that he’d used for years when he didn’t play man-for-man.  We wanted to make sure we didn’t throw the ball away and give them easy buckets. We beat the press several times and got some easy shots. Even if we missed, we got the follow-up.”

Which was no easy task since NA was taller, physical inside, and possessed of a deep bench. They were led by 6-7 Glenn Younkin and featured a strong supporting cast.  Youngkin went on to excel at Rice University and later enjoyed a career as a successful businessman. He is now a Republican candidate for governor of Virginia.

The Cougars were hardly intimidated, though. They had confidence in Chambers’ plan and in each other. 

“We played differently than we were supposed to,” Justice recalled. “We wanted to slow the tempo, limit the number of possessions, grind it out, and win in the end. The game ended up being played at breakneck speed. Norfolk forced the action. We attacked intelligently. Multiple guys made big plays and were able to finish opportunities at the end of their press.”

Norfolk pressed half- and three-quarter court and dropped back into a 1-3-1 and threw in a couple of wrinkles in an attempt to thwart the Cougars. Nothing worked effectively.

“They mixed their defenses,” Justice recalled. “They definitely pressured us to speed it up. We effectively broke the press either dribbling through it or throwing the ball over top of it to finish easy opportunities at the back end.”

Justice, the All-Prep League point guard, controlled the ball perhaps 80 percent of the time. When he found himself trapped, Brost, another All-Prep guard who played opposite him against the 1-3-1, was generally his outlet.

No surprise there. 

“Michael and I had been training partners, best friends, teammates, and co-captains,” Justice said. “That season, that game, and the night before were the culmination of our basketball relationship, a relationship that quite obviously transcends basketball.”

Justice finished with 28 points on 8-for-15 shooting and 12-for-14 from the free throw line. He also dealt five assists and had three steals. Brost scored six points, well below his average, but contributed 10 rebounds, six assists, and three steals.

“Coach Chambers had prepared us very well,” Brost said. “Game-wise, I remember that nobody could stay with Justice. He just could not be stopped. I liked to shoot, but I realized early in the game that my shot just wasn’t on.  I determined in my head that I’d have to focus on rebounds and getting other people the ball. My role had to change. I couldn’t keep throwing up shots because I thought I should.”

Chambers’ guys alternated between man-to-man and a 3-2 zone. Sophomore Craig Scott, with teammates rotating to help out, defended Youngkin, who finished with 12 points.

Brost remembers a sequence late in the game when he dribbled down the left side, pulled up well beyond what would have been the 3-point line if it had existed back then, let it fly, and hit nothing-but-net as the crowd roared its approval.

“It came at a pivotal moment,” he said. “Coach Trickler went to his knees as if to say, ‘Oh, my gosh, Brost hit that shot. He hasn’t hit a shot all night. This is meant to be for them.’ We collectively played the kind of game we had to play. We did what we needed to do.”

Only six Collegiate players saw action that night: starters Brost, Justice, Scott, Ned Sinnott, and Robby Rieland and sixth-man Trip Featherston.

Featherston, who hadn’t played the night before, scored a then-career high 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting and 5-for-6 from the line. He would go on to be a two-year starter and All-Prep selection his senior year.

“I remember we were very solid against Norfolk,” Featherston said. “Everything was going our way. I scored a few times off the end of the press break. Got fouled a couple of times for and-ones. It was just one of those nights. And we were playing at home, which was fantastic.”

As the clock ticked down and the upset seemed apparent, the energy in the gym only intensified.

“I remember feeling really confident all through the game,” Justice said. “The last couple of minutes, we knocked down some free throws. When you see them go in, you know you’re going to close it out. It was one of those nights you hope for. We were in a ‘zone,’ you play mistake-free basketball, and you individually and collectively play above yourself. Great game. Great environment.”

Then came the finals against Trinity the following night.

No problem getting psyched, it seemed. Most of the players had camp experience where they’re active all day. Many were “gym rats” who’d hit the courts from dawn to dusk with little regard for time or energy expenditure.

The heart was there, the desire was there, but, for the third game in three days, the legs just weren’t.

The Titans took a 23-20 lead into the break, outscored the Cougars 34-25 in the second half, and won 57-45.

That’s not the end of the story, though.

Fifteen years later when Brost was his alma mater’s head boys varsity basketball coach and Justice and Featherston served on his staff, the Cougars traveled to Norfolk to play the Bulldogs on a night that the school honored the Dream Team.

The three long-time friends, teammates, and colleagues watched attentively, reflected quietly on their accomplishment a decade and a half earlier, and thoroughly enjoyed the festivities.

“And of course, we won that night too,” Featherston recalled. “That was kind of special.”
  ~ Weldon Bradshaw

Bill Chambers and Dave Trickler were contemporaries, and their paths crossed many times over the years as Hall of Fame athletes and coaches. Chambers competed in multiple sports for John Marshall High School and Randolph-Macon College as Trickler did for Prince George High and Hampden-Sydney. Chambers coached varsity boys basketball at Collegiate from 1971-1989 as Trickler did at NA from 1967-2001.

Coach Trickler, a close friend of many at Collegiate, passed away August 3, 2020, after a period of declining health.

Box Score
Collegiate................16   16   20   18   -  70
Norfolk Academy....11    18   14   19   -  62
Collegiate - Justice 28, Featherston 15, Rieland 6, Sinnott 8, Brost 6, Scott 7. Totals: 23  24-32  70.
Norfolk Academy - Lyles 12, Youngkin 12, Clark 6, Owens 6, Rachels 2, Davis 10, Fraim 14, Hayes 0, Dotolo 0, Hobbs 0, Standing 0, Watson 0. Totals: 27  8-13  62


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