Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Carnac, post: 4003480, member: 5798"] In[URL='https://www.journalinquirer.com/sports/college/uconn_womens_basketball/skills-speak-volumes-for-uconn-freshman-azzi-fudd/article_a2dc8d02-dbb4-11eb-9f42-b77f2d0ae9a8.html'] an article by Carl Ademec yesterday about Azzi Fudd, [/URL]he wrote:" She capped off her scholastic career by being named a McDonald’s All-American [B]and the 2021 Morgan Wootten Girls Player of the Year." [/B]She was honored even though her school, St. John’s College Prep in Washington, D.C., did not have a season due to the pandemic. Prior to each game since 1997 (Boys)/2002 (Girls), a national player of the year has been chosen from the field of McDonald's All-Americans based on activity in the community, classroom and on the court. The award is named in honor of high school coach [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Wootten']Morgan Wootten[/URL], one of the founders of the McDonald's game. That made me ask, who is Morgan Wootten?. The McDonald's award I've heard of, but the award named for Morgan Wootten, I had not. I'm embarrassed to say that before this inquiry, I had never hear of him. :confused: He's a legend on the east coast, but unless you're into boy's HS basketball (which I'm not), it's not that much of a reach not to have heard of him, especially being some 3,000 miles away. So I looked him up, here's what I found...... Morgan Wootten was (he passed in January of 2020) a high school boys basketball coach (and history teacher) for 46 years at DeMatha high school. DeMatha Catholic High School, named after John of Matha, is a four-year Catholic high school for boys located in Hyattsville, Maryland. A member of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, Over a career spanning nearly half a century, [B]Wootten notched 1,274 career victories[/B], 33 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference titles and five mythical national championships. [B]In 2000, he became the first coach inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame who only ever coached at the high school level. Widely cited as the greatest high school basketball coach ever, [/B]fellow coaches, sports historians and journalists remember Wootten as a teacher and mentor who turned the basketball court into a classroom, as a fierce competitor and as a consummate gentleman — and family man — [B]who treated everyone[/B] with decency and respect. "He wasn't just an X and O basketball guy", longtime University of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams told WTOP. "He really helped a lot of people get on with their lives after the basketball part was over. And I think he always maintained a disciplined program, which enabled people to grow up while they were playing basketball." Wootten also taught world history to generations of DeMatha freshmen. He relished his role off the court too. [HEADING=1][URL unfurl="true"]https://wtop.com/dc/2020/01/legendary-dematha-hoops-coach-morgan-wootten-dies-at-88/[/URL][/HEADING] [B]Tip in: [/B][URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypLsxDAZdi4']Funniest Moments From The Uconn Huskies Women's Basketball's 2020-2021 Season[/URL] :D [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

Forum statistics

Threads: 164,452

Messages: 4,396,839

Members: 10,208

Latest member: gemini*trvl