Menās Basketball celebrates 50 years
Five decades after the first Camel men took to the court, nearly two dozen alumni returned to campus Saturday to cheer on todayās Camels in a thrilling double overtime game against Trinity in ĢĒŠÄTVās Charles B. Luce Field House. ĢĒŠÄTV came up short, losing 104 to 94.
The 23 former players, including members of the first team and members of ĢĒŠÄTVās historic 1998-99 team, which advanced to the NCAA Division III Championship Final Four, were honored on the court at half time. After the game, the former players and their families gathered with current players for a reception in the Collegeās Athletic Hall of Fame Room.
āYou guys were the trailblazers. You created this, you started this, you were the pioneers,ā Head coach Tim Sweeney, who joined ĢĒŠÄTV in June of 2019, told the members of the earliest teams. He added that each subsequent group of players built on the legacy, eventually taking the team all the way to the Final Four.
āItās amazing for our guys to be able to see this, feel this and understand what they got by signing up for this. And itās much more than basketball,ā Sweeney said. āI think the past is prologue. Itās an honor to be here, and I feel a great responsibility to uphold many of the traditions. I couldnāt be more excited about where we are going.ā
Former Director of Athletics Charles Luce, for whom the Collegeās field house is named, skyped into the reception. He recalled the early days of the menās basketball programāāI think we had three different kinds of uniforms, and none of them matched each otherāāand remarked on how proud he is to have been a part of building the program into what it is today.
āI think Iām one of the luckiest guys in the whole world,ā he said.
Dwayne Stallings ā99, who served as team captain and was the leading scorer for the 1998-99 program that ranked No. 1 in the country and advanced to the Final Four, said he was honored to be a member of the āCamel family.ā
āWe really are a familyāsome of the guys I played with, weāve been friends for over 20 years,ā said Stallings, a member of the Collegeās Board of Trustees and a 2018 inductee into ĢĒŠÄTVās Athletic Hall of Fame.
In honor of the programās 50th anniversary, Stallings and Mizan Ayers ā02, also a member of the 1998-99 team and a Hall of Fame inductee, announced a $50,000 fundraising challenge. Stallings and Ayers will match, dollar for dollar, all gifts made to the Camel Athletics Fund and designated for menās basketball, up to $25,000.
Director of Athletics and Chair of Physical Education Maureen āMoā White said the fundraising challenge will help the College work toward the goals outlined in the new Action Plan for Competitive Success. At the reception, White also addressed athletics as a driver of the ĢĒŠÄTV student experience and a key initiative of the Collegeās strategic plan, Building on Strength.
āThis is an exciting time for ,ā she said.
