Cougars Nip Trojans in District Final

There are certain things you can count on from a Fritz Jacques coached Lely basketball team. You know they’re going to be in top physical condition and that they will fight you at breakneck speed for four quarters. And when the dust settles, whether they win or lose, they will have given their all. Friday night at top seed Barron Collier, the Trojans played Fritz Jacques basketball from beginning to end, coming up just short, 60-57, in front of a raucous standing-room-only crowd in the Barron Collier gym. 

“You already know we're going to fight,” a disappointed Jacques said after the game.  

The Trojans (13-13) went blow for blow with Barron Collier (21-6), leading for much of the first half. But the Cougars pulled some homecourt magic at the end of the half to trim 28-21 deficit to a one point game, 33-32, going into the locker room.  

The second half featured more back-and-forth between the crosstown rivals. Then, the Cougars came out strong in the fourth quarter.  

“We made a few too many mistakes in the beginning of the fourth quarter,” said Jacques. “We went four or five minutes and we could put the ball in the hole. Maybe I should have burnt a timeout when we were down three. They got the steal and made the layup. So that was on me a little bit. Gave them that little run.” 

Leading the Trojans against Barron Collier were Richard Obas with 15 points, Brandon Baptiste with 13, Marvell Jean-Pierre with 10, Wally Monpierre with 8, and Gage Rice with 6. 

True to a Jacques-coached team, the Trojans improved as the season wore on, making a run to the district final and giving a heavily favored Barron Collier team all they wanted. 

"You already know we're going to improve,” Jacques said. "We work every day, man. These kids, a lot of them come from households with single mothers. And their moms got to keep their heads up and work. So that's why I teach them, 'man, we're going to work.' It don't matter if we get blown out by 20 or we win by 20. We're going to go in the gym the next day and work because that's real life for them. All I can say is I'm extremely proud of my boys, man. They came out here and competed. They didn't lay down. They were not intimidated one bit. At the end of the day, that's how I coach them. That’s the message we want to send to the young men. They're going to be men one day. They're going to be fathers. So, they've got to understand it's not always going to go their way. And they've got to continue chopping that wood. I'm proud of my kids.” 

There is one stat Jacques, who has coached the Trojans for 13 years, is most proud of.  It’s the team’s 100 percent graduation rate. 

"Yes, sir,” Jacques said, “we've got a record where every kid graduates. That's the number one. We preach to them the military. We preach to them, take vocational school like vo-tech. We preach to them to go to college, get an education, even if they're not playing sports. We want them to change. We want them to change their families because a lot of them come from minority households. We really preach that it's bigger than basketball. This is just a tool we use to get young men focused to be successful in life." 

Jacques loses several leaders off of this year’s team. 

"I'm losing some guys, man,” Jacques said. "I'm losing some key guys like Gage Rice. He was important to us. Wally Monpremier. Wally’s been playing excellent all year. He’s probably got 15 double doubles and he's not even a scorer. We're losing Marvell Jean-Pierre, our spark plug off the bench. We’re losing Mick Gaspard, who drew the other big 6’6” guy, and we’re losing Eli Cherenfant. We're losing a solid group of leaders."