State legislators fete Worcester's North High Basketball team on their second championship
BOSTON — In their big sneakers, stretching their long legs, the players got comfortable on the furniture in state Sen. Michael Moore’s State House office.
They enjoyed themselves, they basked in their success: Back-to-back Division 1 state championships on the basketball court.
The North High School basketball team visited the State House Thursday, a reward for their successful march to a second straight state title.
Moore, D-Millbury, sponsored the team's visit to the State House and the recognition on the Senate floor with Central Mass. colleagues Sen. Peter Durant, R-Spencer and Sen. Robyn Kennedy, D-Worcester to celebrate their 59-53 state championship win over Franklin in March. The team was invited to the State House in 2023 by Rep. James O'Day, D-West Boylston, to celebrate their first state championship title.
“Teams like the Polar Bears don’t happen by chance; they’ve known each other since childhood,” North coach Al Pettway said. “They’re great kids, they love each other, treat each other like brothers, they fight like brothers and stick up for each other, like brothers.”
Pettway has been coaching at North High for 22 years, with ups and downs through the years, but said the last five years have stood out for him, basketball-wise. Pettway said he has watched his team start to meld since a 76-48 loss to BC High in the 2021-22 Division 1 playoffs. That ended a 24-2 season where the Polar Bears had championship dreams.
It was also their last loss to in-state competition. North went 24-2 to win last year's state title and 24-0 this season. The only teams to defeat the Polar Bears in two years were national powers Radnor (Pa.) and Broken Arrow (Ok.) at the 2022-23 KSA Events Tournament in Florida.
"That season three years ago was a hard season,” said Joe Okla, 18. “It was a hard loss.”
But that heartbreaker helped motivate the team to work together and win in 2022-23 and set an example for the year to come and other teams in the city.
“We needed to work on our communication as a team, to learn to be together; have a connection with each other, the connection we have now,” senior Joe Okla said. Sitting across from him at Moore’s conference table, eating pizza and sharing jokes, Omari Scott, 15, a sophomore on the squad, said the "old-timers" tease him sometimes. “They show me their roots,” Scott said.
The championship capped a year of tremendous personal tragedy and loss for the members of the Worcester North High basketball team; the Polar Bears, after a former teammate was murdered in October while attending Salem State University.
The team dedicated the season to Carl-Hens Beliard, pulling together as they had in the past to support each other, razz each other and hold each other accountable. Their uniforms all bore his number: 20, the word “Brotherhood,” and a screen-print on their practice jerseys of Beliard flying through the air. They wore that image of Beliard proudly Thursday, as a pin attached to their championship hoodies.
Assistant coach Patrick Wetherbee said the team had a deep bench, relying on all players to step up and move the team forward.
“Omari put in a giant 3 in one game,” Wetherbee said, explaining that it wasn’t a winning shot, but a shot that allowed the team to break 100 points in that game (Feb. 9 against St. John's). “He got in the game late, and with 2 seconds left, he hit a 3-pointer that put us at 100 for the game.”
The fans, Wetherbee said, went wild.
They have been an integral part of the team and its success.
“We played at UMass-Boston and filled three-quarters of the stadium with Worcester fans,” Wetherbee said. “When we played Newton North in Taunton, we filled the gym.”
The boys basked in the afterglow of the two championship seasons; wearing their T-shirts, track suits and even their 2023 championship rings proudly.
“It feels great to be part of this, it was so very unexpected,” said junior Devin Hill, a small forward whose first year with the team is also a winning year.
“They had a lot of trauma and loss in the last two years,” Pettway said, referencing Beliard and other losses. “Through it all, they stayed focused.”
Four members of the team are poised to graduate in June, and new players are poised to join the squad in the fall. Pettway is not focusing on the possibility of a three-peat, determined to focus on and enjoy the moment.
"I don't want to jump too far ahead," Pettway said. Some of his graduating players are looking at prospective colleges, others may take an extra year at local prep schools; a new wrinkle in the world of college recruiting.
Pettway is careful with his players; looking to safeguard their future as scouts come calling. He is not averse to players spending a year at a prep school, taking the extra time to develop future prospects. It's a step that can help them financially in the long run, and possibly be recruited to a Division 1 or Division 2 school on a scholarship.
As they spread out in Moore’s office, scarfing down slice after slice of celebratory pizza, the players joked back and forth. There was some teasing, some calling each other out for missed shots, for traveling violations, for bench-warming.
“This is the team, this is their interaction, this is who they are; no big heads, no taunting players from other teams, no trash talk,” said Eddie Fisher, of Fisher Contracting, a team sponsor.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: State House visit is second time around for state basketball champs
